OUT OF STATE | Atlantis: The Myth, the Mystery, and the Search for a Lost Civilization

For centuries, the legend of Atlantis has captured our imagination — a powerful civilization said to have vanished beneath the sea. Was it a cautionary tale, a historical reality, or something else entirely?

In this episode of State of the Unknown: Out of State, Robert Barber dives into the origins of the Atlantis myth — from Plato’s first writings to modern theories that place it everywhere from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. Explore the blend of fact, folklore, and mystery that continues to make Atlantis one of humanity’s most enduring legends.

🎧 Ancient myths. Lost worlds. Enduring mysteries.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Legend of Atlantis
• 2:45 Plato's Original Account
• 8:59 The Search for Evidence
• 16:10 Mystics and Occult Interpretations
• 22:16 Atlantis in Popular Culture
• 26:34 Why Atlantis Endures

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The sea is calm, then the ground shakes, walls crack, towers topple and in the space of a single night, an empire sinks beneath the waves. That's the story, anyway, the legend of Atlantis. Some say it was a city of unimaginable wealth, streets lined with gold, temples that glittered in the sun, a kingdom where kings ruled with the blessing of the gods. Others say it was nothing more than a fable, a kind of ancient cautionary tale about pride, greed and the danger of flying too close to the sun. But here's the thing For thousands of years people haven't been able to let it go. Historians, explorers, even treasure hunters, they've all gone looking for Atlantis. Maps have been drawn, expeditions launched, entire theories spun from just a few lines written down in ancient Greece. So what was Atlantis? A real place swallowed by the sea, a warning carved into story, or something stranger that still lingers just out of reach? Today we're diving deep into the mystery.

Speaker 1: 1:34

I'm Robert Barber and this is Out of State, a companion series to State of the Unknown. Short journeys into legends beyond America's borders, stories of folklore, hauntings and shadows from the other side of the Unknown. Short journeys into legends beyond America's borders, stories of folklore, hauntings and shadows from the other side of the map. Let's get into today's story. Usually Out of State is short. A quick look at strange stories from beyond the US. But Atlantis is different. It's not just a ghost tale or a haunting. It's philosophy, history, conspiracy and myth all tangled together. So today we're going longer. This isn't a short journey. This is a deep dive into one of the most enduring mysteries of all time. What follows blends historical accounts, folklore and modern speculation. Some of it can't be verified, some of it may never be, but it all lives in the shadow of a story that refuses to disappear, to disappear.

Speaker 1: 2:45

When we talk about Atlantis, we have to start with Plato. Not the cartoons, not the conspiracy theories, not the History Channel marathons, but Plato. He's writing in Athens around 360 BC. That's more than 2,000 years ago, and this is a guy who wasn't exactly a lightweight. He's the student of Socrates, he's the teacher of Aristotle, he's one of the most influential thinkers in Western philosophy period. When Plato speaks, the ancient world listens. The ancient world listens and one day, in two of his dialogues, timaeus and Critias, he decides to drop the story of a lost civilization. Now, these dialogues aren't history books. They're not meant to be taken as fact the way we'd think of it today.

Speaker 1: 3:40

Plato used dialogue as a way to explore ideas. He'd put words into the mouths of different speakers, philosophers, politicians, sometimes mythical figures, and through them he worked out questions about justice, the soul and the ideal society. And in the middle of all that, atlantis here's the way he tells it. Of all that, atlantis, here's the way he tells it. 9,000 years before his own time, there was a powerful island empire, beyond the pillars of Hercules, what we now call the Strait of Gibraltar. So picture this Past, the edge of the known Mediterranean world, out into the Atlantic, that's where Atlantis sat.

Speaker 1: 4:24

It wasn't just a fishing village or a little outpost. Plato described it as huge, a naval power, rich in resources, gold, silver or a calcum, which might have been some kind of legendary metal. They had elephants roaming the land. They had fertile plains, mountains, forests, and, at the center of it all, a capital city that was practically a marvel. Plato gives us this incredible detail about concentric rings of land and water, a design that sounds almost futuristic. Imagine a series of circles alternating between earth and canal leading inward to the royal palace. At the center, the walls were decorated in brass and tin and the inner citadel gleamed with red orichalcum Temples rose up, especially one to Poseidon, the god of the sea. This wasn't just a city, it was a statement, a declaration of wealth, power and divine favor. Atlantis had it all and they used it.

