MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Ancient Ceylon Revealed!

A map that rings through the ages, from The Children of Mu by James Churchward. Churchward claimed that ancient Mayans traveled across the world after Mu's destruction to settle on this island before it too submerged. His lost Ceylon ties into Lemuria and contemporary Sri Lankan nationalism.

Courtesy the Paperback Library, 1969 (original pub. 1931). 

MYSTERIOUS PLACES by Daniel Cohen

And there was Elvis - not the real one 

When he kissed me goodbye he called me hon

Just another shot in the dark 

Like El Dorado or Noah's Ark

Another very readable pop-sci primer from Daniel Cohen, collecting the most cutting edged research c.1969 around such mysterious places as Atlantis, Mu, Camelot, and others! This is a journey not just to unknown lands but through academic debates and pop culture mutations, as interpretations and explanations rise and fall through the years - was Atlantis real, or just a metaphor? Where the hell did Prester John come from? How many times do we have to establish the creators of Great Zimbabwe before the Rhodesian government will admit it wasn't a lost white race? Cohen dives into the archives to tackle all of these questions head on ...

Per usual, Cohen is gentle but firm in his exploration of fringe science and crank ideas, and by putting theories about lost worlds like Atlantis in their historical and social contexts Cohen lights the way as surely as a torch in a dusty tomb. Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination, and a few dead ends and side paths here and there can be edifying.

This title was published the same year von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods? made it to American shores, and so while Cohen does not answer von Daniken's mystery mongering by name, his chapter on Easter Island is notable nonetheless for including research and information that von Daniken would pretend was impossible and unknowable for decades to come.

Throughout his world tour of the unknown Cohen makes reference to our romantic yearning for cataclysm and mystery. The work is a pleasure to read, and Tower Books' cheap and flashy presentation (dig the ad for smokes!) adds spice to a volume that surely undercuts a good deal of other titles in their occult oeuvre.

Cohen includes a nice bibliography, and Tower Books include a nice page of juicy ads for other occult/paranormal titles such as Stefan Elg's Fortean mixer Beyond Belief and Devi Sonero's pro-phrenology reader!

Tower Books also put this title out as Lost Worlds, with new cover art and a different ad spread in the back. Check out Otto Binder's sci-fi entry Night of the Saucers, published under his Eando pseudonym:

It's been said that a girl trying to find herself the perfect man is like trying to find Atlantis. Even 50+ years on, this work is illuminating and enjoyable. Mysterious Places is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Tower Books, 1969

PREHISTORIC GERM WARFARE by Robin Collyns

IS MANKIND AN ALIEN EXPERIMENT? Brother, sometimes I feel like one! Author Robin Collyns has packed one hell of a head spinning hypothesis into 146 pages of punchy planet busting potpourri!

Just dig those chapter titles. Ancient astronauts? Of course! Ancient nukes, ancient genetic engineering, ancient secrets of time and space and color blindness? You betcha! Various indigenous legends from the Sioux, Maori, Australian Aborigines and others are crowbarred into the ancient astronauts matrix: this guy came from the sky, those guys wore something on their heads, these other fellas had powers beyond our comprehension ... all aliens!

Bigfoot and all his friends? Alien as all hell! How about the Bermuda Triangle? Do you even have to ask? Collyns' dedication is admirable as he stitches together almost the whole damn paranormal smorgasbord into his tapestry. Did you know the asteroid belt is all that remains of Planet X after a nuclear war with Mars? Collyns kind of stole that one from James P. Hogan and his 1977 SF novel Inherit the Stars, but then again Hogan was a Holocaust denier so we'll let it slide. Tunguska, of course, was an out-of-control alien craft that suffered nuclear detonation over Siberia. Stanton Friedman, Carl Sagan, CUFOS, and France's GEPAN try to ground things, relatively speaking, but Collyns will not be contained! Incan cities on Mars, titans from outer space, ginseng as a cure all wonder drug ... all food for thought and grist for the mill.

Collyns makes frequent reference to his prior works, including Ancient Astronauts: A Time Reversal? and the delightful title Laser Beams From Star Cities? The present work moves too fast for this padding to become an issue, and Collyns never belabors a point before moving on to the next wonder. The author also makes lots of references to film and TV: the germ warfare chapter features The Satan Bug and The Missing Are Deadly, to name two. This chapter's pretty creepy by the way, not only dealing with hypothetical alien attacks but also real life germ warfare from very earthly sources!

Recently departed Australian fringe researcher/yowie hunter Rex Gilroy is also referenced, as is good old Zecharia Sitchin and von Daniken's beloved iron pillar of Delhi. Collyns manages an entertaining brew mixing all the old standards.

Don't just take my word for it, though: Prehistoric Germ Warfare is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Star Books, 1980

WEIRD UNSOLVED MYSTERIES by Eric Norman

Brad Steiger dons his alter ego Eric Norman and invites you to enter the doorway to the strange and discover some WEIRD UNSOLVED MYSTERIES! Presented with a verve and panache that rises above his Popular Library fare, this volume is a tidy little collection of themed mysteries, with a great table of contents courtesy Award Books - ol' Popular Library never bothered with that! Presentation counts, and even though this is the usual remixed slush pile from Steiger, it somehow seems fresh and intriguing, even as the thought starts to tickle the back of our brains, now where have I read this before?

