As you know, tracking down primary sources is one of the rabbit holes I can’t escape, so when I started flipping through Lewis Spence’s 1925 book Atlantis in America and came across his evidence that the Native peoples of the Americas had Atlantis traditions, I of course wanted to see the originals for myself. I was particularly taken by a quotation he gave on page 68, which Spence says comes from the “Tupi-Guarani of Brazil” and was recorded by “Thevet.” No other information is given to identify the source of an interesting take about a heavenly fire and a subsequent flood—a story later writers would identify as a comet that destroyed Atlantis:
1 Comment
Ancient myths and legends have a protean quality that makes them applicable to almost any current event, but that same quality has a downside: From the time of the euhemerists down to this very morning, there is a tendency to try to find the “real” story behind the myth by projecting today’s world back into the past. Earlier today, Smithsonian Magazine asked whether Talos, the bronze giant of the Argonautica, is in fact an early example of artificial intelligence. This question is, of course, patently absurd because Talos did not exist.
The Occult Elvis: The Mystical and Magical Life of the King Miguel Connor | Destiny Books | April 2025 | 288 pages | ISBN13: 9798888501351 | $19.99 Elvis Presley deeply admired James Dean to the point that he modeled much of his persona as a singer and an actor on Dean’s, especially in the early years of his career. The two men had much in common, and it is unsurprising that Elvis (I’ll use the mononym here, in deference to the subject) and Dean also shared both voluntary and involuntary associations with the occult. As I discuss in my book, Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean, Dean came out of a somewhat mystical Christian background (encouraged by his friend, the Rev. James DeWeerd) and believed himself supernaturally destined for greatness, despite believing himself to be cursed with an inner evil. He studied books of ancient wisdom and Eastern mysticism and developed a rather Gnostic view that reality was itself an illusion. After his untimely death, he became a cult idol, spiritual guide, and psychopomp—and the subject of countless conspiracy theories. Many claimed to see his ghost, or that he had never died, or would return in glory, and one young woman even claimed his angelic form had supernaturally impregnated her virgin womb. Such stories presaged suspiciously similar anecdotes that swirled around Elvis decades later.
A couple of weeks ago, an Italian team claimed to find a massive set of underground structures far beneath the Giza pyramids, a claim quickly dismissed by archaeologists, who pointed out that the sensing technology used to identify the structures cannot, in fact, be used to identify objects so far beneath the surface. Now the same team, calling itself the Khafre Project, has fully embraced Graham Hancock’s Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis and has gone all-in on bizarre claims that the pyramids were once submerged beneath Noah’s Flood.
John Greenewald of The Black Vault posted a cache of documents recently released through FOIA, and in the collection of emails and memoranda we learned the podcasted Lex Fridman secretly tried to involve himself in developing a UFO office for the Pentagon all while covering UFOs on his podcast.
Deadline reports that Apple Productions has acquired a UFO disclosure thriller movie from producers Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer, on which so-called UFO whistleblower David Grusch will serve as an associate producer and consultant. Grusch is also now an employee of Republican congressman Eric Burlinson of Indiana, who hired Grusch to advise him on UFOs after the House Oversight Committee rejected an effort to have Grusch hired as a staffer.
Social media blew up over the last two days with a wild claim that Italian archaeologists discovered a massive underground series of structures beneath Khafre’s pyramid on the Giza Plateau. Numerous postings alleged that ground-penetrating radar had discovered eight cylindrical spiral structures stretching around 650 meters beneath the pyramid and are connected to two vast cube-shaped rooms eighty meters on each side. On the upper end, they connect to a series of five chambers identical to the King’s Chamber in Khufu’s pyramid, but hidden in Khafre’s. According to the researchers behind the claim, this was merely a part of a massive underground city.
|
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
April 2025
|