SACRED PLACES -important facts about sacred places around the globe ( part 1)

Sacred places

What is the actual nature of the sacred sites? How can we explain the extraordinary , often miraculous , phenomena that occur at them? What makes them sacred, and what do people hope to gain from their visits to the sites?

In addition to a wide variety of Paleolithic and Neolithic sacred sites, thousands of places were venerated by the historical religions of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Islam, Sikkism, Zoroasterism. Some sacred places were naturally-occurring geological features such as caves, mountains, forest glens, springs and waterfalls. Other holy places were identified by a variety of human-made ceremonial structures such as pyramids, stone rings, temples, mosques etc .

Many of these places had been venerated since deep antiquity. Others had become pilgrimage centers only recently. Initially confused by this great diversity , few things are essential for a deeper understanding of the subject.

It is possible to recognize many factors that contribute to the mysterious power of sacred sites. These various factors function, independently and together, to create, perpetuate and amplify a presence or field of energy that surrounds and saturates the sacred sites. This energy field, or power of place, may be defined as a nonmaterial region of influence extending in space and continuing in time. To conceptualize this idea of sacred sites having spatially defined energy fields, it is useful to consider the phenomenon of magnetism. While science is not able to fully explain the dynamics of this power, the phenomenon is real. It is called a field.

Similar to the power of a magnet, the power of a sacred site is an invisible field of energy permeating the area of the sacred site. Myths and legends of the sacred places tell of certain sites that have the miraculous ability to heal the body, enlighten the mind, increase creativity, develop psychic abilities and awaken the soul to a knowing of its true purpose in life. It looks that the energy fields of the sacred sites are responsible for these extraordinary phenomena.

Evidence indicating the existence of such energy fields may be found by studying the discovery, development and continuing use of sacred sites. How were the sacred site locations initially discovered or chosen? What are the ethos and the esoteric wisdom that went into the construction of the structures and artifacts at the sites? Why do human beings continue to visit the sites over long periods of time? Considering these questions will allow us to build a convincing argument for the existence of subtle energy fields at the sacred sites.

Although this information is intellectually fascinating, it is to introduce the idea of a power of place existing at the sacred sites . Simply by walking into the immediate area of a sacred site a pilgrim enters into the energy field of the place whether they know of the presence of energy fields or is unaware of them. Our experience of the energy fields, however, may be amplified by consciously connecting with them through knowledge, intention and meditation. By knowing of the existence of the fields, by mentally intending to connect with them and by practicing meditation when we are at the sacred sites, we can actually establish a psychic linkup with the power of place. Such a linkup with the fields will assist us in more fully benefiting from the power of the sacred sites. When a person visits a ceremonial monument, is it their intellect, their five senses, their intuition, or the electromagnetic fields around their bodies that perceive the place? One may individually respond in a limited set of ways to a site, but it is crucial to know that one's preferred reactions are only part of a network of knowing that is involved in a more complete description of the place.

Knowing means having an understanding of such matters as the mythology, archaeology, history, geology and maybe celestial orientation of a site. Feeling means the ability to sense and tune into the presence of power at a site.
The ancient people who discovered the power places and erected structures at them quite probably related with the sites through both feeling and knowing. Numerous kinds of power places and sacred sites may be found around the world. As we examine the factors contributing to the presence of energy fields at these places, it will be useful to have a list of the kinds of sites one may encounter. It is possible to identified thirty-two categories of power places . Some of these categories overlap and some of the sites mentioned could be listed under two or more categories.

