biorhythmics  bi·o·rhyth·mics [ b rímiks ]  noun

study of biorhythms: a branch of science dealing with biorhythms ( takes a singular verb )

bi·o·rhythm [bī'ō rìthəm] (plural bi·o·rhythms) noun
natural cyclical physiological change:  a cyclical change, for example, sleeping, waking, or the reproductive cycle, that takes place within living organisms.   An inherent rhythm that appears to control or initiate various biological processes.  Some people believe that biorhythms affect behavior, mood, and sense of well-being.  (often used in the plural)

bi·o·rhyth·mic [bī'ō ríthmik] adjective   bi·o·rhyth·mi·cal·ly [bī'ō ríthmiklee] adverb

Between 1897 and 1902 Dr. Hermann Swoboda of the University of Vienna undertook research into the possibility of a rhythmic change in mood and health.  He charted people's reaction to pain, outbreak of fevers, illnesses, asthma, heart attacks, and recurrent dreams. He found that there was a 23-day physical cycle and a 28-day emotional cycle.  Unknown to him, in Berlin,

Dr. Wilhelm Fleiss was also researching the occurrences of fevers, recurrent illnesses and deaths in his patients.  He too came to the conclusion that there was a 23 and a 28-day rhythm.  Wilhelm Fleiss, who was Sigmund Freud's doctor and his close friend, engaged in an extensive dialogue and correspondence with Freud on these 23 and 28 day rhythms.  Fleiss's theories were of great interest and importance to Freud during his early work in developing his psychoanalytic concepts.  The 33 day intellectual cycle was discovered by Alfred Teltscher of Innsbruck, Austria. He was a teacher of engineering. He observed that his students' good days and bad days followed a rhythmic pattern of 33 days. Teltscher found that the brain's ability to absorb, manipulate and express new ideas -- our mental ability and alertness, ran in this 33 day cycle. 

The three biorhythms and their combinations have been studied and used all over the world, especially in Germany, Japan, and the United States. There is no question that these rhythms set the mood and tone of our daily lives. With today's computer technology we can instantly know where our biorhythms are and adjust our lives accordingly.

How do we approach, react to and interpret life?

- We think about it.
- We have an emotional feeling about it.
- We have a physical reaction to it.

An example of how these three energies interact within us is our recent brush with death. We had a "near-miss" driving in our car.

A swerving car, coming at us from the opposite direction, braked and skidded right towards us. We accelerated into the inside lane, and flew out of harm's way by inches. Only seconds elapsed, but panic and shock arose for both of us in a flash. Gary's physical reaction as the driver was excellent. Trista was frozen. Good job she wasn't driving the car.

With our mental energy (the head channel): our intellect, our ideas and opinions, right and wrong, considerations, postulates, agreements, disagreements, calculations. We think -- therefore we think we are. This is our intellectual self.   In car incident, Gary, the driver, had to think so quickly that it was the unconscious, automatic intellectual decision that auto drivers make many times every day of their driving life; speed up, slow down, pull over in a split second.

With our emotional energy (the heart channel): passion, love, apathy, grief, despair, fear, anger, jealousy, boredom, enthusiasm, joy, and serenity. I love you and/or I hate you. This is our emotional self.  Emotions are the area where we are often in the least control. We are attacked and we react emotionally, being pushed from one state into another.  In the auto incident, fear was the dominant emotion for both the driver and the passenger.   

With our physical senses (the body channel): pain and pleasure, vigor and exhaustion. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch. Our sexuality. This is our physical self.  In the car incident, the mind decides and the body responds.  After the event, the emotions fly up. Thinking that was a close one!   Adrenaline floods our system!

Every day, we each have a different combination of biorhythms.  They begin at the moment of birth, and continue throughout life. Each cycle has its own regular rhythm or timing.  Scientists have found that the "head" or intellectual biorhythm has a 33-day cycle. In 33 days our mental energy will go from peak down to low and back up to peak again.  Our "heart" or emotional biorhythm, has

a 28-day cycle; and our "body" or physical biorhythm, has a 23-day cycle.

Because all these biorhythms begin on the day of our birth, we can know our ups and downs ahead of time, as in the graph above. As each line of biorhythmic energy rises, we have more energy. As it drops towards the bottom of the graph, our energy decreases.  Because our biorhythms are flowing at different speeds, they will not all meet at that same birth point again, until we are 58 years and 66 days old. This is a new beginning, a rebirth in all our lives.

Biorhythmically, it's as if we had three rechargeable batteries in us. For half the time, the batteries are charging up, and we are building our energy, and for the other half of our time, the batteries are depleting, and we are regenerating our energy levels.  There is no good or bad associated with these ups or downs. It is more like the vision of Yin and Yang, the Chinese symbols of the harmony of opposites: receptive and expressive, summer and winter. There is no way to avoid these swings, and we can use them to our advantage, like the surfer who sees the wave coming and catches it at just the right moment. Skillful action!
 

Because our biorhythms flow as a wave, there is one day of change from high to low and back again, between the high and the low, which is referred to as a "Critical" day. The critical line or cross-over point divides the top half of the graph from the lower half, and is the point at which we switch over from recharging to expending energy or from expending energy to recharging.  This is the major volatile point of change in our continuing wave of change. The "critical line or cross-over point" is the day when we are most vulnerable - physically, emotionally or intellectually - depending on which biorhythm line is crossing the critical line. It's the time when we are changing direction, from outward-looking to inward-looking, or vice-versa, and is likely to be a period of confusion, illness, or crisis.  This cross-over point is when we are most likely to be suffering.  When you pass through this central point - on that day and even on the day before (a preview of things to come), everything may go haywire in our life!

