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VIKTOR SCHAUBERGER

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF HIS THEORIES ON ENERGY, MOTION, AND WATER

Callum Coats

 

How could we have missed this universal machine? Why have we ignored the vortex, the workhorse of the universe?

WILLIAM BAUMGARTNER

VIKTOR SCHAUBERGER, THE MAN

Throughout recorded history humanity has been periodically uplifted by the contributions of a few gifted and enlightened individuals whose teachings and philosophies have gradually raised the level of human awareness, with Buddha, Jesus Christ, and the Prophet Mohammed being the most illustrious examples of individuals who have produced far-reaching changes in the consciousness of humanity. Lesser mortals have also played a vital role in this process, and the seeding of human consciousness with higher truths always seems to come at a time when humankind as a whole is ready to receive them.

It is sometimes said these great teachers, themselves ardent students of Nature and the Divine, live ahead of their time. These exceptional individuals are indeed visionaries in the truest sense of the word, for they are endowed with a far higher sense of perception than their contemporaries. For their work an enormous dedication and courage is necessary. Historically—and Viktor Schauberger was no exception—the lives such individuals have led, or have had to lead, have been dogged with confrontation, difficulty, doubt, and the great loneliness of the pathfinder. As pioneers, apart from breaking new ground, they often suffer great adversity in their encounter with the powerful opposition of those whose interests and beliefs are rigidly immured in the current status quo.

Figure 3.1. Viktor Schauberger, Austrian Forester and Natural Scientist

Schauberger’s life followed this same path, for in his life he too was met with derision, slander, and deceit in a long confrontation with the establishment in its various forms. More often than not his discoveries contradicted established theory and in their flawless functioning and practical implementation seriously threatened the credibility and reputation of scientist and bureaucrat alike. Schauberger was a man of enormous strength of purpose, warm and encouraging, particularly to young people, in whom he took great interest, for he saw in them the possibility of restoring a secure and bountiful future. But to those whose view of life he considered irretrievably perverted, spiritually and intellectually, he was absolutely uncompromising, seeing them as obstacles in the path of human evolution and the rehabilitation of the environment.

There are many such individuals who have given themselves wholly to the betterment of their fellow human beings. Without exception they were endowed with extraordinary perceptive and intuitive abilities that afforded them fresh insights into the way the world functions, enabling them to understand phenomena hitherto inexplicable to their contemporaries. They were aware of another dimension of reality, one further dimension at least always being required to make sense of the whole. Analogous to the third dimension that makes a two-dimensional world understandable, this can be called the “dimension of comprehension.”

Schauberger, some of whose penetrating insights into natural phenomena we will address here, was one of those rare human beings, those explorers in human thought and endeavor whose chosen path was to throw light on the future. In years to come he will be acknowledged as one of the principal guiding spirits of the twenty-first century and beyond, who brought about a fundamental shift of Copernican proportions in humankind’s appreciation of Nature and natural energies. Indeed, few have had Schauberger’s deep understanding of that living substance so vital to all life processes—water, which he viewed as the blood of Mother Earth, for Schauberger saw the whole Earth as a living organism.

Schauberger was born June 30, 1885, in the parish of Ulrichsberg, Upper Austria. He was descended from a long line of foresters who had devoted their lives to the natural management and administration of the forest—a dedication mirrored in their family motto: Fidus in silvis silentibus (“Faith in the silent forests”). With this as his background, and much against his father’s will, at the age of eighteen he flatly refused to follow in the footsteps of his two elder brothers and attend university, having seen how university had affected his brothers’ thinking. The main reason for his refusal was that he did not wish to have his natural way of thinking corrupted by people he considered totally alienated from Nature. He did not want to be forced to see things through jaundiced eyes, but through his own. As he later wrote, “The only possible outcome of the purely categorizing compart-mentality, thrust upon us at school, is the loss of our creativity. People are losing their individuality, their ability to see things as they really are and thereby their connection with Nature. They are fast approaching a state of equilibrium impossible in Nature, which must force them into a total economic collapse, for no stable system of equilibrium exists. Therefore the principles upon which our actions are founded are invalid, because they operate within parameters that do not exist.”¹

Endowed with an exceptional gift for accurate and intuitive observation, Schauberger was able to perceive the natural energies and other phenomena occurring in Nature, presently unrecognized by orthodox science. Leaving home, Schauberger spent a long period alone in the high, remote forest, contemplating, pondering, and observing the many subtle energetic processes taking place in Nature’s laboratory, where still undisturbed by human hands. During this period he developed very profound and radical theories, later to be confirmed practically, concerning water, the energies inherent in it, and its desired natural form of motion. These eventually earned him the name Water Wizard.

While Schauberger undoubtedly had a special talent for observation, a penetrating power of perception unsullied by preconceptions, he also developed what might be called an active consciousness, an ability to go beyond the merely visual in search of what lay behind a given phenomenon. This taught him a great deal, and how this ability gradually evolved he explained as follows:

The Schaubergers’ principal preoccupation was directed towards the conservation of the forest and wild game, and even in earliest youth my fondest desire was to understand Nature and through such understanding to come closer to the truth; a truth that I was unable to discover either at school or in church.

In this quest I was thus drawn time and time again up into the forest. I could sit for hours on end and watch the water flowing by without ever becoming tired or bored. At the time I was still unaware that in water the greatest secret lay hidden. Nor did I know that water was the carrier of life or the ur-source^*2 of what we call consciousness. Without any preconceptions, I simply let my gaze fall on the water as it flowed past. It was only years later that I came to realize that running water attracts our consciousnesses like a magnet and draws a small part of it along in its wake. It is a force that can act so powerfully that one temporarily loses one’s consciousness and involuntarily falls asleep.

As time passed I began to play a game with water’s secret powers; I surrendered my so-called free consciousness and allowed the water to take possession of it for a while. Little by little this game turned into a profoundly earnest endeavor, because I realized that one could detach one’s own consciousness from the body and attach it to that of the water.

When my own consciousness was eventually returned to me, then the water’s most deeply concealed psyche often revealed the most extraordinary things to me. As a result of this investigation a researcher was born, who could dispatch his consciousness on a voyage of discovery, as it were. In this way I was able to experience things that had escaped other people’s notice, because they were unaware that a human being is able to send forth his free conscious ness into those places the eyes cannot see.

By practicing this blind-folded vision, I eventually developed a bond with mysterious Nature, whose essential being I then slowly learnt to perceive and understand.²

These perceptions of truth presented Schauberger with considerable problems in translating them into everyday language, for when it comes to transferring spiritual ideation into mundane word-pictures, enormous difficulties are encountered due to the limitations of language. In many instances, when he came to describe these phenomena, he described them not in the conventional terminology of physics, chemistry, or biology, but in his own words, for which he was greatly assisted by the structure of the German language, which facilitates the formation of new concepts through additive nouns. Despite this, and for lack of a suitable technical vocabulary, their interpretation and comprehension is still sometimes extremely difficult, which in his writings he freely admitted: “Few will understand the meaning of the above! Some individuals, however, will obtain an indefinable inkling.”³ His oft-repeated dictum was “C² —Comprehend and Copy Nature,” for only thus will humanity emerge from its present crisis-stricken condition.

