Lemuria

Lemuria is the name of a proposed lost continent, held to have been situated in either the Indian or Pacific Ocean, formerly referenced as a hypothetical land bridge to explain fossil records during the mid-nineteenth century, and refigured by the Theosophical Society and other orders in later years as a bygone home to a "root-race" of ancestors to modern humans.

Sclater's Land Bridge (1864)

 * The term "Lemuria" was coined by P. L. Sclater in 1864 to refer to a hypothetical continent that would have formerly connected India and Madagascar.

Theosophical Society (1888)

 * In her 1888 book The Secret Doctrine, the Theosophist H. P. Blavatsky advanced a theory that Lemuria was the ancient forerunner of the current continents, ultimately sunk beneath the ocean some seven hundred thousand years ago, the aftermath of which saw new continents formed, including Atlantis; and that Lemuria was the home of the "Third Root-Race."

"A Dweller on Two Planets" (1905)

 * In the book A Dweller on Two Planets, Phylos the Thibetan (or Frederick Spencer Oliver) reported that Lemuria (or Lemorus, Lemurinus) "perished of fire from out the inter-planetary depths," and that "Australia is the largest remnant" remaining of the former super-continent.

The Rosicrucian Lemuria (1931)

 * As detailed by W. S. Cervé in Lemuria: the Lost Continent of the Pacific, published by the AMORC.

The Shaver Mystery (1945)

 * As detailed by Richard S. Shaver in his various works, beginning with I Remember Lemuria.

Related

 * James Churchward's concept of Mu, located similarly in the Pacific, is today conflated with Lemuria by many believers.
 * The Republic of New Lemuria, a self-declared "Constitutional Sovereign Nation State" that claims to trace its lineage to Lemuria.