The Holistic House
by J.M. Gobet, B. Arch.

The purpose of Geobiology is to provide the data to enable us to reproduce an habitat as near to natural living conditions as possible, taking into account the need for comfort provided by old and new technologies favorable to the environment. It strives to define and examine the numerous elements influencing the quality of our home. To diminish or enhance the salubriousness of a house the accumulation of many factors is required. These elements can be roughly ordered in three interdependent levels:

   1. The physical level deals with all the known effects related to the quality of the ground (i.e. geological fault, water streams, Radon...etc.), to the quality of the location (i.e. air pollution, noise...etc.) and the quality of the construction.

We have slowly come to realize the great influence that building materials have on our health, both physical and psychological. One can easily imagine oneself stroking a piece of wood, feeling its softness and warmth. The tree has grown out from the energies of the Earth, the water and the cosmos, it radiates a message of life, very different from the message of a piece of polystyrene or plastic. But even the best of materials can be killed by toxic chemical treatments which are slowly releasing poisonous emanations such as Lead, Cadmium, Formaldehyde, Phenols, Organochlorine...etc. They are known to cause nausea, headaches, insomnia, asthma, brain damage and even cancer.
  

   2. The energy level includes the positioning of a house on the Hartmann grid and other tellurian currents, electromagnetic pollution and the Faraday cage effect due to bad earthing of electric installation, reinforcement of concrete slabs and steel frames.

In recent years the rapid proliferation of artificial sources of radioelectric frequencies has become a cause for concern. It has surpassed many times the production of natural sources. According to a German specialist Wolfgang Volkrodt, electromagnetic pollution has increased a hundred times during the past 30 years. Ten to fifteen per cent of cancers affecting American children could be caused by low frequency electromagnetic fields around high voltage power lines, this is the astonishing affirmation of the New York Power Lines Project. This study group was formed by the commission responsible for the power grid of the State of New York.
  

   3. The symbolic or spiritual level, which is the least recognized, is also the most important in the sense that it is the definition of the quality of the whole. Most of us can feel clearly the difference of ambience in extremes (i.e. between abattoirs and churches) and be strongly affected by them, persons endowed with a greater sensitivity will perceive subtle differences that would nevertheless unconsciously influence us. According to Blanche Merz (Institute of Geobiology of Chardonne, Lausanne in Switzerland) just as a place can make us prone to disease or depression, another can lift us to more subtle levels of vibration, strengthening our body and spirit. Such places were sought after throughout history and held as sacred. Some are natural wonders like Ayers Rock, the Aborigines have long known this, the Grand Canyon, the Materhorn and countless other places on this planet which inspire the millions of modern pilgrims we call tourists. Others are man made poles of attraction built on powerful sites by architect - priests obeying a sacred tradition, like the pyramids of Egypt, the statues of Easter Island or many Gothic cathedrals. The site on which the cathedral of Chartres is erected was already considered sacred by the Celts.