The vital development of a new technology, harmonious and conforming to Nature’s laws, demands a radical and fundamental change in our way of thinking and our approach to the interpretation of the established doctrines and facts of physics, chemistry, agriculture, forestry, and water management. As a pointer as to how such a new technology should come about, let me again quote Schauberger: “How else should it be done then?” was always the immediate question. The answer is simple: exactly in the opposite way that it is done today!

However, before we can usefully address Schauberger’s theories, it is first necessary to discuss energy and movement for, contrary to the generally accepted way of looking at things, in his view of life’s processes and their unfoldment, energy is primary and physical form is the secondary effect.

WHAT IS ENERGY?

What is the essential nature of energy? Where do we begin to search for the answer to this age-old, deeply philosophical question? Surprisingly, despite all scientific investigation, nobody seems to have come up with a definitive answer! All we know are the ways in which energy manifests itself. We can see that energy is involved in flowing water and the formation and movement of clouds. But what is energy? What is its essence? What is this sublime process that always seems intimately connected with motion?

There are many extremely high energies of which science is aware and can measure, but it cannot measure human energies such as thought, desire, love, enthusiasm, anger, and such, all of which are expressions of the human psyche and motivators to action. Many ancient cultures have known of other immaterial life energies, which they called, for example, chi, ka, prana, mana, archeus, or vis vitalis. As Schauberger often said, scientific thinking is an octave too low and is unaware of what he called the fourth and fifth dimensions. As human beings we are immersed in a three-dimensional world, yet have an inkling of a possible fourth dimension we call time. What other dimensions may await our discovery?

The Creative Energy Vortex

It is becoming more imperative that we understand how energy moves in order to create conditions in any future technology that faithfully emulate the natural movement of energy and Nature’s systems of motion, growth, and development. In her systems involving dynamic energetic processes, she always appears to select a spiral form of movement and its vortical derivatives, which are represented in figure 3.2 in both macrocosm, a galaxy, in this case overlaid by Walter Schauberger’s hyperbolic spiral, and microcosm, a DNA molecule.⁴

Since we still do not know what energy is, for the purposes of discussion, figure 3.3 represents a possible energy path. As energy moves along its desired path, it draws matter into its wake and forms the vessel through which it wants to move. A river does exactly the same thing; the capillaries in our bodies likewise. The blood is the external manifestation of an energy path. What we see is the blood; we do not see the energy that moves it. The blood is all that matter that is too coarse to be taken to the energy’s final destination. Energy therefore creates the form of the path through which it wants to move and along which it can move with the least resistance.

Figure 3.2. In forming systems of dynamic energy, Nature always seems to select a spiral form of movement, from the incredibly huge whirlpool of galaxies to the incredibly small spirals of DNA.

Figure 3.3. The flow of energy determines its own path, and it draws matter to itself to form the vessel through which the energy flows.

These unseen energies do not cease there, however, but serve to maintain the energy of the organism in question, be it a tree, bacterium, or human being. The physically palpable aspect of these formative energies is what my mentor, Schauberger, termed “fecal matter.” By this he meant the deposition and solidification of those energies too coarse to be carried farther down or up the vortical channel or pathway of the continuously vivifying and form-maintaining energies. From a certain point of view, the human body could therefore be seen as a hollow energy path, a complex toroidal vortex for the transmutation of matter-energy into physical and intellectual activity.

In Schauberger’s view the unseen vortical energies responsible for the growth and development of the tree, for example, stream upward far above the physical tree itself and draw up its structure in their wake, the additional growth resulting from the accumulation and expulsion of further energetic detritus.

The use of the word vortical in reference to the pathways of these formative energies relates to the fact that vortices have a cohering, energizing function. In their implosive outside-inward motion, they draw the various energetic filaments together into closer harmonious association and thus maintain a concentration in their concerted action to create the artifact in question. Depending on their frequency, there may be several such vortices emanating from the original vortical flow or life-stream, each being responsible for the creation of a different aspect of the evolving form.

In our physical world vortices and spirals are evident in both material and immaterial form, and in their physical manifestation these energy vortices display the most exquisite mathematical perfection and symmetry, of which seashells, flowers, and leaves are perhaps the most familiar examples. In terms of physical growth this motion can only be outward, as in the case of the seashells, for physical growth cannot occur in an inward direction, but only outwardly. Immaterial growth, however, can take place in either direction, but in vortical systems, such as cyclones and those in water, the movement is from the outside inward, coupled with increasing density and velocity. While the implosive vortex is the predominant one, Nature is never one-sided, and therefore the opposite form exists and is implemented when required.

Of their very nature these vortical systems are self-energizing, friction and impedance reducing, self-organizing, spatially reducing, cooling, suction increasing, densifying and cohering, and silent. It is a form of motion that Schauberger termed radial → axial (i.e., movement from the outside inward). In contrast, all our current technical systems operate in the opposite direction (i.e., inside outward, or axially → radially). Such motion is coupled with increasing pressure, friction, disintegration, and ultimately noise. Indeed it could be said that the more noise a technical system makes, the more it is operating against the laws of Nature. Such noise, however, has a debilitating and disruptive, if not downright harmful, effect on all natural organisms forced to endure it, including us.

Continuing the above analogy of the vortical movement of energy, let us observe just how beautiful such a naturally structured vortex is (figure 3.4). Such phenomena are not often observed. What a marvelous structure! It is not handmade, but it is the path along which water likes to move.

Figure 3.4. A photograph of the energy path of a naturally structured vortex

Nature’s workings could therefore be described not as “wheels within wheels” but as “whorls within whorls.” It is all the more extraordinary, therefore, that despite so much evidence of this vortical, cyclical, and helical movement, which lies everywhere in Nature before our very eyes, science has never ascribed any fundamental importance to it or tried to copy it. It has been too immersed in the euclidean elements of mechanics with little knowledge or conception of organics. We have never taken the time to understand it enough to be able to exploit it. It is high time we developed a technology whereby these processes are truly understood. This should be termed an ecotechnology rather than a biotechnology, the latter having been brought into disrepute through gene manipulation and experimentation. Perhaps “ec²otechnology” would be an even better term as it embodies Schauberger’s concept of C², signifying “Comprehend and Copy Nature.”