-- Sacred mountains: Olympus, Fuji, Popocatepetl, Ararat, Kailash, Hesperus

-- Human-built sacred mountains: Great Pyramid, Teotihuacan, Silbury Hill, Cahokia mound

-- Sacred bodies of water: Pushkar Lake, Ganges River, Lake Titicaca, Blue Lake

-- Sacred islands: Lindisfarne, Iona, Miyajima, Delos, Wizard, Valaam

-- Healing springs: Asklepions, Milk River, Bath, Tomagawa Onsen

-- Healing and power stones: Blarney, Men-an-tol, Kabba

-- Sacred trees and forest groves: Bodh Gaya, Anuradhapura, St. Catherine's at Sinai, Glastonbury

-- Places of ancient mythological importance: Vrindavan, Izumo Taisha, Kachina Peak

-- Ancient ceremonial sites: Machu Picchu, Karnack, Palenque

-- Ancient astronomical observatories: Stonehenge, Monte Alban, Externsteine, Carnac, Fajada Butte

-- Human-erected solitary standing stones: throughout the world

-- Megalithic chambered mounds: Newgrange, Gavr'inis, sites around the northeastern United States

-- Labyrinth sites: Knossos, Glastonbury Tor, turf mazes of England, stone mazes of Scandinavia

-- Places with massive landscape carvings: Cerne Abas giant, Serpent Mound, Nazca lines

-- Regions delineated by sacred geographies: Kii peninsula, Languedoc, Australian songlines

-- Oracular caves, mountains, and sites: Siwa, Delphi, Patmos, Hebron, Mt. Sinai, Katsuragi San

-- Male deity / god shrines / yang sites: Shiva jyotir lingams, Apollonian temples

-- Female deity / goddess shrines / yin sites: Shakti Pitha, Diana temples, St. Brigid springs, Marian shrines

-- Birthplaces of saints: Lumbini, Bethlehem, Assisi

-- Places where sages attained enlightenment: Shatrunajaya, Nantai San, Bodh Gaya, Mt. Tabor

-- Death places of saints: Kushinager, Dakshineshwar, Tiruvanamalai

-- Sites where relics of saints and martyrs were/are kept: Canterbury, Kandy, Mt. Athos, Vezelay, Konya

-- Places with enigmatic fertility legends and/or images: Cerne Abas, Sayil, Paestum

-- Places with miracle-working icons: Sabarimala, Tinos Island, Izamal, Guadalupe

-- Places chosen by animals or birds: Durham, Talpa

-- Places chosen by various geomantic divinatory methods: Koya San, Chinese feng shui sites

-- Ancient esoteric schools: Giza, Chartres, Uxmal, Mitla, Ephesus

-- Ancient monasteries: Lhasa, Externsteine, Mihintale, Ellora

-- Places where dragons were slain or sighted: St. Michael's Mount, Delphi

-- Places of Marian apparitions: Zaragoza, Lourdes, Fatima, Knock, Zeitun

-- Unique natural features: geysers, volcanoes, sink holes

-- Places where UFOs or other anomalous extraterrestrial phenomena have been seen .

Planet Earth is an enormously complex entity experiencing multiple energetic phenomena that interact with human beings in both known and unknown ways. Atmospheric conditions, temperature variations and sunlight intensity are examples of such energy phenomena that profoundly affect humans both physically and psychologically. The same is true of various geophysical phenomena such as magnetism, radioactivity, gravity, the presence of subsurface water, the presence of concentrated mineral ores, volcanic activity, earthquakes, tremors, and other seismic activity, ultrasound, ionization, earth lights phenomena and other geophysical anomalies. Research has shown that many ancient sacred sites are located directly upon or in close proximity to areas known to have unusual levels of these various kinds of geophysical phenomena.
In Iceland, for example, the main national site, the tenth-century AD Althing, was built not merely on a fault, but on the rift formed between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates - an extension of the mid-Atlantic ridge. In Ohio, in the United States, the 2,000-year old Serpent Mound, an inexplicable earthwork a quarter of a mile long, was built over a geological site unique in that country: due to volcanic action or meteoric impact it is a highly compressed area of intensive faulting . The greatest megalithic complex in the world, around Carnac in Brittany, France, is hemmed in by fault systems, and occupies France's most volatile tectonic region . In England and Wales all stone circles are situated within a mile of a surface fault or an associated tectonic intrusion . Clearly, the association of such important sites with such distinctive geological features would not have happened by chance.

