1 00:00:00,750 --> 00:00:07,750 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:07,750 --> 00:00:17,750 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations but not necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 3 00:00:20,750 --> 00:00:28,750 The waters off a tiny Caribbean island called Bimini cover a long stone structure that scientists have yet to explain. 4 00:00:31,750 --> 00:00:46,750 The stones appear to be so carefully placed, some people have concluded they are either a road or a wall, perhaps even a remnant of Atlantis. 5 00:00:48,750 --> 00:00:54,750 A nearby healing well is supposedly linked to the mystical springs of that lost civilization. 6 00:00:55,750 --> 00:01:07,750 While diving near Bimini, a San Diego physician claims discovery of a submerged pyramid inside which he found a crystal ball. 7 00:01:10,750 --> 00:01:15,750 He says this crystal emits a power capable of repelling metal. 8 00:01:15,750 --> 00:01:30,750 Is it possible that the Bimini wall, the well and the crystal ball share a common past with the legendary continent of Atlantis? 9 00:01:31,750 --> 00:01:49,750 The Twin Islands of Bimini, 60 miles east of Florida, are a tropical paradise, home for 2,000 people. The atmosphere is relaxed and happy. 10 00:01:50,750 --> 00:01:59,750 It seems difficult to imagine that these easygoing people could be the descendants of Atlanteans who purportedly had the power to rule the world. 11 00:02:01,750 --> 00:02:04,750 There is however evidence that alludes to that fact. 12 00:02:06,750 --> 00:02:13,750 Beyond the fashionable yachting docks in the dense undergrowth of the North Island is the figure of a fish etched in sand. 13 00:02:14,750 --> 00:02:25,750 Native lore gives no clue to what it represents, but it does lie close to a mysterious series of huge square rocks submerged in 15 feet of water off the coast. 14 00:02:26,750 --> 00:02:32,750 The blocks are so perfectly fitted together that some people have likened them to a Roman highway. 15 00:02:34,750 --> 00:02:37,750 No clues exist to the origin of the blocks. 16 00:02:38,750 --> 00:02:45,750 There are claims that they are ordinary beach rock which broke off from the Bimini coastline thousands of years ago. 17 00:02:46,750 --> 00:02:50,750 Such formations are common in tropical waters throughout the world. 18 00:02:52,750 --> 00:03:02,750 One of those who believes the wall is beach rock is Eugene Shin, a US Geological Survey team member who conducted an analysis of the Bimini wall. 19 00:03:03,750 --> 00:03:08,750 We did two types of things. First we cored the blocks and we determined that they were beach rock. 20 00:03:09,750 --> 00:03:16,750 And every geologist and dozens of geologists have looked at those rocks and everyone has come to the conclusion that it is beach rock because it is so easy to recognize. 21 00:03:17,750 --> 00:03:21,750 The question is, are those slabs of beach rock in place? 22 00:03:22,750 --> 00:03:32,750 Shin and a three-man diving team used hydraulic drills to bore through the rocks. 18 cores were taken. 23 00:03:33,750 --> 00:03:36,750 The goal was to determine if the stones had once been part of the coastline. 24 00:03:37,750 --> 00:03:42,750 If so, have they fallen into the sea or been carefully placed in position? 25 00:03:43,750 --> 00:03:49,750 After drilling down half a foot, the geologists removed the cores and examined them closely. 26 00:03:52,750 --> 00:04:00,750 The pattern of the grain indicated that the stones had formed naturally and then at some later date became submerged. 27 00:04:01,750 --> 00:04:05,750 This finding led to Shin's own conclusions about the origin of the wall. 28 00:04:07,750 --> 00:04:11,750 I think that it's entirely a natural phenomenon. 29 00:04:12,750 --> 00:04:23,750 Composed of beach rock as I pointed out earlier and a combination of a little rise in sea level and the scouring out of the sand underneath has caused the blocks to settle to the bottom. 30 00:04:24,750 --> 00:04:31,750 And all of the various shapes can easily be explained by well-known natural phenomenon familiar to all geologists. 31 00:04:32,750 --> 00:04:38,750 Shin points to a similar phenomenon occurring at the dry Tortugas National Park south of Key West, Florida. 