Talk:Agartha

Vfd
On 31 Mar 2005, this article was nominated for deletion. The result was keep. See Votes for deletion/Agartha for a record of the discussion. &mdash;Korath (Talk) 05:35, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

I started to copyedit this, but it needs major help from an expert in the field I think. Kevin 10:51, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

what the hell is this? wheres any proof what so ever this isnt theories this is paranormal

hopelessely unintelligible
"The association of Hohlweltlehre theories and the Nazis arises from the unsubstantiated surmise that Adolf Hitler sent an expedition, led by Dr. Heinz Fischer, to the Baltic island of Rugen to spy on the British fleet. Fischer did so not by aiming his telescopic cameras across the waters, but by pointing them up to peer across the atmosphere to the Atlantic Ocean."

This paragraph dosn't make any sense in literal, scientific, or logical terms. 1. What does this actually imply? "Aiming up"? What does this have to do with the rest of the page? 2. Why would Hitler send such a low-level mission personally? 3. Why is this not referenced *at all*? 4. The grammar is totally ambiguous - it could mean anything. -> there is no context given that could make sense of this. -> it dosn't explain the Nazi-hollow earth link *at all* "unsubstantiated surmise" -> you're not kidding are you?

Shoddy research on a very interesting subject. The topic needs to be updated.
Rama, India - beneath this surface city is a long lost subterranean city, it is said, also named Rama

There is no city in India by the name Rama. Agartha is two cities. Agartha Alpha and Beta. Both located under the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. There are no entrances to Agartha from anywhere else on the planet but from the Gobi Desert itself. This post needs to be seriously edited. Some seriously shoddy material posted on Agartha here.


 * Every site with google states that Rame is located "near Jaipur". However, I have not been able to find any ancient city or ruins called by that name.
 * There is however another Rama. In Banaras city (also known as Kashi), there is an entire twenty square kilometre area called Ramnagar: the city of Rama
 * Patrick1982 10:13, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Improvements required
--Chr.K. 16:48, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
 * 1) Citing sources for all claims, and reordering their presentation in more appropriate fashion.
 * 2) Improving article grammar and flow.
 * 3) Contrasting the opposing claims and implications of the Agartha story to those of the current scientific paradigm.
 * I propose moving (or copying) the "Cultural references" section to a disambiguation page, and adding a "For other uses..." link to it at the top of this article. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 05:16, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Not NPOV
There's only a paragraph on it in the intro saying it's "not supported by modern science" and the rest of the article treats it like a legitimate theory. There needs to be more on opinions against this. —  Pious 7  21:41, 7 July 2007 (UTC)


 * This article in its current form can best be described as attempting to be pseudoscientific. It needs a SERIOUS rewrite to re-frame the information as mythology.  I would do it, but I don't know anything about this subject except what I've read here (obviously I didn't gain anything particularly useful from crackpot hollow earth theories).  ThatDeadDude (talk) 16:23, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

New Age-y garble vs traditional myth
I guess I was hoping for too much in coming to this article trying to rfind real documentation about this placename/myth, not a statement-as-facts recitation of modern-era popular hack mythology; and like other New Age-rewritten mythology the original content is pushed aside in favour of pomo fashions and von Daniken/Hancock like gee-whizism. Iguazu Falls? Gimme a break. The Agartha I've heard about was not part of a Burroughsian "hollow earth" theory but was a hidden/underground city in Central Asia, in the Kunlens or Altai, and not generally confused/equated with Shambhala although similar in concept; Agartha is older "in the tradition" than Buddhism and Shambhala is explicity Buddhist. I think the refs I know of were in Lewis Spence's Encyclopedia of the Occult or another older work, the Pellucidarian take is entirely "internet age" in origin, or in popularity anyway. Where in Spence I'm not sure; I do remember he talks about Kaf, which is hidden undeer the Great Caucusus (the rim of mountains around the edge of the world, in a mehtaphysical/mtholological sense, including the earthly Caucusus and the Bactrian/Afghan/Hindu Kush ranges]]. Anyway just voicing disppointment that the myth is not more encylopedically accounted here, and instead as so often elsewhere on the net/in wiki, apocryphal speculations are quoted as if documentary fact.  Skookum1 (talk) 14:46, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Flying to the cave - a soul flight
Underground cities or caves are fictions. What is the reality is astral travelling. A Shaman use any drugs for a trance situation and believe in this situation that he has travelled into an underground realm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism#Spirits