Speaker 1: 5:33

According to Plato, the Atlanteans built a naval empire. They conquered territories across Africa and Europe. They were wealthy, advanced and feared Africa and Europe. They were wealthy, advanced and feared, but and this is key they also became corrupt. At first, plato says their kings ruled wisely. They had a touch of divinity in them, descended from Poseidon himself. But over time that spark faded. They grew greedy. But over time that spark faded. They grew greedy, they lost their virtue, they hungered for power and expansion at any cost and eventually they made the mistake of going up against Athens.

Speaker 1: 6:16

Now this is where we should pause for a second. Remember Plato is an Athenian. He's not just writing about some lost island, he's also giving a little love letter to his own city. In the story, the Atlanteans try to conquer Athens, but they're defeated. The noble Athenians stand firm against corruption and imperial greed and they win. That's not exactly subtle, right? This is classic Plato. He's making a point Atlantis falls, athens triumphs. It's a lesson about morality, discipline and the dangers of excess. And then comes the part everyone remembers In a single day and night of misfortune, atlantis is swallowed by the sea Earthquakes, floods, devastation. The island sinks beneath the waves, never to be seen again. That's the story. Now, here's what makes this so fascinating.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Plato doesn't present it like a myth. He doesn't say once upon a time it like a myth. He doesn't say once upon a time. He frames it as history. He claims the tale was passed down to him through the statesman Solon, who supposedly heard it from an Egyptian priest during his travels. Solon tells it to an Athenian, who tells it to Plato's characters, who then tell it to us. And he gives details years, dynasties, geography, architecture. He paints a picture so vivid that people for centuries have asked why so much detail if it's just an allegory? Most historians will tell you it was allegory. Plato wasn't trying to give us an ancient travel blog. He was writing a moral fable.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Atlantis is the cautionary tale, a civilization that had everything, lost its virtue and fell to ruin. But here's the problem. Plato leaves us hanging In Critias, one of the two dialogues. The story just cuts off Mid-sentence, the manuscript breaks and we never get the full conclusion. Was it lost? Did Plato never finish it. We don't know. What we do know is that what he left us was enough to spark 2,000 years of speculation. Because once you tell people there was a great empire that sank beneath the ocean and you describe it like it was a real place, people are going to go looking for it. And that's exactly what happened.

Speaker 1: 8:59

From the Renaissance onward, explorers and dreamers have been chasing the idea of Atlantis. Maybe it was in the Mediterranean, maybe it was in the Caribbean, maybe Antarctica, maybe it was just a story all along. But it all starts here, with Plato sitting in Athens 360 BC, telling the tale of a city that had it all and then vanished beneath the waves. So here's the thing If Plato meant Atlantis as a moral fable, fine end of story. Lesson learned Don't get too powerful, don't get too greedy or you'll sink. But people don't like end of story. People want to believe there's something more.

Speaker 1: 9:49

And once Plato's work started circulating again in the Renaissance after being preserved for centuries, the hunt began. Explorers, scholars, mystics, they all looked at those details. He gave the timelines, the geography, and thought what if he wasn't just making it up? What if there really was a powerful empire that vanished? And maybe, just maybe the ruins are still out there. Let's start with Plato's biggest geographic clue. He says Atlantis was beyond the pillars of Hercules. That's what the Greeks called the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow opening between Spain and Morocco where the Mediterranean spills into the Atlantic. So, if we take them literally, atlantis wasn't in Greece, wasn't in Italy. It was out past that point, in the open ocean, a whole world of possibilities. And from there theories multiply.