32 00:04:39,750 --> 00:04:48,750 Could the constant attack of the surf have created the lines in the bimini wall just as it has created these individual blocks in the Tortugas? 33 00:04:49,750 --> 00:04:51,750 Other questions remain unanswered. 34 00:04:52,750 --> 00:05:01,750 How could the bimini wall have dropped 15 feet when the natural erosion rates indicate that it should be no deeper than 3 feet below the surface? 35 00:05:02,750 --> 00:05:09,750 More importantly, how could part of the wall run perpendicular to bimini's coastline? 36 00:05:12,750 --> 00:05:21,750 We are left to ponder the possibility that the bimini stones were so carefully cut and aligned they are in harmony with existing natural beach rock. 37 00:05:21,750 --> 00:05:31,750 This painstaking placement would require sophisticated mechanical tools. Such tools could only be designed and handled by people of superior intelligence. 38 00:05:33,750 --> 00:05:40,750 In the 1930s, psychic Edgar Cayce predicted that part of Atlantis would surface in the late 1960s. 39 00:05:41,750 --> 00:05:46,750 In 1968, the bimini wall was discovered. 40 00:05:47,750 --> 00:05:54,750 Was it possible that the strange stone structure could be part of Atlantis or one of its outposts? 41 00:05:56,750 --> 00:05:59,750 Plato was the first to mention Atlantis. 42 00:05:59,750 --> 00:06:09,750 While chronicling aspects of the Atlantean people, he claimed that they controlled energy-charged crystals as well as healing wells possessing great curative powers. 43 00:06:11,750 --> 00:06:17,750 Healing wells do exist according to Les Hemingway, author, explorer, and brother of Ernest Hemingway. 44 00:06:18,750 --> 00:06:24,750 He had heard of just such a well on bimini. He and his daughter Hillary agreed to guide us to the site. 45 00:06:25,750 --> 00:06:33,750 A narrow inlet approximately 300 yards long leads into a mangrove swamp. 46 00:06:36,750 --> 00:06:40,750 The brackish water is populated by tiny sharks and rays. 47 00:06:43,750 --> 00:06:53,750 Some, like Hemingway, speculate that both plant and animal life thrive extremely well in the area as a result of some peculiar qualities possessed by the well water. 48 00:06:55,750 --> 00:07:04,750 Admittedly, Hemingway is not an expert on the well's special properties as a result of direct personal experience. 49 00:07:05,750 --> 00:07:10,750 However, he has concluded that the well itself apparently possesses the power to heal. 50 00:07:11,750 --> 00:07:23,750 Here is where the actual fountain of youth is. The flow is thousands of gallons per day and it's absolutely cold, pure, fresh water coming right up in a saltwater pool. 51 00:07:24,750 --> 00:07:38,750 The water apparently has definite curative powers because various people who have both major and minor ailments have soaked in it and have experienced an amazing amount of ease from their problems. 52 00:07:39,750 --> 00:07:43,750 People who have gout, for instance, have found that the gout disappears in two or three soaking. 53 00:07:43,750 --> 00:07:59,750 Other people with small skin cancers and people who have skin inflammation have found that the inflammation and the small growths on their skins have literally disappeared as a result of poldises and soaking with water from this fountain. 54 00:08:00,750 --> 00:08:05,750 Surprisingly, Hemingway's claims have received some scientific support. 55 00:08:06,750 --> 00:08:13,750 Miami psychologist Adolfo Villasusso tested the well waters and found an unusual amount of a certain element. 56 00:08:14,750 --> 00:08:27,750 There were two water samples that I had analyzed in two local laboratories. One of them I took myself because I was kind of surprised at the high amount of lithium that was found in the well. It was a substantial amount. 57 00:08:28,750 --> 00:08:46,751 Laboratory analyses repeatedly revealed that the well water did have an extremely high content of lithium. Researchers within the last ten years have found that lithium has been particularly useful in producing soothing reactions in both normal and disturbed people. 58 00:08:47,751 --> 00:09:03,751 Originally before it was known that lithium exerted a calming, a therapeutic effect in people with manic depressive illnesses. There are stories in Roman times, in the Middle Ages, that people with this illness were sent to wells which were high on lithium and, lo and behold, they were cured. 