Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith
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Talisman - Sacred Cities, Secret Faith is a book by Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, published by Penguin UK, 27 May 2004.
The book claims that ancient and important modern buildings were built in specific geographic alignments to act as Talismans. These Talismans hone "astral energy" to protect cities from outside threats. The book compares the geographic layout of monuments built in ancient times to modern buildings in cities such as Paris and London.
Bauval and Hancock’s “historical evidence” for people wanting to build huge Talismans comes from drawing similarities between Egyptian beliefs, especially those of Hermes Trismegistus, and Gnostic Christians in Europe. The authors’ research many unsuccessful revolts across Europe against the Catholic Church and claim that these revolts were led by “Good Christians” who are later revealed in the book as “Freemasons”. The authors state that this group finally succeeded in their goal through the French and American Revolutions.
Once they had obtained power, the Freemasons then proceeded to build monuments and buildings in a particular geographic pattern in order to exploit “star energy” to protect their cities.
The authors conclude the book by claiming that the so-called “War on Terrorism” is nothing more than a continuation of an ancient battle between the Monotheistic Literalist Christian/Muslim religions and the Gnostic religions. They also claim that the Twin Towers are a part of a large Talisman in the USA. The Towers were not destroyed for economic and political reasons, but for spiritual reasons – Al Qaeda was attempting to destroy one part of a Freemason Talisman.
[edit] Criticism
On Content
It is a fun idea, and I don’t think it is beyond humans to think of aligning important buildings in a certain pattern based on superstitious beliefs. Many powerful people (such as Ronald Regan) used astrologers to help further their careers. However, basing the attack on the Twin Towers as an attempt to destroy part of a Freemason Talisman assumes that Al Qaeda had knowledge of the Talisman AND that Al Qaeda had a belief that it is these huge Talismans that provide America's power, as opposed to their economic, political, technological and military might.
On Writing Style
The writing is very dry and repetitive, in many cases the authors could have condensed a 30 page chapter into a 5 or 10 page chapter. It reminded me of high school kids trying to “add bullshit” to their essays if they were short a few hundred words.
On Credibility
It is written by Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval – who may or may not believe what they write, but definitely do try and jump on hot topics – and have been known for skewing facts and manipulating evidence to fit theory (see Orion Correlation Theory).
Links Talisman Website: [1]
