Introduction to
Biorhythms
On
the evening of November 11, 1960, a retired Swiss importer named George Thommen
was interviewed on the "Long John Nebel Show," a radio talkathon based
in New York City. What Thommen had to say sounded surprising to most people
and incredible to some. However, the strangest thing Thommen said was in the
form of a warning. He cautioned that Clark Gable, who was then in the hospital
recovering from a heart attack suffered six days before while filming The
Misfits with Marilyn Monroe, would have to be very careful on November 16. On
that date, explained Thommen, Gable's "physical rhythm" would be
"critical." As a result, his condition would be unstable, putting
him in danger of a fatal relapse.
Few
listeners took Thommen's warning seriously; Gable and his doctors were probably
unaware of it. On Wednesday, November 16, 1960, Clark Gable suffered an
unexpected second heart attack and died. His doctor later admitted that the actor's
life might have been saved if the needed medical equipment had been in place
beside his bed when he was stricken a second time.
Pure
coincidence? Maybe. But George Thommen's advice was neither a random prediction
nor an occult speculation. He was not speaking off the top of his head, gazing
into a crystal ball, plotting the influences of the stars, or claiming psychic
powers. Instead, as a leading student of the emerging science of biorhythm,
Thommen had made detailed calculations showing that for Gable, one of the three
general biological rhythms that characterize human life would be changing from
a high to a low phase on November 16. For healthy people, this kind of shift
need not be dangerous; even for a man recuperating in the hospital, it was not
necessarily a matter of life and death. However, the rhythm shift did indicate
that Gable would be more than usually susceptible that day, and that the
hospital should take appropriate precautions just in case something happened.
If only Gable's doctors had known of biorhythm and its implications for their
famous patient, that second heart attack might not have proved fatal.
"If
only . . ." There are few more common or poignant phrases. We speak those
words when we have accidents, miss opportunities, witness disasters, or whenever
we are regretfully surprised by events in our own lives or in those of others.
We would speak them much less often if we had a deeper understanding of the
roots of human behavior and the causes of human frailty; some way to increase
our knowledge of what people are likely to do and what may happen to them. It
is exactly this kind of knowledge and understanding that biorhythm offers.
Biorhythm:
Theory and Practice
The
basics of biorhythm are easy to understand. In its simplest form, the theory
states that from birth to death each of us is influenced by three internal
cycles‑the physical, the emotional, and the intellectual. The physical
cycle takes 23 days to complete, and it affects a broad range of physical
factors, including resistance to disease, strength, coordination, speed,
physiology, other basic body functions, and the sensation of physical
well‑being. The emotional cycle governs creativity, sensitivity, mental
health, mood, perception is of the world and of ourselves, and, to some
degree, the sex of children conceived (hiring different phases of the cycle. It
takes 28 days to come fill] circle. Finally, the intellectual cycle, which takes
place over a 33‑day period, regulates memory, alertness, receptivity to
knowledge, and the logical or analytical functions of the mind.
Oil
the day of birth, each of the cycles starts at a neutral baseline or zero point.
From there, it begins to rise in a positive phase, during which the energies and
abilities associated with each cycle are high. Gradually declining, the cycles
cross the zero point midway though their complete periods‑111/2 (lays from
the point of origin for the 23‑day physical cycle, 14 days for the
28‑day emotional cycle, and 161/2 (lays for the 33‑day intellectual
cycle. For the balance of the period each rhythm is in a negative phase in which
energies are recharged and our physical, emotional, and intellectual
capabilities are low, or at least somewhat diminished. We pick up increasing
amounts of energy as the negative phase continues until, at the end of each
cycle, the zero point is re-crossed into the positive phase, and the whole
process begins again.
Since
the three cycles last for different numbers of days, they very rarely coincide
and cross the baseline at exactly the same time (only at birth and every 58
years plus 67 or 68 days thereafter). Therefore, we are usually influenced by
mixed rhythms. Some will be high while others are low; some will cross the
neutral point while others have many days to go until they reach the same level;
to make an even filler distinction, one rhythm may be in a stronger part of the
positive phase (or a weaker part of the negative phase) than others that are
going through the same phase. The result is that our behavior‑from
physical endurance to creativity to performance on academic examinations‑is
a composite of these differing rhythms. We seldom have absolutely wonderful or
absolutely terrible days. We have up days, down days, and a good
many in-between days, but every day can be understood in terms of a
particular and almost unique combination of the three basic cycles.
Biorhythms
seem to affect behavior in a peculiar way. Our weakest and most vulnerable
moments are not those of the negative phases, as you might suspect. Rather,
they occur when each cycle crosses the base line, switching from positive to
negative or vice versa, and it is at these times that we can expect ourselves
to he in the most danger. it appears that at these points the rhythms that guide
our lives‑and on whose regularity we depend as much as on the steady pulse
of the heart‑become unstable. They seem temporarily out of step, as
though uncertain of their true direction and movement or unsettled by the ebb
and flow of energy. These days of cross‑over from one phase to another are
called critical days. Students of biorhythm often compare them to the moments
at which we switch a light bulb on or off, since it is then that the bulb is
most likely to burn out, not when the switch is in one of its two positions or
phases.
