An A-Z Guide To The Search For Plato's Atlantis

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    October 2024 Hi to everyone I’m taking a break during the first two weeks of October, so there will be minimal activity on the site apart from the ongoing project of replacing broken links. Back Soon, Tony     September 2023. Hi Atlantipedes, At present I am in Sardinia for a short visit. Later we […]Read More »
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    Joining The Dots

    I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
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Eugene A. Shinn

Cayce, Edgar

Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He was reared as a Christian and even taught at Sunday school. He considered becoming a minister, but a lack of both education and funds prevented him from taking this course. The story goes that at the age of around 20, Cayce (pronounced KC) lost his voice and through self-hypnosis cured himself. He eventually found that he could cure cayceothers while in a trance and eventually his fame spread to such an extent that he was reported in the New York Times on 9th October 1910.

In due course, Cayce’s trances were producing prophetic utterances or ‘readings’, that produced ideas totally at variance with his Christian upbringing, such as reincarnation and contact with the dead. During his lifetime over 14,000 ‘readings’ were recorded. In 1931 the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) was founded by Cayce to manage a depository of his ‘readings’. Cayce also claimed to be the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian priest Ra-Ta!

Towards the end of 1944, Cayce became very ill and on New Year’s Day, 1945 he ‘prophesied’ that he would be miraculously healed of his illness. He died three days later. Arguably, an even more disappointing prognostication was his claim that Jesus Christ would come again in 1998. The Cayce Petroleum Company was another failure in the 1920s when Cayce and his associates unsuccessfully searched for the ‘Mother Pool’ of oil in Texas based on some of his ‘readings’.

Robert Bauval in his Secret Chamber[859] reveals that Cayce seemed to have had a photographic memory and worked for up to fifteen years in a bookstore in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where, no doubt, he had access to the works of Donnelly, Steiner, Blavatsky and others[p158]. Over many years, his readings have frequently employed terminology and phrases from identifiable theosophical and other sources, a fact that cannot be ignored. David Bell wrote his Ph.D. dissertation, Edgar Cayce’s Bookshelf, on the sources that influenced his ‘readings’(n).

His Reading 364-1(e) reveals quite clearly that he was acquainted with theosophical literature as well as other works of fiction such as A Dweller on Two Planets. It is, therefore, a clear possibility that this familiarity may have influenced his subconscious and his later prognostications.

Some of those ‘readings’ related to Atlantis and have been published in various books and websites, while a separate volume, Edgar Cayce on Atlantis [0917] by his youngest son Edgar Evans Cayce contains all relevant utterances. The entire book is now available online(l).

He is most famously known for his claim that Atlantis would rise again in 1968 or 1969. Dr Mason Valentine discovered the so-called Bimini Road.  A suggestion that this underwater feature had been known to members of A.R.E., years before its ‘discovery’, has been made by Picknett & Prince in The Stargate Conspiracy[705].

John Gribbin, the British science writer has imaginatively suggested[1029.91] that “if Cayce was indeed perceiving the future during his psychic trance, what he ‘received’ was a distorted version of the newspaper accounts of this story, which he duly reported in his own words in 1940.” On a more scientific note Gribbin explains (p.93) that “we can say beyond that Atlantis will not rise again from the Atlantic floor – there is no continental crust there to rise”.

K. Paul Johnson has written Edgar Cayce in Context[690], a well-balanced book that investigates in detail Cayce and his prognostications. In 1922, Cayce gave a lecture to the Birmingham Theosophical Society. Johnson relates how one Arthur Lammers, a theosophist, stayed with Cayce in 1923 for several weeks, during which sojourn, it appears that Theosophy was extensively discussed. Around the same time, Cayce was developing a friendship with one Morton Blumenthal, also an ardent theosophist. Coincidentally, it was in 1923 that some of Cayce’s ‘readings’ began to display great similarities with some of the views expressed in Madame Blavatsky’s ‘revelations’. A further interesting fact is that Alexander Strath-Gordon met Edgar Cayce on a number of occasions in the 1920s prompting speculation that he may have ‘influenced’ some of Cayce’s Atlantis readings, an idea that must be considered a possibility.

Cayce added that the Atlanteans discovered electricity and also had ships and aircraft powered by a mysterious form of energy crystal. He tells us that these flying machines were made of elephant skins! (Reading 364-6)(f) and that they could also travel through water! 

With all this technology at their disposal, it is incredible that they could have lost a war with anyone, particularly the relatively primitive Athenians. The 17th-century fictional work of Sir Francis Bacon, The New Atlantis, contains many references to advanced technology not realised until the last century. An encounter with this widely available work could easily have coloured any ‘readings’ while in a trance.  Therefore, it would appear that there is sufficient evidence to suggest the possibility of ‘contamination’ of Cayce’s subconscious to throw doubt on the possible value of any of his ’readings’, without impugning the honesty of Edgar Cayce himself. Since the much-quoted prophecy of ‘Atlantis rising’ in the late ’60s is quite possibly the result of such contamination, it cannot be considered as evidence of anything. The Bimini Road itself is still the subject of controversy. He also told us that China would be Christianised by 1968!

