In 350 B.C., Greek philosopher and scholar Plato wrote about a country he called Atlantis. Plato’s Atlantis, before it sank in about 10,000 B.C., was an extensive inhabited island in the Atlantic Ocean “outside the Pillars of Heracles” (the Straits of Gibraltar). It was located on the Atlantic Ridge, a mountainous section of the ocean floor that runs north-south in the center of the Atlantic Ocean between the European and American continents. Since lava now covers much of the ocean floor at the Atlantic Ridge, it is unlikely that we will ever find conclusive evidence of Plato’s Atlantis. However, Atlanteans moved from their island home to locations around the Atlantic Ocean where ruins of their buildings are more accessible.
During the most recent Ice Age, from 50,000 B.C. until 10,000 B.C., so much water from the oceans was incorporated into the snow and ice of the glaciers, that they grew to be a mile-high in some places. As a result, the Atlantic Ocean was approximately 350 feet lower than today and most of the continental shelves were above the surface. The continental shelves extend out as far as two hundred miles from the present shore lines of America and Europe. Land areas in the North Sea, the English Channel, as well as much of the Caribbean area were also above the surface of the ocean during the last half of the Ice Age. Atlanteans moved to all of these areas, for the land was more stable than the Atlantic Ridge. Since the ocean was lower, additional shorelines were exposed, so islands were larger and therefore closer together. It didn’t require a large, complicated boat to sail from one place to another.
The Bahama Islands consist of about seven hundred small islands and cays. They extend from fifty miles east of Palm Beach, Florida for approximately 760 miles southeast in the direction of Haiti. When a large amount of ocean water was incorporated in the glaciers during the Ice Age, the entire region, which is known as the Bahama Bank, was above sea level. It is clearly visible on a map which depicts the ocean floor. Jacques Cousteau offers some additional proof that the area was above the surface 12,000 years ago. In an expedition on his submarine CALYPSO, he explored around Andros Island which is in the center of the Bahama Bank and the largest Bahama island above the surface. Near the island, at a depth of 165 feet, he found a huge grotto or cave with stalactites and stalagmites. These formations can only develop in air. Scientists who tested sediments on the walls of the cave confirmed that the cave was above water in 10,000 B.C.
During the Ice Age, the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico stretched out nearly to Cuba, which was a larger island than today, and the Key West chain of islands was a land bridge that stretched almost to the northern coast of Cuba. A long mass of land, with only two or three breaks for rivers, ran from Jamaica, across what are now the Lesser Antilles Islands and continued all the way to Venezuela. Atlanteans thrived in all these areas.
Edgar Cayce predicted that in 1968 or 1969 Poseidia, a portion of Atlantis would rise. He describes Poseidia as one of the five islands that resulted from the breakup of the main island of Atlantis around 50,000 B.C. This large land area in the Caribbean, that included Bimini, became an important center for Atlanteans after 28,000 B.C. when natural catastrophes or unpleasant social conditions pressured many Atlanteans to flee their sinking country. (Readings 587-4, 877-26, 2157-1.)
In 1968 airplane pilots sighted what appeared to be cut stone blocks and columns in the ocean north of Andros Island, about 50 miles to the west of Nassau in the Bahamas and 150 miles east of Bimini. The numerous explorations which followed have resulted in the discovery of what many believe are the remains of a megalithic city beneath the water not far from Bimini.
Edgar Cayce frequently refers to Atlanteans moving to the Caribbean, and scientists have recently confirmed that, as Edgar Cayce described, people settled in Belize on the southern coast of the Yucatan peninsula before 9,000 B.C. Cayce depicts one small band whose leader Iltar led them to the Yucatan, and states that a temple Iltar built will rise again. (Reading 5750-1.) One can imagine the destitute people who sailed in fragile craft toward the setting sun for many weeks on end with little food and water, before finally reaching the lovely lands of Central America.
When the Atlanteans arrived in the Yucatan they found people from Mu (Lemuria) and Oz (Peru) happily living in the most desirable locations. Few conflicts developed, since fertile soil and ample living space encouraged a peaceful coexistence. Cayce describes the energized stone circles the Atlanteans built in the Yucatan for worship. One of the ceremonies that took place at these powerful sites was focused on cleansing undesirable selfish traits from the bodies and minds of individuals. (Reading 5750-1.) Members of the diverse group from such distant parts of the world gradually intermarried, and Cayce tells us that an advanced civilization eventually developed.
Attorney and archaeologist Lucille Taylor Hansen gathered similar information from the Caribs of Central America which she discloses in The Ancient Atlantic. The Caribs remember a large group that sailed to the west from their island home of Atlantis about 28,000 B.C. The entourage consisted of seven extensive families, enough to fill ships for seven fleets. When the refugees finally found an island for their settlement they called it Caraiba. The Carib legends refer to Atlantis as “the old, red land” in the sunrise sea, now covered by water.