The “Original” Motion

If one observes the universe as a whole, from big bang to black hole, as it were, a form of motion is evident that Schauberger called “cycloid-spiralspace-curve motion.” He also referred to it as the “original” motion, not only in a primordial sense, but also as a “form-creating” dynamic. Shown in its quintessential, archetypal form in figure 3.5, which depicts the creation of three successive universes, the cycloid-spiral-space-curve embodies an initial out-breathing, centrifugal, curving expansion from a point, which results in the generation of countless individualities and energetic systems. Its culmination is an in-breathing, centripetal implosion whereby all that has been created is concentrated once more into a point. The very word universe signifies a single curve (uni = one, versum = curve). The fact that the configuration of this curve may be a complex combination of descending and ascending, involuting and convoluting, expanding and contracting spiral movements does nothing to detract from its uniqueness or unit quality, since from inception to culmination its path is continuous. It is an energy path, and the essence of energy is ceaseless movement. In its eternal trajectory from spirit to matter (outward breath) and from matter to spirit (inward breath), it permeates all creation. It is all creation!

Figure 3.5. Creative, formative motion according to Schauberger. The open, goal-oriented, structured, concentrated, intensifying, condensing, dynamic, self-organizing, self-divesting of the less valuable, rhythmical (cyclical), sinuous, pulsing, in-rolling centripetal (and out-rolling centrifugal) movement equals the cycloid-spiral-space-curve.

Apart from its inherent pulsation, it would be impossible to break this eternal movement down into discrete segments, for at the point where one portion of this sublime curve ceases, the next begins and cannot be defined mathematically, whatever the subjective view. Therefore this unique, primordial, creative curve embodies the unbroken path of evolution, of cyclical, pulsating out-foldment and in-foldment, as it spirals in and out of all the myriads of apparently inextricably interconnected and interdependent individual systems in the cosmos, tying and uniting all in one inscrutable Gordian knot.

Even the tools of common language unwittingly allude to the character of this creative force and its dynamic spiral movement. When we “ex-spire,” we exit from this our “mortal coil.” When we are “in-spire-d,” we feel drawn to higher ideals. Our “spir(e)it” is raised, and we are sucked into the upward spiral.

Interestingly enough, the German word for the spinal column, the fundamental supporting structure of the human body, is Wirbelsäule, which translated directly into English means “spiral column.” Similarly each one of the vertebrae is referred to as a whirlpool or a vortex. Whereas we see it as a stiff, more or less rigid, physical structure, the Germans see it more as an energy path.

Forms of Motion

When we come to spiral-vortical motion itself—and Nature provides us with countless examples—we can further subdivide it into another two forms. As shown in figure 3.6, axial → radial motion signifies an initial movement around a center, which subsequently transfers to a radial movement toward the exterior; it is thus centrifugal, a movement from the inside outward.

In Schauberger’s theories, also proven practically, with this form of movement the resistance to motion increases by the square of the starting velocity. In other words, if the radial distance from the center of rotation is 1 and the resistance is 1, when the radius is doubled (from 1 to 2), the resistance is (2 squared = 4) quadrupled and the rotational period halved. If the radial distance is 3, the resultant resistance is 3² (9) and the rotational velocity reduced to one-third, and so on. However, if the rotational velocity of such a centrifugal system is to be maintained at a constant level, then a continual, wasteful, and expensive increase in the amount of input energy is required to overcome the resistance, and the whole system becomes less and less efficient. Not only this, but it creates discordant noise, and the more noise a device makes, the more it operates against the laws of Nature.

The dispersion of energy, therefore, is associated with noise or heat, as the case may be. This is typical of our forms of technical movement, wherein there is initially no motion at the center, but with increasing distance from this point, velocity and resistance also increase. The axial → radial centrifugal form of motion can thus be defined as divergent, decelerating, dissipating, structure loosening, disintegrating, destructive, and friction inducing. While the destructive diffusion of energy results in noise, the creative concentration of energy, however, is silent. Indeed, as Schauberger asserted on many occasions, “Everything that is natural is silent, simple and cheap.”⁵

Upon consideration, this statement is quite obvious. Think of all the concentrated energy involved in the growth of the forest, for example, in all the innumerable chemical and atomic interactions, which are none other than energetic processes, movements of creative energy. The silence of the forest is indicative of the extraordinary concentration of form-creating energy.

Whereas our mechanical, technological systems of motion almost without exception are axial → radial and heat and friction inducing, Nature uses precisely the opposite form of movement. When Nature is moving dynamically, the slowest movement occurs at the periphery and the fastest at the center. One only has to observe the dynamics of a cyclone or a tornado. Her form of movement, therefore, is centripetal or radial → axial, moving from the outside inward with increasing velocity, which acts to cool, to condense, and to structure.

Radial → axial motion can therefore be defined as convergent, contracting, consolidating, creative, integrating, formative, and friction reducing. If the starting radius is 1 and the initial resistance is 1 on an inwinding path, when the radius is halved, the resistance is (1/2)² (= 1/4), and the rotational periodicity, frequency, or velocity is doubled. The dynamics of evolution must therefore follow this centripetal, radial → axial path, for if the opposite were the case, namely centrifugal, axial → radial motion, then all would have come to a stop almost before it started. With centrifugal acceleration, more power must be applied in order to accelerate or to maintain the same velocity. However, if the acceleration is centripetal, the velocity and energy increase automatically, producing a creative force, the upbuilding energies from which all life is created.

As we are all becoming increasingly aware, our axial → radial technology and all its unnatural appurtenances, encompassing such effects as pollution, toxic waste, monoculture, and artificial fertilization, to name a few, is reaching the point where it is threatening our very existence, creating a crisis of life and death.

Figure 3.6. Schauberger’s concept of axial → radial motion denotes a movement from the center (the axis) outward toward the exterior of a vortex (the radius). Such movement is therefore centrifugal (i.e., from the inside outward).

The Chinese word for crisis encompasses the two elements of “danger” and “open door.” Thus when danger confronts, a door opens to avoid it. This is where we are right now, and in preparation many alternate and Nature-friendly technologies are being quietly developed and can be implemented. Such implementation, however, will require a volte-face in humanity’s attitudes, not only toward each other, but also in our interactions with Nature. Fundamental to any new and harmonious culture, however, is a reevaluation and a reverence for water, whose natural movement embodies all the forms of motion described above and without which there would be no life at all. Thus it is to water that we shall now turn our attention.

WATER—A LIVING SUBSTANCE

Water! Where do we begin our quest in search of the true nature of this remarkable substance, this wondrous, many-faceted jewel, which is both life and liquid? So primordial, primeval, and fundamental is the function of water that it begs the question: Which came first, life or water? Thales of Miletus (640–546 BC) described water as the only true element from which all other bodies are created, believing it to be the original substance of the cosmos. It was the only real substance because it was imbued with the quality of being.