(...) In the Peruvian Amazon Basin and north coastal regions of the country, the healer shamans are known as curanderos. In addition to Peruvian shaman’s (curanderos) use of rattles, and their ritualized ingestion of mescaline-bearing San Pedro cactuses (Trichocereus pachanoi) for the divinization and diagnosis of sorcery, north-coastal shamans are famous throughout the region for their intricately complex and symbolically dense healing altars called mesas (tables). (...) The yaskomo of the Waiwai is believed to be able to perform a soul flight. The soul flight can serve several functions:


 * healing
 * flying to the sky to consult cosmological beings (the moon or the brother of the moon) to get *a name for a new-born baby
 * flying to the cave of peccaries' mountains to ask the father of peccaries for abundance of game
 * flying deep down in a river, to achieve the help of other beings.

Thus, a yaskomo is believed to be able to reach sky, earth, water, in short, every element. (...) --81.215.231.76 (talk) 17:44, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

re: Disambiguation page
A search for agartha simply directs to the miles davis album, with no link to a disambiguation or a link to the theory for which the album was named. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cooldice23 (talk • contribs) 18:53, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

many different articles
most of these legends, myths, stories, and psuedoscientific gurgles are completely unrelated. the article about all of them should be called "acient subterranean cities" and not "agarttha." for instance, if, as the article clearly implies, all of these legends describe the same city, then why is it simultaneously under a city in india, and under the gobi desert, and at the earth's core? while it is true that it is "directly under" all of these places if it is in the core, that makes discussion of what surface feature of the earth it is under moot. my point is that the things being used to connect these ideas are not connections at all, and that these various facets of ancient mythology should have separate and distinct (and sourced) articles. maybe i'm asking too much of new-age bullshit, but whoever wants this to be in this encyclopedia should make it at least seem encyclopedic. - nzbensen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.154.166.164 (talk) 06:13, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

North Pole?
Huh? Given that the north pole is just a coordinate on a mass of ice floating on water, how could it has an entrance of an underground anything? Or do you need to take a towel in a plastic bag if you get in that way? :-) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.133.241.80 (talk) 12:17, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Using iamuniversity.org as a source
Examining this website it appears to be unclear as to any affiliations or official recognition, I have found none so far. The website is registered in an anonymous manner (no named individual on the registration database) though with a UK phone number and an anonymous PO box in Austria. It may be an elaborate con for people to pay for the "correspondence course". There is no mention of this site in LexisNexis in any published newspaper or magazine and no mention in the Google News archive. Consequently this cannot be considered in any way a reliable source and should not be used to substantiate statements in the article.—Ash (talk) 08:35, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Stubbing
I'm stubbing this down to only properly referenced statements. Feel free to restore information with proper citations. Simonm223 (talk) 20:46, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

PRODding
After completing that I find what is left still depends on three websites which do not provide a WP:RS basis for notability of the myth. PRODding. Simonm223 (talk) 21:05, 21 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Added a couple of published sources including the piece in The Observer by Umberto Eco which directly refers to Agartha. I shall remove the PROD on this basis. I have also removed links that fail WP:RS including a link to a forum.—Ash (talk) 13:02, 22 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Good job Ash. Thanks for the help. Simonm223 (talk) 13:59, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Article is hopelessly confused
-According to David Standish in his book Hollow Earth, Agartha is specifically a buddhist conception of a vast underground world, not just a city (page 12). Now, with Victorian Orientalism in full swing, and plenty of other Hollow Earth craziness going around in the 19th century, its unsurprising the term spread and got coopted, but I'm guessing Mr. Standish is correct about its origins. (As he focuses on truly hollow Earth theories, his book isn't useful for improving this page much).

-While modern occultists and paranormal 'experts' have tended to conflate various myths and theories together in their ramblings, this confuses and obscures the independence of earlier theories and makes for poor encyclopedic material. In particular, the passage about The Smoky God is clearly talking about a book based on Symmes' polar holes theory that had nothing to do with Agartha until some syncreticist commented on it.