In a similar way, the Toltecs, predecessors of the Aztecs in Mexico, characterize the homeland of their ancestors as the old, old, red land. During glacial times red clay was more abundant in the area above the surface in the Atlantic Ocean than it is now, which accounts for this widespread nomenclature in old stories of Atlantis. The Caribs told Hansen that descendants of Atlanteans dwelt happily in Caraiba for a very long time. Priests who visited from Atlantis taught the people the religion of Tupan and called them the Tupi, meaning the sons of Pan, which was another name for the old, red land.
The Caribs’ account relates that many generations later, after a particularly devastating natural catastrophe on Caraiba, the Tupi were compelled to leave their sinking island home. They sailed a little further to the west in seven even larger fleets and came to a sea they called “Caribbean,” after Caraiba, their initial island refuge. Here they separated. Some settled on nearby mountainous ground which they farmed by terracing, a technique their distant forebears employed on the steep mountainsides of Atlantis. Other Tupi moved to the south and sailed up the Amazon River. The Guarahis of Paraguay continue to worship the god Tupan. At least one of the seven groups of these Atlantean descendants from Caraiba went north to the Mississippi River Valley. For a long time representatives of the seven extended families met every 104 years to coordinate calendars and compare adventures, but communication became an increasing problem, and they gradually lost touch with one another.
While observing and studying a group of linguistically interrelated Indian tribes along the Amazon River, archaeologist Marcel Homet learned that their common language, Tupi-Guarani, contains idioms that are strikingly similar to the Basque language. Edgar Cayce says the ancestors of the Basques were Atlanteans who moved to the Pyrenees Mountains of southwestern Europe. (Reading 990-1.)
Egerton Sykes was a 20th century British scholar whose diligent research produced a massive collection of classical references, ancient literature and legends pertaining to Atlantis. Sykes’ research reveals that until ocean waters rose in about 10,000 B.C., Atlanteans inhabited the city of Murias that lay in a valley near Bimini. Murias was the seat of government for the area, with extensive facilities which included a hospital, a home for travelers in distress and a shipyard with repair facilities. Sykes tells us that on a hill above Murias the Atlanteans built an exquisite healing temple. From the information he uncovered, Sykes hypothesized that the architecture of the building incorporated sacred geometry, and displayed sophisticated knowledge of the structure of the universe, the solar system and this planet, in a manner similar to the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The most unusual feature of the enormous temple at Murias was its translucent rock crystal windows, which local people remembered until contemporary times.
Egerton Sykes ascertained that the temple at Murias was dedicated to the Bennu bird and the god Min, both Egyptian gods of rejuvenation, hence the name Bimini. He describes the work of priestesses in the Atlantean temple in Bimini, including their brewing of magical potions used for the restoration of youth, as well as the cure for many diseases. Sykes believes these potions were the predecessors of those concocted by people similar to Calypso, Circe, Medea and others. The priestesses at Bimini maintained contact with their counterparts in the temples of Falias, Gorias and Finias in the eastern Atlantic, all cleverly constructed on mountain tops that survived the sinking of Atlantis.
Information from Edgar Cayce correlates with Sykes’ discoveries about the temple near Bimini. He tells us one of the cites in Poseidia was built upon a hill overlooking the sea in a location where many ships came and went from other lands. (Reading 364-12.) He often referred to the city’s temples and said that people from there established a Temple Beautiful in Egypt, modeled after the one in Poseidia.
Egerton Sykes also suggests that the fame of the Bimini site as a place to restore youth led to the story of the Fountain of Youth. Rumors about its powers inspired early Irish sailors to attempt to cross the Atlantic. De Soto told of the tradition of an island in the Caribbean that was supposed to have a Fountain of Youth and of course, Ponce de Leon fruitlessly searched many years to find it.
When Sykes became unable to continue his research and publishing activity due to declining health, he sought an appropriate home for his collection of books, periodicals, and correspondence regarding Atlantology, archaeology and history, and settled on the library of the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) in Virginia Beach. The library and Mr. Sykes negotiated the purchase of his collection in February 1979; it was shipped to Virginia Beach starting in May, 1979, and opened to the public in September, 1979; Sykes was there to cut the ribbon. Sykes passed away four years later, on April 27, 1983. Mrs. Sykes followed her husband within a year.
