Posts Tagged ‘spiral’

About Entrainment

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

In 1665 the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens noticed that two pendulum clocks in his room tended to Swing in Sync. The same happens with fireflies, cardiac pacemaker cells,  menstrual cycles, birds in flight, walking, dancing, circadian rhythms in animals, quantum gravity theory, dialogues and people in a crowd.

Two connected Systems always Entrain because Every System in our Universe Vibrates and is connected.

birds in sync

Birds in Sync

When the Parts are  connected, the Rhythm of the Whole controls the Rhythm of the Parts.

The transformations of the seperate parts takes place in two steps. In the first step the variance of the frequencies of the parts is reduced but the oscillators remain incoherent, each running near its natural frequency, until a certain threshold is crossed. Then the oscillators begin to synchronize spontaneously. The effect is somewhat like the outbreak of synchronous applause after a magnificent concert.

To make the transformation possible the Parts have to adjust their behavior. They have to move with the Rhythm of the Flow of the Central Clock. At the end of the transformation from isolated Parts to the Whole the Parts are the Same. They are Copying each other.

When people are copying other people they lose their identity and move into a trance-state. The same effect can be accomplished with hypnosis.  When people are in a trance-state it is easy to manipulate them.

About Copying

Humans are Copiers. When we look at the Science of Coupled Oscillators it becomes clear that Copying is not an intentional act. People and other Systems are more or less forced to copy others when the frequencies of their systems are within a certain bandwith.

When people are close and are focused on a shared target (a soccer match, a concert, a conversation, a dance, a common goal) the human parts start to synchronize and become a Crowd, an entity that starts to act on its own.

About Communication

The word “communion” means “becoming a union“. All communication arises through Synchronization. All communications are dances that coordinate the rhythmic processes shared among the engaging systems.

Communication is not a transmission of information, but rather a coordination of behavior among living organisms through Mutual Structural Coupling. Just like the Crowd, a communication, starts to live a life of its own, when the exchange of the vibrations of the conversation starts to synchronize. This happens within seconds.

conversation1

In the 1960’s, William Condon of Boston University School of Medicine pioneered the empirical study of communication as coupling. In the microanalysis of a few seconds of film he was astonished to find how the voice and bodily movements of speaker and listener were coordinated within intervals as short as 20 milliseconds.

Condon introduced the term entrainment to describe the coupled behavior. He noted that: “Communication is thus like a dance, with everyone engaged in intricate and shared movements across many subtle dimensions, yet all strangely oblivious that they are doing so“.

Coupling begins with getting the attention of other organisms, or more accurately, with distracting the organisms from other engagements so they are able to discern and respond to this engagement.

When the Oscillations of two Systems are outside a certain bandwith it looks like the most powerful system takes over control. The frequency of the synchronized system is a mean and when big numbers and small numbers are added the small numbers simply disappear. This situation is called an Overload.

Overloads are able to kill small systems because the small system is unable to cope with the huge pertuberations. People with a Dominant Personality are able to force (to entrain) Dependent people to copy their behavior.

About Synchronization

A System of N coupled different oscillators creates a very complex almost unsolvable mathematical problem. In 1975 Charles Peskin formulated the conjecture  that Systems would eventually synchronize even when the parts are not identical. In 1990 the conjecture has been proven by Strogatz and Mirollo.

Systems of Coupled Oscillators show four states called Phase Locking (Synchronization), Phase Drift (“Chaos“)  and Amplitude Death (“Order“). In the last state the oscillations stop completely.  The fourth state called a Chimera is a combination of a synchronized and a drifting state.

The most important issue to notice is the fact that the state of Amplitude Death is what we call Order. It is an exceptional state that can be reached when the exchange of information between the states is “compensating” the vibrations of the states or when the System is “compressed” into a Singularity.

synchronization

Most Systems are oscillating (“Cyclic“) and are in a Phase Drift (“Chaos“) or a Chimera trying to reach some sort of Synchronicity with the other connected Systems. In Nature every System is connected to every other System because of the Electro-Magnetic (and Sound) Fields they share.