This view was firmly held by Schauberger, who also saw water as the “original” and “form-originating” substance created by the subtle energies called into being through the “original” motion of the Earth, itself the manifestation of even more sublime forces. Because it is the offspring or the “first born” of these energies, as he put it, he maintained and frequently asserted that water is a living substance!

Because he saw water as a living entity, Schauberger also saw it as the accumulator and transformer of the energies originating from the Earth and the cosmos and, as such, as the foundation of all life processes and the major contributor to the conditions that make life possible. Not only that, he said, but once mature, water is a being invested with the power of extraordinary giving and gives of itself to all things requiring life.

The Upholder of the Cycles which supports the whole of Life, is water. In every drop of water dwells a Deity, whom we all serve; there also dwells Life, the Soul of the “First” substance—water—whose boundaries and banks are the capillaries that guide it and in which it circulates.

VIKTOR SCHAUBERGER,
OUR SENSELESS TOIL

Water is therefore a being that has life and death. With incorrect, ignorant handling, however, it becomes diseased, imparting this condition to all other organisms, vegetable, animal, and human alike, causing their eventual physical decay and death, and in the case of human beings, their moral, mental, and spiritual deterioration as well. From this it can be seen just how vital it is that water should be handled and stored in such a way as to avert such pernicious repercussions. Rather than the nurturer and furtherer of all life that it should be, failure to perceive water as a living entity quickly transforms it into a dangerous enemy, for when, in our ignorance of water’s manifold functions, we stop these cycles, we also stop life.

As a liquid, water is described chemically as H₂O and is a dipole molecule composed of two hydrogen atoms, each endowed with a positive charge, and one oxygen atom possessing two negative charges. Water is no homogeneous substance, however, for it possesses other characteristics according to the medium or the organism in which it resides and moves. As a molecule, water has an extraordinary capacity to combine with more elements and compounds than any other molecule and in this regard could be described as the universal solvent. At a physical level water is to be found in three states of aggregation, solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (water vapor), and in terms of its structure as a liquid it tends more to the crystalline, as it continually forms and reforms nodes of temporary crystallization.

The Properties of Water

Anomaly Point

The anomalous expansion of water is also a factor of major importance. As a liquid, the behavior of water differs from all other fluids. While the latter become consistently and steadily denser with cooling, water alone, among all liquids, reaches its densest state at a temperature of +4° Celsius (39.2° Fahrenheit), below which it once more expands, eventually crystallizing as ice at 0°C. The temperature of +4°C is the so-called anomaly point or “point of anomalous expansion,” which is decisive in terms of its potency and has a major influence on its quality. At +4°C water attains its greatest density, its least spatial volume, and is virtually incompressible (figure 3.7).

If water’s temperature rises above +4°C, it expands. When it cools below this level it also begins to expand and becomes specifically lighter. This anomalous expansion below +4°C is vital to the survival of fish life, for as water expands and cools further it eventually crystallizes as ice at 0°C, providing a floating, insulating sheath that protects the aquatic life underneath from the harmful effects of severe external cold in winter.

WATER—SOME IMPORTANT PHYSICAL FACTS

WATER:

a) Is specifically most dense at +4°C and at this temperature has its greatest energetic content.

b) Is chemically described as H₂O with 2 positively charged hydrogen atoms and 1 negatively charged oxygen atom.

c) Has its lowest Specific Heat at +37.5°C, which has great significance for human beings with a normal temperature of +37°C in that it requires greater amounts of heat or cold to change the temperature of the blood, consisting of up to 90% water.

d) Has a Dielectric Value of 81, which is 81 times greater than that of a vacuum (=1).

e) 1mm³ of Pure Water (H₂O) has an Electrical Resistance = to a 15,000,000 km long copper wire with a cross-section of 1mm².

f) Has as many varieties as there are humans, animals and plants.

g) Is the BLOOD OF THE EARTH and performs the same functions in the Earth as does blood in animal life and sap in plants.

h) There are two different TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS, which have a decisive effect on the action and energy of water
POSITIVE Temperature Gradient (P.T.G.) = a motion of temperature toward +4°C.
NEGATIVE Temperature Gradient (N.T.G.) = a motion of temperature away from +4°C.

Figure 3.7. The physical attributes of water

Also, +4°C is the temperature at which water has its highest energy content and is in what Schauberger called a state of “indifference.” In other words, when in its highest natural condition of health, vitality, and life-giving potential, water is at an internal state of energetic equilibrium and in a thermally and spatially neutral condition. Therefore if water’s health, energy, and life force are to be maintained at the highest possible level, then certain precautions must be taken, for this anomalous condition is not only crucial to water’s diverse functions, but also to Schauberger’s theories and their implementation with regard to the temperature gradient to be elaborated later on.

Dielectric Value

Another important factor is water’s dielectric value. The base dielectric value for calculating all other values is based on the permittivity of a vacuum and has a value of 1. Permittivity is the extent to which a substance can be penetrated or traversed by an electric current or charge. The dielectric value of pure water (distilled water) is 81 (= 9²) and is therefore 81 times more effective as a charge separator than a vacuum and almost the highest dielectric value there is.

Specific Heat and Thermal Conductivity

A further life-giving property of water is its high specific heat and thermal conductivity, namely the ability and the rate at which it absorbs and releases heat. According to H. L. Penman’s paper “The Water Cycle,” water has the greatest specific heat known among liquids (= 1) and also has the greatest thermal conductivity of all liquids. “Its great specific heat means that, for a given rate of energy input, the temperature of a given mass of water will rise more slowly than the temperature of any other material. Conversely, as energy is released its temperature will drop more slowly.”⁶

This means that a large input or extraction of heat energy is necessary to bring about a change in density and temperature. The lowest point of the curve of the specific heat values for water, however, lies at +37.5°C or 99.5°F (figure 3.7). How strange then, and how remarkable, that the lowest specific heat of this “inorganic” substance—water—lies but 0.5°C (0.9°F) above the normal +37°C (98.6°F) blood temperature of the most highly evolved of Nature’s creatures—human beings—a temperature at which the greatest amount of heat or cold is required to change the water’s temperature. This property of water to resist rapid thermal change enables us, with blood composed of up to 90 percent water, to survive in a relatively large range and fluctuation of temperatures and still maintain our own internal bodily temperature. If the blood in our bodies had a lower specific heat, they would heat up more rapidly and start to decompose, or quickly freeze if exposed to extreme cold.

When our body temperature is +37°C (98.6°F) we do not have a “temperature” as such. We are healthy and, recalling Schauberger’s view, are in an “indifferent” or “temperature-less” state. Just as good water is the preserver of our proper bodily temperature, our anomaly point of greatest health and energy, so too does it preserve this planet as a habitat for our continuing existence. Water in all its forms and qualities is thus the mediator of all life and deserving of the highest focus of our esteem.

