In a series of readings given for a young electrical engineer, Edgar Cayce provided not only some fascinating details about advanced Atlantean technology, but how that technology triggered a devastating period of destructive forces.
(Q) Give an account of the electrical and mechanical knowledge of the entity as Asal-Sine in Atlantis.
(A) Yes, we have the entity's activities during that experience. As indicated, the entity was associated with those that dealt with the mechanical appliances and their application during the experience. And, as we find, it was a period when there was much that has not even been thought of as yet in the present experiences.
About the firestone that was in the experience did the activities of the entity then make those applications that dealt with both the constructive and destructive forces in the period….
These, then, were impelled by the concentrating of the rays from the stone that was centered in the middle of the power station, or power house (that would be termed in the present).
In the active forces of these the entity brought destructive forces, by the setting up - in various portions of the land - the character that was to act as producing the powers in the various forms of the people's activities in the cities, the towns, the countries surrounding same. These, not intentionally, were TUNED too high - and brought the second period of destructive forces to the peoples in the land, and broke up the land into the isles that later became the periods when the further destructive forces were brought in the land.
Through the same form of fire the bodies of individuals were regenerated, by the burning - through the application of the rays from the stone, the influences that brought destructive forces to an animal organism. Hence the body rejuvenated itself often, and remained in that land until the eventual destruction, joining with the peoples that made for the breaking up of the land - or joining with Baalilal [Belial?] at the final destruction of the land. In this the entity lost. At first, it was not the intention nor desire for destructive forces. Later it was for the ascension of power itself. (ECR: 440-5)
Thus the land of Atlantis underwent several periods of upheaval and destruction, including a particularly disastrous calamity called "the second period of destructive forces." The technology of that time relied on a large crystal called the "firestone."
The intensity of the great crystal was turned too high as the engineers pushed the limits of their technology, resulting in ecological disaster and the destruction of some of the islands that then constituted the land of Atlantis. This unintentional blunder was apparently caused by an Atlantean that Cayce identified as Asal-Sine. The great crystal was being used for peaceful purposes – to provide power for peoples activities in the cities, towns, and countryside. Asal-Sine was a technician or manager of an Atlantean power plant in charge of distributing the energy to the outlying substations.
This instance seems to have been a case of well-intentioned individuals asked to push technology to the limits. Human error comes into play with disastrous results. Sounds almost like a modern disaster involving a power plant such as Three Mile Island or Chernobyl – only it was not nuclear energy and the consequences were much worse than anything YET experienced in modern times.
Note in the reading excerpt above that the crystal technology was also used to extend life. In his case, Asal-Sine not only survived the initial disaster, but was able to regenerate himself until the final or "eventual" destruction which probably occurred some thousands of years later.