If we are not dealing with some bizarre coincidence, what could the ancients have been seeking at fault zones? The first, obvious answer is that these parts of the Earth's crust have been subjected to considerable tectonic forces; they are natural "energy zones". Faults tend to have high mineralization around them affecting local electric and magnetic fields, and to be points of weakness where stress and strain in the crust can manifest, causing energy effects within and above the ground.
In nearly every region of the world ancient people revered particular rock outcroppings, springs, caves and forest groves. Energy-monitoring studies have revealed that many of these sites do indeed have unusual geophysical energy anomalies relative to the surrounding countryside. Without scientific devices to measure the high-energy fields of these sites, how did prehistoric people determine their precise locations? Perhaps an answer may be found in the human faculty of sensing; ancient people somehow felt the energies of the sites. While this idea may at first seem preposterous, it gains credibility when we learn that neuroscientists estimate contemporary human beings use no more than 5-15 percent of their inherent mental faculties. Perhaps prehistoric people used, consciously or unconsciously, other parts of the brain that allowed them to sense the energy fields of the sacred sites. It is common knowledge that human beings develop skills and understandings uniquely appropriate to the place and time in which they live. Ancient people, living in harmony with the Earth and dependent upon its bounty for all their needs, may have developed skills that modern people no longer use, cultivate or even recognize. Therefore, in the same way any of us today can sense variations in temperature - simply a change in the thermal energy field - prehistoric people could perhaps sense subtle geophysical energies at particular places on the land.
To give further credibility to this idea , consider the ability of various animal species to travel with unerring accuracy across great distances. Unable to explain the phenomenon, scientists have suggested that these animals have some kind of brain mechanism that gives them the ability to navigate by sensing the electromagnetic fields that crisscross the planet. These species have a "turned on" brain and sensing faculty in relation to the energetic environment in which they live. Is it not conceivable that the species Homo sapiens, with its enormously complex brain, has a similar sensing faculty? Possessing such a faculty does not necessarily imply having a conscious awareness or understanding of the sensing process. A bird can return to its nesting place without having any conscious mental awareness of the behavior. Prehistoric people could likewise have been attracted to the power places on the Earth without even being aware of the attraction.

The ancients sensed the places of power but how then would they explain them? Not having the scientific knowledge to understand the geological causes of their felt experiences of power place energies, prehistoric people might have sought to explain those energies with myths and legends about spirits, deities, gods and goddesses, and magical powers. The sacred sites of antiquity were those places where spirits entered from otherworldly realms. In order to more fully understand the powers of these places, it is important to study the connection between the existence of localized geophysical anomalies and the so-called paranormal phenomena spoken of in the miracles and legends of holy places.

A large percentage of the world's major holy sites are in locations that are, or once were, places of great visual beauty. The rarity and beauty of such places have affected human beings since the dawn of time, arousing in them feelings of awe, reverence, inspiration and peace.

There is a touch of magic light. It can be understood intuitively, but not conveyed in words. The hills are fair, the waters fine, the sun handsome, the breeze mild; and the sky has a new light: another world. Amid confusion, peace; amid peace, a festive air. Try to understand! It is hard to describe.

Unusual geographic features, in addition to having an aesthetic influence on the human soul, also have an effect through the power inherent in their symbolic meaning. Geographic space is subject to conceptualization. People have always given various meanings to spectacular features of the land. In ancient times mountain peaks were sanctified as abodes of the gods and as connecting links to the sky, stars and the heavenly realm. To make a pilgrimage to a sacred mountain symbolized a person's yearning for contact with the divine, the luminous and the visionary. Caves and springs, on the other hand, were thought to be gateways to the underworld, and a sojourn to such a place could be a potent symbol of the journey into the hidden realms of the psyche. There is, however, more to symbols, especially in the domain of the sacred, than these definitions indicate. Symbols are not only representations or suggestions of things; they can also be actual conduits of the essence of those things into the mind, body and soul of a human being. Even more, symbols may be understood to be the thing itself; sacred images do not refer to, rather they are.

