Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth

Book review by Jaye Beldo

Who is Stan Gooch?

An unjustly ostracized scholar who has written a very compelling and substantial book called Cities of Dreams, some of which posits that the Neanderthals, based on much neglected evidence, were more advanced than the barbaric, hairy man apes that they are usually depicted as, possessed language skills and also a very sophisticated understanding of the cosmos which they oriented their lives by.

However, Stan adequately challenges the enforced presumptions of delinquent archaeologists, anthropologists and assorted cardboard academics who currently maintain the bastion of the orthodox/materialist belief system.

The supposedly clean separation between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon species, for starters, is effectively dismissed by Gooch, who perseveres throughout Cities of Dreams by developing and sustaining arguments that are both impressive and actually quite thrilling. This is primarily because of the unique clarity in which he presents his views and also the evidence that he provides to back up his claims.

When an author has such a deep sense of resonance with the subject matter he has chosen to investigate as Gooch obviously does, evoking such things as long forgotten Palaeolithic inscapes becomes quite natural and this is what makes Cities of Dreams such a delightful read.

The author reminds us of such things as universal burial practices, which are evidenced by the ubiquity of the use of red ochre (hematite) in funerary rites, the amazing similarities of myths around the world concerning the origins of the Pleiades constellation (the seven sisters are always pursued by unsolicited suitors or animals) and the labyrinthine/lunar origins of ritual dance (some which mimic the construction of a spider's web of all things).

Gooch rises above the short-sightedness of many a tenured boob and offers us such a refreshing perspective on our ice age forebears that it becomes difficult to dismiss his ideas as many within the matrix police system have tried to do in recent times. After reading this work, one can fully see the shortcomings of those deluded enough to assume that modern humans are at the very pinnacle of evolution and why they are so insistent on preserving this outright lie for future generations.

More importantly, we have a perfect opportunity to bypass the matrix via Stan's book and directly access the worlds he has explored, worlds encoded in stone, dance, mazes, song and spider's webs as well.