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God, Genes, and Consciousness: Nonhuman Intervention in Human History

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Author Paul Von Ward and 33% of the American public believe that extra-terrestrials have set foot on planet Earth, but you don't have to credit that idea to get something out of Gods, Genes, and Consciousness, which entertains as it educates. This book, an alternative history of Western Civilization, asserts that the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition is based on a mistake. Von Ward argues that "Sin" and "Satan" were originally good (for humans, anyway), while the authoritarian JHVH (Jehovah, Yahweh) was not-so-good.
An engaging writer, Von Ward relates the consequences of human contact with ABs (Advanced Beings) as if it were a rousing science fiction tale--but he feels it isn't.
The author's goal is to end religiocide (the killing of the members of one religion by the adherents of another), to return human consciousness to naturalism (as opposed to the misguided notion that gods exist in an other-worldly dimension--supernaturalism), and to harmonize human activity with the needs of other species and the Earth. This is a tall order, for which he proposes a "new mythology" debunking allegiance to individual gods such as YHVH, Christ and Allah. Von Ward espouses the "perennial philosophy," spirituality even a scientist can endorse, based on the concept that the Creative Forces which spawned the universe are manifest in each and all and everything.
No review can do justice to the breadth of Von Ward's reach. His book may become as popular as Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision or Julian Jaynes' The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It is certainly as radical.
Whether or not you wind up agreeing with his point of view, you will find it impossible to forget, impossible to entirely discount, and it will change your way of looking at God, and gods-and your own consciousness.

"Gods, Genes & Consciousness" is the most amazing and satisfying book I've read since Walsch's "Conversations" series. I smile and shake my head in wonderment every time I sit down and read or re-read any part. Von Ward has managed a Herculean task of assimilating and organizing mountains of scholarly information from dozens of areas and half a dozen millennia, and then has gracefully expressed, with scientific reasonableness, the most 'Copernican' ideas of our time: We are indeed the children of the gods, and the gods are ETs, a rainbow range of ETs from caring to controling. There is something even Pogo-esque here: We have met the gods, and they are us. At least, we're in the same family. Truly world-view shaking, paradigm shaking, orthodoxy shaking. In that mind-stretching class that includes Velikovsky and Sitchin, Von Ward is at the head of that class.

[and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth...] (The Fellowship of the Ring) -- and so I was reminded as I read every word (even the Endnotes) of this latest, quite excellent book by Paul Von Ward. The author used various resources (different sciences, religious and cultural accounts, translations of ancient texts and tablets, etc.) to research, examine and assess a more truthful account of the history of humans and society than what we've been led to believe. Von Ward's ecclectic, impressive background and his ability to ask questions others either fear to ask or never think to ask, only increase the compelling nature of the content. And the content, akin to the Red Pill of the Matrix, will indeed give readers an idea of how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Don't make the mistake I made and begin reading this book with a closed mind. If you do, you'll put it down after the first few chapters with the conviction that Von Ward is one fry short of a Happy Meal. Something in the back of my mind, however, made me pick it up each time I'd put it down, even though I was convinced that I needed to go onto something more in line with current thinking.

Current thinking, I found, is the problem.

I finished the book and found it refreshing. Von Ward gives the reader a new approach to understanding life, an approach which logically explains wars and the opium of religion. Reading Von Ward's book is like going through a religious de-toxification; you fight what you're reading because it goes against everything your parents and society has taught you since you were old enough to understand. But when you've finished the book, I hope that you will find, as I have, that you're no longer brainwashed into believing fairy tales.

I'm not an atheist and neither is Paul Von Ward. Reading this book has brought me closer to the spiritual force which inhabits all of us and everything. Find out why there's no intermediary needed between yourself and the life energy of creation.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a serious seeker of Truth and who isn't afraid of the answers.

Extra-terrestrials, gray aliens, advanced beings (AB's) ...
You believe in them, or you don't, or there's a plot, or you're sceptic.
Me? It's extremely unlikely humans are alone. Aliens don't exist? Ha!

But we don't have to believe in order to learn something from this book. It doesn't fit the mold in the way that so much of the "alien intervention" quasi-religious literature does.

Some 22 pages of endnotes and 8 pages of suggested reading are food for thought alone. The index is less comprehensive than it should be, though.

So let's get this straight; if our beliefs in one of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions are strong and exclusive, we have to draw a deep breath and acknowledge our ability to pre-judge. The book isn't anti-religion so much as it shines a light under the bed of our religiousness.