In order to deeply understand a symbol, person must assimilate it; it has to become part of spiritual geography . The recitation of a myth does not "remind" a tribal member of its truth; the myth exists in timelessness, and its recitation is the myth here and now. A primordial language has a mysterious quality of transmission and is indivisible from the reality it evokes .Those who stand outside these traditional means of invoking, or more accurately, recognizing spiritual reality may think that symbols "stand for" something, but this is not true. Rather, what we are calling symbols are really the spiritual truth embodied, or manifested . By understanding spiritual symbolism in this higher sense , as entry into visionary reality , humans come to understand something of the real nature of sacred sites.

Symbols, according to the belief people invest in them, can be enormously effective in catalyzing both psychological and physiological transformation. The power of a symbol derives both from the archetype of which the symbol is a direct manifestation and, equally, from the exercise of human belief. The practice of belief, of consciously held intention, allows for the evocation of the particular quality indicated by the symbol. Belief is thus a way of "tapping into" and drawing from the realm of the miraculous. Intention is the connecting link with the power of the sacred sites.

Throughout the ages many cultures have conceived of geographic space and expressed those conceptions in a variety of ways. One expression of these conceptions has been by the establishment of sacred geographies. Sacred geography may be broadly defined as the regional geographic locating of sacred places according to various mythological, symbolic, astrological, geodesical and shamanic factors. Let ‘s briefly discuss examples of each of these kinds of sacred geographies. Perhaps the oldest form of sacred geography and one that has its genesis in mythology is that of the aborigines of Australia. According to aboriginal legends, in the mythic period of the beginning of the world known as the dreamtime, ancestral beings in the form of totemic animals and humans emerged from the interior of the Earth and began to wander over the land. As these dreamtime ancestors roamed the Earth they created features of the landscape through such everyday actions as birth, play, singing, fishing, hunting, marriage and death. At the end of the dreamtime these features hardened into stone and the bodies of the ancestors turned into hills, boulders, caves, lakes and other distinctive landforms. These places became sacred sites. The paths the totemic ancestors had trod across the landscape became known as dreaming tracks, or songlines, and they connected the sacred places of power. The mythological wanderings of the ancestors thus gave the aborigines a sacred geography, a pilgrimage tradition and a nomadic way of life. For more than forty thousand years - making it the oldest continuing culture in the world - the aborigines followed the dreaming tracks of their ancestors. During the course of the yearly cycle various aboriginal tribes would make journeys, called walkabouts, along the songlines of various totemic spirits, returning year after year to the same traditional routes. As people trod these ancient pilgrimage routes they sang songs that told the myths of the dreamtime and gave travel directions across the vast deserts to other sacred places along the songlines. At the totemic sacred sites, where dwelt the mythical beings of the dreamtime, the aborigines performed various rituals to invoke the kurunba, or spirit power of the place. This power could be used for the benefit of the tribe, the totemic spirits of the tribe and the health of the surrounding lands. For the aborigines, walkabouts along the songlines of their sacred geography were a way to support and regenerate the spirits of the living Earth and also a way to experience a living memory of their ancestral dreamtime heritage. Another example of a sacred geography may be found in the landscape mandalas of Japanese Shingon Buddhism. Used as aids in meditation by both Hindus and Buddhists, mandalas are geometric arrangements of esoteric symbols or symbolic representations of the abodes of various deities. Drawn or painted on paper, cloth, wood or metal and gazed upon by meditators, mandalas are normally no more than a few square feet in size. Considered to be symbolic representations of the residence of the Buddha, these landscape mandalas produced a sacred geography for the practice and realization of Buddhahood. The mandalas were projected upon a number of pre-Buddhist (Shinto) and Buddhist sacred mountains, and the practice of monks and pilgrims was to travel from peak to peak in order to venerate the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas residing on them. Just as a meditator would "enter" a painted mandala through visual concentration upon it, a pilgrim to the landscape mandalas of the Kii peninsula would enter the mountains, thereby entering the realm of the Buddha. The passage through the landscape mandalas was made according to a specific and circuitous route. Ascents of the sacred mountains were conceived of as metaphorical ascents through the world of enlightenment, with each stage in the long walking pilgrimage representing a stage in the process through the realms of existence conceived of by Buddhism.