Life is movement and is epitomized by water, which is in a constant state of motion and transformation, both externally and internally. Flowing as water, sap, and blood, this life molecule is the creator of the myriad life-forms on this planet. How then could it ever be construed as lifeless in accordance with the chemist’s clinical view of water, defined as the inorganic substance H₂O?

This cryptic appellation is a gross misrepresentation. Were water merely the sterile, distilled H₂O as presently described by science, it would be poisonous to all living things. H₂O or “juvenile water” is sterile, distilled water and devoid of any so-called impurities. It has no developed character and qualities. As a young, immature, growing entity, it grasps like a baby at everything within reach. It absorbs the characteristics and properties of whatever it comes into contact with or has attracted to itself in order to grow to maturity. This “everything”—the “impurities”—takes the form of trace elements, minerals, salts, and even smells! Were we to drink pure H₂O constantly, it would quickly leach out all our store of minerals and trace elements, debilitating and ultimately killing us. Like a growing child, juvenile water takes and does not give. Only when mature—when suitably enriched with raw materials—is it in a position to give, to dispense itself freely and willingly, thus enabling the rest of life to develop.

Types of Water

But what is this marvelous, colorless, tasteless, and odorless substance that quenches our thirst like no other fluid? Did we but truly understand the essential nature of water—a living liquid—we would not treat it so churlishly, but would care for it as if our lives depended on it, which they clearly do.

Apart from the actual treatment of water, which I’ll discuss later, certain types of water are more suitable for drinking than others, the following being a general classification to be read in conjunction with the table below.

TABLE 3.1. QUALITIES OF DRINKING WATER
WATER TYPE	DESCRIPTION	DRINKING QUALITY
Distilled water	Purest water—contains no other elements	*
Meteoric (rainwater)	Contains some atmospheric gases—no minerals	**
Juvenile (immature water)	Contains few minerals or trace elements	**
Surface water (dams, reservoirs, rivers)	Contains some minerals and salts accumulated by contact with the soil	***
Groundwater	Contains a greater quantity of minerals, salts, etc.	****
True spring water	High in dissolved carbons, carbonic acid, and minerals	*****
Artesian water	Deep-lying water that may be fresh or saline and contains a variety of dissolved elements, suspensions, and gases	Variable

Distilled Water

This is what is considered physically and chemically to be the purest form of water. Having no characteristics other than total purity, it has a pre-programmed will to unite with or acquire, to extract or attract to itself all the substances it needs to become mature water, and therefore absorbs and grasps at everything within reach. Such water is really quite dangerous if drunk continuously long term. When distilled water is drunk it acts as a purgative, stripping the body of trace minerals and elements.

Meteoric Water—rainwater

Meteoric water or rainwater, the purest naturally available water, noxious atmospheric pollutants aside, is also unsuitable for drinking long term. It is marginally better than distilled water and slightly richer in minerals, due to the absorption of atmospheric gases and dust particles. As a living organism it is still in adolescence and needs to undergo certain ripening processes in order to be able to be absorbed by the body and be beneficial to it.

Juvenile Water

Juvenile water is immature water, but it is water coming from the ground. It has not matured properly on its passage through the ground. It emerges, perhaps in the form of geysers, from quite a long way down. It has not yet resolved itself into a mature structure and is therefore still of poor quality. It contains a few minerals, some trace elements, and only small quantities of dissolved carbons, but again as drinking water it is not very high grade.

Surface Water

Surface water, from dams, reservoirs, and the like, contains some minerals and salts accumulated by contact with the soil and also from the atmosphere, but generally speaking it is not a very good quality water, partly because it has already been exposed to heavy oxygenation by being in contact with the atmosphere and has also been heated frequently by exposure to the sun, which removes a great deal of water’s character and energy.

Groundwater

Groundwater is already much better, often expressing itself as a seepage spring. It is water emanating from lower levels that seeps to the surface after passage along the top of an impervious stratum. It has a larger quota of dissolved carbons, which are the most important ingredient in high-quality water, apart from other trace salts.

True Springwater

True springwater—we shall explore the differences between a seepage spring and a true spring later on—is very high in dissolved carbons and minerals and of the highest possible quality. Its high state of health and vitality is affirmed by its shimmering, vibrant bluish color, which is not evident in inferior waters. Such water is ideal for drinking, if it can be obtained. Unfortunately there are now very few true, high-quality springs left, due to the destruction of the environment.

Artesian Waters

Apart from the above waters, there are artesian waters obtained from bores for wells, which are of unpredictable quality. At times they may be saline and at others brackish or fresh. One can never be sure that well water will necessarily be of drinking quality. Well water probably lies between groundwater and seepage spring water in terms of quality, but most probably can be likened to and classified as groundwater. Once again it depends on how deep the well is and what stratum of water is tapped.

But what are we actually given to drink? This subject of vital interest to us all, which so intimately affects our life, health, and well-being, will be discussed later. Now we must turn our attention to the temperature gradient, which, after the anomaly point of +4°C, is the next most important factor in understanding water and its proper, naturalesque handling.

OTHER FACTORS RELATED TO THE HEALTH OF WATER

The Temperature Gradient

Apart from other factors (some cannot be defined quantitatively), encompassing such aspects as turbidity (opaqueness), impurity, and quality, the most crucial factor affecting the health and energy of water is temperature, the various aspects of which will be addressed in greater detail later. But first of all a general overview is in order.

Conceived in the cool, dark cradle of the virgin forest, water ripens and matures as it slowly mounts from the depths. On its upward way it gathers to itself trace elements and minerals. Only when it is ripe, and not before, will it emerge from the womb of the Earth as a spring. As a true spring, in contrast to a seepage spring, it has a water temperature of about +4°C (39.2°F). Here in the cool, diffused light of the forest it begins its long, life-giving cycle as a sparkling, lively, translucent stream, bubbling, gurgling, whirling, and gyrating as it wends its way valley-ward. In its natural, self-cooling, spiraling, convoluting motion, water is able to maintain its vital inner energies, health, and purity. In this way it acts as the conveyor of all the necessary minerals, trace elements, and other subtle energies to the surrounding environment.

Naturally flowing water seeks to flow in darkness or in the diffused light of forests and shaded streams, thus avoiding the damaging direct light of the sun. Under these conditions, even when cascading down in torrents, a stream will only rarely overflow its banks. Due to its correct natural motion, the faster it flows, the greater its carrying capacity and scouring ability and the more it deepens its bed. This is due to the formation of in-winding, longitudinal, and both clockwise and anti-clockwise alternating spiral vortices down the central axis of the current, which constantly cool and re-cool the water, maintaining it at a healthy temperature and leading to a faster, more laminar, spiral flow.