The preface introduces our relation to God and asks some questions. It asks us to think about answers, and gives some possible ones. Not all of them involve AB's, for - although it's about AB's - the book is less about AB's than it is about us.

I lent the book to someone. They complained that Von Ward slips too easily from a theory about AB intervention into stating it to be a fact. That may be true from one point of view, but the book wouldn't be so readable if he treated us like idiots and felt the need to keep on stating that AB intervention was a theory.

Enough of the book concerns the way AB's might have influenced life here, and there are several echoes of the Stargate movie in it. But it's not all about alien rule over earthling subjects. There's less justification for fearing what AB's can do to us as there is for fearing what we can do to ourselves.

For me, the most insightful parts of the book for me were not so much about AB's.
How necessary - for some - kingships and priesthoods are in particular societies.
The differences between the supernatural and the magical approaches to interpreting events and the path of our individual lives.
And some comparisons that you might not have thought of ... for example: how Americans, Turks, Indonesians, and Iranians are similar, and how Europeans differ from them.

If you stand on the periphery, or outside the willingly circular logic, of some religions, you'll either have your eyes opened, or you'll be comforted that you aren't alone in your wonderings.

So, be prepared to waken and re-think some of your attitudes to religion (as distinct from spirituality).

Those of us who follow a particular religion will find that the later parts of the book are less difficult. The book doesn't only encourages public debate about AB's, it asks us to think about religion and our place in it.

Although the book is about AB intervention, it also lets us take another look at religion to see what we have put there ourselves.

Human intervention, if we want to, on our own terms.

I own all of Zacharia Sitchin's books, and wanted to read something along the same lines, but from another author's perspective. I was very glad that I did, because Paul Von Ward was able to fill in some of the gaps, and add to wealth of knowledge about the ancient past. One good example was to describe the time line of when each human blood type came about, which was every informative in how it related to other theories about advanced beings' involvement in our creation. He also does a very good job describing psychological reasons why we still think in a supernatural mindset, instead of the viewpoint that everything is a part of the natural world. There were a few very minor inaccuracies that I found in reference to Sitchin's work, but it did not take away from the overall worth of the book. Well worth the read for those with an open mind, and for those who are ready to move forward in how we view the world.

Gods, Genes, And Consciousness: Nonhuman Intervention In Human History by independent scholar and author Paul Von Ward is a metaphysical call to pay attention to historical and archaeological evidence that human evolution has been influenced by advanced nonhuman entities - whether they are called gods, angels, ETs, aliens, or spirits. Daring to address why modern scientific institutions do not want to deal with the question of whether and to what degree advanced beings may have involved themselves in human biological and spiritual growth, as well as examining how humanity reached the point where its leaders claim to speak for God in such radically conflicting ways, Gods, Genes, And Consciousness is a fascinating treatment of an all-too-taboo subject.

Von Ward's background in psychology allows a slant on the 'Aliens created us' theme that takes it to a more sophisticated level - this book looks at the impact of non-human intervention in our evolution and ultimately how it has impacted (or rather damaged?) the collective psyche of humanity. It's as though we have handed our collective power over to these Advanced Beings (as Von Ward refers to any supernatural entity such as an angel, but moreso aliens or Gods as in the ones that 'created' us in their image - Zachariah Sitchin style) just as a child gives their power to a parent. It seems as though we were created and then abandoned and that is the collective scar that humanity lives with. Some people have chosen to exploit this (as we see with the collective power of organised religion) by acting as proxies or mediators between us and our absent Gods - priests with established 'connections' to our creators continued to milk their powerbase long after the Gods had gone. It would also seem that humans continue to fight a war between themselves based on in-fighting between the Gods themselves (from when they were here) just as I might fight with the boy at school just because our fathers never got along. It's wonderful to read a book that really stretches your self perception and offers an interesting, even plausible, answer to why things are the way they are. I always knew that Satan was an Angel that fell out of favour with God and for that was cast out of heaven, however it is extremely interesting to read how Satan may have been the true humanitarian of the bunch. Great Stuff!

I cannot recommend this book too strongly for anyone serious about understanding both our human past and the implications of it for our current evolution of consciousness and improvement of society. I do a lot of reading in several related disciplines and this has been the single most helpful book I have read in many years. It has connected the dots in some key areas where I had yet had "blanks."

