Category Archives: References to James’ work

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

Accusations Addressed

Posted on May 1, 2010 | Comments Off

Recently, in response to the video announcement of the Rediscovery of the Naacal Tablets,

someone remarked:

There are a number of inconsistencies in James Churchward’s story about his transcription and translation of the Nacaal tablets that shall have to be addressed in any attempt to validate his story. There is also no small problem that he was actually known to forge documents and produce wholly imaginary drawings of nonexistent archaeological finds.

and in response to a request for examples:

I can name you several instances. The most blatant favrication was his allegation that he had found and translated a document claiming that Moses was the child of Hatshepsut. No such document exists and the idea is most extremely unlikely to have been historically accurate. James Churchward illustrated artifacts supposedly discussed by “Paul Schleimann” and in particular an owl-headed vase and a bird-headed sphynx “From King Chronos of Atlantis”. Paul Schlemann was not the person he claimed to be and Heinrich Schleimann never had a grandson named paul, as family documents attest. It had all been a hoax-but what is worse on Churchward’s part is that he actually made up the illustrations for the non-existant artifacts. And among other things he created a fictiotious “Chaldean document of 5000 Bc discussing aircraft design” when there were no “Chaldean writings” at that time, nor yet any outside references to the presumed document.

I wish to address these points individually.
1. ‘The most blatant fabrication’ was not done by James Churchward in translating a tablet that says Moses was the child of Hatshepsut. In the modern day printing of ‘The Books of the Golden Age’, a volume from 1927 that was to remain unpublished, on page 195 is an illustration of this tablet, as shown below:

Books of the Golden Age page 195 (click for larger version)

Shown clearly at the bottom of this page is the following text: “The forgoing translation is not mine I cannot say whether it is right or wrong. I cannot read this label. JChurchward”

I know of no other public discussion or description of James translating this tablet. The drawing in the ‘Books of the Golden Age’ is certainly done by him, but was it originated by him, making the whole matter up to gain more publicity? The answer to this question might be better answered after viewing the following page from one of his scrapbooks:

Scrapbook 1 Page 12 (click for larger version)

This newspaper clipping obviously has the word ‘Fake’ and James initials written and pointing to the tablet and translation.
The article from the lower-left corner may not be easy to read, so a larger version is available here.
I hope I covered all the bases on this one. If there is other evidence that I have inadvertently neglected to include, please keep me honest and pass it along.

James Churchward did not fabricate illustrations from Paul Schleimann’s 1912 article, “How I Found the Lost Atlantis, The Source of All Civilization”. James had a copy of the article in his scrapbook (without the pictures) and he included illustrations of the objects on page 251 of the 1926 “Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man.”

The original article has been scanned by the Sacred Text Archive and can be seen here. The page with the scans of the illustrations is located here.

Here are side-by-side comparisons of the drawings:

Owlhead Vase from page 251 of Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man	Owlhead Vase from Paul Schleimann’s 1912 article, How I Found the Lost Atlantis, The Source of All Civilization
Bird-headed sphinx from page 251 of Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man	Bird-headed sphinx from Paul Schleimann’s 1912 article, How I Found the Lost Atlantis, The Source of All Civilization

I hope that this clears up any confusion concerning the alleged fabrication of these illustrations.

Lastly, the only Chaldean document that James mentioned (that I was aware of) is the so-called Lhasa Record mentioned in the article, “How I Found the Lost Atlantis, The Source of All Civilization.” It most definitely does not discuss aircraft design, but is included as one of James’ proofs:

When the star Bal fell on the place where is now only sea and sky the Seven Cities with their Golden Gates and Transparent Temples quivered and shook like the leaves of a tree in storm. And behold a flood of fire and smoke arose from the palaces. Agony and cries of the multitude filled the air. They sought refuge in their temples and citadels. And the wise Mu, the hieratic of Ra-Mu, arose and said to them: ‘Did not I predict all this?’ And the women and the men in their precious stones and shining garments lamented: ‘Mu, save us.’ And Mu replied: ‘You shall die together with your slaves and your riches and from your ashes will arise new nations. If they forget they are superior, not because of what they put on, but of what they put out, the same lot will befall them!’ Flame and smoke choked the words of Mu. The land and its inhabitants were torn to pieces and swallowed by the depths in a few months.

I did pass along the posting for comments and received the following:

The documents alleged to have been found in Mesopotamia are called to be the Sifr’ala and the Hakalatha, the latter said to be 7000 years old. The translator is said to be one Y. N. Iban A’haron. There is no record of either Iban A’haron or these wporks outside of Churchward and Cedric Leonard mentions the fact in his book Quest for Atlantis.

I have been unable to find reference to these documents in James’ books – if someone else has different information, please send it along.