Figure 3.8. The longitudinal vortex showing laminar flow about the central axis. The coldest water filaments are always closest to the central axis of flow. Thermal stratification occurs even with minimal differences in water temperatures. The central core water is subjected to the least turbulence and accelerates ahead, drawing the rest of the water-body in its wake.

In the illustration above, the coldest water-filaments are always closest to the central axis of flow. Thermal stratification occurs even with minimal differences in water temperature. The central core water is subjected to the least turbulence and accelerates ahead, drawing the rest of the water-body in its wake.

To protect itself from the harmful effects of excess heat, water shields itself from the sun with overhanging vegetation, for with increasing heat and light it begins to lose its vitality and health and its capacity to enliven and animate the environment through which it passes. Ultimately becoming a broad river, the water becomes more turbid, the content of suspended small-grain sediment and silt increasing as it warms up, and its flow becoming slower and more sluggish.

However, even this turbidity plays an important role, because it protects the deeper water strata from the heating effect of the sun. Being in a denser state, the colder bottom strata retain the power to shift sediment of larger grain size (pebbles, gravel, etc.) from the center of the watercourse. In this way the danger of flooding is reduced to a minimum. The spiral, vortical motion mentioned earlier, which eventually led Schauberger to the formation of his theories concerning implosion, creates the conditions where the germination of harmful bacteria is inhibited and the water remains disease-free.

In the form of the temperature gradient, the omission of temperature in all hydraulic calculation has resulted in the most devastating floods and the ruination of almost all waterways. While flow velocity, shear force (sweeping force), sediment load, turbidity, and viscosity, to name a few factors, are taken into account in numerous formulae, the temperature gradient, which significantly affects the function of all these different aspects, has so far been totally disregarded in the fields of river engineering, water supply, water resources management, and the condition of water generally.

Apart from variations in its content of organic matter, minerals, and salts—the so-called impurities—water has always been deemed a lifeless, inorganic substance. Therefore, except for certain defined water temperatures required for specific purposes such as cooling and heating, the temperature or variations in temperature of any given water or body of water have hitherto been considered totally immaterial to the behavior of the water itself, since the measured range of these variations has generally been rated too small to be capable of producing any noteworthy effect.

Schauberger defines the temperature gradient, of which there are two forms, as follows:

A positive temperature gradient exists when one of the following conditions is present:

• The temperature of the water decreases and its density increases toward the anomaly point of +4°C.
• The density and temperature increase from freezing and below toward +4°C.
• Ground or water temperatures are cooler than air temperatures.
• Ground temperatures are cooler than water temperatures.

A negative temperature gradient exists when:

• The movement of temperature is away from +4°C, either upward or downward, both of which signify a decrease in density and energy.

In figure 3.7 the directions of movement of these two temperature conditions are shown as two curves delineating the variations of volume and density with temperature. Here it can be seen how with cooling the volume decreases and the density increases, and vice versa with heating. A movement of temperature toward the anomaly point of +4°C always involves a positive temperature gradient, whereas a movement in the opposite direction is indicative of a negative temperature gradient.

Both forms of temperature gradient are active simultaneously in nature, but for there to be evolution instead of devolution, the positive temperature gradient must predominate. On both upward and downward paths life emerges at the intersection of these two “temperaments,” as it were, each of which has different characteristics, properties, potentials, and opposite directions of movement or propagation.

Whatever manifests itself as a result of the interaction of these mutually opposing essences depends on the relative proportions between them, which also determines their point of intersection. For example, if the positive temperature gradient is very powerful, then the effect of the reciprocally weaker negative temperature gradient is beneficial and promotes the outbirth into physical form of the highest quality substances.

Conversely, if the roles and ratios are reversed and the negative temperature gradient is very dominant, then what unfolds as material substance is of inferior worth. For evolution and growth to proceed with increasing quality, vitality, and health, which form is uppermost and at what level of reciprocity their interaction takes place is of absolutely crucial importance, for this not only affects the movement of water, the movement of sap in plants, and the flow of blood in our veins, but also the configuration, structure, and quality of the channels, ducts, and vessels surrounding and guiding them.

As it flows, water acts completely differently according to whichever temperature gradient is in force. In its concentrative, cooling, energizing function, the +4°C-approaching, positive temperature gradient has a formative effect. It is a process allowing living systems to be built up, since in water it draws the ionized substances together into intimate and productive contact, for here the contained oxygen becomes passive and is easily bound by the cool carbones,^*3 thereby contributing beneficially to healthy growth and development. The +4°C-deviating, negative temperature gradient, on the other hand, has a disintegrative, debilitative function, for with increasing warming the structure of a given body becomes more loosely knit with a commensurate loss in cohering energy. In this case, due to the rising temperatures, the oxygen becomes increasingly aggressive and reverses its role as co-creator and benefactor, turning into a destroyer and fosterer of diseases and pathogens.

In all waters, forests, and other living organisms the temperature gradient is active in both positive and negative forms. In the natural processes of synthesis and decomposition each has its special role to play in nature’s great production, but each must enter on the stage of life at its appointed time. The positive temperature gradient, however, must play the principal role if evolution is to unfold creatively.

Temperature Gradients during Flow

Ever present, the temperature gradient is decisively active in the movement of water and the configuration of flow. Under natural conditions, when water flows down a gradient its flow is affected by a naturally occurring sequence of positive and negative temperature gradients, because in the course of flow the water rhythmically heats up and cools down. How much it heats up, however, is dependent on the degree of friction with the riverbed, the external temperature, and the extent to which the water is directly exposed to the sun. It only requires a very minute change in temperature for water to pick up, transport, or deposit its sediment, and it is the type and duration of the temperature gradient in force that determines which happens and for how long. A negative temperature gradient causes the deposition of sediment, whereas a positive temperature gradient ensures its removal. This pulsation or alternation can be likened to breathing, with a positive temperature gradient representing the inward breath, the absorbing, material-collecting movement, and the negative temperature gradient representing the outward breath, where the energetically transformed matter is exhaled from the system and deposited.

Apart from the general function of temperature gradients described above, in order to explain the various aspects of temperature-related flow as clearly as possible, each one will be dealt with individually, although by and large in any river or stream all of them are interactive in diverse combinations. Here it is important to understand that every particle of water is directly connected to a particular velocity relative to its specific weight and temperature, a phenomenon described in great detail by Schauberger in his 1930–1931 treatise “Temperature and the Movement of Water.”⁷

To give some idea of what is here involved, a series of superimposed water strata with their respective temperatures is shown schematically in figure 3.9a, the coldest stratum flowing over the streambed. Here the velocity curve shows the different distances traveled by the respective water strata in the same period of time, as denoted by the length of the arrows. Relative to the upper stratum, the lowest stratum can be seen to flow far more rapidly due to its greater density and coolness.

