248 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
they repopulated the Earth. Into modern times, mysterious lights sometimes seen
on the mountaintop are associated with ceremonies of a “Lemurian brotherhood,”
whose initiates allegedly perform rituals from the lost civilization. These lights,
like that of the Indians’ flood hero, Coyote-Man, are probably electrical phe-
nomena known to occur at the peaks of seismically active mountains bearing
strong deposits of crystal. As earth tremors squeeze the mineral, it emits electrical
discharges, similar to the piezeo-electrical effects of a crystal radio receiver.
The intensity of negative ions generated by this phenomenon can interface with
the bio-circuitry of the human brain, inducing altered states of consciousness related
to spiritual or shamanic experiences. Hence, the mystical character of Mount Shasta
for Native Americans and modern visitors alike is not difficult to understand.Shawnee Deluge Story
This American Indian tribe occupies much of southern Illinois, where massive
stone walls atop precipitous bluffs form a broken chain, nearly 200 miles long,
across the bottom part of the state from the Mississippi to Ohio Rivers. According
to the Shawnee, these structures were built by immigrating giants who survived
the Great Flood. An area of the Shawnee National Forest is still referred to as
“Giant City” in memory of these ancient deluge immigrants. According to
Shawnee tradition, this catastrophe killed every human being, save for a single,
old woman. In despair at being alone in the world, she sadly molded clay dolls
into anthropomorphic shapes to help her remember vanished mankind. Taking
pity on her, the Great Spirit turned the clay figures into living men and women,
and the Earth was repopulated. Hence, the Shawnee revere Old Grandmother
as their ancestress.The Shipwrecked Sailor
An Egyptian “tale” with strong Atlantean overtones, thought to date to an
early dynastic epoch, but repeated and elaborated upon even in Ptolemaic times.
An original papyrus of the story is in the possession of Russia’s Saint Petersburg
Museum, and dates to the XX Dynasty, circa 1180 B.C. Significantly, this is the
same period in which Egypt defended herself against the “Sea People” invasion.
The final destruction of Atlantis is believed by investigators to have occurred in
1198 B.C.
The story of the shipwrecked sailor opens with a terrible storm, far out at sea.
A freighter carrying miners is lost, and only one man clinging to some wreckage is
eventually washed ashore at some distant island.
“Suddenly, I heard a thunderous noise,” he says. “I thought it must have been a
great wave striking the beach. Trees swayed and the Earth shook.” These stirrings
announced the arrival of the Serpent King, a huge, bearded creature overlaid with
scales of gold and lapis lazuli. He carefully picked up the hapless sailor in his great
jaws and carried him to his “resting place.” There he told the man about “this island