Submitted by coldrum ---
A group of Florida-based technical divers is poised to try to solve a New Age/ancient mystery near the island of Bimini, Bahamas, 50 miles off the South Florida coast.
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. The Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) is devoted to the teachings of the late Edgar Cayce -- one of America's best-known psychics.
Cayce weighed in on a variety of subjects. One of his readings was that "Atlantis 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."
[A.R.E. Director, 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.
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."
Robert Carmichael, CEO of Brownie's Marine Group, based in Fort Lauderdale, is one of the leaders of the GUE expedition. While Carmichael doesn't exactly buy into the Atlantis theory, he and his colleagues have observed some of the "unnatural features" Van Auken mentioned -- long, curving sandy trails winding through the sides of steep, underwater cliffs 200 to 300 feet deep that look like mountain switchback trails or ski runs."
"We're looking for evidence of human-made features," he said. "It's fine to not believe it. There are some of us that have this gut feeling and enjoy the search."
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