Edgar Cayce's Atlantis. John Van Auken

Cayce on Atlantis (1968) and Mysteries of Atlantis Revisited (1988), with coauthors Gail Cayce Schwartzer and Douglas Richards, contained a numerical summary of the Atlantis readings. Of Cayce’s 14,306 documented readings, 700, or 4.9 percent, contained some reference to Atlantis. According to their analysis, 21 readings concerned events related to the “First Destruction” of Atlantis, which occurred around 50,000 B.C. A total of 52 readings were associated with the “Second Destruction,” which took place around 28,000 B.C. Another 352 readings detailed events related to the “Final Destruction,” which happened circa 10,000 B.C. Atlantis was mentioned in 275 other readings, but the dates of the events detailed in these readings are indeterminate.

      In 1923 only two readings mentioned Atlantis. In 1924, only 7 readings mentioned Atlantis. The years 1939 and 1940 had the most Atlantis references: 66 in each year. Over the 21 years that some of Cayce’s readings mentioned Atlantis (1923-1944), the yearly average of readings mentioning Atlantis was 33. By contrast, during these same years, Cayce averaged a total of 332 readings per year. The implication of this is that even during the time period when Atlantis became a topic in the readings, the health readings remained the most important. Many Cayce readings emphasized that service to others and living life in a correct way were far more important than knowledge about the past.

       Overview of Cayce’s Atlantis

      In this book, we have attempted to be as accurate as possible in presenting Cayce’s story of Atlantis. But it has to be acknowledged that a few readings could be viewed as inconsistent or, at the least, open to alternative interpretations. These are discussed in subsequent chapters. In this section our goal is to provide a thumbnail sketch of Cayce’s Atlantis.

      The readings actually introduce Atlantis by discussing the first appearance of human consciousness on earth. However, according to Cayce, these “people” were more like thought forms projected into primitive life than the human beings we know today. The readings indicate that a portion of southwest America was occupied over 10 million years ago, a time when the earth’s land surface differed greatly from that of today. The land of Lemuria, or Mu, was located to the west of the Americas long before the island of Atlantis was occupied. The destruction of Mu occurred sometime around 50,000 B.C. (Cayce’s information on Atlantis is far more detailed than that he provided on Mu.) But this 50,000 B. C. destruction was directly linked to what is called the first destruction of Atlantis.

      Atlantis, located in the area of the Atlantic Ocean stretching from Gibraltar to the Gulf of Mexico, was first occupied by an advanced race of humans in 210,000 B.C. By 50,000 B.C., the country had developed an advanced culture with strange technology. Cayce’s Atlantis was a maritime culture throughout its entire existence, trading with nearly all of the other lands of the world. Plentiful natural resources existed on the temperate islands, and the Atlanteans used stone skillfully and were adept at various forms of metalworking. Temples were constructed in the cities, and numerous canals were used for irrigation and navigation.

      Perhaps the most public fascination with Cayce’s Atlantis concerns a mysterious crystal, which has long been interpreted to imply a laserlike device. But the use of the crystal started rather simply and gradually became a focal point of a struggle between two factions in Atlantis. In the beginning, the Atlanteans were a spiritual people ruled by a peaceful group Cayce termed the Law of One. But gradually, the Belial (self-aggrandizement) influence began to manifest. An ongoing spiritual and material battle was waged between these two groups. The Sons of Belial worshiped self-aggrandizement, sought power over others, and practiced human sacrifice. Cayce stated that they had no standard of morality, no sense of right and wrong. In contrast, the Children of the Law of One worshiped one God, sought spiritual and physical attunement with the Creator, and espoused the ideal of treating others as oneself in their day-to-day lives.

      But the Belial group consistently waged war and sought domination over others in their relentless pursuit of material wealth. While these actions appear to reflect Plato’s descriptions of the Atlantis Empire as warlike, there is something more implied in Cayce’s version of the story. In brief, according to Cayce, there was a more etheric or spiritual component in the Belial group’s conflicts, which led to ill-defined destructive forces entering the earth. These destructive forces were, in part, responsible for the series of catastrophic events that befell Atlantis.

      Cayce’s story of how the destructive forces were unleashed is entwined with the mysterious crystal. The story begins with the “White Stone,” a stone “in the form of a six-sided figure”, which was also referred to as the “Tuaoi stone.” Initially, this stone was used for communication with the divine, in a way that appears similar to how Native American shaman utilize crystals. A priestess of the Law of One would gather together a group and concentrate on the stone, eventually entering an altered state of consciousness. From the stone would come a form of speech interpreted by the priestess. The speech came from what Cayce referred to as the “saint realm,” which imparted “understanding and knowledge” to the group.

      As the Sons of Belial came to realize the unlimited power inherent in the stone, they began using it for selfish purposes. Gradually, the stone was set as a crystal, and the lights emanating from it were focused and utilized. The Atlanteans developed a system to collect and focus the rays of the sun, with the crystal housed in a domed building atop a multitiered structure. Cayce related that the focused energy was used to create heat to generate gases. These gases were employed in the turning of multi-geared wheels (to perform a variety of tasks) and also to fill what are described as hot air balloons and large, Zeppelin-like aircraft. In fact, when asked to describe aircraft at the height of Atlantean civilization, Cayce stated that the skins of elephants and other animals were sewn together to form the outer surface of these craft. He added that the gases were sometimes also used to propel these craft. Other readings refer to the Atlanteans using hot air balloons for transportation around the world. But the Atlanteans also had ships that could move under water.

      The uses of this crystal were many and included a form of communication, which could be seen as similar to modern radio and television. But the Cayce readings on utilization of the crystal as a communication device can also be interpreted as meaning that the Atlanteans could project reflected beams of light into the air. This could be utilized for communication, but the exact meaning of these mysterious readings is not yet completely understood.

      Whatever may be the correct interpretation of this aspect of Cayce’s readings, the first destruction appears to have resulted from volcanic activity, which was stimulated by utilizing the crystal’s energy as a weapon. According to Cayce, in 50,722 B.C., a meeting was held of the world’s leaders to discuss how to cope with large herds of huge animals that were overrunning entire regions. A plan was made to use the rays of the crystal to produce explosions that would destroy the animals. The focused rays of the crystal were turned toward the earth and caused huge gas pockets to be released in the area of the Sargasso Sea. These gases apparently exploded causing a domino-effect series of catastrophic events eventually breaking Atlantis into five major islands. Cayce related that the catastrophic events included a buildup of ice and a shift in the earth’s poles that resulted not only in the destruction of a large portion of Atlantis, but also in the destruction of most of the large islands. During this time period, many Atlanteans fled the disasters by migrating to other places around the world.

      By 28,000 B. C. Atlantis had not only regained its technology but actually surpassed it. Machinery, electrical devices, and power transmission sources utilizing crystals are described. But the conflicts between the Sons of Belial and the Children of the Law of One not only resurfaced, they worsened. The continual feuds between the groups caused many Atlanteans to flee to the Americas, the Pyrenees Mountains, and Egypt. The Tuaoi Stone, once a conduit to God, had now become a “terrible crystal” or a “firestone”—an energy source that could be easily utilized as a powerful weapon. Cayce relates that Atlantis had several crystals set up into power stations located at various places. For unclear reasons, the crystals were accidentally tuned too high, causing a violent destruction. The eruptions left Atlantis with three large islands and several smaller ones. Most people accept 28,000 B. C. as the date for this event, but there is one reading that could point to the year 22,000 B.C. As occurred with the first destruction, Atlanteans migrated to various places following this event.