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

human cultures, deeply affecting consciousness as well as economic development. Place, in the geographical sense, was driving history.
    Following in the footsteps of Lévy-Bruhl, Ramsey’s initial research had centered on how sacred places had organized primitive societies. In these cultures, the whole natural world was alive with magic. Mountains, rivers, trees, almost anything could become sacred to a tribal group. Urged forward by Diamond, Ramsey had achieved a great insight. He discovered that a major factor in moving from nomadic tribal groups to primitive agricultural settlements was the establishment of permanent sacred places. Early on they were often burial grounds. He had written a paper on the effigy-mound builders, who prospered over 1,000 years ago in the upper Mississippi Valley. He demonstrated how critical these sacred mounds were to their success as agriculturalists. What became known as the Ramsey Principle stated that at least three percent of any early agriculturalist territory needed to be devoted to sacred places for it to become prosperous agricultural society.
    So when the postdoc opportunity at the University of Oregon had come up, Ramsey proposed to Myriam that he would try to prove or disprove the possibility that there were inherently powerful spotsdistributed across the planet, which humans have fashioned into sacred places. This had led him to investigate with the latest scientific energy detecting and remote sensing equipment some of the world’s most famous sacred places.
    Beginning in the United States, he had gone to the Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark in Wyoming. From there he had traveled around the world. First to Jokhang in Tibet, then to Lourdes in France, India’s sacred Elephanta Caves on Gharapuri Island, and the Minoan Caves in Crete. At each place he had used his ability to feel. As he often had described it to other researchers, “I was able to listen to the geographical story the place is telling. When listening deeply, I saw and felt the power of the place with new eyes and ears.”
    It was like what Ramsey heard at a talk by one of the astronauts who had walked on the moon, Edgar Mitchell, who described the mystical experiences he and his fellow astronauts had when they saw the Earth from outer space. Mitchell had said, “On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, and harmonious.” At times Ramsey found himself wanting to understand this sort of experience more than he wanted to find answers to his research questions.
    Ramsey felt the air pressure change around him, the slight prickle of static electricity. A faint rumble of thunder echoed against the dark clouds closing in on Grinnell. It reminded him of Glastonbury and a coincidence during his research trip that had ultimately led to the shrine and the growing mystery around Adam Gwillt.
    The last stop on his travels had brought him to England. By this time he had collected a great variety of anomalous readings associated with a number of sacred places. He was sure that a number of these readings had to do with nearby massive crystalline structures but no clear pattern or correlation between the sites was evident. He was tired and was ready to head back to Eugene where he would make sense out of all the data he had collected. It was at Glastonbury, the last stop on his British itinerary, that the coincidence happened.
    A major pilgrimage site for spiritual seekers in the twenty-first century, Glastonbury at one time had been touted as home to the fabled Isle of Avalon. Arthurian legend stated it was here that Arthur Pendragon had received the legendary sword of Excalibur. Later he came back here with Morgan le Fey to recover from wounds he suffered after defeating his mortal enemy Mordred at the Battle of Camlaan. Glastonbury was also reputed to be the