Book Review: Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty

Submitted by aluta on Friday, 11 August 2006 Page Views: 13088

Understanding the Lost Technology of the Ancient Megalith Builders, by John Burke and Kaj Halberg. I love any book that claims megaliths all over the world were built for the same reason, always a reason which no one ever thought of before but these authors. It’s an outrageous assertion to make, requiring the kind of hubris that I find deeply entertaining.

So many functions and conspiracies have been connected with the Great Pyramids at this point, any new one fills me again with wonder at the ingenuity of modern man.

To be satisfied by such a book, I don’t need to be convinced. I’m happy if I’m offered a clever conceit that lets me see old things in a new light without requiring that all reason be set aside. Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty does all that and more. I may not be fully convinced, but I’m amused; I’m entertained; and I may never see megalithic sites in the same way again.

The main premise is that many megalithic structures were built to amplify electromagnetic effects in order to increase the fertility and viability of the societies’ seed stock. It seems that one of the authors worked in a lab, helping to develop a new technique for enhancing seed growth with controlled showers of electrons. Somehow (was one of them a megarak?) it occurred to them that unusual electromagnetic effects at megalithic sites might be related to a similar process.

In the book they travel to many megalithic sites in different parts of the world, trusty magnetometers and electrostatic voltmeters in hand. From Guatemala to England, Peru to New York State, North Dakota to France, they measure, compile records and make their case. It’s not a bad case.

One charm of the book is that they take us with them. Drenched in sweat and breathing the stench of decaying vegetation we visit Tikal. We get frostbitten with them at Cahokia and on a hot August day at Avebury chase a sheep, its mouth is full of important notes, across the circle. Without such detail, the large amount of dry science and history might become tedious.

The science appears good, but I am not an expert in the field. To prove the results at sites were as anomalous as they said, I found myself wishing they had given us a few baseline measurements. What would the readings be like for a house? A public building or store? A quarry? Of course, none of those things would have existed at the times of the megaliths.

The desire for a magnetometer of my own came over me part way through the book and has never abated. I want to take it to places where I hike, to Oley Hills, to the Lincoln Memorial. (I'm sure most people feel something there?) If I took from this book one conviction it is that electromagnetic readings are likely to become as important as astronomical alignments in the study of sacred sites.

In fact, the most exciting part of reading it was the way it made my mind race thinking of other ramifications of their research. In Chapter 3 they discuss the consciousness-altering effects of magnetically anomalous geology, including how it relates to shamanism and dowsing. They seem to be making these points in order to prove that people without instruments could have detected and used those forces to enhance the viability of seeds, but of course there’s more to say about it than that. Anyone who knows human nature knows that people seek bliss and transcendent experience.

If, as they explain, such experience was made available by enhancing certain spots, then surely that was at least a secondary function for the sites. Controlling a place where people can access supernatural or visionary experience, whether you’re talking about Stonehenge or Salisbury Cathedral, puts you in a position with potential for power and wealth. And if seeds grow better after treatment at the sites, what about cattle? What about children?

Burke and Halberg have done their homework. They quote recent archaeological research, consult with experts on the sites they measure. They present their findings in a tone of humble offering to the field of knowledge rather than as a wild claim coupled with an accusation of cover-up, and the book is more readable for that.

It does have its faults, but most could be cleared up in a future printing. For example, they print an old map of pre-Columbian rock chambers of southern New England without printing the key that goes with it, leaving the reader wondering what all the little symbols mean. Not every reader will be the kind of geek who keeps an old copy of Sal Trento’s The Search for Lost America in the living room for reference. [Fortunately for you, that is precisely the kind of geek this humble reviewer is, so mark this down: black dots are stone piles, curved lines are wall complexes, black squares are inscribed stones, empty triangles are slab-roofed chambers, vertical lines are standing stones, inverted black triangles are perched rocks. And bear in mind that, impressive as it may seem, the map would be considered by those in the know to be laughably incomplete.]

I was glad to find that American stone work sites are included, even though my state is not represented in the list of sites given in the back for those who wish to experiment for themselves. If there’s anywhere that their style and authority deteriorates, it is in the last chapter, the one on Egypt. Their theorizing there seems more speculative, less grounded. I began to wonder whether the writers had a hidden agenda, were perhaps hoping to use this research in a future book to make a case for a pre-diluvian master civilization or something. I hope not. It is exactly the absence of that kind of wild leap that makes this book so palatable.

In an interview a friend of mine once had with a tribal elder, he asked why the sites near us were placed where they were. The elder said something to the effect that before radio waves and TV, before the vibrations of traffic on the highway and lines of pylons over the landscape, certain places had different feelings that people could detect, and that some of the stonework was built on those sites. This book says basically the same thing. I think it’s an angle worth considering. Those uplifting feelings some of us get at the sites may be based, in part, on something we can measure.

After you’ve read the book, the question arises, why wasn’t this important information preserved? How was the 'lost technology of the ancient megalith builders' lost? I wonder - could it be that the words ancient people used to describe the electromagnetic effects were translated as ‘spirits’ and that as modern times approached the knowledge was suppressed as the devil’s work? For me the best thing about this book is how it raises the hope that modern and ancient shamanic technologies may yet come together, that modern man may yet recognise how in the earth lie powers that touch us as they touched those who raised the stones.

Review by Nancy Wisser, aka aluta

Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty: Understanding the Lost Technology of the Ancient Megalith-Builders (Hardcover)
by John Burke, Kai Halberg
# Hardcover: 255 pages
# Publisher: Council Oak Books (November 15, 2005)
# Language: English
# ISBN: 1571781846

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1571781846

Contributor Bio for aluta: Well, Clonehenge. Other than that I like ancient sites, ancient stones, long walks and good conversation.

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