As
the Clark Gable case shows, critical days can be very important. On physically
critical days, we are most likely to have accidents, catch colds, and suffer
all types of bodily harm, including death. Quarrels, fights, depressions, and
senseless frustration are typical of emotionally critical introduction
days. When
the intellectual rhythm is at the critical point, we can expect bad judgment,
difficulty in expressing things clearly, and a general resistance to learning
any~ thing new or remembering what we already know. The point is that by
calculating and studying your biorhythms in advance, you can know what to
expect and can do much to avoid the worst. For example, businessmen familiar
with biorhythm make a point of refusing to sign crucial contracts on emotionally
and (especially) intellectually critical days. Athletes in all sports are
well‑advised to play with extra care‑‑or to avoid play
altogether‑‑on physically critical days, when they are very
vulnerable to injury. All of us could avoid unnecessary arguments simply by
exerting a little more self‑control on emotionally critical days. Days
when not one, but two or all three cycles are critical require special
prudence‑although probably not to the extent practiced by one follower of
biorhythm, who swears that on triply critical days he 'stays in bed and tries
not to move, feel, or think at all!
Planning
for critical days may be the most significant application of biorhythm, since
this can literally make the difference between life and death. But it is less
than half the story, since critical days make up only 20% of the days of your
life. The remaining 80% are mixed days, whose character is varied and
ambiguous. You can do much to regulate your future by making plans that
harmonize with your biorhythmic profile for non‑critical days. It makes
sense, for instance, to try to set records on days when all three cycles are
near their peaks and you have as much energy and ability as possible.
Conversely, knowing that all three cycles are near the bottom of their negative
phases is a clear indication that you cannot count on turning in an outstanding
performance. Other examples of how the study of biorhythm can improve your life
are obvious, although more precise analysis of the implications of a particular
biorhythmic profile is possible only with experience and a more complete
knowledge of the theory.
True or False?
At
this point, skepticism about biorhythm and eyebrows raised in vigorous
disbelief are normal. Although the theory is not supernatural and requires no
"leap of faith" to accept, it is startling. Both its substance and its
ramifications may seem outrageous‑or at least foolish‑when first
discussed.
Actually, the theory of biorhythm is little more than an extension and generalization of the enormous amount of research that scientists have already done on the many biological rhythms and cycles of life. From the migrations of swallows and the feeding patterns of oysters to the levels of hormones in human blood and the patterns of sleep, life can be defined as regulated time. Countless rhythms, most of them fairly predictable, can be found in even the simplest of our bodily functions. Even the smallest component of our bodies, the cell, follows several clearly defined cycles as it creates and uses up energy. As Gay Luce put it in her book, Body Time, "We must be constructed out of time as certainly as we are constructed of bones and flesh."
At
this stage in its development, research on biorhythm is not at all comparable to
the rigorous and painstaking studies that have been made of smaller biological
cycles. This is partly because the length of biorhythm cycles is so much
greater than the length of most biological rhythms. Phenomena like changes in
blood chemistry and sleep patterns can be measured in minutes or hours, and this
makes them easier to study than biorhythms which take tens of days to
complete. Also, the physical, emotional, and intellectual cycles relate to
such complex behavior‑made up of hundreds and maybe thousands of subtle
physical and psychological changes over time‑that studying them with any
degree of scientific rigor is extraordinarily difficult. Also, unlike other
long‑term cycles such as seasonal migrations, the three great biorhythms
do not always produce a predictable result. They render humans likely, but not
sure, to behave in particular ways, and scientists prefer to work with concrete,
totally reliable phenomena.
. However,
there is nothing in the biorhythm theory that contradicts scientific
knowledge. Biorhythm theory is totally consistent with the fundamental thesis of
biology, which holds that all life consists of the discharge and creation of
energy, or, in biorhythmic terms, an alternation of positive and negative
phases. In addition, given that we are subject to a host of smaller but
nonetheless finely regulated biological rhythms, it seems reasonable that larger,
longer rhythms will also come into play. Those rhythms may depend on vast
numbers of the more discrete cycles that science has already proven to exist; or
they may depend in part on external cues, such as geomagnetism and light, many
of which have been shown to influence the smaller cycles. But until we can
perform strictly controlled studies of how and why biorhythm works, and until
many other researchers have been able to replicate these studies, we will have
to base the case for biorhythm on purely empirical research.
Fortunately,
there is a large and growing body of such research. The European scientists who
discovered biorhythm during the early 1900's based their conclusions on
literally thousands of individual cases. This kind of clinical work gives the
theory a firm foundation. Since then, as understanding and application of biorhythm
have spread throughout the world, much more evidence has been amassed. Doctors,
government agencies, and corporations in many countries, particularly
Switzerland and Japan, have applied biorhythm with great effectiveness to
reduce the risk of death in operations, in automobile accidents, and from
industrial hazards. In the United States, members of organizations such as
the National Safety Council, the Flight Safety Foundation, the U.S. Air Force,
and N.A.S.A. have begun to consider the theory, and some of them have conducted
research and issued reports that apparently confirm it. For obvious reasons,
insurance companies have shown a special interest in biorhythm; available
studies of their accident and death statistics in light of the victim's birth
date and biorhythmic profile on the day of the mishap have done much to bolster
the case for biorhythm.
On
a less convincing but still valuable level, thousands of individuals who use
biorhythm to guide their lives have made reports that show its usefulness and
have offered suggestions for fruitful types of new research.
Ultimately, however, the most convincing studies of biorhythm are those you can do yourself. By working out your own biorhythm chart and biorhythm profiles for particular days, and then comparing them with your experience of up and down days, of illness and health, of success and failure, you will be able to judge for yourself. Since the mathematics of biorhythmic computation can be difficult, we have provided in an appendix a simple method that you can use to plot your individual biorhythms accurately, from day to day and month to month. When you have learned more about the foundations, proof s, and applications of biorhythm, try out the theory in your own life. It could keep you from having to say, "If only . . .”
