00:00.00 kinkella Hello and welcome back to theseudor archeology podcast episode 138 I'm your host Dr Andrew King Kella and we have been unfortunately for all of us discussing the lost continent of mo why have I done this to you guys all right? so. Let's do sort of a surgical breakdown of of what Moo is where it came from now if you look up. Um moo online on like Wikipedia or this kind of stuff I believe. It's going to say that it was made up by Augustus Le Plan Jean remember Augustus Lay bla jean episode one thirty six for those who don't um and that's mostly true, but. I think what we're going to see is the last continent of move was kind of made up by several people. They were kind of building on each other. Um and I'll I'll go through that right here. So the first the first step in making up. The lost continent of moo actually comes from brass here to Bor Borrk remember him episode 130 so braser to Bor Borg well this is one of those guys actually he and la plunge on um, are kind of in the same category. 01:28.61 kinkella Brasigur de bo borg if we remember this guy. Um, he's first off, he's going to die in 1874 right so he's actually really doing his work in like the 1850 s 1860 s and he's the guy who um, did some really good stuff. 01:46.30 kinkella But ultimately just translated it really terribly right? If you if you remember he um he like ah translated the ppal v this is all maya stuff right? Um, he found like ah Diego ah, Delanda's alphabet um he ah found a copy of the madrid codex which is a very important ancient Maya document and so he there's some really good stuff there right? He he spent time with this stuff time in the Maya world time with real maya things and so. There are those aspects that really help us in knowing and understanding the ancient maya. Unfortunately if you remember that episode or if you want to go check it out. He adds the idea of Atlantis to all this stuff right? and that you're like everything is so good. Oh you're working with this real. You know, scientific stuff. Oh you're doing a real interesting research and then you're like oh damn it. But I don't blame these earliest guys so much I blame the later guys much more. So um, in his attempts at translating the madrid codex he incorrectly translated this. Ah, glyph as Moo and you know said that it related to some lost continent or something he was a he was trying to shove in the atlantis narrative you know and so he kind of did that nobody cared this is in like the 1860 s you know. 03:23.47 kinkella Um, and but as always I said nobody cared mostly nobody cared and as we always say just like in doctor who the master's ring. The. Bad guy will always live on somebody else is going to grab the ring augustus late plunge Jean grabs the ring from be pursuita poor pork and augustus late clo on to if you remember him he um was the guy who took really great photos in the Maya world right? He is operating. About 20 years after bore bore right? But borg's kind of the first person kind of a generation before and bo borg kind of lays the groundwork even almost sometimes I think unwittingly ah for these later people who become more pseudo archeology as you go. But Augustine Lelo Jean still has some good stuff right? He's been to the my world. He's worked in the Maya World he took some again. Great photos. He made some good very good records of what he did at the time unfortunately, he also came to terrible conclusions. Trying to shove atlantis in if you guys remember he thought that the maya were actually the sort of garden of eden and then technology and culture went from the maya to the atlanteans and the atlanteans then brought it to Egypt and Augustus Lelong Chong got um, increasingly more sort of foolish and crazy as. 04:54.71 kinkella As he went on again. Guess is le plan gen though's going to live until like 198 and so he's going to be working in the eighteen eighty s into the 1890 s and he's the one who did the series of books with like ah Queen Moo and Prince Chock Moul remember that he's also the guy who who named the chock mole so he and his wife. Again, we're in the my world you know and as they did some of this good data collection I guess you could say they had terrible conclusions based on their data and they just wrote these you know flights of fancy narratives that had nothing to do with reality then. He's the last of the guys who actually have real experience in the Maya world where it becomes pure stupidity is with your friend and mine Ignatius Donnelly remember him episode one Twenty Five um Ignatius Donnelly then just makes up. It. Purely fantastical story about Atlantis right? And then we're off so you see how a bit of early pseudo archeology started with some facts in there and there were early guys just trying their best you know, but then bastardized itself into pure fiction and I find the the break. Is when igneius stanelly um does Atlantis the Antediluvian world in 1882 in this mix you then get this guy James churchwalt and if you look mo up. He's kind of the first name that comes up. 06:31.70 kinkella James Churchwold is going to grab the um evil ring from augustus le plan Jean what's interesting is James Churchwold actually hung out with Augustus late cloone in the 1890 s with him and his wife right? What's the story of James Churchwold okay James Churchwold lived from 1851 to 1936. He's originally a british guy early in his life. Let's say in the 1880 s he travels to Sri Lanka Sri Lanka is the big island off the coast of India working and I think that in the tea industry or something like that makes sense. Um, and so. In early his life. He has sort of travel experiences. He comes back I think he but becomes like a Us citizen or he comes or at least he emigrates back to the us in the 1890 s I think um and it's in that time too where he discusses this with with he discusses the idea of mo with the le plan jean now. He doesn't do too much with it until much later in his life. He finally starts writing a series of books on mo when he's 75 years old. So if you do the math this is 1926 right? This