Speaker 1: 10:53

One of the most popular theories point not to the Atlantic but back into the Mediterranean in itself, specifically the island of Santorini, which in ancient times was called Thera. Around 1600 BC, long before Plato's time, thera erupted in one of the most violent volcanic explosions in recorded history. We're talking about an event so catastrophic. It ripped the island apart, sent tsunamis across the Aegean and probably contributed to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on nearby Crete. On nearby Crete, when archaeologists uncovered Akrotiri, a buried city on Santorini, they found advanced architecture, art, plumbing, a thriving culture wiped out in an instant. Sound, familiar, advanced civilization, sudden destruction, lost to the sea. A lot of people thought so. Some argue Plato was drawing on vague memories of the Thera eruption passed down through an oral tradition. But here's the catch Thera is inside the Pillars of Hercules, not beyond, and it's way closer in time than the 9,000 years before that Plato gives. So maybe it inspired parts of the story, but probably not the whole thing.

Speaker 1: 12:22

Another strong candidate southern Spain, near the city of Cadiz. This is where the ancient Tartesian culture thrived. They were wealthy, trading metals, and they live right on the Atlantic coast. Some researchers think that the flood plains of Dunana National Park, which are now marshes, might have once been a city that matched Plato's description. Satellite images have even shown circular patterns in the ground, concentric rings that some people claim look a lot like the capital of Atlantis. Is it proof? Not really, but the idea that Atlantis could have been a real Iberian culture swallowed by the sea, that's enough to keep people digging, literally.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Then we get into the wilder theories. Some say the Azores, those little islands out in the Atlantic that belong to Portugal, are the mountaintops of Atlantis, just the peak still visible after the rest sank. Others have pointed to the Caribbean, cuba, the Bahamas, especially the so-called Bimini Road, a set of submerged stones off the coast of Bimini that some insist are man-made. Scientists call it natural limestone, believers call it evidence. And then there's Antarctica yes, antarctica. The idea goes that Atlantis wasn't destroyed, it just shifted, sliding into its icy grave after a massive Earth crust displacement. It's fringe science at best, but it's out there and it's surprisingly popular in conspiracy circles.

Speaker 1: 14:13

Here's the consistent problem, though circles. Here's the consistent problem, though. For all the digging, all the scanning, all the expeditions, no one has ever found definitive evidence of Atlantis no inscriptions, no ruins that clearly match Plato's description, no archaeological smoking gun. Every theory relies on bending some part of Plato's account. Maybe the 9,000 years was a mistranslation, maybe it was only 900. Maybe beyond the pillars of Hercules was a symbolic phrase, not literal geography. Maybe Plato just mashed together bits and pieces of stories he'd heard and turned them into one big moral tale.

Speaker 1: 14:59

And yet people keep looking. That's the thing about Atlantis. It taps into this very human impulse, the need to believe there was once something bigger, greater, more advanced than us, a golden age we've lost. Think about it. The world is full of ruins Mayan temples swallowed by the jungle, egyptian pyramids rising from the desert, stonehenge, gobekli Tepe, angkor Wat Every one of them whispers. What else might be out there waiting to be found? So when Plato says there was a great empire that fell beneath the sea, well, people can't resist, even when the evidence isn't there. Maybe, especially when the evidence isn't there, because that means the mystery lives on. And that's where the hunt for Atlantis shifts From explorers and scholars to mystics and dreamers, from a question of history to a question of faith, imagination and sometimes pure invention. Which brings us to the 1800s and the people who turned Atlantis into not just a lost city but a whole lost civilization.

Speaker 1: 16:21

By the 1800s, atlantis had already been a curiosity for centuries. Scholars argued over it, explorers chased it, but it was still mostly treated as a puzzle of geography. That's when mystics and occult thinkers stepped in and changed the legend forever. The first big revival came from Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic who co-founded the Theosophical Society in the late 19th century. Blavatsky wasn't interested in Atlantis as a lost city on a map. She saw it as a lost civilization, an entire chapter of human history that had been erased.