Cayce was also wrong regarding other historical details(d), such as the date of the biblical Exodus, which he declared to be 5500 BC (reading 470-22)(g), an error of about 4,000 years!

William B. Stoecker has written an article, which is highly critical of Cayce’s work(b). Nevertheless, it must be conceded that in one respect Cayce did offer one remarkable suggestion which claims that the Atlantean survivors fled to a number of locations (i) The Pyrenees – Home to the Basques (ii) Morocco – Berber country (iii) Egypt and (iv) North America – forming the Iroquois Nation. Coincidentally, the Berbers, Basques and Iroquois all share a specific DNA type(a).

In 2001, A.R.E. published Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis and Lemuria [106] by Frank Joseph. In turn, William Hutton wrote a review of Cayce’s offering, in which he concluded that “The foregoing review, while not comprehensive, shows that there is enough material in the book that is contentious, confusing or downright erroneous that almost anyone familiar with the relevant Cayce readings is prompted to ask, ‘How did this book come to be printed under the A.R.E.’s imprimatur?’ Why wasn’t the manuscript sent out to one or more competent reviewers for critical evaluation prior to being edited?”

Unfortunately, Plato is hardly mentioned at all by Cayce except for a brief reference to “the few lines given by Plato.” (Reading 364-1)(g).

Michael Mandeville published three volumes on the life and work of Cayce. He calculated that Cayce’s accuracy is consistently within an 85%-92% range. In an article published in Atlantis Rising magazine(m), he is quoted to have said that “Given the general accuracy of Cayce’s statements and the decisiveness with which his scenario for the period can be shown to be on target there is little reason to doubt that a catastrophic shift (25-27 degrees) in the location of the poles will occur during the period 2000-2001. I personally believe it will most likely occur in the year 2009.”  Now (2022), many uneventful years later I think a comment is unnecessary.

James Randi in an excerpt(o) from his 1979 book Flim-Flam offers a debunking of Cayce that should be read by all open-minded people.>Jason Colavito has been a constant critic of Cayce’s irrational utterances(p). In August 2023, Colavito felt obliged to resume his critique of Cayce’s work following the showing of S19E15 of the American Ancient Aliens TV series. Understandably, Colavito is completely unimpressed by both Cayce and the Ancient Aliens production, describing the latter as a series from which “fortunately, no one has to worry about any truth coming out lt”(q).<

There is also the report that David Wilcock, the conspiracy theorist, claimed to be the reincarnation of Edgar Cayce and wished to have a position in A.R.E., where he would also offer ‘readings’. He was questioned by Cayce’s son and grandson “for a little over an hour and quickly realized that he couldn’t answer a single question. They felt he was full of crap within minutes but to give him a fair chance they entertained him by asking him the questions that Cayce prepared while still alive to test the people who would come forward claiming to be his reincarnation.”(i) This daft idea was given further promotion by Wynn Free in The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce. [1678], which was written with Wilcock.

Another communication with the deceased Cayce is claimed by Leonard Farra(j). Forty years ago, in an article in Nature magazine Eugene A. Shinn and Marshall McKusick described Cayce followers as members of ‘a cult’!(k)

(a) Evidence of Atlantis (archive.org)

(b) https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=177247

(c) See: https://christophervolpe.blogspot.ie/2010/09/imagining-atlantis.html#links

(d) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20160926210640/https://talc.site88.net/intro.htm

(e) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_cayce_3.htm

(f) https://phantho.de/files/html/reading__364-6.htm

(g) See: Archive 2913

(h) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_cayce_3.htm

(i) https://www.quora.com/Is-David-Wilcock-really-the-reincarnation-of-Edgar-Cayce

(j) https://web.archive.org/web/20161116110258if_/http://www.messagetoeagle.com/farraatlantis.php#.WCw86Clxepo

(k) https://www.academia.edu/12724731/Bahamian_Atlantis_reconsidered

(l) https://www.theosophy.world/sites/default/files/ebooks/edgar_cayce_on_atlantis_1988.pdf

(m) Atlantis Rising magazine #22 p.25  http://www.pdfarchive.info/index.php?pages/At

(n) https://www.proquest.com/openview/d2a0a6fa9f13b7a809553ebc09a8eea7/1?cbl=18750&diss=y&pq-origsite=gscholar [Edgar Cayce’s Bookshelf]

(o) https://skepticalinquirer.org/1979/10/edgar-cayce-the-slipping-prophet/

(p) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/apps/search?q=Edgar+Cayce *

(q) Review of Ancient Aliens S19E15: “Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet” – JASON COLAVITO *

 

Bimini Road/Wall

The Bimini Road/Wall is located in about ten feet of water off Paradise Point on Bimini Island in the Bahamas. It was investigated in 1968 by Dr. J. Manson Valentine, Jacques Mayol, Harold Climo and Robert Angove. The discovery coincided with the ‘prophecy’ of Edgar Cayce, the American bimini roadpsychic, who pronounced in 1933 that parts of Atlantis would re-emerge in the late 1960s. His exact words are recorded as: “A portion of the temples may yet be discovered under the slime of ages and seawater near Bimini. Expect it in ‘68 or ‘69 – not so far away.”