59 00:09:04,751 --> 00:09:14,751 Did an ancient race know of Bimini's lithium well? If so, perhaps Plato's assertion that Atlantis possessed magical waters was correct. 60 00:09:15,751 --> 00:09:26,751 The way this well has been cut down through solid rock and the way this well seems to be so well hidden are two very different things. 61 00:09:26,751 --> 00:09:42,751 The hiding part, I think, may have developed in the last few hundred years is a result of just local growth. But the cutting down through solid rock is something that had to be done by intelligent beings who had access to great use of tools and most unusual tools. 62 00:09:43,751 --> 00:09:55,751 We don't know whether Atlanteans did this or not. I, of course, would like to think that they did. And it's very possible that they did. It's just that none of us have been able to trace back prehistory to Atlantean days in this place. 63 00:09:56,751 --> 00:09:58,751 It's just a very particular spot. 64 00:09:59,751 --> 00:10:13,751 From the air, another peculiar fact about Bimini becomes apparent. Perfectly straight lines carved in the sand slice across the island, most point directly to the well. 65 00:10:14,751 --> 00:10:21,751 Perhaps the lines, the Bimini wall and the well are linked by common ties to the people of Atlantis. 66 00:10:22,751 --> 00:10:29,751 Is it possible that further exploration around Bimini might reveal hard evidence of the brilliant but lost Atlantean civilization? 67 00:10:30,751 --> 00:10:45,751 The secrets of a bygone civilization are often not easily revealed. The discovery of structures built by the early Egyptians sometimes leave us more puzzled than satisfied. 68 00:10:46,751 --> 00:10:58,751 Great debates rage over how an ancient people accomplished such architecturally complicated buildings. And no one explanation satisfies the question, why were the pyramids built? 69 00:11:01,751 --> 00:11:10,751 Equally intriguing are similar structures found throughout Central America. Could the construction of these pyramids be linked with those in Egypt? 70 00:11:11,751 --> 00:11:22,751 The many stone walls that survived today reveal a high level of workmanship. The complicated stonework produced by both cultures still bemuses modern science. 71 00:11:26,751 --> 00:11:36,751 The stones off Bimini bear remarkable resemblance to those in Egypt and Central America. Is it possible that Bimini somehow linked the two together? 72 00:11:37,751 --> 00:11:47,751 In 1972, Miami disc jockey Roby Yong and well-known psychic Irene Hughes launched the unique experiment here recreated for in search of. 73 00:11:47,751 --> 00:12:01,751 They hired a plane to fly over the waters surrounding Bimini. The purpose of the flight was to gain psychic impressions of the area to help uncover tangible evidence of the existence of an ancient civilization. 74 00:12:07,751 --> 00:12:16,751 Now we're not going to tell you where we're going. At all. We'll just sort of fly around and if you get a feeling, you'll be confirmed. 75 00:12:16,751 --> 00:12:29,751 Now below us, you can see is just crystal clear water. The drop off of the Gulf Stream, 3,000 feet down from then on east. What do you think? 76 00:12:29,751 --> 00:12:40,751 Well, I feel that it is all the way along like a tunnel, you know, but I feel that we have to make this turn. And as we turn, we're going to see on the right hand side, we're going to see some blocks. 77 00:12:40,751 --> 00:12:47,751 And on the left hand side, we're going to begin to see gold color in different spots in the water. 78 00:12:48,751 --> 00:12:54,751 And I feel it's right over this way and we're going to have to go that way and curve right back around that way. 79 00:12:55,751 --> 00:13:05,751 The plane crisscrossed the skies for more than two hours. Finally, Irene directed the search to an area where she felt something was buried on the ocean floor. 80 00:13:06,751 --> 00:13:15,751 There's a building and I feel that it is pure marble, the most beautiful marble in the world. Similar to that, some of that was used in the building of the pyramids in Egypt. 