Systems of Coupled Oscillators behave differently when the connections between the parts are delayed. It this case highly identical parts start to behave as not identical parts. When a delay occurs the stable rhythm of the heart can suddenly stop, resulting in a sudden death.

About the Circadian Clock

In order to cope with and to predict 24-hour rhythms in the environment, such as light and darkness, temperature or the availability of food, most, if not all, organisms have Circadian (“Daily“) Timing Systems. These systems generate circadian rhythms in a wide range of behavioral and physiological processes.

For most animal species, a main circadian pacemaker has been identified in an anatomically defined location in or close to the brain. During the last years, however, it has become clear that circadian systems are complex and that additional oscillators exist, both within and outside the central nervous system.

The Peripheral Circadian Clocks are situated in the Heart, the Liver, the Lungs and the Kidney. These organs are the same “organs” that are used in Chinese Acupuncture which is not strange because the Aim of Acupuncture is to Balance the Electro Magnetic Field in the Body.

For a correct functioning of the circadian timing system, these oscillators should be synchronized to one another and properly phased to the environmental cycle.

Synchronization between the oscillators occurs via interactions or coupling pathways, whereas the light-dark cycle is used for synchronization to the outside world.

The most important mammalian circadian pacemaker is located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) at the base of the hypothalamus in the brain.

From the suprachiasmatic nucleus, nerve impulses travel via the sympathetic nervous system to the pineal gland and inhibit the production of melatonin. At night, these impulses stop and melatonin production ensues and is released into the body.

In fish, amphibians, reptiles, and birds, the pineal gland appears to be directly sensitive to small amounts of light that penetrate the skin and skull.

In mammals, with increased development of the cerebral hemispheres, the pineal body came to lie deeper within the brain and indirect stimulation of the pineal gland by light via the retina came to be more important. The Suprachiasmatic Nuclei are connected to the Outer Eye and the Inner Eye, the Pineal Gland.

The Pineal Gland is called the 6th Chakra, the Third Eye (or the Eye of Horus), the Seat of the Imagination.  The Imagination, the Central Clock of our Body, is “in control” of all the other Clocks in our Body.

With the Help of our Imagination we are able to Cure and to Kill the Body.

pineal

Pineal Gland

About the Pineal Gland

The Earth is a huge magnetic sphere. The E/M field of the Earth varies in strength and consistency through the ages. Our bodies own magnetic frequencies and our bio-field patterns react to this variance of the Earth’s field.

The pineal gland is the principal structure in the brain that is directly sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field. The Pineal Gland Senses the Field.  To sense the Field the Pineal Gland contains small calcite crystals.

Our bone structure Converts Vibrational Energy into Magnetic and Electric Energy. When the bone is bent it produces an E/M-field. This E/M-field interacts with the Pineal Gland and creates a Feed-Back Cycle.

The E/M-field of our Body, the Aura, is a combination of all kind of waves. A special type of wave-structure is called a Standing Wave.

When the E/M-field acts as a Standing Wave all the waves are in harmony and conserve structure. The Human body is in harmony when the total field of all the separate E/M-fields of the Body act as a Standing Wave.

The Standing Wave appears when the Spinal Wave of the Vertebrae of the Body is in a special Alignment.  If this happens the Standing Wave of the Spine Resonates with the Standing Wave of the Earth. At that moment the Kundalini Rises and the Pineal Gland reacts with a Huge Mystical Experience.

About the Heart

The heart beats about once a second throughout your life. These regular contractions pump blood to the Upper (Head) and the Lower part of the body and are driven by electrical impulses from a natural pacemaker inside the heart.

This pacemaker, known as the sino-atrial node, responds to signals from the Central Circadian Clock situated in the Hypothalamus that changes the heart rate according to the body’s needs (“the action potential“), making it slower when resting and faster during exercise.The rhythmic contractions of the heart are triggered by waves of electrical activity that spread from the sino-atrial node throughout the heart muscle.

