Title: Atlantis in the Amazon: Lost Technologies and the Secrets of the Crespi TreasureAuthor(s): Richard Wingate
Published 2011 by Bear & CompanyISBN: 1591431204
ISBN-13: 978-1591431206
Paperback, 200 pagesList: $16.00
View this Book on AmazonReviewer: Mike Gleason
Unfortunately, like many stories of ancient mysteries, the proof for this book has been taken under the control of the "authorities" which, sadly, means there is no way to verify the accounts contained within the covers of this book. And, although there are copious photographs, including a number in color, there are few details visible in many of them and no sense of scale. For a number of reasons, mostly unstated, a number of the artifacts documented by Mr. Wingate have either "disappeared", been "misplaced", or are available only to "qualified, credentialed" experts to examine. This naturally decreases the chances of dissenting opinions making their way to the popular media.
The first half of the book is dominated by the nuts and bolts kind of ooparts (out of place artifacts) which it is (at least theoretically) possible to check up on as well as possibly touch yourself. The second half, however, is almost an entirely different situation, since it deals with myths, legends, and prehistory and the possible interpretation of such.
The difficulty with such speculation is that it is inherently unverifiable. Anyone's interpretation COULD be the right one. The odds are that you will find as many theories as you will people willing to offer them.
There are theories in the second half of this book which I have never encountered before - including the conquering of Atlantis by the Aryan inhabitants of ancient India. There are other speculations and, admittedly, fictitious reconstructions which will, unfortunately, undermine the potential realities contained in the earlier portion of the book.
There are references scattered throughout the book to readings given by Edgar Cayce (America's "Sleeping Prophet") in the early part of the 20th century. There was a time when his readings were as popular as the prophesies of Nostradamus, although they are less well-known now than the 2012 Mayan "end times" prophesies. How reliable they are is open to interpretation - he missed the predicted re-emergence of Atlantis in the Caribbean during the 1970s, and many of his predictions were made for individuals, so there is no way of tracking their effectiveness.
The final quarter of the book is devoted to a series of appendices - translations of Critias and Timeaus (two of the earliest extant references to Atlantis) and "A Deeper Look at the Crespi Collection of Cuenca, Ecuador" - which, while not new for the most part, help to explain some of the underpinnings of that which has gone before.
As always, things tend to come in cycles and I have suddenly noticed an upswing in books related to Atlantis (perhaps as a result of the end of the Mayan calendar near the end of this year). I'm not sure that understanding the past will help us out in the impending "end times", but it would be nice to answer a few more questions before the end catches up with us. This book raises more questions than it answers, but that may provide a bit of distraction from the preoccupation with the predictions which are receiving so such exposure at this time.
Whether you believe in Atlantis or not, some of the alleged artifacts are sure to inspire web-searches at the very least.
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