Category Archives: References to James’ work

These posts deal with what other authors have written about James’ works.

Artificial Intelligence Fabricates New James Churchward Book

Posted on February 22, 2026 | Comments Off

Recently, I submitted a query to ChapGPT, “Did James Churchward write fiction?”
The response:

Yes — James Churchward did write fiction, although he’s best known for his pseudo-historical works.
What he wrote
Non-fiction / speculative history (most famous):
The Lost Continent of Mu (1926)
The Children of Mu
The Sacred Symbols of Mu
These are presented as non-fiction but are widely considered pseudoscience / speculative mythology.
Fiction:
The Treasure of Mu (1939)
This is explicitly a novel/adventure story, so yes — he did write at least one clear work of fiction.
Important distinction
Churchward blurred the line between fiction and non-fiction:
His “Mu” books were written as factual research.
Modern scholars classify them as fictional mythology framed as history.
Only The Treasure of Mu was openly marketed as a novel.
So:
Technically: Yes, he wrote fiction.
Practically: Most of his influence comes from books he claimed were real history but are now considered fictional.

Although all his pseudo-historical works were not listed, they did include a title that was surprising – The Treasure of Mu. I did a web search in an attempt to find a copy, however, I was only able to find a game called “Mu’s Impossible Treasure Hunt.”

ChatGPT was kind enough to provide a chapter by chapter summary:

Here is a chapter-by-chapter summary of The Treasure of Mu by James Churchward.
(Note: Chapter titles vary slightly by edition, but the structure and plot are consistent.)
Chapter 1 – The Legend of Mu
The novel opens with a discussion of the lost continent of Mu, described as an ancient, highly advanced civilization that predates all known cultures. The narrator introduces secret records and symbols said to preserve Mu’s knowledge.

Chapter 2 – The Ancient Records
We meet the main characters: Western scholars and explorers who have gained access to mysterious tablets and manuscripts from Asia. These texts supposedly prove Mu once existed and hint at a surviving treasure.

Chapter 3 – The Call to Adventure
The group decides to mount an expedition. The goal is not just treasure, but proof of Mu’s reality, which would revolutionize human history.

Chapter 4 – Journey to the East
The expedition travels through India and Southeast Asia, encountering temples, monks, and secret societies who guard fragments of Mu’s knowledge.

Chapter 5 – The Hidden Brotherhood
They discover an underground order sworn to protect Mu’s legacy. The brotherhood tests the explorers’ motives, warning that Mu’s knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands.

Chapter 6 – Symbols of Power
The group learns to interpret sacred symbols that function like a map. These symbols appear across ancient cultures, suggesting a single lost source civilization.

Chapter 7 – The Pacific Trail
Clues lead them into the Pacific Ocean, where Mu supposedly sank. They investigate islands believed to be remnants of the continent.

Chapter 8 – The Temple of the Sun
On a remote island, the explorers find a hidden temple with advanced architecture and inscriptions matching the Mu records.

Chapter 9 – Traps and Trials
The temple is protected by mechanical and symbolic traps. These are meant to test wisdom, not strength — echoing Mu’s spiritual philosophy.

Chapter 10 – The Inner Chamber
They reach the inner sanctum, where the “treasure” is revealed to be not gold, but preserved knowledge: records of Mu’s science, energy systems, and spiritual teachings.

Chapter 11 – The True Treasure
The protagonists realize Mu’s greatest legacy was unity, peace, and advanced understanding of nature, not material wealth.

Chapter 12 – The Choice
They must decide whether to reveal the discovery to the world or keep it hidden to prevent misuse.

Chapter 13 – Return to the World
They return without physical treasure, carrying only copies of symbols and knowledge.

Final Chapter – Epilogue
The narrator reflects that humanity is not yet ready for Mu’s wisdom, and that the truth must remain partially hidden.

Looking a little closer, I noticed The Treasure of Mu has a published date of 1939. Since James passed away in 1936, it is highly unlikely James was the author.

AI Chatbot said: I believe “The Treasure of Mu” is a fictional adventure story that’s attributed to either James Churchward Jr. or John Churchward.