There are small fluctuations in the time intervals between beats that are fractal in nature, and a loss in this variability is a sign of cardiac ill health. However, a cardiac arrhythmia, in which the rhythm of electrical waves that drive the heart is broken, can be lethal.

A loss in the synchronized rhythm of the heart causes different parts of the atrial or ventricular muscle to contract at different times, undermining the pumping action of the heart. An arrhythmia therefore leads to the mechanical failure of the heart.

The propagation of excitations in heart tissue can be described in terms of travelling waves with a velocity of about 0.5 m s-1 and an amplitude given by the action potential. Since the action potential lasts for several hundreds of milliseconds, a single wave extends over a distance of about 10 cm. This means that a normal human heart is hardly large enough to contain a single wave.

In the heart the wave propagates around a circular obstacle. The wave repeatedly travels along the same path at a frequency given by the wave velocity divided by the circumference of the obstacle.

If the radius is gradually decreased, the frequency increases until the wavefront of a new wave catches up with the tail of the previous wave. If the radius is made even smaller, the wave is forced to adopt a spiral shape that continues to rotate around a central core. Spiral  Waves have been observed in numerous chemical and physical experiments.

The Wave Structure of the Heart resembles the Wave Structure of the Universe. This could be the reason why the Heart plays such  an important role in many Religions.

When the Wave Structure of the Heart is coherent with the Wave Structure of the Whole, the Rhythm of your Life is in Sync with the Rhythm of the Universe.

The Pacemaker Cells are called the Heart Chakra, the 4th Chakra. The Heart Chakra acts as the Balance Point for all the Chakras.

The Balancing Point is the Middle of two Triangels related to  the Head and the Body that rotate With- and Counter-the-Clock creating a Moebius Ring.  The Pineal Gland, the Central Clock, is part of the Upper Triangel of the Mind.

Spiral Waves in the Heart

Chemical Spiral Waves

Chemical Spiral Waves

About Cymatics

In 1967, the late Hans Jenny, a Swiss doctor, artist, and researcher, published the book Cymatics,  The Structure and Dynamics of Waves and Vibrations. In this book Jenny showed what happens when one takes various materials like sand, spores, iron filings, water, and viscous substances, and places them on vibrating metal plates and membranes.

What then appears are shapes and motion- patterns which vary from the nearly perfectly ordered and stationary to those that are turbulently developing, organic, and constantly in motion.

When Jenny experimented with Fluids of various kinds he produced Wave motions, Spirals, and wave-like patterns in Continuous Circulation.

These patterns are the same patterns that are produced by Coupled Oscillators. This is not strange because Sound Waves are highly comparable to Electro Magnetic Waves.

With the help of simple tools it is possible to Simulate the Creation and Expansion of the Universe.

We don’t need very complicated tools to observe the Whole. The Whole shows its patterns everywhere, even in your bathtub.

The Whirpool Galaxy

The Whirpool Galaxy

About the Creation of the Universe

In beginning the Void, the Zero Point Field,  rotated in Silence until a Huge Action Potential disturbed its Eternal Rest.

The Void was in a state of Amplitude Death until a Statistical Fluctuation, an Act of Creation, moved the System into a Chimera and later a Phase Drift.

Out of the Phase Drift Two Coupled Oscillators (Yin & Yang) appeared that moved With- and Against the Clock creating a Spiral Motion, a Vortex.

The Two Coupled Oscillators were each others Complement because two Coupled Oscillators are always Complementary.

After a while the Phase Drift generated Four and More Oscillators and Space started to Expand.

The pattern of this Expansion is governed by the Metallic Mean, which generates Fluent or Quasi Crystals. Fluent Crystals are the basic structure of the Electro Magnetic System of the Human. Scientists believe that the basic structure of our Universe is a Fluent Crystal, a Hall of Mirrors.

Quasi Crystals

Quasi Crystals

Space stops expanding when the Unbalance of the Energy of the Act of Creation is compensated by the amount of Oscillators (Strings) of Expanding Space.

