Gainesville-based Global Underwater Explorers — best known for mapping massive underground springs in North Florida — has been hired by a Virginia Beach-based non-profit group to try to uncover evidence of the Lost Continent of Atlantis near the island of Bimini, Bahamas, 50 miles .off the Florida coast. The Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), is devoted to the teachings of the late Edgar Cayce, a U.S. physicist who made a series of predictions (accurate and otherwise) about a variety of things, among them the location of Atlantis. “Atlantis,” he said, “will rise near Bimini in 1969.”
In 1968, Miamian D.J. Manson Valentine was flying over the Bimini Islands when he spotted a mysterious, U-shaped stone formation in shallow water near north Bimini that has since been dubbed the “Bimini Road.” It was first surveyed the following year. For 40 years, A.R.E. members have been trying to prove the “road” might lead to the discovery of Atlantis. Cayce’s readings described Atlantis as an ancient continent harboring an advanced civilization stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Gibraltar that was destroyed by an unknown catastrophe in 10,000 B.C. According to Cayce, the Bimini Islands are remnants of a mountain range where Atlantis’ leaders built a temple with a Hall of Records holding stone tablets that detailed their pre-evolutionary history. Cayce also said 12,000 gold coins were buried in the inlet that runs between the North and South Bimini Islands.
No one has found the gold — or at least admitted to it. But the A.R.E. is still interested in finding the Hall of Records, which director John Van Auken believes might be found in waters deeper than the Bimini Road — more like 200-300 feet deep. Van Auken, 63, a lifelong Cayce devotee, hopes the divers from Global Underwater Explorers can unlock the secrets. Van Auken said the explorers are expected to conduct as many as four deep-diving missions near Bimini in 2010. Van Auken expects to spend between $20,000 and $50,000, securing a large mothership as the mission base for dives using rebreathers, high-definition video and digital mapping equipment, and possibly a two-person submarine. “From [Cayce's] psychic, deep attunement to universal consciousness, he said one of the key temples with 32 stone tablets is off the coast of Bimini at the [edge] of the Gulf Stream,” Van Auken said.
Van Auken said previous explorations in the area — some using high-tech methods such as sub-bottom profiling and side-scan sonar — have shown “unnatural features” that appear to have been constructed by humans. He is not bothered by the taunts of Atlantis naysayers. “We hope this will prove to be a remnant of Atlantis,” he said. “With archaeologists, I don’t use the `A-word.’ I use `pre-Ice Age culture of some sophistication.’ If you use the A-word, boy, you’re out.”
For the complete report in The Miami Herald go to http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/1396839.html
