Charles Berlitz

Charles L. Frambach Berlitz (; November 22, 1914 – December 18, 2003) was an American linguist, writer, CIC agent, publisher and polyglot. A writer on language learning and paranormal phenomena, Berlitz is known for his 1974 work The Bermuda Triangle.

Early life and education Berlitz was born Charles L. Frambach on November 22, 1914, in New York City to Charles L. Frambach and Millicent Frambach ). The maternal grandson of Maximilian Berlitz, a linguist, language teacher, writer and founder of Berlitz Language Schools, his grandfather later requested that Berlitz be given his last name.

As a child, Charles was raised in a household in which (by his father's orders) every relative and servant spoke to Charles in a different language: he reached adolescence speaking eight languages fluently. In adulthood, he recalled having had the childhood delusion that every human being spoke a different language, wondering why he did not have his own language like everyone else in his household. His father spoke to him in German, his grandfather in Russian, and his nanny in Spanish.

He began working for the family language school, The Berlitz School of Languages, during college breaks. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale University.See section on Charles Berlitz in Encyclopedia of occultism & parapsychology, Lewis Spence, Nandor Fodor, Gale Research Inc, 1991.

Career During World War 2, Berlitz served as a CIC agent. The publishing house, of which he was vice president, sold, among other things, tourist phrase books and pocket dictionaries, several of which he authored. He also played a key role in developing record and tape language courses. He left the company in the late 1960s, not long after he sold the company to publishing firm Crowell, Collier & Macmillan.

Berlitz was a writer on paranormal phenomena. He wrote a number of books on Atlantis. In his book The Mystery of Atlantis, he claimed Atlantis was real, based on his interpretation of geophysics, psychic studies, classical literature, tribal lore, and archeology.New Scientist Mar 11, 1976 He also attempted to link the Bermuda Triangle to Atlantis.Palmer, Trevor. Perilous planet Earth: catastrophes and catastrophism through the ages, 2003, p. 316. He claimed to have located Atlantis undersea in the area of the Bermuda Triangle. He was also an ancient astronaut proponent who believed that extraterrestrials had visited Earth.Childress, David H. Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients, 1999 p. 43.

Berlitz spent 13 years on active duty in the U.S. Army, mostly in intelligence. In 1950, he married Valerie Seary, with whom he had two children, a daughter Lin, and son, Marc. He died in 2003 at the age of 89 at University Hospital in Tamarac, Florida.

Reception Berlitz's statements about the Bermuda Triangle and the Philadelphia Experiment were heavily criticized by researchers and scientists for their inaccuracy. He has also drawn criticism for ignoring possible natural explanations and promoting pseudoscientific ideas.Cogan, Robert. (1998). Critical Thinking: Step by Step. University Press of America. pp. 207-208. Brys, Maarten. Bermuda Triangle. In Michael Shermer. (2002). The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience. ABC-CLIO. pp. 52-53. Neher, Andrew. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. pp. 274-277. Ball, Philip. (2015). Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen. University of Chicago Press. p. 253. Larry Kusche has accused Berlitz of fabricating evidence and inventing mysteries that have no basis in fact.Regal, Brian. (2009). Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia. Greenwood. p. 37. "Bermuda (or "Devil's") Triangle". The Skeptic's Dictionary.

Charles Berlitz

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