Edgar Cayce and the Akashic Records on Atlantis theory

[erikau]

Ok...so there are two things that I have long suspected would be themes in Lost, and as time goes by I'm thinking I may have been on the right path all along.

The Akashic Records- the term comes from Hindu mysticism, but the idea is less formally religious. Basically, the Akashic Records are another term to describe Collective Consciousness, Universal Mind, the collective Unconsciousness/Subconsciouness, or however else you would like to describe that which would contain every thought, action, and event in the entire span on existence. Some like to call it the Mind of God. The Akashic Records comes from the idea that there is one Universal Soul that everyone stems from, and thus this collective consciousness stores EVERYTHING that has ever happened ANYWHERE to ANYONE, containing it in a non-physical plane of existence. The belief is that these Akashic Records can be accessed in their non-physical place through ASTRAL PROJECTION (the paranormal explanation behind out-of-body experiences that occur during deep meditation or lucid dreaming, in which the consciousness leaves the physical body and travels to non-physical planes of existence, astral planes). Those capable of astral projection would this be able to access the Akashic Records, giving them the knowledge of the entire history of existence (I'm thinking Ben, Walt, Desmond post-explosion?). It is said that those that are very good at it can not only "know" things from the Records, but actually see the history play out as if in a movie screen in their mind (flashbacks, anyone?) They are also supposed to be able to be accessed by regular people in certain states on mind: during sleep (Claire and Eko's dreams?), when weak or ill (didn't someone have fever dreams on the show?), when under the influence of certain drugs (Boone and Locke's vision quest?), and during meditation (Locke).

What if Jaob's List is really the Akashic records, or at least a part of it? The Akashic Records would contain the entire history of every person that has ever lived (since Hinduism is based on a cycical timeline, this would include past, present, AND future), and since it would contain not only who they are but what they've done and why, it would divide people into Good and Bad, perhaps with some gray in the middle. The Akashic records are NOT FIXED: they change as times changes. Thus, you may have a destiny or fate in the Records, but it is up to you to do it. When Ben tells his men to bring him lists of names, he is doind it to gather an inventory of sorts to check against Jacob's Ultimate List. Then Ben taps into Jacob's List via astral projection, and is then able to simply and quickly compile extraordinarily detailed dossiers on the names he is given. His lists are just based on Jacob's master list, as Ben's individual lists may serve a separate and less comprehensive purpose then Jacob's.

Now I know so far the Atlantis thing seems like it doesn't fit at all in this thread, and I would have agreed, except in order to write this I decided to do my fact checking. While reading about the Akashic Records, I read that there was an American psychic in the 1900s named Edgar Cayce, who is a huge believer in collective consciousness and the Akashic Records, and believes that through astral projection he accessed them and discovered the truth behind the lost city of Atlantis. Of course this made my eyes pop out my head at the Lost-connection, and without getting into the million boring speculationjs that people have made about what/where/when Atlantis may have been, I'll just go with what Cayce proposed because he seems like a really cool and kooky dude.

Cayce was a Christian, but was heavily influenced by Eastern philosophy. He held some very strong beliefs such as: we were born connected to God but our consciousness "falls" and we have to work to get back, we all have a destiny but we have to work for it, reincarnation (Jesus was a reincarnation of Adam and others, and reincarnated after death), karma (the meeting of oneself in the present through thoughts and deeds from the past) as natural law (Bernard!), astrology and astral travel, body/mind/spirit roles, holistic and electric medicine, and meditation. He described Atlantis as a highly-evolved place with advanced technology, ships and aircraft powered by a mysterious crystal. Although now submerged, he believed Atlantis would rise from the ocean in the 1960-70s. He believed that ancient Egypt and pre-Columbus America were populated by the refugees of Atlantis, and that people today are still reincarnated Atlanteans souls, faced with the same temptations between good and evil that their ancestors faced.

His readings of the history of Atlantis centered on a political division: there was the "good" faction called the Sons of the Law of One and a "bad" faction called the Sons of Belial, the division which would eventually cause Atlantis' demise. According to Cayce's astral reading of the Records, the turmoil between these two factions was over The Things: sub-humans with low intelligence and animal appendages. The Sons of the Law of One wanted to help the Things by protecting them and helping them to evolve. The Sons of Belial, however, didn't want to be bothered with the subhumans and instead wanted to exploit them as slaves.

**So as far as the bad faction goes, the Sons of Belial: Belial is a pretty standard bad-guy name. It means "worthless" and a lot of literature has used the name: In the Bible Belial is a fallen angel, oddly called both "the angel of lawlessness" and "the ruler of the world", in Jewish apocrypha he is the one that got egyptian sorcerers to turn on Moses and AARON, in Paradise Lost he is a fallen angel who turns priests to atheists who ultimately realizes the war on heaven is pointless to he encourages sloth, in Philip K. Dick's The Divine Invasion Belial is The Adversary who obfuscates reality and interferes with God's powers (this sounds SO Ben), used in tons of others to represent a devil character.**

The two factions fought tirelessly over this, with 3 major events leading to the destruction of Atlantis. The first event was the Deluge, or a Great Flood sent by a deity to destroy a civilization in an act of divine retribution. Noah's Ark is a deluge story, and it sure as hell sounds to me like the Purge is one, too (think of the huge wave on the Tempest logo). The final event, which caused Atlantis to sink, was caused when they overcharged the power crystal, causing a massive explosion (Desmond and the failsafe, anyone?) Since then the civlization has been gone, with its refugees scattered and the lost souls being reincarnated into bodies, still trying to fulfill their destiny.

