Lemuria, also called Limuria, was a continent first suggested in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater. It was believed to have been underwater in the Indian Ocean. Later, some people who studied mystical or supernatural ideas used Lemuria to explain human origins. This idea was shown to be incorrect in the 20th century when scientists discovered plate tectonics and continental drift.
The idea of Lemuria was introduced to explain why lemur fossils were found on Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent but not in Africa or the Middle East. In 1870, biologist Ernst Haeckel suggested that Lemuria might have been the first home of humans. This expanded the idea beyond science, making it widely known outside of scientific circles.
In the late 1800s, Helena Blavatsky, a founder of theosophy, included Lemuria in her mystical beliefs. She claimed Lemuria was the birthplace of early humans, calling them Lemurians. Her writings greatly influenced Western mystical traditions, spreading the idea of Lemuria and its mythical people.
By the 1960s, the idea of Lemuria was no longer accepted by scientists because Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift, introduced in 1912, explained how landmasses move. However, the concept of Lemuria remained in popular culture, especially within the theosophist tradition.
Scientific origins
Lemuria was once thought to be a sunken land bridge that could explain certain patterns in the distribution of animals and plants across the Earth. However, modern scientific theories about how Earth's plates move have shown that this idea is no longer correct. While some sunken landmasses, like Zealandia in the Pacific Ocean and Mauritia and the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian Ocean, do exist, no known landmass under the Indian or Pacific Oceans could have acted as a bridge between continents.
In 1864, a scientist named Philip Sclater published a paper titled "The Mammals of Madagascar" in The Quarterly Journal of Science. He studied the types of mammals found in Madagascar and India, noting that their fossils were present in these regions but not in Africa or the Middle East. Sclater proposed that Madagascar and India had once been part of a larger continent. He was correct in this idea, though the actual landmass involved was Mauritia, which was part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana.
Sclater suggested that the unusual types of mammals found in Madagascar could be explained by the existence of a large continent that once covered parts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This continent, he believed, had broken apart into islands, some of which merged with Africa and others with what is now Asia. He proposed the name "Lemuria" for this lost landmass.
Sclater's idea was common among scientists of his time, as many were interested in the concept of land bridges—real or imagined—that might explain how animals and plants spread across the Earth. Another scientist, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, had proposed a similar idea about a southern continent years before Sclater but did not name it. The acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution led scientists to search for explanations about how species spread from their origins. Before plate tectonics were understood, scientists often suggested the existence of submerged landmasses to explain how land-based species ended up separated by oceans. Geologists also studied similarities in rock formations across different continents. The first organized attempt to explain these patterns was made by Melchior Neumayr in his book Erdgeschichte in 1886. Many other hypothetical land bridges and continents were proposed in the 19th century to explain how species are distributed today.
After gaining some scientific support, the idea of Lemuria appeared in the work of other scholars. Ernst Haeckel, a scientist who studied how species are classified, used Lemuria to explain why certain early human ancestors, or "missing links," were not found in the fossil record. Some sources suggest Haeckel proposed this idea before Sclater, though he did not use the name "Lemuria" at that time.
The theory of Lemuria was no longer considered valid after the scientific community accepted the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift. According to these theories, Madagascar and India were once part of the same landmass, which explains similarities in their geology. However, plate movement caused India to separate from this landmass millions of years ago and move to its current location. The original landmass, which included Mauritia and the supercontinent Gondwana, broke apart but did not sink beneath the ocean.
Theosophy and occultism
The idea of Lemuria became part of a spiritual belief called Theosophy and has continued to appear in unscientific studies and stories about lost lands. Many books and writings about Lemuria and related ideas, such as the Lemurian Fellowship, exist. These works all agree that a continent once existed in what is now the Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean and was later covered by water due to a major natural disaster. A key part of Lemuria's stories is that it was where advanced knowledge systems first appeared, which influenced later beliefs.
The concept of Lemuria was described in detail by James Churchward, who called it Mu and believed it was a lost continent in the Pacific Ocean. Churchward used the name Mu from Augustus Le Plongeon, who had previously used "Land of Mu" to refer to the legendary lost continent of Atlantis. Churchward wrote several books about Mu, including The Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Men (1926), The Children of Mu (1931), and others. The connection between Lemuria/Mu and Atlantis is discussed in the book Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature (1954) by L. Sprague de Camp.
Blavatsky claimed that Australia was a leftover part of Lemuria and that Aboriginal Australians and Aboriginal Tasmanians (which she saw as separate groups) were descendants of Lemurians and people from Atlantis, after mixing with animals. Her ideas later appeared in stories and writings from the 1890s and early 1900s in Australia, including works by poet Bernard O'Dowd and authors like Rosa Campbell Praed and John David Hennessey.
Robert Dixon said the popularity of ideas about lost races, like Lemurians and Atlanteans, showed the fears of colonial Australians, who worried about losing their English identity. A. L. McCann said Praed used the Lemuria idea to create a history for white settlers without having to face the harm done to Indigenous people.
In 1894, Frederick Spencer Oliver wrote A Dweller on Two Planets, an occult book claiming that survivors from Lemuria lived in tunnels under Mount Shasta in California. This hidden city, called Telos: City of Light, had luxurious floors and walls decorated with jewels. Oliver also said Lemurians could be seen walking on the surface wearing white robes. In 1931, Harvey Spencer Lewis wrote Lemuria: the Lost Continent of the Pacific, which popularized the idea that Mount Shasta was a place where Lemurians lived.
In the 1930s, Guy Warren Ballard claimed that a spiritual figure named Saint Germain gave him knowledge and wisdom. Ballard wrote Unveiled Mysteries under the name Godfré Ray King, saying he was the person Saint Germain used to share messages with the world. Belief in Telos has been promoted by Ballard, his followers, and other groups like the Ascended Masters, the Great White Brotherhood, and the Church Universal and Triumphant.
Each year, members of these groups travel to Mount Shasta for pilgrimages, which include festivals and events. The Saint Germain Foundation hosts an annual "I AM COME!" Pageant about the life of Jesus in Mount Shasta. The Rainbow Family holds a Rainbow Gathering every August to celebrate the journey. These groups mix spiritual practices from Native American, Christian, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions, combining them while leaving out parts they consider negative. For example, the Saint Germain Foundation does not teach about Jesus' crucifixion.
Kumari Kandam
Some Tamil writers, like Devaneya Pavanar, have connected Lemuria to Kumari Kandam, a mythical land that is said to have sunk into the ocean and is mentioned in Tamil stories. They believe Kumari Kandam was the birthplace of early human civilization. A Tamil scholar named Adiyarkunallar described the size and area of a region in the Pandyan country that stretched between the Pahrali River and the Kumari River. He noted that this area was later flooded by the ocean.