biorhythms

what they can do:

Understanding your positive biorhythm cycles can assist you in planning sporting events, exams, surgeries, presentations, and interviews. Understanding negative biorhythm cycles, and your personal reaction to your negative cycles, can help you avoid accidents, hurtful situations, unnecessary grief, and misfortune.

history:
As long as 3000 years ago, the scientists of ancient Greece were recording the regular rhythms of basic bodily functions such as respiration, kidney activity, pulse rate and, of course, the female menstrual cycle. Most of us barely give them a thought; yet theserhythmic cycles affect even the tiniest cells of our organism from the day we are born to the day we die. Hippocrates, the celebrated Greek physician, noticed that good and bad days fluctuated cyclically in both sick and healthy people. It was only relatively recently, however, that the theory of three internal cycles with a definite effect on behaviour patterns gained credibility in our society, and its practical use was appreciated by many people in all walks of life. In modern times we think of the 'fathers of birhythm theory as Dr. Wilhem Fliess and Hermanna Swoboda. A German physician in Berlin, Wilhem Fliess, provided the first tentative explanation for this phenomenon, on the basis of physiological and emotional cycles. Later an austrian physician, Prof. Alfred Telcher, further developed the theory identifying a third component, the intellectual cycle. Hermanna Swoboda was a professor of psychology at the University of Vienna. Dr. Wilhelm Fliess was a nose and throat specialist in Berlin. Like so many important scientific discoveries, both Fliess and Swoboda were working along very similar lines with almost no knowledge of each other's work. It is quite extraordinary that these two scientists, despite doing independent research, came to virtually identical conclusions. Both Swoboda and Fliess found psychology intriguing and due to books and information beginning to surface at the time, took an interest in human cycles. Swoboda published this paper at the Universal of Vienna in 1900 - "Life is subject to consistent changes. This understanding does not refer to changes in our destiny or to changes that take place in the course of life. Even if someone lived a life entirely free of outside forces, of anything that could alter his mental and physical state, still his life would not be identical from day to day. The best of physical health does not prevent us from feeling ill sometimes, or less happy then usual.". Analyzing dreams, ideas and creative impulses of his patients, Swoboda noticed very regular patters or rhythms. Some artists might be familiar with these dry spells and then frenzies of creations with predictable variations. He also observed that new mothers began to show anxiety about their infants whenever a critical day occurred or was about to occur.

Swoboda's discovery of these two basic biorhythms led him to write a succession of distinguished and widelypopular books explaining and developing the ideas of human cycles. First of these books, published in 1904, is titled The Periods of Human Life (in their psychological and biological significance). His second book titled Studies on the Basis of Psychology further elaborated his work on creativity and the recurrence of dreams. In 1909 he published an instruction booklet which included a slide rule to calculate critical days called, The Critical Days of Man. Swoboda's best book, and one of his last, was a volume of almost 600 pages titled The Year of Seven. Much of that work was devoted to proving biorhythm theory by giving a mathematical analysis of how the timing of births tends to be rhythmic and predictable from generation to generation within the same family. Wilhelm Fliess on the other hand did not get nearly as much gratification from his discovery as Swoboda. He did introduce Sigmund Freud, a friend of his, to Biorhythms around the turn of the century. Freud, well known as the father of modern psychology, was very interested in human behavior and was fascinated by Fliess's work. During the course of five years they wrote over a hundred letters to each other discussing their respective discoveries and research. Both Fliess and Freud were interested in human bisexuality. Fliess begun to prove cellular bisexuality through his research of Biorhythms realizing that both men and women had an emotional cycle that was the same. He stated that Women are more influenced by the emotional cycle and men are more affected by the physical cycle. He concluded, due to cellular bisexuality both male and females have both rhythms (saying that men have a pseudo menstrual cycle, if you will). In 1909, Fliess published a book entitled The Course of Life, which spurred other doctor, Hans Schlieper, to write a book on Biorhythms called The Year in Space.

natural monthly fluctuations that govern:

Physical:

This cycle effects the physical aspect of the body. It encompasses your energy levels, your resistance, and your overall physical strength and endurance. During the positive half of cycle is when you will feel at your best. This cycles influences physical factors such as eye-hand coordination, strength, endurance, and resistance to disease. (Peak) You will feel physically fit to work on projects requiring physical strength and endurance. (Low) During the down half of cycle you are likely to have less energy and less vitality. Be sure to follow this cycle if you require physical endurance for either sports or your work. Emotional:

This cycle governs the nervous system and also is referred to as the sensitivity rhythm. This cycle influences our emotional states, affecting love/hate, optimism/pessimism, passion/coldness, depression/elation. (Peak) When you are feeling most creative, most loving and warm, and you are probably more open in your relationships. (Low) More inclined to be withdrawn and less cooperative. You may also be very irritated and negative about those things that occur in your everyday life. Intellectual:

This cycle supposedly originates in the brain. It influences our memory, alertness, speed of learning, reasoning ability, accuracy of computation.(Peak) Considered to be at your most intellectually responsive; you're open to accepting and understanding new ideas, theories and approaches. (Low) Much more likely to have difficulty in grasping new ideas and concepts.
References: CrystaLinks

https://web.archive.org/web/20110419191116/http://www.themysticeye.com/info/biorhythm.htm