-Much of the article talks about Shamballa with only the most tangential links and no citations. It would be far better to just mention Shamballa and leave it as a link rather than spend time in teh Agartha article explaining Shamballa.

-d'Alveydre's book is uncited and unnamed, which is rather unfortunate.

-Some sections of the text are apparently identical to other webpages (see: http://archangel-michael.us/archangel_michael_article_agartha.htm, for example)

I'll probably remove some of the material as being unsuitable and see what i can dig up for good citations... --68.255.96.248 (talk) 23:37, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Ok, d'Alveydre's work is titled Mission de l'Inde, and someone might want to verify the claims made about it in the article. At least I assume that is the source of the claims made by d'Alveydre.
 * There is probably more useful information in Le Roi du Monde than just attributing d'Alveydre with being the first publication about Agartha in Europe that was reliable, but i've only skimmed the first couple pages via google books.
 * I could not find a book by the title Agartha - Secrets of the Subterranean Cities, only a number of crank webpages. I have thus deleted all reference to it.
 * article desperately needs earlier records for the myth. Some cranks seem to think Rama is described as being from Agartha in the Ramayana - as the sacred texts translation is currently failing to load for me, i have been unable to check.  (And cranks are notoriously bad at referencing things, so I'm certainly not taking their word for it).  I'd cite David Standish's Hollow World, for an Indian subcontinental origin, but its reference to Agartha is so cursory as to be without weight.
 * --68.255.96.248 (talk) 00:46, 25 March 2011 (UTC)


 * The New Encyclopedia of the Occult by John Michael Greer asserts that Ossendowski's Beasts, Men and Gods is a critical publication which solidifies the modern understanding of Agartha. As its currently only cited for the spelling Agharti, this is a gross tragedy.  [url=http://books.google.com/books?id=xAmMNnJlfnoC&pg=PA7&dq=agartha+hinduism&hl=en&ei=4e6LTa_xHZSztwflxOiwDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false]Googlbe Books link to relevant passage[/url]
 * --68.255.96.248 (talk) 01:30, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

History section problem on quote about Christianity
"when Christianity lives up to the commandments which were once drafted by Moses and Jesus,' meaning 'When the Anarchy which exists in our world is replaced by the Synarchy.'"

I'm not sure where this meaning comes from, but the greatest commandments by Moses and Jesus are personal commandments for how to live, rather than national or group commandments.

Moses: Jesus:
 * Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
 * Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
 * Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
 * And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
 * Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
 * Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
 * Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
 * But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
 * For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
 * Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
 * Thou shalt not kill.
 * Thou shalt not commit adultery.
 * Thou shalt not steal.
 * Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
 * Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
 * A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
 * "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
 * All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Therefore, I would say that he rather means once Christianity lives up to these standards mentioned above, as nowhere does the Bible say that Christians are to setup Christ's kingdom on earth. Christ himself will do that. We are to bring his kingdom to men's hearts, so to speak. Aliens to our own country, we become citizens of another, whose laws, customs, and precepts we follow. A kingdom which, as Napoleon said, is ruled by love, not force. Some countries say you cannot have dual citizenship with this kingdom, others do not mind. But when the time comes to choose, we cannot deny Christ. Arlen22 (talk) 23:48, 11 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I propose the wording "...meaning when Christianity lives the commands of Christ..." Arlen22 (talk) 23:51, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Nazis and Dinosaurs?
Arnt they ment to be there in the orig version?--HalloHelloHalloHello (talk) 11:29, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

Fringe
WP:PROFRINGE edits&mdash;I started a WP:FTN topic about those. tgeorgescu (talk) 11:15, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

legend?
The article says this is a legend, but if it The invention of someone in the 19th canteen the correct word would be fictional. Achar Sva (talk) 23:16, 8 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I think we need a source to say it is wholly a work of 19thC fiction.Slatersteven (talk) 09:29, 9 June 2021 (UTC)


