Read Online The Adam Enigma by Mark; Ronald C.; Reeder Meyer - Free Book Online

donations and run by a group called the Friends of the Shrine. A local priest actually rescinded his vows. But gradually something new emerged—an internet-based group called the New Gnostics, people impacted by the power of the shrine. I’m one. It’s a religious movement totally different than anything else. We communicate through a password-protected website. I’ll let you use my password if you like.”
    Ramsey’s eyes widened in surprise. “That would be fantastic. But wouldn’t I be getting you in trouble?”
    â€œThe New Gnostics believe in the power of the shrine and now that it’s gone, we’d like to know what happened.”
    â€œYou’re certain I’ll take the job.”
    Orensen smiled. “I can see you’re already on your way, and you’re the only one who can do it.”
    â€œMyriam said the same thing.”
    â€œHow far do you trust her?”
    Ramsey weighed what he knew about her against his own anger toward her, and pangs of guilt over flaunting the rules of her program and causing it to lose its funding. He wanted to trust her but he couldn’t be sure. She was a facilitator and manipulating people was part of her way of getting things done.
    â€œI’ll have to be careful,” he admitted.
    Orensen nodded. “I’ll do what I can to help.”

    O RENSEN WAVED GOODBYE and Ramsey watched him cross the street to his car parked in front of the historic Louis Sullivan Jewel Box Bank. The bank’s odd diamond-like façade was a city landmark. The Masonic-looking emblem seemed to point its tip right at the professor. Ramsey shook his head. The synchronicity contained in his friend’s story and its connection to the shrine gave him a new jolt of energy. He checked his watch. The call to Des Moines would have to wait. He ordered a cup of coffee. He needed some time to think about all the coincidences that had led up to this point, coincidences that went back twenty years to a meeting with Orensen in his office.
    Sitting behind a huge desk, littered with papers, tapes, post-it-notes, and strange curios, Professor Orensen had said, “I suspect your father has encouraged you to go into physical geography.”
    Ramsey had nodded an agreement. It had been a wonderful academic and practical field of inquiry in America for over one hundred years. Geography’s roots went back to the earliest mapmakers in Mesopotamia and Greece. Maps throughout history told the story of human development and that appealed to Ramsey. But what the professor said next changed his life forever.
    â€œHuman geography is where the future of the planet lies, Jonathan. Especially sacred places. Unwrapping the mystery behind their power will offer a guide to navigating through the troubled waters humanity will face as we approach the new millennium. Sacred geography is where the physical environment and spirit meet. If I were starting a career in geography today, that’s what I would set my sights on.”
    Ramsey took a sip of coffee and recalled the question that had niggled at him ever since his father had him read, at the age of sixteen, the writings of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. The famed anthropologist had written, “The land is a living book in which the myths are inscribed. A legend is captured in the very outlines of the landscape.”
    Like Ramsey, it turned out that Orensen’s urgings tied into a question that arose after the professor’s own reading of Lévy-Bruhl: Do sacred places have an embedded and detectable power to transform and heal people?
    A couple of years later when Ramsey had begun his graduate studies in human geography, there was a great intellectual debate over the validity and resurgence of interest in the principle of environmental determinism. Led by Jared Diamond’s breakout book, Guns, Germs, and Steel , the idea was that the physical environment was the primary factor in the development of