At the interface between these various strata, even though the temperature differences may be minimal, there is nevertheless a difference in their relative, temperature-related velocities, the lower stratum sliding forward slightly faster than its immediate upper neighbor. This slip creates a sort of vacuity at the “end,” as it were, of the higher-lying stratum, into which the lower stratum rises. In the process vortices are formed at right angles to the current, which rotate on a horizontal plane from the bottom upward, as shown in figure 3.9b. These mix the water but at the same time cool it, because the water temperatures within the center of these vortices are identifiably cooler than those without, the uppermost vortex train manifesting itself as the familiar backward-breaking ripples seen on rivers at the surface. This type of vortex also distributes the lighter-weight sediment and the nutrient material carried by the river from the center toward the sides, as shown in figure 3.9c.

The movement of water can also be further categorized into laminar and turbulent flows, the simplest form of laminar flow being the one shown in figure 3.9a. Turbulence, however, can take the form of longitudinal or transverse vortices. As far as the latter are concerned there are two principal types: the first operates horizontally at right angles to the direction of flow as shown in figures 3.9b and 3.9c; the second, potentially the more harmful, also acts at right angles to the current, but on a vertical plane, and if too powerful, will gouge deep potholes or trenches in the riverbed, seriously dislocating the natural flow.

 

Temperature and the Movement of Water

Every particle of water is connected to a particular velocity relative to its specific weight and specific temperature. When the critical velocity relative to temperature is exceeded, turbulence occurs, which is the NATURAL and AUTOMATIC BRAKE in flowing water.

Figure 3.9a. Laminar flow occurs when the internal variations in the water temperature are at a minimum, thus reducing the differences between the respective flow-velocities; there is therefore no turbulence.

Figure 3.9b. Turbulence in the form of horizontal vortex trains occurs when temperature variations are more marked and the critical velocity of each underlying water stratum is exceeded. In the process of vortex formation, the water is cooled, the flow becomes more laminar once more, and the flow accelerates.

Figure 3.9c. The horizontally acting, paired barrel-vortices transport sediment, suspended matter, and nutrients evenly over the whole channel bed. These are most active at the location of fords.

From this it becomes clear that in order to regulate a river naturally, and therefore satisfactorily, it is very necessary to take the temperature gradients and their alternating sequence into consideration. The variations in the temperature of the water body as a whole and in its various parts are so subtle, lying perhaps within a range of 0.1°C to 2.0°C, that contemporary hydraulic engineering has so far never paid the slightest heed to them, the temperature of the water generally being deemed unimportant and immaterial in regard either to the form or energy of the flow.

In order to reduce the danger of flooding to a minimum it is therefore apparent that the longer the reign of a positive temperature gradient can be preserved, the less likely a river is to flood, since only minor sediment deposition will occur.

The duration of the positive temperature gradient can be extended or it can be recreated where necessary (i.e., where excessive silt deposition occurs) through the replanting of trees. This is particularly important at the river bends, where the friction and therefore the warming tendencies are greatest. Species of timber should be planted along the banks, which have a high evaporation rate. In the process of evaporation the sap in the tree is cooled, and because the roots develop underneath the riverbed this cooling effect is also extended to the riverbed and thus to the water as well. Trees therefore act like a refrigerator and help maintain the positive temperature gradient for a longer period.

The key factors here in terms of land and water resources management are, first, never remove forests from the banks of a river; indeed a belt of trees of at least five hundred to one thousand meters wide should be maintained along all riverbanks for the health of the river. Second, rivers flowing through cleared, barren countryside should be densely reforested on both banks in order to cool the water. This will greatly assist in reestablishing healthy flow conditions, restoring the nutrient supply, and recharging the groundwater table through the reestablishment of a positive temperature gradient between the water and the ground in its vicinity.

The Formation of Vortices

Longitudinal vortices, as the name suggests, are aligned parallel to the flow axis of the channel. While these may constitute turbulence according to the meaning of the word, longitudinal vortices have an extremely beneficial function and represent the structuring of those energies required to dislodge and transport sediment, without which all channels will eventually silt up. At the same time they are those vessels that create and enhance the immaterial energies, soul, or psyche of a waterway.

During flow healthy rivers have a natural sequence of clockwise-rotating (right-hand bends) and counterclockwise-rotating (left-hand bends) longitudinal vortices (figure 3.10). In this way the suspended and dissolved carbons, which generally congregate along the banks and bed, are lifted toward the dissolved oxygen, which, in all healthy streams, normally resides in the central flow axis. These fructigenic^*4 carbons react to centripetence. In other words they become very active if moved centripetally, and in this condition are able to bind the fertilizing oxygen, which becomes passive with the cooling centripetence of the central vortical flow, but highly active with warming centrifugence. If the right proportion between centripetence and centrifugence in the vital longitudinal vortices exists, the most productive interaction between the two opposing substances is also assured. Here they interact not only to increase the energies in the water, but also to augment its carbonic acid content, which is one of the principal constituents of good water. Moreover they create conditions conducive to the propagation of bacteria and microorganisms beneficial to the environment through which the water passes. As the reflection of a primary energy path, the serpentine, meandering pattern of bends in a river is a manifestation of the physical secondary effect. Apart from large, immovable obstacles such as mountains and cliff faces, for example, the course of a river or stream always follows the path in which the energies in a given situation like to move. In some instances it is difficult to say whether the topographical features of a landscape produced the form of the river or whether the river gave rise to the landscape through which it flows (e.g., the Grand Canyon), so intimately connected are the two. Rivers are therefore the mirrors of an unseen flow of energy.

Although there are not many left, a naturally flowing river, undisturbed by modern river engineering, only rarely if ever overflows its banks. In their cool, faster flow down the flow axis, longitudinal vortices clear the channel bed of sediment as well as deepen it, varying this capacity to suit the volume of the discharge. These vortices are also thermally stratified in a laminar fashion. As an example, in figure 3.10 the central core water of such a vortex has a temperature of +5.01°C, very dense and cold, and it moves faster than the more outlying water strata, which become progressively less dense as they warm toward the outside.

According to the Archimedean principle of the denser carrying the lighter, here the densest core water carries the specifically lighter water, because in this inwinding, centripetal, vortical movement the densest water has to flow down the very center.

Apart from cooling the river water, the other principal function of both transverse and longitudinal vortices in naturally flowing rivers and streams, through the generation of backward-breaking ripples (figure 3.9b), is to apply the automatic brake to the descending water. Without this naturally applied brake, the heavy masses of water would overaccelerate, rupture the riverbanks, and cause immense havoc. It is this aspect that forms the nub of Schauberger’s initial treatise, “Turbulence,”⁸ deposited under seal by Professor Exner at the Austrian Academy of Science in 1930.

Figure 3.10. In the natural flow of rivers, the sequence of longitudinal vortices will alternate between clockwise and counterclockwise rotations, creating a riverbed with alternating right-hand and left-hand turns, respectively.

