06/29/01
Plato’s Atlantis was about the Greek gods and in my estimation was an allegorical story about a society that was supposedly perfect in all respects. Ironically, the "perfect" society was destroyed because its citizens were imperfect.
The New Age Atlantis is about evolution. Nearly every account on Atlantis that I can find incorporates an evolutionary tie. But one thing that Plato and the New Agers have in common is the idea that Atlanteans had special powers.
Plato’s Atlanteans were half human and half god; that is, the descendants of Poseidon and Cleito, the human girl. The result of their godly heritage was telepathic, telekinetic, and clairvoyant abilities as well as giant stature and super strength. Blavatsky, Heindel, and other Atlantis supporters agree that the Atlanteans had supernatural strength. This is significant because of the objective of the New Age.
Keep in mind that the New Age is married to evolution. The whole concept of the New Age is impossible without evolution. Also remember that evolution is not just about the past, but about the future as well. The New Age movement teaches that human evolution will continue to progress. In particular, one of the desired mutations of the New Age will be humans with super-human abilities like mental telepathy, levitation, and clairvoyance,
New Age teachers like to presume that the perfect society and super-human abilities were due to the superior religious basis of the Atlanteans. They teach that Atlantis is the foundation for all religions including Christianity, but all earthly religions have misunderstood the Atlantean philosophy. One Internet site that I found meticulously cited seven "sacraments" of Atlantis and drew distinctions of how Christianity had copied all seven. They also teach that the flood as accounted in the Bible is merely a distorted account of the destruction of Atlantis.
Another popular teaching is that Atlantis was highly industrialized and advanced. It is taught that Atlanteans were so far advanced that they had achieved flight and even the ability to pass through matter (teleportation). Disney and others fanaticized that the Atlantean race was far superior to ours.
The New Age movement teaches that Atlantis was destroyed because of either an accident or abuse of the super-human ability. Plato states that the destruction of Atlantis was the deliberate act of Zeus and the other gods to supress the humans who had these super abilities. And even though the New Agers and Plato disagree on the reason and duration of the destruction, both agree that there are some secrets of Atlantis that must be uncovered.
Blavatsky and Heindel both advocate that Atlantis was an esoteric (occult) religious state; esoteric meaning that the teachings were not readily apparent and that the initiate had to study and pursue the religion arduously in order to understand and achieve its deeper truths. Blavatsky claims that Atlantis was destroyed because the occult religion was becoming too widely known and had to be hidden again to be protected.
Now, I have mentioned Blavatsky and Heindel many times in this article. The reason is that both of these are somewhat pivotal (though not alone) in their trailblazing the modern New Age movement. Blavatsky was a Russian born aristocrat of Eastern Orthodox (Christian) parents. She set out on her own and came to the conclusion that all religions were essentially the same, or from a similar root. Theosophy is her vehicle of promoting her primarily Hindu/Egyptian belief system.
Heindel was involved with Blavatsky and served as the vice president of the Theosophical Society for a few years. However, he claims to be a Christian. In his writings, he continually professes Christianity, but downplays the divinity of Jesus. He reiterates the need for knowing and worshiping God, but claims that we will some day be equals with God through evolution.
But even if these two are not wholly responsible for the proliferation of the all-roads-lead-to-heaven theology, the message has reached an all-time popularity. And since the message is based on evolution, it gives hope that man can be man’s own salvation; that salvation comes through meditation and ideas like harmonic convergence.