At that moment the Universe will move into the State of Synchronization and all the Parts will move with the Rhythm of the Central Clock, the Tao.

When this happens the Universe starts to contract until Space has reached the Void.

In the last step the Oscillation will stop and the Void and Amplitude Death will appear again.

LINKS

How bacteria entrain

Steven Strogatz: About Coupled Oscillators and Biology

A lecture about Coupled Oscillators

A presentation about Coupled Oscillators

About Engagement

About Standing Waves

About Hypnosis

About the Electro Magnetic Field in the Body

About the Cardiac Pacemaker Cells

About Cymatics

About the Heart Chakra

About Stress and the Action Potential

About the Zero Point Field

About the Metallic Mean

About the Hall of Mirrors

About Cradle to Cradle

Friday, August 15th, 2008

In 1998 William McDonough and Michael Braungart wrote an article called The NEXT Industrial Revolution. It was the start of a new sustainable design philosophy called Cradle to Cradle. Cradle to Cradle wants to restore the Natural Cycle.

Cradle to Cradle is based on three pillars: Equity (Social Justice), Economy (Market Viability), and Ecology (Environmental Intelligence).

 A citation out of the Next Industrial Revolution:

Many people believe that new industrial revolutions are already taking place, with the rise of cybertechnology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. It is true that these are powerful tools for change. But they are only tools-hyperefficient engines for the steamship of the first Industrial Revolution. Similarly, eco-efficiency is a valuable and laudable tool, and a prelude to what should come next. But it, too, fails to move us beyond the first revolution. It is time for designs that are creative, abundant, prosperous, and intelligent from the start. The model for the Next Industrial Revolution may well have been right in front of us the whole time: a tree“.

A citation out of Carl Jung, Prologue from “Memories, Dreams, Reflections“:

Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above the ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away-an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost the sense of something that lives and endures beneath the eternal flux. What we see is blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains“.

In the introduction chapter of A Thousands Plateaus, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, characterize the rhizome by six principles:

  • Connectivity

The capacity to aggregate by making connections at any point on and within itself.

  • Heterogeneity

The capacity to connect anything with anything other, the linking of unlike elements.

  • Multiplicity

Consisting of multiple singularities synthesized into a “whole” by relations of exteriority.

  • Asignifying rupture

Not becoming any less of a rhizome when being severely ruptured, the ability to allow a system to function and even flourish despite local breakdowns.

  • Cartography

A method of mapping for orientation from any point of entry within a “whole”, rather than by the method of tracing that re-presents an a priori path.

  • Decalcomania

Forming through continuous negotiation with its context, constantly adapting by experimentation

Cradle to Cradle (CtC) is a Design Philosophy. Design (Mapping Ideas unto A Model) is the first step in a Cyclic Process or even better a Spiraling Spiral Process.

I don’t know what the Philosphy of CtC is about the other “phases” of the Spiraling Spiral. I have not spend the time to read the Book. I am almost sure CtC is applying the Paradigm of the Age of Enlightment that lies behind the Industrial Revolution. Cradle to Cradle wants to CONTROL Nature by COPYING Nature.

The Question is Do We (and CtC) really Understand How Nature Works?

Is Nature Working at all?

Is Nature Functioning “like-a” Machine?

Are we able to Copy something we don’t Understand?

What are We Copying?

Is Copying without Insight perhaps a Way to Create something New?

Does it Matter if we are Creating Something New without Knowing what We are Doing”?

Is Life Itself not just a Creating Force exploring Every Possibility Available?

What is Wrong and What is Right?

The most interesting point in the article about the Next Industrial Revolution is the Use of the Tree Metaphor.

The Tree is a very old Symbol. It represents something that starts at the Bottom (Earth) and Moves Up. When it Moves Up is expands into a Hierarchical Network. At the top of the Tree of Life (or the Axis Mundi) the Ultimate Power, the Giver of Movement and Measure, is situated. Behind the New Industrial Revolution the Hierarchy (UP) and the Part (One;Tree) of the Whole (Many;Forest) becomes visible. If we are Moving UP we are Abstracting (or Imagining with Reason).