James only recognized son (my grandfather,) was Alexander James Churchward (1872-1933.) Highly unlikely The Treasure of Mu was written by him and posthumously published under his name.

Therefore, it appears that Artificial Intelligence has created a new book and attributed it to James Churchward.
If anyone has further information (or knows of a copy) of The Treasure of Mu, it would be greatly appreciated to see a copy of the Title page. From that data, the author, publisher and date of publication can be determined and the conundrum solved.

btw, James did write fiction other than The Treasure of Mu – in the March 1895 Recreation magazine, he published the story, “INDIAN JOE, A TALE OF THE THOUSAND ISLANDS.” The rest can be called “pseudo-historical.”

Have a great day!

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Posted in References to James' work

I Found the “Critter”

Posted on January 20, 2025 | Comments Off

Recently, I posted a video showing some James Churchward paintings I had been made aware of and announced the creation of a web-page to display them.

In two of the paintings from 1930-31, there were illustrations which I called “Critters. These paintings were originally presented in November 2018. Close-ups are shown below.

After a little digging, I discovered the identity of the “Critter” (or at least what James called them.)
In my book, “The Stone Tablets of Mu,” containing the 1927 “Copies of Stone Tablets Found by William Niven at Santiago Ahuizoctla Near Mexico City” written by James, a similar image is shown on page 51.

with the following description:

Tablet No. 147
Found at Hacienda de Leon 5m N.W. of Mexico City
Figure that of a dragon – crude
Materials: volcanic rock
Size 18 centimeters long 14 wide and 6 thick
Colors: Red and Yellow
Found at a depth of 13 feet from the surface

Niven calls this figure a dragon. It looks like it more than anything else.
The spear end of the tail and spokes along the ridge warrants Niven’s deduction.
It is not symbolic in any way, except as a scare crow, to frighten the wicked, and this is pure theory.

I found no mention in either the 1926 “Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Men” or the 1931 “Lost Continent of Mu.” However, there was mention in the 1931 “Children of Mu.”
A picture from that work featuring the images of several of William Niven’s ‘tablets’ from the Valley of Mexico includes a similar figure.

In the Sacred Symbols of Mu (1933), four similar figures are labelled as Truncated Figures on page 81.

The chapter heading is “Symbols of the Deity” and the following text precedes and describes the figures as follows:

TRUNCATED FIGURES. – Among the Mexican Tablets – Niven’s collection–I find over one hundred peculiar truncated figures. They are purely conventional and were not intended to represent any of Nature’s lives.
On deciphering them I found that they are symbolical of the workings of two of the Great Primary Forces.
The trunk indicates the direction in which these Forces work. The body is that of a chrysalis or pod, the symbol for the home of the Primary Forces. The lines are the numeral writings of the ancients–Uighur pattern.
The legs and arms point to the positions of these Forces under certain conditions.

In the Cosmic Forces of Mu Volume 1 (1934), on pages 27-30 there are four more, new figures with the numbers assigned by William Niven with a more in depth description.

TRUNCATED FIGURES. In this group there are 116 tablets, and with no two identically alike. (Nos. 494, 1623, 1138 and 513, page 28.)

They are purely conventional figures, and were not intended to represent any form of life. As a matter of fact they are completely made up of symbols and the old form of numeral writing.

They are designed to show the origin and workings of two of the four great primary forces.

THE BODIES. Their bodies are either in the form of a crysalis or a pod, used as a symbol for the home of forces, but referring to two only of the primary four.

BODY LINES. The bodies of these various figures have lines and symbols engraved upon them. The lines are the old temple esoteric form of writing and explain what particular action of the forces the figure is symbolizing. The numeral writing carries a hidden meaning. The numbers used in this form of writing are from 1 to 10, inclusive.

Numeral writing was the temple writing in Egypt down to 500 B.C. and probably a little later. We know this from the Greek, Pythagoras, who when in Egypt was initiated into the Sacred Mysteries. When he returned to Greece he taught his pupils “to honor God with numbers.” On every one of these 116 tablets the Creator is mentioned as the One from which the great primary forces originate.