81 00:13:16,751 --> 00:13:22,751 I feel that it is inhabited by the voices and the images of ancient peoples. 82 00:13:24,751 --> 00:13:28,751 The spots selected by Irene became the subject of an extensive search. 83 00:13:29,751 --> 00:13:34,751 For two years, divers combed the sea looking for evidence of an ancient civilization. 84 00:13:36,751 --> 00:13:42,751 They found the usual array of tropical fish and brilliantly colored coral, but nothing else. 85 00:13:44,751 --> 00:13:51,751 Finally, at the foot of a steep cliff, divers spotted a deeply encrusted object on the ocean floor. 86 00:13:54,751 --> 00:13:57,751 What he had found was the base of a marble column. 87 00:13:59,751 --> 00:14:07,751 After a series of unsuccessful attempts, divers finally brought to the surface a number of marble slabs, each weighing nearly a ton. 88 00:14:08,751 --> 00:14:11,751 The slabs had apparently been part of a much larger structure. 89 00:14:12,751 --> 00:14:21,751 Whether they were in the process of being transported and went down in a shipwreck or had been constructed in an area that was later submerged is unknown. 90 00:14:22,751 --> 00:14:29,751 The Bimini-Atlantis connection might have languished had it not been for Raymond Brown, a San Diego physician and adventurer. 91 00:14:30,751 --> 00:14:37,751 He believes he has found conclusive links between a Caribbean civilization and those of Egypt and Central America. 92 00:14:39,751 --> 00:14:45,751 Dr. Brown's story begins uneventfully on an expedition out of Miami in 1970. 93 00:14:46,751 --> 00:14:55,751 Here, recreated, Dr. Brown was headed for an area between Andros Island and the Berry Islands, approximately 100 miles from Bimini. 94 00:14:56,751 --> 00:15:02,751 His intention was not to prove or disprove stories about Atlantis, but rather to search for sunken treasure. 95 00:15:03,751 --> 00:15:11,751 We'd been searching the area for a number of years for Spanish galleons and had found several. 96 00:15:11,751 --> 00:15:18,751 And taken some of the treasure and we're very excited when we found this area. 97 00:15:19,751 --> 00:15:26,751 They traveled to a spot near the tongue of the ocean. There, the bottom drops to 14,000 feet. 98 00:15:29,751 --> 00:15:35,751 Dr. Brown hoped that a recent storm might have shifted bottom sand in order to reveal the galleons. 99 00:15:42,751 --> 00:15:54,751 The water was very murky and we didn't get to see all that we would like to have seen, but after the storm moved the sand for us that we'd been digging on for several years, unsuccessfully. 100 00:15:55,751 --> 00:15:58,751 We found ruins and buildings everywhere. 101 00:16:03,751 --> 00:16:10,751 Much of Dr. Brown's photographic equipment was destroyed in the storm, thus making it impossible for a detailed record 102 00:16:11,751 --> 00:16:12,751 of the find. 103 00:16:16,751 --> 00:16:30,751 We really had no choice because if we had gone back for new equipment that we lost during the storm, if we hadn't got in the water, even as murky as it was, the sand would have covered the buildings up and we would have lost the view. 104 00:16:31,751 --> 00:16:37,751 The ruins of the city Dr. Brown claims he found reflected a sophisticated level of architectural design. 105 00:16:38,751 --> 00:16:51,751 The buildings had somewhat of an Egyptian or classic look to them. The ground mass was rippled as though the area had been dropped into the ocean by some sort of cataclysmic action. 106 00:16:53,751 --> 00:16:57,751 Then Dr. Brown reported that he came across the most magnificent find of all. 107 00:16:59,751 --> 00:17:06,751 In the murkiness, he spotted the tip of a submerged pyramid, barely visible above the ocean floor. 108 00:17:07,751 --> 00:17:12,751 Looking at the structure, shape and the size, it would be approximately 400 feet tall. 109 00:17:15,751 --> 00:17:28,751 I went in an opening and in this opening, in the center of the room, there was a pedestal and on the pedestal were two human hands made of brass or bronze. 110 00:17:28,751 --> 00:17:43,751 In the center of the hands was the crystal. My first impression in the room was the shaft that was metallic, hanging straight down from the ceiling, pointing at the crystal. 