Jung, Deleuze & Guattari look at the The Down, the Primal Source, The Unknowable, the Invisible or the Unconsciousness. The Invisible is covered by Dark Earth. It is indestructible, connected, divers, not-linear, experimenting and adapting. The Invisible is the Rhizome. Every Year out of the Invisible Rhizome A Beautifull Rose Grows and Blossoms. “What we see is blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains“. (Jung).

If we Move Down we are Acting In The World instead of Looking at the World (The Observer).

When we move Down we have to become Practical.

What is the Practical Use, The Engineering Perspective, of the Rhizome?

There are Infinite Perspectives on our Reality and Engineering is just One of Them. We could add a Social Perspective and an Ecomic Perspective just like Cradle to Cradle is trying to do but there is more. We could add a Poetic and an Artistic Perspective but there is more. We could add an Animal perspective. We could look with the Eyes of the Ape, the Cat, The Fish, the Tiger, The Bacterium, The Sea, The Clouds, The Weather. We could use our Empathy to Imagine how the Earth, The Sun, The Universe, Molecules, Cells, Atoms, Higgs Particles, Cars, Aeroplanes, Ipods are “looking” at the Ecology of My Garden, Our Village, Your Country, Their Culture. We could even Look at Ourselves.

Are we able to Unite all of these Perspectives? Yes and No.

No: they are Different.

Yes: They are Perspectives and Perspectives are Looking at the Same Thing.

They are looking at the Whole but the Whole is not a Thing. It is a interconnected Adapting Diversity. It is a highly Complex Dynamic Network of Networks of Events. We cannot detect Causality because Causality is related to a Liniair Perspective.  Every Act is the Cause and the Effect of any other Act.

If we look from a Distance (the Observer) we See Repeating Cyclic Patterns that are Self-References.

If we Find these Patterns (Frames of Reference) we Know where the Flow of Nature is moving to for a little while. The Pattern becomes Repetitive. At a sudden moment the Flow moves in another Way and we have to Observe again. If we Move with the Flow we will know Where we are “Allowed” to Build and to Grow. If we Feel the Field we will See that A Building or an Engine is already Designed and wants to Move to Reality. We don’t have to Design. The Design is Immanent. We just have to help to Materialize.

The most interesting Self-Reference to explore is I (You).

I am in the World and the World is in Me.

About Mayan Symbols

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

The roots of the Mayan civilization can be traced back thousands of years to the Olmecs, an earlier civilization that inhabited an area along the Gulf of Mexico. The Olmec date back to at least 4000 BC.

The Maya and the Olmecs achieved a spectacular understanding of astronomy and mathematics.

They used a very advanced calendar system that was able to predict the movements of the Sun, the Moon and the planets.

They were also aware of many other astronomical objects like star systems and the centre of the Galaxy. Time was viewed as an endless web of cycles within cycles, all connected by an infinite spiral, the Zuvuya (the Rope).

The Maya understood that everything comes from and returns to One Source. They recognized that each being is linked back to a larger frame of reference, Kuxan Suum, “the Road to the Sky Leading to the Umbilical Chord of the Universe“.

Their counting system is based on the number 5 and contains very advanced features to calculate with very large numbers. It also contains the number 0. The zero is represented by a picture of the centre of the Galaxy, the Cosmic Egg.

The Mayan word “ge” symbolizes the beginning, the source from which all life manifests. Ge represents the egg and the number zero. The spiral form of the G symbolizes the source of our existence, the Milky Way. The G stands for the “One Giver of Movement and Measure“.

Based on the letter G (or “ge”) words were constructed like ge-o (world), ge-ne (egg with tail), or ge-oba (cosmic egg). T (“te”) represents the tree of life, air, the wind and the breath of God (teol) and O(l) is the symbol of consciousness.