Another fascinating form of sacred geography was practiced in ancient China. Called feng-shui , it was a mixture of astrology, topography, landscape architecture, yin-yang magic and Taoist mythology. The Chinese look upon nature not as a dead, inanimate fabric, but as a living, breathing organism. They see a golden chain of spirited life running through every form of existence and binding together, as in one living body, everything that subsists in heaven above or earth below. This living spirit or life force was called chi and it was believed to manifest in three forms: one that circulates in the atmosphere, one in the earth, and another that moves through the human body . Beginning as early as 2000 BC, the Chinese were conducting skilled topographical surveys and interpreting landforms according to the beliefs of Taoist mythology and astrology. By the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) all of China south of the Great Wall had been organized into a vast sacred geography. Mountainous regions were believed to have vigorous rushing chi while flat and monotonous land had sluggish slow-moving chi. Feng-shui, which literally means "wind-water", was the practice of harmonizing the chi of the land with the chi of human beings for the benefit of both. Temples, monasteries, dwellings, tombs and seats of government were established at places with an abundance of good chi. At certain sites varying degrees of landscape alteration would be undertaken to further improve the presence and movement of chi. Hills would be contoured or truncated and the course of rivers would be changed in order to produce the best energetic conditions for various human activities. These naturally occurring power places that were structurally altered by humans became some of the primary sacred sites of China.
Astrology has also been the basis of sacred geographies found in other parts of the world.

The evidence of the monuments shows in an undeniable way, but not yet clearly perceived, that during more than two thousand years, the Phoenicians, the Hittites, the ancient Greeks, and then the Etruscans, the Carthaginians, and the Romans, had patiently woven a fabric of correspondences between the sky, especially the apparent course of the sun through the zodiac, the inhabited earth, and the cities built by humanity.

Some experts present diagrams of immense astrological zodiacs overlaid on the mainland and islands of Greece. With central points at such sacred sites as the Parthenon in Athens, the oracle shrines of Delphi and oasis Siwa, Egypt, and the island of Delos the zodiacs extended across the lands and seas, passing through numerous important pilgrimage centers of great antiquity. The architects of these vast terrestrial zodiacs were making their country a living image of the heavens. While the knowledge of how people originally used these great landscape temples is long forgotten, the locations of many of the individual sacred sites comprising the zodiacs are still known.

Other sacred geographies have their basis in geodesy. A branch of applied mathematics, geodesy is concerned with the magnitude and figure of the Earth, and the location of points on its surface. The early Egyptians were masters of this science. The prime longitudinal meridian of predynastic Egypt was laid out to bisect the country precisely in half, passing from the city of Behdet on the Mediterranean coast, through an island in the Nile near the Great Pyramid, all the way to where it crossed the Nile again at the Second Cataract. Cities and ceremonial centers were purposely constructed at distances precisely measured from this sacred longitudinal line. At each of these geodetic centers a stone marker called an omphalos , was placed in a temple and marked with meridians and parallels, showing the direction and distances to other sacred sites. There is actually a pattern in their distribution which indicates a highly advanced science of geography in ancient times .The oracle centers of Dodona, Delphi, Delos, Cythera, Knossos and Cyprus are linked as a series, they are all separated from each other by a degree of latitude and are integral degrees of latitude from Behdet in Egypt . It is extraordinary that if you place a compass point on Thebes in Egypt you can draw an arc through both Dodona and Metsamor. The fact is that an equilateral triangle is formed by the lines joining Thebes with Dodona and Mt. Ararat. These facts cannot possibly be an accident.