is later. Um. Breor to Bor Borg is long dead I guess this like clone John is gone too. So he's as an old man. He's looking back and and writing these stories his first book that comes out 1926 is called the lost continent of mo motherland of man. 08:06.65 kinkella And okay, what's it about right? What's his. What's his ideas on moo right here I'm going to quote the Wikipedia entry now this is not the Wikipedia entry for moo this is the Wikipedia entry for James Churchwold because I think it's a really good boil down of the idea of mo you're ready here. We go according to churchwold moo extended from somewhere North of Hawaii to the south as far as the fijis and Easter Island right so it's huge. He claimed to Moo was the site of the garden of Eden and home to 64000000 inhabitants known as the nials again where does he get his numbers where does he get his names. Whatever it's civilization which flourished 50000 years before churchw world's day a very round number. Was technologically more advanced than his own. Yeah don't say he said the ancient civilizations of India Babylon Persia Egypt and the mayas were the decayed remains of mus colonies good god where have we heard this kind of stuff before church world claimed to have gained his knowledge of this lost land after befriending an indian priest. You don't say. Who taught him to read an ancient dead language spoken by only 3 people in all of India the priest the priest disclosed the existence of several ancient tablets written by the nicals he allowed churchwide to see these records after initial reluctance. Of course you know so the. 09:38.28 kinkella The indian priest is going to be like no I can't no I can't and then Churchill's like come on come on and he's like okay his knowledge remained incomplete as the available tablets were mere fragments of a larger text. Yeah don't say. Churchw world claimed to have found verification and further information in the records of other ancient peoples his writings attempt to describe the civilization of mo its history inhabitants and influence on subsequent history and civilizations churchwold claimed that the ancient egyptian sungod raw originated with the mo. Claimed that ra was the word which the nials used for son as well as for their god and rulers and there you go yes I know what a horrendous crock a bullshit but let's break this down. Okay, so. There's your background of moo obviously just made up. You know it's just and it's so typical. Oh I talked to an ancient shaman. Yes I did you got to realize he's right. He's writing this when he was 75 it's like it was 50 years in the past when he was in Sri Lanka he's making all this up. And I but I bet you know don't we always wonder if if these people truly believe their lies or not I bet they do. It's like we wonder does Graham Hancock believe his own bullshit. Of course he does at this point did he believe it did Graham Hancock believe his bullshit in like 1990 I bet he. 11:11.69 kinkella Didn't but he does now again. We all are the heroes of our own stories right? I think that James churchwold he just kind of ginned up his own remembrances and then believed his own remembrances he maybe he knew an indian guy. You know or maybe somebody kind of told him a story at 1 point having nothing to do with us. It just happened to be an old old guy who's talked about some sort of history. But he's translated this is in his own mind you know to make a believable for himself. Lie. We've seen this so often in pseudo archeology right? Let's remember back to remember way back to Mitchell Hedges skull this is the crystal skull of Belize episode 97 friends um with the crystal sull of Belize remember the woman that it's the daughter. You know she had it and um, she lived to be very very old like 100 years old and she had this story of how her dad came across it. She founded and believes and all this and if you look at the facts. Her story is a total lie but I'm sure she believed her lie. Because it's an amalgamation of some truths you know that are that are twisted and bastardized to make a lie They're the best lies right? They're based in some bits and bobs. You know she had been 2 Belize you know um but none of the rest happened. 12:45.80 kinkella So I do find in talking about pseudoarcheology. It's it's also a really interesting psychological study into lying and false claims and that kind of stuff you know and how people believe ostentatious odd obviously false bullshit. But they believe it. You know as they have substituted it in their mind and it is now their reality and I'm sure James Churchwold did it with all this moose stuff because again the numbers and the dates. It's just fanciful crap that he just slapped on there. Right? Um, what I what I love if you also look down on on his Wikipedia page at the bottom. Um, it has a list of his books and and the dates so lost continent a boom mulin of man comes out in 1926 and I also am curious. That's also I think it might even be the same year that Margaret Mead's coming of age in Samoa comes out now. Margaret Mead is a real anthropologist who studied real people in Samoa and talked about adolescence in Samoa. Ah I think that. Lost continent of moo also comes out at a time in the 1920 s when there's a resurgence in this interest of just sort of um what would be seen as exciting ah travel related you know faraway places and we also have to realize this is only like. 14:18.85 kinkella 4 years after the discovery of king tut so along with tut mania along with the um excitement overcoming of age in Samoa you can see how the last kind of a book on this would would slot right in and be kind of in the right time in the right place after this he he must have met with some success with this book. He writes the children of moe sacred symbols of moe cosmic forces of moe and then if that's not enough the second book of the cosmic forces of moe I'm bumed that he didn't get to move the revenge mo in the wrath of con and my favorite. Mo to electric boogaloo when we return my closing thoughts on the lost continent of mo.