Chapter one, for example, opens with missing child Tommy Bowman, who disappeared on a family hike in 1953. Steiger intones mysterious happenings of a trans-dimensional nature, though the truth seems far more prosaic, and sadder too, as Bowman likely was an unnamed victim of serial killer Mack Ray Edwards. Steiger will reuse this case, and pretty much this entire chapter, in his Strange Disappearances in 1972, just jiggling some words around. The missing Chinese army, the fictional Charles Ashmore, they may have all disappeared (or not) but they reappear in these pages over and over. A chapter on sea serpents follows, with many vintage 1800s case reports that buddy Warren Smith would paste into his Strange Secrets of the Loch Ness Monster in 1976, and some hoax accounts of the Lake Vorota monster of Siberia - which, to be clear, is a "real" unknown creature, with sighting reports that continue to this day. However, Steiger's claims of the monster devouring dogs and elk and an "undetermined" number of people are classic ballyhoo, adding just a little spice to a story to stretch it that much further. He also misspells the location as "Vororta" - go figure.

Next are ghost ships galore, and as we might expect the crew of the Ellen Austin performs their usual dramatic disappearing act. Various vessels are lost in the Bermuda Triangle before we move on to some classic spontaneous human combustion, and then unearth some mysterious artifacts like the Kensington Runestone. Steiger also gallantly defends James Churchward and his Mu fantasy against the snobby "sophisticates" with some cutting edge developments by botanist Dr. Albert C. Smith, who found "an overwhelming affinity" between Fijian and New Guinea flowers, which Steiger says is proof of an ancient  landmass stretching across the ocean. Balkan pyramids and super civilizations are another mystery that lingers in the present day.

Steiger's penultimate chapter is a knockout on monsters of all shapes and sizes. Strange sightings from South America would be reused by Warren Smith for Lost Cities of the Ancients - Unearthed! in 1976. Nice selection here by Brad. His final chapter is on fairy folk with a sidebar into their possible UFO connection. Charmingly, Steiger posits the alien babe who made it with Antonio Villas-Boas as a possible fairy queen! I like it. We also get a credulous bit on the Cottingley Fairies and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with technical arguments about the (im)possibility of hoaxing that sound similar to those marshaled for certain other mysterious creatures. Steiger ends on a high note though when he offers us a passport to Magonia, and ponders the "kernel of reality that may lie at the core of centuries of myth and legend." Bravo to Brad for this clean delivery of some old reliables. It must have paid the rent!

These Weird Unsolved Mysteries are available to read and download at archive dot org.

Award Books, 1969

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Mu Revealed

Churchward's Mu, or more properly Muror, from Raymond Buckland's Mu Revealed. Buckland published this very dry pastiche as one Tony Earll (which anagrams to "Not Really") with contributions from Professor Reesdon Hurdlop (just a silly name) and Dr. Maud N. Robat - "Robat" being Buckland's "craft name" for magick purposes.

Courtesy the Paperback Library, 1970.

COSMIC DEBRIS: Shaver's Lemurian Alphabet

Richard Shaver's ur-tongue known as Mantong, reprinted in the essential Lost Continents and the Hollow Earth, which collected Shaver's I Remember Lemuria! and The Return of the Sathanas alongside supplemental material by David Hatcher Childress.

Courtesy Adventures Unlimited Press, 1999.

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: The Uighur Empire

"The Great Uighur Empire During the Tertiary Era." That's about 3 million years ago, give or take. Some clarification from the author's great-grandson Jack Churchward may be helpful:

From The Children of Mu by James Churchward. Courtesy the Paperback Library, 1969 (original pub. 1931).

COSMIC DEBRIS: The Muan Alphabet

Mu's alphabet and its influence upon the Maya and Egyptians, as deciphered by James Churchward. From Churchward's The Children of Mu. Courtesy the Paperback Library, 1969 (original pub. 1931).

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: South America Via Ancient Mu

Guru of Mu James Churchward's reproduction of an ancient Tibetan map which shows - pardon me - "the Negroid line of emigration eastward from Mu, on to Atlantis and Africa." From The Children of Mu by James Churchward. Courtesy the Paperback Library, 1969 (original pub. 1931).

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: The Great Central Gas Belt

"The course of the Great Central Gas Belt from Mu to Asia Minor." From The Children of Mu by James Churchward. Courtesy the Paperback Library, 1969 (original pub. 1931).

EDGAR CAYCE ON ATLANTIS by Edgar Evans Cayce

Cities fall, the oceans roil, and Atlantis rises in 1969! So sayeth the Sleeping Prophet, Edgar Cayce! Some case studies of Cayce's readings on Atlantean reincarnations are also included, as is Cayce's pseudo-Theosophical history of Atlantis, from 50,000 BC to the present, when as predicted the sunken continent will resurface, sparking a spiritual reawakening as humanity rediscovers their heritage as spirit energy entities inhabiting physical bodies.

A very slim volume that often reads as an advertisement for the Cayce-founded Association of Research and Enlightenment. As noted, Cayce's visions of Atlantis read like reheated Theosophy, but Hugh Lynn Cayce assures us in his preface that his father "did not read Plato's material on Atlantis, or books on Atlantis, and that he, so far as we know, had absolutely no knowledge of the subject." Well, that settles that! In a similar vein, second son Edgar Evans takes Atlantean haters L. Sprague de Camp and Willy Ley to task for "attacking Plato's credibility" in what appears to be a deliberate misrepresentation of their argument for Plato's use of allegory. All in all, weak stuff from the Cayce progeny.

Edgar Cayce on Atlantis is available to read and download on archive dot org.

Paperback Library, 1968