We also find tantalizing evidence of ancient landscape geometries in France, Germany and England. In the Languedoc region of southern France, for example, preliminary research has revealed a complex arrangement of pentagons, pentacles, circles, hexagons and grid lines laid out over some forty square miles of territory. Situated around a natural yet mysteriously a mathematically perfect pentagram of five mountain peaks, ancient builders erected a vast landscape temple whose component parts were precisely positioned according to the arcane knowledge of sacred geometry.

In both England and Germany researchers have found extensive evidence of another form of sacred geography, this being the linear arrangements of ancient sacred sites over long distances. The English lines, more so than the German, are particularly well known. Archaeological dating has since confirmed the Neolithic origin of these lines but has disproved the notion that the lines were used for transportation purposes because the lines run arrow-straight across the land, making them impractical for transportation uses.

In this brief discussion of sacred geographies it is necessary also consider the enigma of the straight lines left on the landscape by archaic cultures in the Western Hemisphere. Examples include the Nazca lines in Peru, similar lines on the altiplano deserts of western Bolivia, and the extensive linear markings left by the Anasazi Indians in the vicinity of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. Mystified as to the origin and purpose of the Chaco lines, mainstream archaeology interprets them as ancient traders' tracks. This explanation is untenable. The lines do not follow the natural contours of the terrain but rather run straight across the land, often going up the face of vertical cliffs, making them completely unsuitable for transportation of either people or supplies. Furthermore, terrain-specific roads and tracks dating from the same periods as the straight lines have been found nearby, thus undermining the explanation that the Chacoan straight lines were used for transportation purposes.

They may be spirit lines – marking left upon the surface of the Earth to represent the spirit journeys, magical flights and out-of-body experiences of ancient shamans. The lines are thus the physical correlates of the routes of shamanic flight in the spirit landscape.

Certain naturally occurring shapes and forms are mysteriously pleasing to the human eye. Examples are the graceful swirl of a nautilus shell, the crystalline structures of the mineral kingdom and the remarkable patterns found in snowflakes and flowers. However, it is not only the subject matter of these forms that captures our attention. Equally important are the proportional arrangements of the individual parts comprising the total form. The same is true with different forms of art such, a good example being classical painting. In Europe during Medieval and Renaissance times a number of painters are known to have laid out the initial design of their paintings according to particular geometric formulas. Sculptors and painters in the Islamic world did the same. The positioning of elements within the frame of a painting was considered as important as the subject matter itself. European classical painters are said to have inherited these positioning formulas from the mystery schools of the Greeks and Arabs who in turn had gotten them from the ancient Egyptians. But where did the Egyptians get this knowledge?

The Egyptians and other cultures of antiquity derived these geometric formulas by keen observation of the natural world. We call this branch of knowledge sacred geometry and find its influence not only in painting but also in certain styles of religious architecture. The formation of matter from energy and the natural motions of the universe, from molecular vibration to the growth of organic forms to the motions of planets, stars, and galaxies are all governed by geometrical configurations of force. This geometry of nature is the essence of the sacred geometry used in the design and construction of so many of the world's ancient sacred shrines. These shrines encode ratios of creation and thereby mirror the universe. Certain shapes found in ancient temples, developed and designed according to the mathematical constants of sacred geometry, actually gather, concentrate and radiate specific modes of vibration. For example, a particular structural geometry and precise directional orientation of a pyramid shape completely alters the electromagnetic properties of the space contained within the pyramid. Three dimensional structure and vibration are absolutely, though mysteriously connected. This is well known to makers of musical instruments. It was also known to the makers of ancient temples. Certain shapes resonate to cosmic frequencies too fine to be registered on the electromagnetic spectrum. The fineness of the vibration is the key to their powerful effect. It is similar to the concept behind homeopathy where the slighter the application the greater the response.