THE ELEPHANT TRUNK. The trunk is a symbol telling us which way or direction the forces move throughout the universe.

All movements arc from west to east and circular or elliptical.

All the heavenly bodies are moving from west to east.

All revolving bodies revolve from west to east.

One particular force controls these movements either directly or indirectly.

Every one of these figures is facing west with their trunks curling towards the east, symbolizing the circular movement of the forces.

Some have a second trunk at the back like tablets Nos. 494 and 513. This trunk is curled within the head and still travelling from west to east. This trunk symbolizes the gyroscopical force, which possibly is the daughter of the great centripetal force,- the force which collected the gases, compacted them and formed worlds out of them. This great centripetal force, as soon as the body revolved, became dead as far as that world was concerned; then the gyroscopical force took up its parents’ work and keeps its world upright.

THEIR LIMBS. Their limbs number from none (see tablet No. 1138), to four as shown in tablet No. 1623.

These mark the movements of the sun.

The tale James elucidates in his work on the “lost continent of Mu,” is based on his assertion of his time with the Rishi, learning how to interpret the ancient symbols. Although waiting 40 years to tell his story to the world (1870s – 1920s,) James pronouncements do not always remain consistent. For instance, some documents from December 1924 authored by James state the migration from Mu to Europe was through the Americas, across the Atlantic and to Europe (see “The Changing Theories of James Churchward“.) In the 1931 Children of Mu, the map says the migration occurred across the Pacific and through Asia to Europe.

The identification of the ‘critter’ as a dragon in the 1927 “Copies of Stone Tablets…” grew in later publications to be symbols of the “Great Primary Forces.” In the 1933 “Symbols of Mu,” the lines in the figures are interpreted by “Uighur patterns” which transforms to “Egyptian temple writing” in the 1934 Cosmic Forces of Mu Volume 1.

If James Churchward had found the Rishi and his tablets back in the 1870s and continued his research until the 1920s, how did such basic ‘facts’ change?

Have a great day,
J. Churchward

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Posted in Paintings, References to James' work, Symbols

The Changing Theories of James Churchward

Posted on September 29, 2024 | Comments Off

A few months ago, I posted about some documents for sale from James Churchward.

Looking closely at the map (which was correct up to December 1924 as noted and signed with his signature on the map,) I was surprised to see the migration route into Asia was from Europe. Settlers from Mu traveled from Mu across Central America, across the Atlantic, to Europe and continued to Asia.

In the Children of Mu (1931,) the map provided on page 170 and labeled “Western Lines of Colonization from Mu” shows the exact opposite. Settlers from Mu traveled from Mu to Asia and then on to Europe.

Western Lines of Colonization from Mu

James writes, beginning on page 169, the following text, immediately preceding the map above:

VARIOUS important lines of colonization were followed from Mu in westerly directions. There were two main lines, two secondary ones, and some small independent ones.
The lines about which most is known is the southern main line which ran from Mu to Burma, Burma to India, and from India to Babylonia and Upper Egypt (Nubia), and to the White and Blue Niles. The people who conducted this line were originally known as Nagas. Afterwards they took the names which they gave to their various settlements.
A secondary line ran from Mu to the Malay Islands, from the Malay Islands to Southern India which they called Dravida, from India to Africa. They settled south of Nubia. These people were a black race with finely chiseled features and straight black hair—they were called Tamils.
Without question the most important westerly line from Mu was the northern main line conducted by a people called Uighurs, the forefathers of the Aryan races. The Uighur Empire was possibly the first, and unquestionably the largest, most important, and most powerful, of all the colonial empires belonging to Mu.

If James’ information was gained from his studies with the Rishi in the 1870s and subsequent research, how and what made his theories change between 1924 and 1930?
How much different were earlier drafts of his works from the version we see published?
In another example, back in late 1924 and early 1925, James’ had yet to name the tablets. His association with Buddhist scholars in translating the 125 tablets were covered in newspaper articles posted here.
One would think with translated ancient sacred tablets and after fifty years or more of study there would be a consistent story.

Except if it was originally written as a fictional story.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.