By Staff Reporter
(archive article - Friday, July 16, 2004)

Paranormal study group enlists psychic to challenge US author’s theory
By Jean Christou

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A PAPHOS-based organisation that investigates paranormal phenomena is challenging American author Robert Sarmast’s assertion that the lost city of Atlantis lies off Cyprus. The group says they have conducted a remote viewing experiment with the participation of a former US military ‘psychic spy’.

John Knowles, who runs Psychognosia with his wife Linda Leblanc, recently engaged Sarmast, the author of Discovery of Atlantis: The Startling Case for the Island of Cyprus, in a friendly debate on Paphos TV, challenging his claims based on history and on the accounts of Plato, which is the main source of Sarmast’s theory on the location of Atlantis.

Following the TV debate, Leblanc said that it seemed like an ideal opportunity to display the skills of what she called one of the one of the world's most talented ‘remote viewers’ and one of the top US military former ‘psychic spies’, Joseph McMoneagle.

It is known that the US and Russian military have over the years conducted extensive research in the use of extra-sensory perception (ESP) to obtain intelligence information. The practice is known as remote viewing and McMoneagle has written four books about his experiences working for the US Defence Department. Following his retirement from the military, he established a company that conducts remote viewing under contract with private individuals and companies
“Using only the map co-ordinates of Sarmast, we commissioned Joseph McMoneagle to report what he found at this location before Sarmast conducts his underwater exploration,” said Leblanc.

“As is McMoneagle's usual protocol, he did not know we were the contractor. All he had was the co-ordinates that Sarmast proposes to use, in a sealed envelope, with general questions we provided, on the outside of the envelope. There was no mention of "Atlantis" or Cyprus, either by us or in McMoneagle’s three-page report.

McMoneagle was asked to describe what he saw within a two-mile radius of the coordinates both 10,000 years ago and at the present time.

His report said he perceived what appeared to be 10,000 years ago a generally elongated island running approximately east-northeast to west-southwest, approximately 235 kilometres in length and 65-75 kilometres wide at its widest with two moderately tall mountains at either end of the island.

He said there was a predominant city on the island with a system of buildings which seemed to represent homes “for lack of a better word”. “These appear to be apartments or clusters of homes that are interconnected with streets that run in lines outward from the central core of the city that sits at the foot of the mountain bluff,” the report said

“The city is crowded but orderly. It is also filled with many canals and rivers running throughout, and a multitude of hanging gardens, also filled with water. There are many gardens filled with produce-producing plants. Lots of greenery and multi-coloured plants indicating flowering plants of various natures. I have a strong feeling and sense that there are many aromas filling the streets and airs here.”

He said he also saw art everywhere: statues, art work on buildings, mosaics, paintings, decorative stone work, carvings, woodwork and the like. “It is a place that is filled with the types of things one would find in a culture with much available leisure time and the kinds of highly valued crafts to fill it,” the report said.
“I do not get a sense of much violence. I do not get a sense of much in the way of military or a requirement for security or guards. There is however a sense that there is a great deal of orderliness, cleanliness, refinement.”

McMoneagle said the weather was around 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, mild with very little humidity and soft breezes from the south-east with the city and island surrounded by what appeared to be huge multiple lakes as far as the eye can see.

“It is a wonderland of nothing but water. It is a world of water. I see ships and boats of every description. They are of every size imaginable. This is a seafaring nation. They are a very rich nation, both culturally as well as from a trading standpoint. They survive on what they take from the sea and what they reach out and trade in. Their ships are exquisite. They are both delicate and appear to be very modern in construction and strength, capable of cross ocean sailing both ancient and modern at the same time.”

Describing the inhabitants McMoneagle said they looked like modern man, at approximately five feet, five to five feet nine in height. “The men and women mostly have soft brown hair, with green to hazel eyes. Some have blue eyes, but it’s a rarity. They speak a language which appears to be somewhat like Sumerian but probably predates it. Their written language is probably older than Sumerian. It is a fluid script like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It has no vowels which are assumed. Their math is quite similar to our own, except that it excludes zero,” his report said.
He said the ancient inhabitants of the island had complex surgery, but preferred to use natural healing methods, or relieve pain and allow someone to die with grace and dignity. The natural length of life, he said, was approximately 100 years of age for both sexes, and the normal size of a family was four. Religion was Monotheistic, centering on a Prime Energy. “They are non-violent. They do not believe in capital punishment. There are no locked doors. Formal teaching takes place within temple/schools from age five until age nine, and then there is a form of apprenticeship that takes place over a number of years according to the skill set chosen.

“All those over age sixty are honoured as historians, except the infirm, who are cared for as infirm. The form of currency is family honour and consistency. Dishonour breaks the bonds of feed and support, exiling the family from the city forever.”

In response to the question of what he saw now at the same coordinates, McMoneagle said there was nothing but water as far as he eye can see.

Under the water McMoneagle perceived some ruins buried in muck and mud, but these are hard to recognise against the remains of the mountain which was also restructured by the collapse of a significant portion of the island during the upheaval that took place during the great flood, he said. McMoneagle classed the ancient city as pre-Sumerian. This would date it prior to 3,500 BC.

Knowles told the Cyprus Mail that it was very likely that Sarmast would in fact uncover an ancient city where his expedition will take place but he said he was concerned that this would be presented as Atlantis, when in fact the likelihood is remote.

“The bottom of the Mediterranean is littered with civilisations so I would not be surprised if some evidence of one is dredged up but they must know in their hearts that it is not Atlantis,” Knowles said.

Sarmast who is still in the preparatory stage of his expedition told the Cyprus Mail yesterday he had no opinion on Psychognosia’s experiment. “We are using solid historical and scientific evidence and I would prefer not to mix this with other domains,” he said.