What if we could find the switch to turn off the violence in our world? Dr. Ursula M. Anderson answers this profound question in her latest book Who and Where is God: Why We Are the Way We Are. Her answer deserves serious attention as our world rapidly evolves into a truly global community for humanity. Dr. Anderson is an M.D. and author who has done pioneering work and research on the causes and methods of healing the emotional and behavioral disorders of children. Some say our historical violent behavior is pre-programmed by our DNA. Dr. Anderson says not exactly! We are being programmed from inception to birth and beyond by the interplay of our genes with their ever changing environment and the energies that drive them both. Normal form and function of body, mind and soul depend upon energy/information fields. When frequencies of these are altered and damaged by whatever means then dysfunction results.

Our DNA represents a vast catalog of options. The question is what do we order from it to build our lives and hence to determine our future behavior. This process starts at the beginning of life, but once under way it becomes very difficult to tear down and rebuild what has been constructed. We are all familiar with the precautions that a pregnant mother should follow in choices of food, medicine, and radiation exposure. However, Dr. Anderson believes that there are other potential interference effects. For example, the use of ultrasonography which is usually considered a noninvasive procedure "is actually a highly invasive procedure." She believes that the high frequency sound waves may be "scrambling" the orderly migration of nerve cells to their intended locations in the developing brain of the fetus.

Dr. Anderson believes that an energy/information field, which she calls memory, exists before conception. "All life is encoded in memory and, therefore, memory is everywhere within the body, mind and soul." The deepest mystery of biology is: How does development start and how is it controlled? Dr. Anderson attributes this ignition and control system to the energy/information field that is memory which is pervasive within all aspects of human function and consciousness. Dr. Anderson is pleading with us to recognize that the energy/information field of the mother/fetus are effectively "one." If "noise" disturbs the patterns or if there is negative encoding, this can affect the future well-being of the evolving human resulting in emotional, behavioral, as well as physical dysfunctions. This is why Dr. Anderson emphasizes that our belief systems really rule us. If these personal and trans-generational beliefs promote love and tolerance that is good, but if not, it creates divisions that can lead to violence.

Dr. Anderson references a unique 20 year epidemiological study conducted in Hawaii which followed all the children from an entire community who survived conception. The study's data clearly illustrates that after ten years only half of the children who survived fetal life were functioning adequately in school, the remainder had need for special additional services for educational and/or emotional and behavioral problems. Dr. Anderson concludes that "the relatively high percentage of survivors with these handicaps clearly documents the early genesis and long-term fallout of injured memories that have their impact on the expression of the mind and soul." If the energy/information fields that constitute memory are injured then we suffer a loss of self-identity and the ability to relate with our heart to others.

Over millennia organized religions have evolved a collective consciousness that has and continues to affect humanity. She points out that history informs us that "most wars and other atrocities have been fought over differences of religion and the cultural beliefs and practices they engender." The reason for this negative consequence is that "the protagonists believe that the religion they espouse and all that goes with it is the only true religion. -- Once this belief takes root in the collective consciousness of one group or another, it automatically confers permission to shun, injure, and even kill in the name of GOD." Memories of the long-term violence and bloodshed that resulted from these passionately held beliefs still dwells within the collective consciousness and plays a role in collective human behavior.