Speaker 1: 17:06

In her writings she described Atlantis as one of humanity's root races. According to her, the Atlanteans were highly advanced, but also deeply flawed. They had incredible knowledge and power, psychic abilities, technologies we can barely imagine, but their corruption led to their destruction. Sound familiar? That part, at least. She borrowed from Plato, but Blavatsky added her own spin. For her, atlantis wasn't just a history. It was a spiritual lesson. Humanity had passed through cycles and Atlantis was a warning about what happens when knowledge outpaces morality. Her ideas caught on Suddenly. Atlantis wasn't just a city that might have sunk. It was an entire civilization that had shaped the destiny of the world.

Speaker 1: 18:01

Then came Edgar Cayce, the American mystic of the early 20th century. Sometimes called the sleeping prophet, Cayce would go into trances and deliver readings on everything from health to reincarnation, to the fate of nations and Atlantis. Cayce claimed that the Atlanteans had mastered crystal technology, devices that could harness energy in ways that modern science still can't. He said they used these crystals for power, for healing, even for communication, but their misuse of this technology led to the catastrophe. In his visions, cayce predicted that Atlantis would rise again, literally. He claimed parts of it would reemerge in the 1960s off the coast of the Bahamas Spoiler. That didn't happen, but for believers, cayce's words were gospel. And here's the wild part People are still using Cayce's prophecies today. If you search online for Atlantis Rising, you'll find folks quoting his predictions like they were yesterday's news.

Speaker 1: 19:15

By the early 20th century, thanks to Blavatsky and Cayce, atlantis had transformed. It wasn't just a story from Plato anymore. It was a whole mythology. It became the mother of lost civilizations, the origin of advanced knowledge, a mysterious golden age that we somehow let slip away. Writers picked it up, science fiction authors used it as a template for lost worlds, occultists folded it into their teachings. Even Nazis got involved, chasing after myths of Aryan origins tied to Atlantis. In other words, atlantis went from philosophy to pseudoscience, to pop culture. And maybe that's not surprising, because there's something seductive about the idea. If Atlantis was real, then it means we're not the first advanced civilization. It means we're not the pinnacle of human achievement. There was something before us, maybe smarter, maybe more powerful, maybe more in tune with forces we don't understand, maybe more powerful, maybe more in tune with forces we don't understand, and if it was destroyed, it means we could be destroyed too. That's a powerful lesson, whether you take it spiritually, historically or just as a good story.

Speaker 1: 20:44

Of course, scholars rolled their eyes at all of this. To them, blavatsky was writing mystical allegory. Cayce was making up things in trances and none of it held water, but the legend had already outgrown the skeptics by the time Cayce's followers were waiting for Atlantis to rise from the sea. The story had left the realm of philosophy and archaeology, it had become something bigger, a canvas. You could project anything onto mysticism, prophecy, even science fiction, and once a story reaches that stage, it never dies. So now we've got two Atlantean traditions running in parallel. On one side, the scholars and archaeologists poking at the ruins and coastlines, arguing about whether Plato was describing Santorini or Spain, or nowhere at all, and on the other, the mystics and dreamers insisting Atlantis was a lost golden age of psychic powers, crystal energy and cosmic warnings Together. They kept the fire burning, which is why, by the mid-20th century, atlantis was everywhere In books, in movies, in pop culture, even in courtrooms where people tried to claim Atlantean knowledge. It was no longer just a legend, it was an idea that anyone could use, and they did.

Speaker 1: 22:16

By the time the 20th century rolled around, atlantis wasn't just a legend from Plato or a prophecy from mystics. It was mainstream, a part of the cultural fabric. Think about it. How many lost city stories have you heard that don't in some way trace back to Atlantis? The second you say the words sunken empire or vanished civilization. People know exactly what you're getting at.

Speaker 1: 22:44

Writers loved it. Jules Verne hinted at it in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Science fiction pulps of the early 1900s churned out stories about Atlantean survivors or secret societies guarding his technology. Then came comic books, dc's Aquaman. He literally is the king of Atlantis. Marvel has Namor the Submariner. Same deal An Atlantean.