The Mayas also created a model of the body that is highly related to the chakras in India. It consist of “the seven powers of Quetzalcoatl“. The power that is used is called K’u (meaning Pyramid or Sun God).

K’u can be compared with Chi or K’i (China) and Prana (India). The place where the (K’u) enters the body is called K’u-L(vibration)-tan(place)-lil(vibration)-ni(nose) (kultanlilni).

If you compare the symbols of the Maya with other “old” symbols it is very obvious that they are based on the same “model”. It is the model of the cycle-in-the-cycle that is closed in itself (spiraling spirals).

Many scientists don’t understand how the Olmecs could gather the knowlegde they aquired. They can’t find the nessecary instruments.

In the “old science” the inside of the Human is a mirror of the outside. If you explore your consciousness you also explore the Galaxy. I know the scientists don’t want to accept this explanation. It is not based on facts and experiments.

Perhaps they could except the facts and the experiments of the Olmecs.

LINKS

Secrets of Mayan Science /Religion by Hunbatz Men (1990)

The Wordwide Carnival: A Short Introduction into the World of Mikhail Bakhtin

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007

The work of Bakhtin was disclosed to me by Will McWhinney. He used Bahktin in one of the many versions of his never published book Grammars of Engagement.

The discovery of Bahktin started with a book about Bahktin by Saul Morson & Caryl Emerson. Later I also read many other books and articles like “The dialogical imagination”, “Towards a philosophy of the act”, “Discourse in the Novel”, “Rabelais and His World”, “Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics” and “Speech Genres and Other Late Essays”.

Bahktin invented the term Chronotope, “The place where the knots of narrative are tied” or “the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature“. Currently we use the term Content or Media for Literature.

A Chronotope is a Topological Concept

knotSpace (Place, Location) and Time (the narrative) are connected by a Knot. A knot is a complicated twist in a rope. The twist is needed when you want to close a system in itself. The simplest topological structure that visualizes twisted space/time is the Moebius Ring.

The Chronotope is the Centre out of which every narrative that we are able to tell is enfolding and unfolding. It produces narratives and absorbs narratives. Bahktin places Folk-Lore, Myth, the Language of the People, in the Centre.

Every narrative contains a twist, a moment where the expansion of the beginning turns to the contraction of the end. It is the moment where the narrative is balanced. The reader holds his breath. It is also the moment where the narrative is aware of itself. It observes the whole.

Sometimes the twist is in the end. You know “who done it”. Sometimes the narrative starts with the twist. There are even narratives without a twist. You know all the time what will happen.

Scientists don’t realize that a scientific article is also a narrative. They use citation to prove they are telling a true story. Funny enough scientific citation has created the Internet. A hypertext is nothing but a citation-structure.

Old narratives produce new narratives. This is always accomplished by Citation. “The word in language is half someone else’s. It becomes “one’s own” only when the speaker populates it with his own intention, his own accent, when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention. Prior to this moment of appropriation, the word does not exist in a neutral and impersonal language. . . but rather it exists in other people’s mouths, in other people’s contexts, serving other people’s intentions: it is from there that one must take the word, and make it one’s own“”. The cursive sentence between brackets is a citation of Bahktin.

New narratives also oppose old narratives. They are Dialogic. “The entire life of language, in any area of its use . . . is permeated with dialogic relationships“.

Dialogues are converging (Socratic dialogue), diverging and conflicting (Menippian Dialogue) or one sided (the Magisterial Monologue). “Thus at any given moment of its historical existence, language is heteroglot from top to bottom: it represents the co-existence of socio-ideological contradictions between the present and the past, between differing epochs of the past, between different socio-ideological groups in the present, between tendencies, schools, circles and so forth

The Centre generates new narratives all the time. They are a mix of the old and the new. The centre is the Centrifugal Force and this force is powered by Contradiction.

Roller_CoasterThe Institutions, the Ruling Power, are constantly trying to standardize (the Centripetal force). They formulate rules and try to transform the dialogue into a monologue.

