Paramahansa Yogananda only mentions Lemuria once, in a footnote in the Autobiography of a Yogi (Chapter: The Science of Kriya Yoga), where he says, “Most Anthropologists, believing that 10,000 years ago humanity was living in a barbarous Stone Age, summarily dismiss as “myths” the widespread traditions of very ancient civilizations in Lemuria, Atlantis, India, China, Japan, Egypt, Mexico, and many other lands.”
Lemuria is a modern myth. It’s origins can be found in the work of a 19th century zoologist Phillip Sclater (1829–1913), who hypothesized a sunken continent or land bridge to explain why similar fossils (lemurs) were found in Madagascar, India, and Australia. This idea persisted in mainstream science until the mid 20th century, when the theory of plate tectonics became more widely accepted. It persists in new-age and pseudoscientific circles largely because of Helena Blavatsky (Theosophy) and James Churchward (who called it “Mu” and moved it to the pacific ocean), who published several books in the early 1930s and who Tara Mata (editor of Paramahansa Yogananda’s books) quoted in one of the early East-West Magazines.
This video explains the story of how this idea spread from scientific to new-age circles:
Sources:
Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, Self-Realization Fellowship, Second Collector’s Edition, 2021
Mu (Mythical Lost Continent) – Wikipedia
A Geologists Dream – The Lost Continent of Lemuria – David Bressan, Scientific American
East-West Magazine, October, 1933, Tara Mata, https://mysticalportal.net/5-12.html
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