111 00:17:44,751 --> 00:17:55,751 It was gold color. I swam because the room was full of water. I swam up to the ceiling and tried to pry the rod loose. 112 00:17:55,751 --> 00:18:06,751 It wouldn't budge, so I settled back down to the floor and I reached my hand in between the fingers of the metal hands and I found the crystal was loose. 113 00:18:07,751 --> 00:18:09,751 And it was the only thing in the room that I could take home. 114 00:18:13,751 --> 00:18:18,751 The crystal vault seems to possess powers that can repel a coiled stainless steel rod. 115 00:18:19,751 --> 00:18:34,751 We found a meter with a one and a half ounce weight and it becomes sensitive to emanations, particularly magnetic emanations around people or things if they are charged. 116 00:18:35,751 --> 00:18:46,751 We find that if we can hold it straight without allowing it to flip from side to side, some strong influences will actually raise the weight in the air. 117 00:18:46,751 --> 00:18:52,751 Now, as we bring something into the field of the crystal, the ions tend to repel. 118 00:18:53,751 --> 00:19:10,751 If I can keep it balanced and bring it directly into the field and not let it tip from side to side, the weight will then not go to the side if I can keep it centered and as I come higher, it will raise it and make it weightless and actually float in the air. 119 00:19:11,751 --> 00:19:15,751 Some historians say that crystals were the source of Atlantean power. 120 00:19:17,751 --> 00:19:24,751 Dr. Brown believes his crystal is evidence that such a culture existed and possessed powers unknown to modern man. 121 00:19:25,751 --> 00:19:33,751 Maybe the ancients knew more than we did about life forms and life forces and we might discover their secret. 122 00:19:34,751 --> 00:19:41,751 In the last decade of exploration in the waters off Bimini, new finds causes to question old theories. 123 00:19:42,751 --> 00:19:51,751 Atlantis has long been thought of as a myth, a figment of fanciful imagination, a tale told by Plato to amuse ancient Athens. 124 00:19:52,751 --> 00:19:54,751 But what of Dr. Brown's crystal? 125 00:19:54,751 --> 00:20:07,751 Dr. Marcel Vogel, a researcher at IBM, has devoted more than 20 years of investigation to determine the power of crystals and their effect on human potential. 126 00:20:08,751 --> 00:20:23,751 Throughout history, the earliest recorded history we have, there's been a deep respect for the shape of a ball and the use of a quartz crystal ball for probing in the mind of an individual. 127 00:20:24,751 --> 00:20:35,751 Now I've worked with Dr. Brown's crystal ball. I used his ball and I felt a tremendous energy burst coming from the crystal. 128 00:20:37,751 --> 00:20:46,751 The discovery of the crystal has spawned speculation that possible misuse of its powers by Atlanteans caused the great cataclysm. 129 00:20:47,751 --> 00:20:57,751 The island and all its buildings, it is said, were plunged into the sea. The Bimini wall therefore might be the last visible relic of that lost civilization. 130 00:21:02,751 --> 00:21:06,751 In search of, we'll continue in a moment, here on the History Channel. 131 00:21:10,751 --> 00:21:14,751 Divers have always searched for hidden treasures of the sea. 132 00:21:15,751 --> 00:21:23,751 In the waters off Bimini may lie the clues that not only unlock the mystery of Atlantis, but the secrets of the mind as well. 133 00:21:24,751 --> 00:21:31,751 For the present, however, we must content ourselves with the inconclusive bits of evidence so far uncovered. 134 00:21:33,751 --> 00:21:40,751 The origin of the Bimini wall seems destined to remain an enigma until more knowledge about Atlantis is revealed. 135 00:21:45,751 --> 00:21:52,751 Coming up next in search of continues with an exploration of the ancient city of Pompeii, preserved under the ash of Mount Vesuvius. 136 00:21:53,751 --> 00:21:59,751 Then its crisis in space as 20th century with Mike Wallace brings you the real story of Apollo 13. 137 00:22:00,751 --> 00:22:06,751 And all this week, it's hot damn week as modern marvels brings you the design and construction sagas of some of the world's biggest dams. 138 00:22:07,751 --> 00:22:13,751 It continues later tonight with the story of the Hoover Dam at 10, here on the History Channel, where the past comes alive.