The centripetal and the centrifugal force create a huge tension. This tension moves the Wheel of Creation. The wheel always moves through the stages of Order and Chaos. In the middle of the Tornado of Creation is the Centre, the Chronotope. In the centre you will always find rest and inspiration.

The monologue (the magisterial dialogue) is the dialogue of the Magister, the scientist, the manager, the judge, the physician and the teacher. They use science, the law, books or other Magisters to enforce their power. By formulating rules they try to destroy the creative centre (the context).

A context is potentially unfinalized; a code must be finalized. A code is only a technical means of transmitting information; it does not have cognitive, creative significance. Code is deliberately killed context“.

At this moment the Centripetal force is implemented in the Search Engine. Narratives are found by typing codes. This makes it very difficult to find a context. Companies like Google are manipulating the coding. They are paid by the Centripetal Force of the Commercial Companies.

The centrifugal force is never at rest. It always generates new alternatives. The creation of new literature is not bounded by rules. Every time a new structure is defined the Centre starts to play with the rules and generates a new combination. The Centre is not only combining rules it even invents new rules. The Centre is the inventor of new Games to Play.

Producing literature is a process of spiralling out. It follows a cycle but at a certain point in time a new Centre appears and the Cycle starts a new process of Folk-lore. The new centre is always connected to the old Centre. New myths and new fairy tales are created that are a representation of the Spirit of the Time.

Every cycle is governed by a Clock. The periodicity of the Clocks is determinated by the number five. It runs at a frequency of 1250, 250, 50, 10 or 2 years. There are frequencies that are moving faster (the Atom) and much slower (the Universe).

Bahktin has developed a very interesting theory about the development of the Chronotopes in history.

I will tell the Tale of the Chronotopes of Bahktin on the level of the Cycle of Culture (1250 years, 250 years per stage).

HunsBetween 450 and 700 the Roman Empire is destroyed by the Huns. It is the time of the Great Deportations. People out of Asia move to the West. They are the ancestors of the Ostrogotes, the Visigotes, the Franks, the Gauls, the Germans and the Celts. 1250 years later they are integrated in what we now call Europe. Between 700 and 2000 the Europeans explore and conquer the World.

Around 1200 the new powers have created many Kingdoms and have organized the Crusades to conquer the Holy Land. To show their power they build the Cathedrals. The Cathedrals are the instrument of the Education of the Masses. The old folk-lore is transformed to the new of the Christian Faith. The old-folklore is not destroyed. Many symbols and important events are preserved. They are cited. The transition of the Sun in Winter is transformed in Christmas. The new apostles are connected to the old animals of the old Wheel of Fortune.

Tristan IsoldeBetween 1200 and 1450 the Chronotope of the Greek Romance (Tristan and Isolde, Arthur and The Grail) appears. It is the Chronotope of Being and Destiny. “There are a lot of suddenly’s”. Everything happens. The actor in this Chronotope is without identity. He is tested by destiny. When he has passed the test he is not changed. There is no time and space. Time (“adventure-time”) is reversible. The actors are public figures and space is public space. In the narratives we are able to see and hear everything.

We are in the Middle Ages. In the outside world destiny is also playing its evil game. Western Civilization is almost destroyed by the plague, feminine and wars between the Kingdoms. Even the Christian Empire of Rome is divided by a schism (Byzantium). At the end only a few Kingdoms survive. These Kings become Emperors. They represent God on Earth.

copernicusThis (1450-1700) is the time of the Chronotope of the Adventure. It is the Chronotope of Becoming. The identity of the actor is transforming. He is responsible for his own actions. Life is full of turning points (twists). The actor wants to take control of the outside world. Space becomes “private space”.

To give the reader insight in what is happening the Observer is introduced. He is a voyeur, a prostitute, a rambler, a rover, a tramp, a spy, a servant or an animal. The observer is not influencing the story at all. He is just watching. Objectivity is also introduced in space (court).