Speaker 1: 23:12

Atlantis became a ready-made origin story Powerful, mysterious, lurking beneath the waves. Even Disney jumped in In 2001,. They released Atlantis the Lost Empire, an animated film full of crystals and advanced technology straight out of the Blavatsky and Casey playbook. Atlantis gave creators an easy hook a world we lost but might rediscover. But it wasn't just entertainment.

Speaker 1: 23:43

Atlantis found its way into fringe theories too. Some New Age groups treat it as literal history, a lost golden age when humans had powers we can barely imagine. Now. Others weave it into alien conspiracies. Atlantis is an outpost of extraterrestrials, their technology misunderstood by ancient people. And then there's the pseudoscience. Every time someone finds odd ruins or unusual geology under the ocean, you can bet Atlantis gets mentioned. The Bimini Road in the Bahamas To most geologists it's natural limestone formations. Archaeologists it's natural limestone formations. To believers it's the streets of Atlantis. Atlantis becomes the answer to everything. Strange artifact Must be Atlantean Lost knowledge. Atlanteans had it Mystery solved, and maybe that's the real reason it's lasted so long.

Speaker 1: 24:44

Even if you don't buy into crystals or aliens, atlantis works as a symbol. It's the ultimate metaphor for a lost golden age, a reminder that even the greatest civilizations can collapse. When people in the 1800s worried about industrialization, atlantis was a warning. When the Cold War ramped up and the world seemed on the brink of self-destruction, atlantis was a mirror. Today, with rising seas and climate change, the story hits even harder, because Atlantis isn't just about what might be under the ocean. It might be under the ocean. It's about us right now.

Speaker 1: 25:26

That's why Atlantis shows up everywhere Video games, movies, even memes. It's easy to recognize, instantly mysterious and endlessly flexible. It can be hopeful, a place of advanced knowledge waiting to be rediscovered. A place of advanced knowledge waiting to be rediscovered, or terrifying Proof that civilizations, no matter how great, can vanish in a single night. And that's the magic.

Speaker 1: 25:54

Atlantis is whatever we need it to be A story that adapts to the times, shapeshifting across centuries, without ever losing its grip on our imagination. So by the late 20th century, atlantis wasn't just a story from Plato anymore. It was the lost city, the blueprint for every tale of sunken ruins and forgotten empires. And that brings us to the last piece of the puzzle why? Why does Atlantis endure when so many other myths have faded into footnotes? So why this story? Why has Atlantis lasted for more than 2,000 years while so many other myths and allegories have faded?

Speaker 1: 26:43

I think it comes down to this Atlantis is flexible. On one level, it's a morality tale, the story of a civilization that had it all wealth, power, knowledge and destroyed itself through greed. That's timeless. You can apply it to Athens, rome. You can apply it to Athens, rome, the British Empire, america. Pick a civilization, and the warning still fits.

Speaker 1: 27:10

On another level, it's about loss, a golden age swallowed by the sea. We're wired to long for the past To imagine there was once a perfect world just out of reach. Atlantis scratches that itch. It tells us you're right, there was something greater before you and you'll never get it back. And then there's the mystery, because Plato gave just enough detail to make it sound real A place, a time, even a layout for the city. He dangled it like bait, and humans don't like mysteries without answers.

Speaker 1: 27:50

So the hunt continues. Atlantis lives in this sweet spot between history and legend, between philosophy and fantasy. Too vivid to dismiss, too slippery to prove, and that is why it endures. Atlantis may never have been real. It may have been nothing more than Plato's way of holding up a mirror to human pride, but sometimes stories have power, whether or not they're true. Sometimes stories have power, whether or not they're true. They live on because we need them to. In Atlantis, it's become more than a city. It's an idea, a symbol of what we fear losing, a reminder that even the greatest empires can fall and maybe, just maybe, a whisper that somewhere beneath the waves there's still more waiting to be found. This has been State of the Unknown. If you've been enjoying the show, follow rate and share it with someone who can't resist a story that lingers Until next time. If you hear the ocean whisper of a drowned empire, remember some ruins are built not of stone but of longing.