Sykes believed that Atlanteans stored treasures in their temples, and that Murias, the city near Bimini, was once the home of the delicately carved, life-size crystal skull which Anna Mitchell-Hedges found in 1927 beneath a Mayan altar under the ruins of a temple in Belize. Quartz crystal was a common stone in volcanic Atlantis, so it is quite possible that Atlanteans carved the skull. Since carbon-14 dating does not test quartz, the age of the skulls is undetermined, but after thoroughly studying it, scientists at the California laboratories of Hewlett-Packard concluded that the people who made the skull were from a civilization that possessed a crystallographic ability equivalent to ours. Scientists who examined the crystal skull under powerful microscopes found no scratches to indicate it was carved with metal instruments. Diamond-tipped tools are a possibility, or a rock-dissolving paste. Frank Dorland, one of the foremost art restorers in the United States, studied and worked with crystals and the skull for over six years. He concluded that, even with the advanced technology we enjoy today, it would be nearly impossible to re-create the unique head. Dorland estimates it required at least 300 years of constant man-labor, or six men working for 50 years, to grind the skull from a solid block of pure quartz.
The crystal skull is strikingly beautiful, with its movable lower jaw and a network of prisms, lenses, and light-pipes which give life to the face and eyes. The realistic object exhibits strange faculties. Sensitive people sometimes see an aura around it; others sense a sweet-sour odor. At times it seems to produce sounds like tinkling bells or a faint choir of human voices, and its power assists sensitive persons in healing and prophecy. Crystal provides additional insight in meditation for, just as it acts as an amplifier as well as a receiver for radio waves, so it affects the energy generated by thought waves. Sykes thought the crystal skull was not the only Atlantean treasure in the Bimini area and that other precious objects are hidden in nearby caves now under the Sea.
Intensive study of the Sykes material and the Cayce readings inspired Dr. David Zink to lead an expedition to Bimini in 1974 to search for remains of Atlantean structures. The discoveries of Dr. Zink, a professor of classical literature, underwater photographer and skilled scuba diver, inspired him to return to the area ten times.
Two psychics, who assisted Dr. Zink in his research in Bimini, related that highly evolved, loving extraterrestrial beings from the Pleiades, perceiving the spiritually advanced residents of Murias, joined the thriving commercial and religious community and assisted with the construction of temples and buildings. The psychics relayed that the highly evolved priestesses who presided over the unique temple, developed an extensive variety of invaluable medicinal potions derived from flowers, herbs and other vegetation for use as healing remedies for those who came for help and advice.
Edgar Cayce describes healing sulfur water near Bimini, and he suggests the development of a center for regeneration there, which would take advantage of the beneficial qualities of the waters in surrounding waters. (Reading 587-4.) In the salt water mangrove swamps on North Bimini a hole of fresh water, which resembles a large well that may be spring-fed, has acquired the name “healing hole”. Recent A.R.E. investigators report that when they swam in the water it had the happy effect of raising the spirits of each of them, making them feel cheerful and lighthearted. Psychic and dowser Verne Cameron believes an ancient temple once stood not far from the “healing hole”. Perhaps the water in the Bimini area produces a rejuvenating effect on one’s adrenal and pituitary glands, stimulating beneficial hormones? This would account for the story of the Fountain of Youth.
As the population in the Caribbean area increased after 28,000 B.C., spiritually oriented residents erected sturdy pyramids. Rising waters eventually covered them, but some are visible today on sonar scans and in aerial surveys. Airplane pilots tell of seeing these tall, pointed buildings from the air when the surface of the sea is very calm, and scuba divers often mention them as well.
Edgar Cayce advised those who were searching for remains of Atlantis in the Caribbean area to look in the vicinity of the Gulf Stream. (Reading 364-3.) Abundant underwater evidence is materializing which supports the proposition that intelligent persons once lived there. Recent satellite mapping of the shallow waters to the east of Bimini reveals large (over 200 feet wide) geometric patterns of turtle grass in the shapes of pentagons and rectangles with perfectly square corners extending for many miles under the water. Further investigation of the configurations is difficult since they are not visible from the surface. Finding them requires painstaking mapping techniques with compasses in small boats in often choppy water. In addition, whatever is causing them is not only covered with water and grass, but lies beneath a deep layer of sand. In spite of the difficulties, members of the Gaia project who are working in the area consider it to be one of the most promising archaeological undertakings today.
An unusual group of rocks and stones, one half mile off the coast of Bimini, has received a great deal of attention since it is quite accessible to scuba divers. Large boulders, some of them four or five feet thick, are arranged in the shape of an immense reversed “J” in about 15 feet of water. Some, with square corners, appear to be manmade. Two parallel lines of these stones extend about 1,900 feet before reaching a flat section of smaller rocks where the configuration turns at a 90 degree angle. Dr. Zink and others believe this is the remains of a prehistoric road. It is possible the blocks of stone are sections of natural beach rock, although beach rock usually is not as thick as these boulders. Large stones are piled on others, not a characteristic of beach rock, unless the stacking occurred during a hurricane. It is also suggested that parts of the “road” might be a Mediterranean type pier because it doesn’t go anywhere. A few of the stones are granite, but they could have been dropped during dredging operations in 1926. Current scientific examinations of this mysterious geometric pattern will hopefully verify the presence of those who inhabited the Bimini area so long ago.