Naturally, there was intense media interest and the idea of Atlantis in the Americas was given a new lease of life. Unfortunately, the exact nature of this unusual ‘J’ shaped feature was fiercely debated and controversy continues to this day. Eugene A. Shinn, a geologist and devout sceptic, has offered(a) a more critical interpretation of the Bimini discoveries. In an article in Nature magazine some years ago>(Vol. 287, 4 September 1980) Shinn and Marshall McKusick described Cayce followers as members of ‘a cult’.(h)

>Peter James in The Sunken Kingdom [047.53] commented on the Bimini controversy noting that “If the ‘Road’ were man-made we would not expect the grains and microstructure within the stones to be consistent from one ‘block’ to another. Yet they proved to be so, in every conceivable test test that was applied, showing that they were laid by natural means. Further, radiocarbon tests on shells included in the stones  show that the ‘Road’ was formed between only 2,500 and 3,500 years ago, far short of the 11,000 years believed by Atlantologists.”<

Greg Little offered a vigorous refutation of Shinn’s claims in an article in the May/June 2006 edition of Atlantis Rising magazine(g). Little continued his criticism of Shinn in a 2017 article(e).

Without wishing to rain on anybody’s parade it should be pointed out that Manson Valentine was a fan of Cayce’s and as a consequence, it has sometimes been inferred that the date of his discovery might have been engineered to agree with Cayce’s prediction and enhance the subsequent publicity. Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince have pointed out[705.61] that the Bimini Road was known to the local islanders for years and even offered to show it to its eventual ‘discoverers’!

A comparable alignment of blocks in 22 metres of water was found off the coast of Lanzarote in the Canaries and originally reported in the Belgian magazine Kadath in 1987 and noted in the Science Frontiers website(d).

The Bahamas Geotourism website offers the following additional information “In the 1930s, an American psychic named Edgar Cayce reported that he had spoken with a person who had lived in the Lost City of Atlantis in a former life. This Atlantean told Cayce that Atlantis had been near Bimini.”(i). I have been unable to verify the source of this embellishment.

Dr David Zink carried out a detailed examination of the Bimini Road, which he outlined in his own book, The Stones of Atlantis[178]. Zink’s conclusion was to accept that Atlantis had been situated in the Atlantic but regarded “Bimini as an Atlantean colonial site or the location of a different culture parallel in time to Atlantis.” Not the ringing endorsement one might have expected.

In an interview with Peter Tompkins son, Ptolemy, he revealed that his “dad was convinced that the Edgar Cayce readings about the rising of Atlantis were correct. He spent thousands and thousands of dollars photographing the limestone formations off Bimini – the so-called “Bimini Road.” My father loved the idea of Atlantis returning because he wanted the world to become a kind of new Eden. He was a true father of the New Age in this sense – he had the core New Age belief that the world once was, and would be again a better place. But not better in some mundane sense, but in the sense of being elevated back into a spiritualised condition that it had fallen away from. That’s what the Bimini stuff was all about.”(j) Tompkins left Bimini unconvinced that it had Atlantean credentials.

A local Bimini writer and healer, Ashley B. Saunders, has produced a definitive two-volume history[179] of the island as well as a book[180] on Atlantis. Saunders has been described as “the gatekeeper of Atlantis”(c).

The most recent study of structures off the coast of Bimini by a team that included Greg Little and William Donato in 2005 and 2006, when Andrew Collins joined them, has produced evidence of ancient harbours that are now submerged at two locations. They also discovered a number of stone anchors, now in the Bimini Museum. However, acceptance of the reality of this evidence is a long way from proving any connection with Atlantis.

Gavin Menzies, a supporter of the Minoan Hypothesis has speculated, in his book 1421[0939], he speculated that the Chinese fleet suffered damage during a storm and landed at Bimini where they used their large square ballast stones to build an emergency drydock, the remains of which is now the Bimini Road!

A YouTube film including an interview with Greg Little is worth viewing(b). Less interesting is a new documentary from Amazon Prime, aided and abetted by the UK’s Daily Express, which has apparently resurrected some interest in the Atlantis – Bimini connection(f).

(a)  https://web.archive.org/web/20170625004504/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/geologists_adventures_with_bimini_beachrock/

(b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DbaA6NItNQ

(c) https://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_8736.shtml

(d) https://www.science-frontiers.com/sf058/sf058a02.htm

(e) https://apmagazine.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=956

(f) https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1070187/atlantis-found-archaeologists-underwater-formation-florida-coast-spt

(g) https://web.archive.org/web/20160822201141/https://atlantisrisingmagazine.com/article/exposing-a-skeptical-hoax/

(h)  https://www.academia.edu/12724731/Bahamian_Atlantis_reconsidered

(i) https://bahamasgeotourism.com/entries/bimini-road-the-lost-city-of-atlantis/be71653a-b8c9-4bf3-8165-173e1e8bed0d

(j) http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/peter-tompkinss-son-describes-his-fathers-hunt-for-atlantis-and-his-own-belief-in-sex-crazed-demons