He also said a "blue stone" (Black Rock?) would be found on a mysterious island in the Carribean, and this stone would have the power to HEAL (there is a particular type of VOLCANIC stone called blue pectolite, which is today believed to be a healing stone...).

Ok, so here's my little theory now haha: What if Edgar Cayce wasn't a big kook, and what if Atlantis REALLY DID rise back out of the ocean somewhere near Fiji in the 1960-70s? Or, what if Atlantis didn't have to reappear, because it NEVER sank and instead, due to the explosion of a high powered crystal, became INVISIBLE to the outside world? Alpert and his people are the last of the Atlanteans (this doesn't SPECIFICALLY have to be Atlantis, but that myth provides a good name), either the refugees who have been hidden on the Island since its "disappearance" hundreds of years ago, or as some sort of reincarnated heirs to the Island who all somehow found their way back. People have been crashing onto the Island in the meantime though, and their experiences become a part of what is contained in the Akashic Records. Thus, special minds with the ability to astral project can tap into it, and someone (the DeGroot's?) found out about this special place, and the DHARMA Initiative is sent to research and investigate (it WAS formed at the time Cayce predicted Atlantic would rise).

History repeats itself though, with the natives and the DHARMAs representing the two factions. Now the question becomes this: who was the "good" faction? DHARMA finds out about the island's special powers to heal and the weird electromagnetic whatever...do they: 1) go WOOHOO! this will be a huge help to the rest of the world and civilization and we need to tell everyone because we're the good guys, and the Natives get mad and brainwash Ben and Purge them out, or 2) go WOOHOO! rich powerful men like Paik and Widmore will pay a **** ton of money for this place and its special features, and the Natives get mad because they're the good guys and brainwash Ben to Purge out the bad guys. Was the DHARMA Initiative really a cover, a way to hide a more diabolical plan of finding a way to tap into and CONTROL collective consciousness? Is Ben the the gifted one who wants to stop it? Are the Losties (or some of them, anyway) descendants of the Atlanteans, called back to the Island (Jacob) to pick the fight back up and continue to defend the Isalnd's powers from the Sons of Belial to fulfill their destinies?

Also, has anyone ever wondered why the "H" in DHARMA? It stands for hermeneutics: the study and interpretation of religious texts. Hmmm....I wonder what texts...

Okay, so there you go: Edgar Cayce is the link between the Akashic Records (collective consciousness/knowledge of everything that has ever happened in the world) and Atlantis (mysterious lost civilization with supposed technological awesomeness). The 4 toed Statue was my first Atlantean clue, because when Ancient ruins (the statue) meets modern evolutionary theory (scientists say we are evolving and losing our little toes...future humans will be 4 toed) I think Atlantis. Perhaps Jacob is a sort of Guardian of the Records for "God" on the Island, but in any case the Island needs to be protected from those that would exploit it.

[erikau]

Another "list" reference like that of the Akashic Records is found in the Christian Bible, in Revelations 5:3. The entire Book of Revelations is a piece of apocalyptic narrative, whether yu believe in it or not, and predicts the events of the end of the world as they appeared to John in frightful visions (astral projection? hahaha). It describes the List of Good and Bad, or the VIP list for who could get into Paradise. The list is very special, and the scripture says that no one but Jesus, the chosen Lamb, could open or read it. There are only 144,000 people on the list to be SAVED, or 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And since this would now fit:

Originally Posted by erikau

All of Jacob's children, with Leah, Rachel, and others, would end up being the 12 tribes of Israel, with each of his 12 sons starting a tribe.

There is more about the Lost connection to the Biblical story of Jacob in there if you care to read it. The important part is that Jacob steals a birthright from his twin Esau, that birthright makes Jacob the founder of the 12 Tribes of Israel, who each stem from one of his sons (the Youngest being Benjamin), and the descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel are the people who will be saved according the Bible.

So, is Jacob the Jesus figure, the keeper of the List? Is he looking for his "children," calling them home to safety before something destroys the world? Is Jacob literally "Good," the Island is Paradise, and Ben (as Jacob's youngest and most beloved son) and Smokey are there to make sure that only those who are on the list can stay, while the Bad people perish? Is Ben the Jacob figure: the one who "stole" his place of glory from another, and is using it to make sure HIS children are saved in the end?

I wish Eko was still around (revelations 5:3 is carved on his stick. The producers said his character would be vital to the story before he was written off, but I wonder if he was the character that was supposed to introduce these ideas. OH well.