In the outside world we are in the Time of Renaissance (the Era of Discovery). It is the time of new inventions in Science (Copernicus), Art (Leonard Da Vinci) and Religion (Reformation, Luther, Calvin). The Bible is translated in the language of the people. It is also the time of the Great Explorations (Columbus) of the world outside the West. Western Culture starts his quest to control Nature and eventually the World.

munchThe next Chronotope is the Biography (1700-1950), the praise of a public figure who has accomplished something in life. We are moving from the outside world to the inside world of the actor.

Inner space is closed. “This offers a new relationship to one’s own self, one’s own particular “I”- with no witnesses, without any concessions to the voice of a “third person“.

Outside events affect the inner world. The actor is not showing this. In the outside world the actor is judged by his actions and not by his inner space (his essence). “The essence of man is realized not by his condition but by his activity“.

To give the reader a view on the inner space the outsider is introduced. His outside actions are governed by a distorted inner space. The outsider (the fool, the eccentric) acts as a reference.

The actor is a pretender. He is constantly in doubt, grumbling, cynical and sarcastic. He is also passive. He is watching from a distance. Everything is Relative (Bahktin was a fan of Einstein). The only time when the actor is able to show himself is at the carnival. During this short period he is allowed to choose his own mask.

This is the time of the Industrial Revolution. It is the era of mechanization. It starts with the invention of the Mill and the Factory. It ends with the mechanized Consumer watching Television.

star warsStarting in 1950 we are again in the phase of Folk-lore. Western Civilization is moving to a new Centre, Earth.

New myths and legends will be created. They have to be based on all the tales, myths and legends that are available on Earth. Some of them will be a citation. Others will be an opposition.

All kinds of dialogues will take and have to take place. We will experience many conflicts (Mennipian Dialogue). We will also have to listen and ask questions to understand the other cultures (Socratic Dialogue). We have to stop our Western Magisterial Monologue.

In the beginning it will be a Heteroglossia (a many voicedness), a very complicated Knot we have to untie. When we have found the tread we will be able to weave a new web of narratives that will start the phase of the Greek Romance again.

Between now and 2100 “We must make the new by our own effort”.“We have to face problems of reality and human potential, problems of freedom and necessity, and the problem of creative initiative“. We have to become persons “who emerge along with the world and reflect the historical emergence of the world itself”.

In order to understand, it is immensely important for the person who understands to be located outside the object of his or her creative understanding — in time, in space, in culture. . . . Our real exterior can be seen and understood only by other people, because they are located outside us in space and because they are others

We have to write our own Novel. “There is no causality in novels, no genesis, no explanations based on the past, on the influences of the environment or of upbringing and so forth. Every act a character commits is in the present, and in this sense is not predetermined”.

We have to act without hesitation and leave history behind. There is no experience we can reuse. The future is unfinalized (open).

The Magisters are not able to tell us what to do. They are out of tricks. We have to put off our own masks and take responsibility for what we are doing. “There is no alibi for being”. We have to stop pretending and use citations of others to prove we are right.

carnival of fools

We are now part of the Worldwide Carnival of Fools. Choose your mask out of the many masks that are available all over the world. Listen to the stories of other cultures and be surprised about the beauty and the experience they are containing. Give the Fools and the Eccentrics, the Outsiders, a chance to help you.

Laugh.

It will be fun.

I want to close with a citation of Paul Feyerabend (Killing Time (1995)): “People, intellectuals especially, seem unable to be content with a little more freedom, a little more happiness, a little more light. Perceiving a small advantage, they seize it, circumscribe it, nail it down, and in this way prepare a New Age of ignorance, darkness and slavery. It is rather surprising that there are still people who want to help others for personal reasons, because they are kindhearted and because they have not been intimidated by principles. It is even more surprising that some of the people can work in institutions despite the greed, the incompetence, the power struggles that seem to surround the noblest cause.”

Do you want to know more about Feyerabend read The Act of Creation: About Fusion and Con-fusion

LINKS

About the Cathedrals

About the Fool in African Myths

About Fools, Pyramids and Bubbles

Why Fools always Lose

About Very Long Cycles

About the Cycle of Culture