Is Atlantis in Bimini?
Brian,
Probably most people on this list hold the view that Edgar Cayce said Bimini was the location of Atlantis. I think many people also are of the opinion he even specified that in 1968 or 1969 it would be found rising there. Actually this needs to be reviewed. But first some research info. It appears that just as in the case of Cuba, there is some “people info” that is relevant here as well.
There was a book published in 2001 by ARE. It is “Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis and Lemuria” by Frank Joseph. It was distributed to ARE’s sponsors as “benefit”. The book is highly supportive of the Bimini area. However, it appears to me (and others) that the book is misleading and even wrong. I suggest it be avoided.
Two years later, in 2003, ARE published “The ARE’s Search for Atlantis” subtitled “The Ongoing Search for Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis in the Bahamas” by Gregory and Lora Little. This is an excellent book and I am grateful to ARE for publishing it. It presents realistic research by the two authors from both air and underwater in an open minded search to confirm or refutethe many “sightings” and issues surrounding Bimini. Those two authors have other close connects to ARE as indicated in the book. Taken as a whole it appears to nullify the significance of the mysteries surrounding Bimini. I recommend this book highly for those wanting to pursue the issue of Atlantis at Bimini. It can be found at Seekerbooks (we will be adding the bookstore in the fall 2014)
Here are the finds published in the ARE book:
1. There is a picture that appeared in newspapers showing an apparent rectangular temple on the shallow ocean bottom. However it is not a temple. It is as some had claimed – a sponge pen built by the locals. And there are many of them. The locals build a pen to hold their sponges. The pen is made by ramming sticks into the ground underwater, tying them together with rope, and supporting them with stones. The temple floor plan seen in many places is only a structure made by the locals in the last century. The famous newspaper picture of it, if examined closely, shows some of the individual sticks. Why wasn’t this seen??
2. The are mysterious large near perfect circles in the water that would seem to be man-made – possibly ancient. They are natural. In an odd but known way (known to the locals) they are made by fish swimming in circles. Seems odd but true. They were checked out in the water and there was no rock or whatever under the circular waves of dirt.
3. There is an alleged “upright stone pillar” at the southwestern end of the island. However it is little more than a 4-to 6 ft tall sponge. It probably appeared as a pillar on a side-scan sonar record.
4. Moselle Shoals was said to have “colossal square columns”. These are just non-rectilinear granite chunks partially on top of modern steel ship and engine parts – certainly modern.
5. The odd formations seen on the surrounding ocean floor are all the result of natural growths of seagrass showing clearly against the ocean bottom.
6. Concerning the “road”: There was a study conducted in 1979 and 1980 on two areas of the beachrock formation by Marshall McKusick and Eugene Shinn. [McKusick, M and E. Shinn, 1980, Bahamian Atlantis Reconsidered, Nature, v. 287, no. 5777, p. 11.] These scientists took 17 oriented cores of the limestone boulders and examined them with X-radiographs. The cores from both areas showed “slope and uniform particle size, bedding planes, and constant dip direction from one block to the next. If the stones had been quarried and re-laid there is no reason to suppose bedding planes would carry stratigraphically from block to block. The sedimentary laminations clearly show that these were not randomly laid stones but a natural, relatively undisturbed formation.” In other words there is strong evidence that the stones were created in place in-situ by nature.
To be fair it should be noted that the explorer/authors of the book also found a new underwater platform on one of the shallow underwater banks. It is clearly manmade. It is interesting. But it is not clear that much will come of it.
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If I had read these negations from some other source I would have been skeptical of their accuracy. However, coming from ARE I find them believable.
So is there any reason why Edgar Cayce’s prediction is doing so poorly on the Bimini prediction when he has a clear high batting average in other cases?
Apparently yes. There is difference of opinion within ARE as to how Cayce’s readings should be interpreted relative to Bimini. It turns out that Edgar Cayce’s readings must be parsed very carefully, at least in the case of Atlantis – just as we sometimes must analyze very carefully various statements of HPB. (Helena P. Blavatsky)
There are several of these statements to be considered carefully. This parsing can go into more detail than may be appropriate for this list. Parsing HPB is enough of a challenge. But here is one example from Reading 996-12 that is short:
Client: Is this [the Bimini area] the continent known as Alta or Poseidia?
Cayce: A temple of the Poseidians was in a portion of this land.
Now did Cayce say “yes” or “no”. Maybe if you read it fast he said “yes”. But I (and others) think that if you read it carefully, then he said “no”. Try reading it with emphasis like this: A TEMPLE of the Poseidians was in a portion of this land. As though he were explaining patiently that it was only a TEMPLE that was there, not the whole island of Poseidonis itself.
The view of one faction within ARE says:
1. “No reading specifically identifies Bimini with Poseidia”.
2. “No reading predicts an underwater road to be found near Bimini and no year.
From checking the readings myself, it appears to me more likely that this faction is correct.
I might note in passing his comment on the year of discovery. It occurred in Reading 958-3 and reads like this: “And Poseidia will be among the first portions of Atlantis to rise again. Expect it in sixty-eight and sixty-nine (’68 and ’69); not so far away!”.
I have also an apparent year of its sinking given by Cayce as just a little after 10,000 BC. This is of course in complete accord with Theosophy. And both match the science I will presenting.
Now it is on to the geological problem for those who place Atlantis in the mid Atlantic.
Reed Carson
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