Just what is going on in the media, anyway? When it comes to the kind of material, you will find in Atlantis Rising, it's obvious that something very unusual is starting to happen. Not too long ago the climate for bringing up such ideas was pretty chilly. Lately it's gotten a lot more inviting. Witness such happenings during the past 12 months as the release through major television networks of The Mystery of the Sphinx (see page 18), Ancient Prophecies and Angels; and the appearance on the best-seller list of two books about out of the body experiences (OBE), Embraced by the Light and Saved by the Light. Moreover, also on the best-seller list is The Celestine Prophecy.

In September Unsolved Mysteries aired a detailed account of the Roswell incident (updating an earlier story which they had aired), which according to many, is the first major UFO encounter fully authenticated by a multitude of credible sources.

For many years now, we have had the ongoing syndication of the marvelous In Search Of series and it's still going strong in reruns on A&E.

NBC told us that after the airing of Ancient Prophecies they were deluged by 50,000 phone calls. The network even had to put in a special line and an automatic answering system to handle the overload.

NBC, which aired The Mystery of the Sphinx, November 10, 1993, considered it a sacrificial offering by scheduling it opposite Dances with Wolves on ABC. The response certainly caught the attention of NBC executives who have since re-aired the show once and moved forward with other new age projects.

Not only did Sphinx pull an audience equal to Wolves in most markets, but in some, actually topped it. It received a remarkable 13.4 Nielsen rating and a 20% market share. On September 8, John Anthony West won an Emmy for best research.

Speaking of ratings, ten years ago a poll of students at a small midwestern university asked the question do you believe in reincarnation. Faculty members had guessed only a small percentage might say yes, but were reportedly dumbfounded when almost 55% said they did believe.

A few years later a lady who worked for Time-Life Inc. spoke to me prior to their series on occult phenomena about a marketing study Time-Life had done which had persuaded them to do the series. Of all conceivable subjects, more people were interested in occult phenomena and ancient mysteries than in any other subject.

As has been sometimes said, Atlantis is Rising.