title: God Code
author/editor: Gregg Braden
reviewed by: Joan
GOD CODE
The title of this book is not a play on Dan Brown's best seller fiction, The DaVinci Code. That book is a rip-roaring thriller filled with mayhem and danger. It dubiously links ancient times with the present.
No, God Code is a real-life story of astonishing discoveries being made by scientists like the author, Gregg Braden. Scientists have noted linkages between modern scientific DNA and information given in the most ancient Hebrew and Arabic writings.
Braden, a respected scientist, suggests that each area supports the idea of a universal intelligence. He suggests a "marriage" of religion and science is occurring in the outposts of modern research.
If you like to ponder BIG questions like, Where do we come from, really, this book offers an exciting look at raw information about us and our beginnings. It requires a thorough reading to grasp the entire logic of Braden's findings. However, following is an overview.
First, ancient writings tell of four earth elements -- from which God made man - which are corroborated by science. The ancient Hebrew alphabet assigned numerical values to each letter. These numbers were used to give hidden meanings to words. The elements which make up our bodies, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen also have numerical values given them in the Periodic Table of Elements (PTE). These numbers correspond to their atomic mass or density. If you apply the numerical values of those four elements of the PTE then link them to the ancient Hebrew value/ letters, they spell God Eternal Within. (The odds of this happening by accident are very, very high.) Thus, every person on earth, in fact, every living organism has in every cell the genetic code for the words, God within.
Further, Braden draws from other sciences like archeology and anthropology which offer ideas about our past and our future. He points out some alarming statistics about the number of wars and other dangerous trends in this century which he calls, "The bloodiest century in history." He agrees with the late Carl Sagan that we are in a technological adolescence. Our technological advancement is doubling every decade.
Unfortunately, our spiritual insight and wisdom is lagging behind. He hopes that realizing that we are one with our creator (and therefore, with one another) will help us move past our cultural differences and historical hatreds so we can live in peace. The challenge is to get this information from the level of scientists to the minds and hearts of every man. This will not be easy in the face of resistance from long-entrenched traditional mistrust between races and religions.
The reading is not "heavy" in the sense that the book tires the reader. Rather, it is a serious story that deals with the rapidly changing world we live in. Braden's writing style is optimistic and visionary.
For me, it is a new, positive revelation in a time of seeming pessimism and old ideas.
Joan adds, "Four of us went to a Gregg Braden workshop. We found him to be bright and charismatic as he chatted with us. In his presentation, he talked about his future work deciphering DNA, which comes in many layers, using the tools he's already developed. He and others believe their work will bring insight and maturity to our small but diverse planet."