Fundamentally, sacred geometry is simply the ratios of numbers to one another: 1:2, 2:3, 4:5. When such numerical ratios are incorporated into three-dimensional form we have the most graceful and alluring architecture in the world. When those very same ratios are expressed in the domain of sounds they yield the transcendental and transformative music of Indian ragas, Tibetan overtone chanting, Gregorian chanting, African drumming, and the masterwork of Bach, Mozart and other European classical composers.

While not all the forms found in geometry and nature are harmonic in nature, those that we find most beautiful to the eye do indeed adhere to harmonic series. In particular, forms that express ratios based upon the octave (2:1), fourths (4:3), fifths (3:2), and thirds (5:4) create forms that are visually harmonious. The knowledge of how to use these harmonic ratios to create architecture was basic to the ancient mystery schools of Egypt and Greece. Pythagoras, who got his knowledge of these matters from thirty-three years of wandering and studying in Mesopotamia and Egypt, was especially influential in introducing this sacred geometry to the Greeks, and thereby to Western civilization.

One sacred geometrical proportion, known as the Golden Mean or the Golden Section, was immensely important to ancient architects. The Golden Section is a geometric proportion in which the ratio of the whole to the larger part is the same as the ratio of the larger part to the smaller. Thus a:b = b:(a-b). The Golden Section often involves proportions that relate to the ratios found in the major sixth (3:5) and the minor sixth (5:8). Atomic physicists, chemists, crystallographers, biologists, botanists and astronomers have found these same ratios to be the underlying mathematical framework of the universe. The ratios are also present in the human body and mind, perhaps accounting for the profound and transformative effects of sacred architecture and sacred music upon the human organism. An ancient Hindu architectural sutra says "The universe is present in the temple in the form of proportion." Therefore, when you are within a structure fashioned with sacred geometry, you are within a model of the universe. The vibrational quality of sacred space thus brings your body and mind into harmony with the universe.

At sacred sites around the world, particularly the more ancient ones, builders frequently used rock having subtle, natural energies such as granite, magnetic stones with reversed fields and stones with high concentrations of quartz and related minerals. Sometimes these stones were used because they were the most widely available local building material, yet often prehistoric builders went to considerable trouble to bring the stones from distant sources. Granite is known to be a source of low-level natural radioactivity. Presumably the ancient builders sensed the energy of this stone and used it for ceremonial and healing purposes. Prehistoric peoples in England and France also constructed enclosed chambers with enormous slabs of granite. Called dolmens, quoits, depending on the region, these chambers were then covered with alternating layers of organic and inorganic material that some researchers believe gathered and concentrated the energies emitted by the granite. These chambers were not originally used for burials but instead by living persons for initiatory, shamanistic, religious and healing purposes.