Edgar Cayce stated that records of how the Atlanteans constructed their solar power sources are accessible in three places in the world. One is in the sunken portion of Atlantis near Bimini, another is in the Yucatan, and the third is in Egypt in the as yet undiscovered Tomb of Records, which is believed to have an entrance from the Sphinx.
Ship and airplane personnel who travel through or across the Bermuda Triangle, a large area in the Atlantic Ocean just east of Florida and the Bahama Bank, sometimes describe their engines losing power and their compasses and other navigational equipment behaving erratically or even ceasing to function. Ships and planes disappear in the Bermuda Triangle and are never found. Edgar Cayce says the civilization in Poseidia was the most highly developed and knowledgeable of any that has been known on the Earth, and that forces from the great crystals were stored in Poseidia. (Reading 288-1 and 813-1.) Is it possible that a powerful crystal in a temple of Atlantis, hiding beneath the water, occasionally catches the sun’s rays and transmits energy at the moment that a motorized vehicle is passing above it? Reports of missing ships and planes are not as common today, perhaps because they have more sophisticated equipment, as well as supplementary instruments.
Dr. Nicolai Zhirov, a member of the Soviet Academy of Science, who is one of the Fathers of Russian Atlantology, wrote extensively about the geographical and geological possibilities of Atlantis. Zhirov describes another remnant in the Caribbean from the distant past. Limestone discs, or “sea biscuits,” were first taken from the ocean floor near the Azores and later found in the Bimini area. In 1949 the Geological Society of America, while conducting a submarine probe south of the Azores, brought up about a ton of these calcified discs from a depth of 1,000 feet. They were called “sea biscuits.” The discs were all approximately six inches in diameter and one and one half inches thick with a depression in the center of one side, giving them the shape of plates. Their surface was relatively smooth, except rough in the depression. Tests determined the plates were about 12,000 years old and that the material from which they were made was formed above the surface. Bill Donato, who has spent a great deal of time researching in the area of Bimini, reports that “sea biscuits,” similar to those from the ocean floor near the Azores, were also found in the Bahamas. They resemble dishes some Caucasian people fashioned to carry fresh fruits and flowers to mountain peaks or hollows carved into the sides of volcanoes as offerings to the gods of nature.
When the last Ice Age ended about 10,000 B.C., North American glaciers rapidly melted. Water flowed in torrents down the Mississippi River, provoking seas in the Gulf of Mexico to rise precipitously. In a futile effort to keep out the floods that endangered their precious homes, descendants of Atlanteans employed their engineering skills to build Cyclopean walls. Extensive fortifications, some with huge blocks of stone, are visible off the coasts of Mexico, northern Cuba and Florida. Adjacent to Venezuela another substantial wall, 30 feet high, reaches for miles into the sea.
Rising ocean waters in 10,000 B.C. completely covered the city of Murias near Bimini, but the Atlantean healing temple was temporarily spared as it stood safely on a hill above it. Egerton Sykes researched many records of the Irish, Egyptian, Greek, Phoenician and Carthagenian sailors who continued to visit the ancient spa for a considerable period of time after the disaster. In 6,000 B.C., when ocean levels climbed again, earthquakes shook the land, broke the retaining walls and toppled sections of the splendid building as if it were a glass toy. The once-magnificent structure with its translucent windows slowly disappeared from sight. Legends of the Island of the Ruin and the rejuvenating powers of Murias continued to attract adventurers and explorers to the area for many hundreds of years.
Cayce implies in several of his readings that as geologists and archaeologists work in the area of Bimini they will successfully find confirmation of Atlantis, such as portions of temples under the ocean water. (Readings 587-4 and 440-5.) On July 1, 1935 he predicted that more gold would be found under the sea near Bimini than is in circulation in the world today. (Reading 587-4.) Gradually investigators, as they overcome the difficulties of obtaining funds and government permits, as well as swarms of hungry mosquitoes, are slowly confirming that, as Edgar Cayce said, intelligent Atlanteans lived and thrived on land in the Caribbean for thousands of years.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Asher, Maxine, ANCIENT ENERGY.
Berlitz, Charles, MYSTERIES FROM FORGOTTEN WORLDS.
Bryant and Glade, THE MESSAGE OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.
Cayce, Edgar Evans, MYSTERIES OF ATLANTIS REVISITED.
Donato, William M., A RE-EXAMINATION Of THE ATLANTIS THEORY.
Garvin, Richard, THE CRYSTAL SKULL.
Hansen, Lucille Taylor, THE ANCIENT ATLANTIC.
Homet, Marcel, SONS OF THE SUN.
Sykes, Egerton, ATLANTIS, Volume 27, No.3 and 4.
Zhirov, Nicolai, ATLANTIS.
Zink, David N., THE STONES OF ATLANTIS.