Physical critical = possible accidents and illnesses
Emotional critical = possible confusion and upsets
Intellectual critical = possible indecision and misjudgment

We have found the influence of the moon to be important, and so we have included it on the graph. When the lunar line is at the top of the graph, the moon is full, and when it is at the bottom, the moon is new. Many women find that their monthly menstrual cycle is affected by the cycle of the moon. For instance, if a woman's period coincides with the full moon, there may be increased menstrual flow and also, more potent feelings arising. There is more to PMS than simply the fact of the cycle of menstruation. Of course there are hormone changes, and it is believed in many diverse cultures, that this is the most potent psychic time for a woman. In our western culture, we call it PMS and give our women Valium. The intense psychic waves of energy are feared and suppressed.

We are three-brained beings; meaning that through evolution our brain has developed from the reptilian, through the animal, to the human. We have each of these three aspects operating within us. The most primitive brain is the reptilian brain. It operates through physical sensation and its main concern is physical survival of the organism. This is reflected in our physical biorhythm.

The physical biorhythm cycle takes 23 days to complete. It is the indicator of our physical well-being in such areas as; weakness or strength, poor or excellent coordination, our vulnerability to illness and infection, our resistance to them, and our sexual vitality or lack of it. We experience the same 23 day rhythmic cycle in all these aspects.  With the body part of us, we sense our physical condition - pain, pleasure, hot, cold, healthy, or sick. Sometimes we feel physically energetic and sometimes we feel like resting up. Am I aware of days when I am physically up and feeling strong, and days when I am physically down and feeling weak? Where am I now physically? 

Finally, we, in the human species, have evolved the forebrain, the human part. This gives us the capacity to think, figure things out, and manipulate abstract concepts.  This is our intellectual biorhythm.  The intellectual biorhythm cycle takes 33 days to complete. It is the indicator of our mental capabilities such as poor or excellent memory, mental dullness or alertness, and limited or extensive creative powers. With the head part of us, we think things through and handle life by trying to figure it all out. This is our ideas and our creativity, and our ability to solve problems. Sometimes our thinking is sharp and sometimes it's as if we can't see the forest for the trees, and we are overwhelmed and confused.  Am I aware of days when I am intellectually up and full of creative ideas and days when I am intellectually down and I have the mind of an amoeba? Where am I now intellectually?

Simply by being aware of them. How we see ourselves is very important. The idea that we are a singular, undivided personality is old hat. Sure, I am I, but I keep changing - moment to moment, and these are not necessarily minor changes. It is truly, as if different people were each claiming to be me. The therapeutic value of all of this, is in becoming aware that we are not one, but many, and learning to accommodate our many selves.  The effect on us of our various biorhythmic combinations depends greatly upon the level of stress in our environment and our degree of tolerance to the stress. When our biorhythms are high, we are better able to deal with the stress. How we feel about life and how we react to it is a combination of our biorhythms, environmental factors, and our inherent energies.

Like cholesterol, there's good stress and there's bad stress. Any actor will tell you that there is stress before performing, and any mother will tell you all about the stress of giving birth, but in these instances there are benefits to the stress. Great achievements can be associated with stress, and even dangerous life and death encounters can be positive experiences if we have the internal resilience and courage. It can be stressful to decide which to have in a restaurant, wheat or rye, because of internal stress.    External events, in and of themselves are not necessarily harmful or stressful. It really depends on what we bring to the event.

Can we rise to the occasion?

Clark Gable suffered a heart attack on November 5th 1960, on a physically critical day. He was on the set of his last film, "The Misfits," in which there were difficult horse riding sequences. He suffered a fatal heart attack on November 16th, his next physically critical day.  Marilyn Monroe was physically critical and emotionally low on August 4th, 1962, the day she committed suicide.  Between August 27th and September 5th 1972, Mark Spitz won seven Olympic Gold Medals. He was physically and emotionally high on these winning days.  In a biorhythm analysis done in 1954 concerning accidents involving workers with agricultural machinery, it was found that agricultural accidents are 171 times more likely to happen on a workers critical day.  In 1971, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police completed a study which showed that 82% of all self-caused traffic accidents involved drivers who were experiencing a critical biorhythmic day.   When the Hiragishi Taxi Co. of Sapporo, Japan, who did biorhythm graphs for all their workers, informed their drivers when they were having critical days - the accident rate dropped by half.  It was not even necessary for the drivers to stay at home on these days. Simply being aware of the potential danger, enabled them to avoid accidents.  As you see, Japan has been a leading researcher in the science of biorhythms, and has been using this data very successfully in many spheres.  In our own lives, we have been preparing biorhythmic consultations for ourselves and clients for 20 years, and have numerous stories that show the all too synchronistic validity of these 3 internal waves of energy.

What you have in knowing the patterns of your biorhythms is that extra edge, and you can prepare yourself accordingly. When we realize that we are in a constant state of change, there is a sense of relaxation and a release from anxiety. We cease to hold onto these momentary feelings, ideas, and physical states, knowing that they will pass. This is only one of the many realizations we have enjoyed over the years, utilizing this knowledge.

Who you are and the life you lead will always be the determining factors. As a meditation, this system helps us become more sensitive to our inner flows. Be open and creative!   This is your life!

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