My extensive formal and personal study in Christian theology/Biblical studies, psychology, cosmology, the "paranormal," and such have led me to find that virtually every element of the author's historical reconstruction rings true. That is not to deny that some aspects of it are necessarily a bit speculative, as Von Ward would acknowledge. But the critical outline of the story is significantly in tune with the clear implications coming out of the fields mentioned, and others, particularly archaeology.

Especially helpful and on-the-money is Von Ward's explanation of how and why theology and science, via the institutions that drive them, both avoid the kind of observations he brings out. This is massively important for our society and the world. He has new conclusions I've not encountered before, but they are based on solid work by many scholars in various fields. Now, these scholars are often not in the mainstream for the very reason that the mainstream tends to avoid looking at the larger picture.

So, if you are tied to only conventional, "accepted" authorities, this book may not be convincing. Still, I'd hope you would give it a hearing, and perhaps follow up on some of the many great footnotes and bibliography, which are extensive. All readers: do take the time to look up the footnotes, even if you read them all at once as I tend to often, to avoid constant flipping back and forth--there are many gems there.

This book is so valuable, I wish there were a way to get it to be standard reading, at least in the many relevant courses in a college curriculum. It is important as a stimulator of further questioning and research, as well as in its conclusions. Besides academia, it is a must-read for all serious seekers of an understanding of where we come from and where we are going--and OUR OWN POWER to affect that.

I've been going through Paul Von Ward's new book, Gods, Genes, and Consciousness. This is a huge work! So many strands of stories from the numerous and diverse mythical and religious traditions of mankind, all skillfully woven together. As an old soul who relates to the ancient times as well as modern, I thoroughly enjoy having this book to remind myself, this physical life is not all there is!

The scope of this book is awesome. Since junior high school I've read of ancients gods and goddesses coming from Mt. Olympus to appear in some form, interact with a humans and cause a drama to unfold. Now they are archetypes, playing on the periphery of our subconscious minds. Most people went on to hear about the mystery of the pyramids, the ships of light, stories from sacred texts, and again, the gods of Light having their way with the "daughters of earth."
With the advent of newer Goddess religions, we hear again about the powerful goddesses blessing the human mothers of new types of human beings. Then there are the modern abductees. Who are these Advanced Beings, these invisible characters that seem to be immortal, playing behind the scenes, and speaking only through their chosen vessels? Are we anticipating the return of the gods we once worshipped? What beliefs do we hold sacred? Are we willing to defend them to the death?
While on tour in Greece and Turkey, I recall what the "Pleiadians" said via Barbara Marciniak : "You are all puppets! You think you are just sitting in a restaurant having your dinner not realizing that we have worked to impulse you to choose this tour, this town, this date to bring your energies here. This was all planned. You were chosen. You are planting the seeds that will be reaped years from now." We were sitting in the ruins of the ancient temples and singing; or eating and drinking and making merry on the Island of the Gods, Delos; dreaming and remembering past lives. While contemplating the designs and geometry of an ancient mosque or a Turkish rug we caught glimpses of the old reptilian influences. Semi-human slaves, actor/mediums in the theater offering themselves to the gods; snakes wrapped around the priestesses, bestial advisors to the royalty, all carved in stone relief. It all happened before. We have clues, but not the whole story. Now's the time to string them together and prepare.

I'm the kind of person who would like to talk back to ET's or as Paul terms them, Advanced Beings, to say, "You think you're so smart -- just try being human and running a body with impaired DNA! See how you like it!" Apparently some of our genes have some strands of divinity woven in - latent abilities inherited from gods that we barely remember.

I feel Paul is leading us to become aware of things right beneath the surface of these "true stories." Is there a present world of Advanced Beings pulling our strings? Do they care about us, or we about them? Do they have an agenda? Are we so easy to manipulate? Apparently so. We humans must learn to respect ourselves so the AB's will as well. We have abilities that need to be owned so we can call these AB's out for a face to face encounter. Getting rid of fear and feelings of inferiority would help.

I want to thank Paul Von Ward and for using his amazing mind and spirit to serve in this way. He has mapped out the history of human/AB interaction, and eloquently commented on the absurdity of modern and historical human responses, wars, learned behaviors, unquestioning loyalties. There are numerous important anecdotes that need to become generally known. For those who are interested in reading it, buy your own copy. I'm not loaning mine. This is great bedtime and early morning material, feeding the unseen link between worlds. It is food for dreams and insights into the chaos and freedom of multiple religions.

Rev. Franci Prowse
Anza Sanctuary of Healing Arts