At other ancient sacred sites researchers have recorded magnetic anomalies in particular stones. Communicating with the Living World of Gaia . It has become clear that megalith builders in Britain did make use of specific stones in the construction of some of their sacred monuments. Sites have now been identified where just one stone out of many is able to scramble a compass. Sacred Sites-Doorways into Earth's Mysteries, magnetic stones so far found at sites are selectively placed - at cardinal points in circles, on astronomical sightlines, or exist as the dominant megalith in a monument. How could they have been used to augment altered states? Certain parts of the brain are sensitive to magnetic fields - particularly the temporal lobe region which houses the organs that process memory, dreams, and feelings. There is an archaic tradition of sleeping on stones of power to achieve visions. The classic case is of course Jacob who slept with his head on a bethel, or sacred stone. The Japanese emperors also had a special dreaming stone (kamudoko). It is possible to imagine megalithic shaman, in an altered state of consciousness, lying or sleeping in head contact with the stone of power at a site. This might have helped to engender special visions. Low-level magnetic fields have also been shown to stimulate more rapid healing of broken bones. Obviously, prehistoric people would not think of the power of these stones in the scientific terms of magnetism and natural radioactivity but rather as evidence of spirits or magical powers. Whatever terms are used to describe the power of the stones is of only superficial importance. What is important for our current discussion is that the building materials used at certain sacred sites do indeed have a power that contributes to the overall energetic field of the site. The ancients also made frequent use of precious metals and gemstones in the sanctuaries of their ceremonial structures. Legends are told of entire rooms built of gold and silver, and of fabled gems worshipped for their mystic powers. The use of such materials, however, was usually concentrated in the statues of the deities worshipped at a site. This practice was common among cultures around the world, from the Hindus and Buddhists of Asia, to the cultures encircling the Mediterranean, to the Olmecs, Mayans and Incas of the Western Hemisphere. Cast or sculpted from gold and silver, the statues were studded with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, topazes etc . Besides their remarkable visual beauty, these gemstones were known to have powers that catalyzed spiritual transformation, healing and visionary trance states. The ancients believed these powers were activated primarily by the unique vibrations specific to each kind of stone and secondarily by the pure colors of the stones. Precious metals and gemstones were also combined in various proportions according to secret formulas developed in great antiquity or revealed to humans by the gods.

Throughout the world builders have utilized light and color to enhance the transformative power of sacred spaces. Candles, torches and various types of fuel-burning lamps were used in this way. The effect produced by such lighting can be truly enchanting. Clustered beneath golden statues of the gods and goddess, myriad flickering candle flames simultaneously shower radiance throughout the shrine and within the pilgrim's heart. Another method of illumination was to guide the sun's light into the sacred spaces. Long before the development of glassmaking, builders created latticework screens that served as windows. Islamic architects in particular used this technique to fashion stone and wooden screens of the most exquisite beauty. With openings carved in geometric shapes and intricate designs, these screens brought dazzling beams of light into the dark interiors of the shrines. As the sun's angle changed with the passage of hours, shafts of light danced slowly across floors and walls, creating lovely patterns of light and shadow.

Colors were added to these magical displays by hanging long pieces of dyed silk and other diaphanous fabrics over the screens. Rays of sunlight then shown through the colored fabrics to bathe the shrines in rainbows of color. Especially delicate screens had jewels placed within their lattice openings, and the sun's light became a carrier for the particular vibration of each jewel it passed through. With the advent of glass making the lattice openings began to be filled in with small pieces of translucent, colored glass. With the further innovation of plate glass, entire windows of colored glass began to adorn the sacred places. Builders at sacred sites have long used the colors of the spectrum. While the therapeutic and spiritual uses of colors are nearly unknown in modern times, various early cultures had a refined knowledge of the subject. The ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians and Mayans all recognized that different colors were effective in treating both physiological and psychological ailments, as well as contributing to the awakening of spiritual insight. In esoteric Hinduism, for example, the seven psycho-spiritual energy centers of the human body, called chakras, are each associated with and stimulated by one of the seven colors of the rainbow . These colors were extensively used within temples, particularly in the adornment of deities, according to precise combinations indicated in secret texts. Because each color held a certain vibration, the mixing of colors produced a visual symphony of vibrations in the same way that an orchestra combines the sounds of many instruments. Research indicates that the builders of Mayan pyramids and ceremonial structures made frequent use of this science of color combination. Centuries of time and the ravages of the elements may have stripped temple surfaces yet interior frescos reveal that many temples were once painted, both inside and out, in a range of splendid colors with such precise combinations of exotic minerals were believed to be animated by divine intelligence. Stationary but nonetheless alive, the statues of the deities saw deeply into the hearts and minds of worshippers and gave to them transmissions of power uniquely appropriate to each individual.