 * From reading through the sources in order to perform my last edit in the article, what becomes clear (but was never stated outright, hence why I did not include it) is that there existed some mythology surrounding the place in India, and European writers would begin relating and building upon this mythology after returning from India.
 * I have a running hold on books whose text contains  at my local library. Should anything trip this filter, I'll check it out, though I'll note that two of the sources already used here are the only ones at present to do so.  ᛗᛁᛟᛚᚾᛁᚱPants   Tell me all about it.  12:27, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
 * As I recall some of the saner material noted that whilst the names have a history most of the claims are made up.Slatersteven (talk) 12:36, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
 * , several of the secondary sources idly speculate about a link between Agartha and Shambhala, and IIRC, one of the primary sources claims they are one and the same, while a different primary source declares them seperate places.
 * It's passing mention in the secondary sources and unreliable in the primary sources, so I didn't include it here when I was editing the page.
 * One of the primary sources asserts a deep, long tradition regarding Agartha, but the narrative it relates is dismissed by the secondary sources as derivative of an earlier primary source (which itself is dismissed as unreliable).
 * Aside from the possibility of that speculation being accurate (I honestly believe it is), literally all of the descriptions given and claims made about the place can be dated back no further than the mid 19th century. The deduction about the name being attested earlier is just that; the broad mix of spellings with slightly different pronunciations and the familiarity the earliest primary authors assume the reader will have with the name make it clear that there was some early attestation of it, but, like I said, it's never made clear except through the primary writings, which all claim to be definitive accounts of said mythology by the authors, but which are -again- dismissed as fiction by the secondary sources. ᛗᛁᛟᛚᚾᛁᚱPants   Tell me all about it.  13:35, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Its been a while since I read anything about it (well anything sensible), but I suspect you are right, its only a few passing mentions and similarity of some names.Slatersteven (talk) 13:41, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
 * , Exactly right. I couldn't find anything that merited writing about it. Hence my hold request at the library, which I hope will turn up some material about Shambhala that will link it to one of the spellings of Agartha and thus present a method of documenting some pre-colonial traditions, or possibly make good cause to merge this article into that one (I'm not sure which I'd prefer). ᛗᛁᛟᛚᚾᛁᚱPants   Tell me all about it.  13:44, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

This is amusing - the first book cited in the article is by a Ferdinand Ossendowski, and concerns adventures of the author in central Asia ... but did Ossendowski ever really exist? The Ossendowski Controversy. Achar Sva (talk) 06:07, 11 June 2021 (UTC) For defining the topic, this article by Umberto Eco is more useful. Achar Sva (talk) 06:11, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

References in popular culture?
Agartha's been referenced a few times in other media. Should we reference this in the article somewhere?--Hawkatana (talk) 11:20, 11 April 2022 (UTC)
 * No reason why we can have something like a cultural influence section. Slatersteven (talk) 11:26, 11 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I think we should. Certainly, I would think that a non-trivial amount of people who know of it nowadays learned of it through things like Fire Emblem: The Three Houses. George Mucus (talk) 13:36, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Are you crazy?
There are tons of things to say about Agarthi. First of all, the work of Rene Guenon. I am disgusted to see how wikipedia is becoming a pure censorship of anything that goes beyond scientific cult of new millennium and political propaganda. That's wicked. Very wicked. You are just deleting history. Same as nazism. 37.161.25.52 (talk) 16:23, 7 February 2023 (UTC)
 * I am going to be super nice, and tell you to read wp:fringe wp:rs and wp:npa. If you want to be taken seriously here make substantive points and not wp:soapbox like comments. Slatersteven (talk) 16:28, 7 February 2023 (UTC)

History section
I would be bold and change the first sentence to:

The legend of Agartha remained mostly obscure in Europe until 1910, when Gérard Encausse edited and re-published a detailed 1886 account by the nineteenth-century French occultist Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre (1842–1909), Mission de l'Inde en Europe.

Which I think is much better, but I'd probably screw up the references... 2A02:A210:A1C0:E280:34A7:8962:9E0A:200E (talk) 14:49, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

agartha is it real
agartha is it real 110.54.160.212 (talk) 14:34, 24 February 2024 (UTC)
 * RS generally say no, and we reflect that. Slatersteven (talk) 14:35, 24 February 2024 (UTC)