These accusations that

“he was actually known to forge documents and produce wholly imaginary drawings of nonexistent archaeological finds”

are hollow in that the examples offered do not apply.
I stand ready to examine and discuss any other examples that may be put forward, but, using these examples, James is blameless.

Have a great day,
Jack Churchward

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Posted in James Churchward, References to James' work

New Species Discovered – What Would James Churchward Think?

Posted on March 26, 2010 | Comments Off

The recent discovery that another human-like species walked the earth would have probably been dismissed by James Churchward, the author of the series of books on the Lost Continent of Mu.

James was a product of his age. Born a member of the British Empire in sleepy village in England in 1851, he was adamantly opposed to the idea of evolution. Although probably not the primary motivation for publishing his series on Mu, James’ beliefs did color the presentation. Take the following examples:

1. James postulated the the Lost Continent of Mu was the wellspring of humanity – placing all evidence of our origins out of the reach of today’s scientists and researchers.

2. James believed that Man experienced savagery as a result of civilization, as evidenced by this passage from the Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man from page 267:

I do not stand alone when I say that savagery came out of civilization, not civilization out of savagery. It is only those who know nothing of savages who maintain that civilization emerged from savagery.”

My interpretation is that James believed that originally, Man was without sin (or without worldly influence) since he had been created by the Supreme Being and when the worldly influences played a greater role in people’s lives, savagery ensued. Since Man was created by the Supreme Being, he(she) could not have evolved or been involved in evolution.

3. James had also considered evidence of non-human ancestors, as evidenced in the following from The Lost Continent of Mu Motherland of Man from page 171:

In their excitement over the discovery of a few old human bones, such as the Neanderthal, Piltdown, and Heidelberg man, scientists, in both Europe and America, have completely ignored and cast aside the remains of ancient man in North America. That the European remains were those of idiots and degenerates is obvious from the abnormal shapes of their skulls. Doubtless they were outcasts from civilized communities.
From Valmiki, Druidical works, the Popol Vuh and other ancient writings we learn that such characters were driven into the forests, there to live and die like the beasts. It would appear from many ancient writings that the usual method of disposing of bodies was by cremation, consequently there remained no trace of those whose bones had been consumed by fire.

James had been provided the scientific data that evidenced a new species of human in his day and chose to reject it. Today’s scientific data may have been enough for him to change his mind if he had been exposed to it, but we will never know.

The recent podcast “Genetics and the Lost Continent of Mu“, compared the theories of James Churchward’s Lost Continent of Mu and the genetic evidence for the Out of Africa theory. In the presentation, my personal observation was that, given the evidence, the Out of Africa theory was more credible, however, some people disagreed and posted (unedited) comments like:

Whites and other non-blacks never came from Africa, that out of Africa theory is to? coverup the truth; Caucasians and all other non-blacks are a different spieces, that came from very cold caucasus mountains in Europe ; their something TOTALLY .different to ordinary Black African humanity; melanin is NOT in their makeup

Given thoughts like that, I guess it is quite possible that James could have brushed off the evidence for another species of human, just as the commenter did.

In case you haven’t seen the latest podcast video:

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Posted in References to James' work

James Churchward & “The Christ Conspiracy” Part 2

Posted on May 31, 2008 | Comments Off

When I originally started on the “James Churchward & ‘The Christ Conspiracy‘” video podcast, it was my intent to simply state that my great-grandfather, James Churchward, would not have endorsed the theories of Acharya S (also known as Dorothy M. Murdock).

The reason for this assertion was that wikipedia, in the article for James Churchward, has the following as part of the entry:

“He is also a source of information for Acharya S, in her two books, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold and Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha, and Christ Unveiled.”

As I researched further, I discovered two examples of what I considered to be intellectual dishonesty in the use of James Churchward’s quotes. The quotations were taken out of context and if the entire passage had been included from James, the meaning would be changed significantly, enough to contradict Ms. Murdock.

Subsequently, I wrote the podcast and released it in November 2007. The nasty emails started almost immediately and I shut down the comments section of my blog and set the comments on moderate for YouTube. Everything I wrote was true when it was written. My corporate firewall had categorized her website as ‘hate speech’ but that has since changed.

This entire affair culminated in YouTube removing the video of the podcast due to ‘inappropriate content.’ For six months, it was watched by almost 800 folks, but suddenly it became inappropriate in late May 2008. It seems almost humorous for a person who claims censorship (for examples please google acharya s censorship) to use such measures against others.

I hold no ill will against Ms. Murdock or her followers and believe that I have wasted more than enough time and energy on her and her theories. I am not a quitter, but this isn’t my fight.

Jack Churchward
Clearwater, Florida