The location of this current crossover is where the river is shallowest and where it can most easily be forded. This point is the focus or target of what Schauberger called the “energy-cannon” (figure 3.10). It is where the upbuilding immaterial energies of the river are released into the environment, which, as a form of energy, are akin to the life-endowing, animalistic orgone energies of Wilhelm Reich. They are freed at this location, because all the energies accumulated in the previous inwinding, counterclockwise, longitudinal vortex have to be released before the movement turns clockwise or vice versa. In other words the point has been reached where the energy concentration of the vortex culminates in a process akin to breathing. One cannot continually breathe in, and therefore the moment is reached where inhalation has to give way to exhalation, each of which is coupled with a different energy form and both of which are necessary for life to continue.

Since the flow velocity tends to decelerate here, fords are also the major deposition zones for the river’s suspended nutrients and minerals and where the river can transfer these to the environment. The bends on the other hand are where the rocks and stones are ground up and their pulverized substances transported in the vortical flow for later deposition. These pebbles, boulders, and sediment, however, are not to be considered merely as inert matter, for in Schauberger’s view they constitute the river’s bread, its source of nourishment on its journey to the sea.

As stones are ground together, which can only occur if the water is cold, dense, and dynamic enough, small particles of the minerals they contain are released into the water and partially or wholly dissolved, replacing those previously lost through transfer to the surroundings. Not only are these trace elements and minerals released, but pure ionizing energy is released as well through the generation of the triboluminescence.^*5

It is the energetic effects associated with triboluminescence that endow the flowing water with new and immaterial energies, enhancing its character and quality. This is yet another of the many ways in which a river constantly generates and regenerates its energies and vitality, while at the same time imparting them and the necessary nutrients to the environment. If the temperature gradient at the ford is positively related to the ground temperatures, then these vital nutrients will be absorbed into the ground and the groundwater table thereby recharged and enriched.

A further point of interest in this regard is the origin of the fabled “gold of the Nibelungs,” the “Rhinegold” that supposedly lay on the bottom of the Rhine in days of yore and that gleamed during the hours of darkness. This legend is also to be ascribed to the phenomenon of triboluminescence. About 200 to 250 years ago no doubt the water of the Rhine was pure, clear, and translucent enough for people to observe what appeared to be the flashing of gold on the riverbed. Today, however, along with many other rivers, the Rhine is a thick, turbid, grey-green, muddy brew, its life force having been extinguished by modern mechanistic methods of river engineering, so the “gold” can no longer be seen.

DRINKING WATER SUPPLY

The Consequences of Chlorination

Water is the issue most crucial to all life on Earth. Water is the lifeblood of our planet, the life-giving fluid in all organisms, plants, animals, and human beings alike, flowing as sap, lymph, or blood. Our very existence is therefore intimately connected with the quality of water available to us. It is vital for our own lives and those of our children that we become seriously concerned not only for the health, vitality, and quality of the water we drink, but also for the source from whence it originates and the treatment it receives, for apart from our own consumption of it, this same water is also used to grow everything we eat. If we want to live in health and happiness, then the living entity—water—should be highly revered and the greatest sensitive care should be given to it.

Today the drinking water supplied to almost all inhabitants of so-called civilized countries is chlorinated and sometimes even fluoridated. The purpose of this treatment is to sterilize the water, to free it of all noxious microorganisms and pathogenic bacteria. Present methods of water treatment and reticulation kill water, however, and bad water or wrongly treated water debilitates, degrades, degenerates, and ultimately destroys those organisms constantly forced to drink it. Science, however, completely overlooks the fact that water—as life carrier—is itself alive and needs to be kept in this condition if it is to fulfill its naturally ordained function, for as Schauberger has stated, “Science views the blood-building and character-influencing UR-ORGANISM—‘WATER’ merely as a chemical compound and provides millions of people with a liquid prepared from this point of view, which is everything but healthy water.”⁹

But what does modern, denaturized civilization care, as long as it receives a suitably hygienized, clear liquid to shower with and use to wash its dishes, clothes, and cars? Once down the drain in company with all manner of toxic chemicals and detergents, all is comfortingly out of sight and out of mind. As proof of the efficacy of current disinfective practices, and in justification of their continuance, officialdom usually points out that such water-borne diseases as cholera and typhoid are virtually unknown in all countries where the water is chlorinated.

Thus reassured, the broad mass of the population blithely continues to bask in the luxury of apparently disease-free water in complete ignorance of the perilous repercussions arising from its constant consumption, for what is never stated in official explanations is the cumulative effect this treatment of water has on the organisms forced to drink it. What people do not know is that although the chlorination of drinking and household water supplies ostensibly disinfects them and removes the threat of waterborne diseases, it does so to the detriment of the consumer.

In its function of water sterilizer or disinfectant, chlorine eradicates all types of bacteria, beneficial and harmful alike, so that what arrives at the tap or faucet, while indeed free of every possible organism, is water that has been sterilized to death—in other words, a water corpse. More importantly and more alarmingly, however, it also disinfects the blood (up to 90 percent water) and in doing so kills off or seriously weakens many of the immunity-enhancing microorganisms resident in the body of those organisms forced to consume it.

This eventually impairs their immune systems to such a degree that they are no longer able to eject viruses, germs, and cancer cells, to which the respective host bodies ultimately fall victim. We therefore actually sterilize our blood when we drink chlorinated water, readying ourselves for the onset of disease. Of late there has been an alarming increase not only in hitherto unknown diseases, but in all forms of sickness, cancer in particular.

In view of the fact that our body’s water content amounts to 45 liters and that our daily consumption of water in one form or another is about 2.4 liters, just consider table 3.2.

TABLE 3.2. THE WATER CONTENT OF THE HUMAN BODY10
The blood plasma	(main blood component)	about 92% water
The human fetus	(our growing physical vehicle)	about 90% water
The blood	(life fluid and nutrient conveyor)	up to 90% water
The human brain cells	(intellect, creativity, behavior)	85% water
The kidneys	(fluid processors and purifiers)	82% water
The muscles	(prime movers of the body)	average 75% water
The body	(our abode on Earth)	71% water
The liver	(metabolism regulator)	69% water
The bones	(structural support system)	22% water
The body’s cell fluids	(basis of growth and development)	mainly water

Just imagine what effect the constant drinking of dead or diseased water has on all of these! What happens to the life force essential for healthy growth?

And what are the effects of chlorination? Chlorine is not added to drinking water in vast quantities. On average, it is administered at about 10 parts per million, provided always that the dispensing and metering equipment is properly maintained and monitored. Malfunction, however, can never be ruled out, with the result that over-chlorination may occur more frequently than we are led to believe.

In the process chlorine replaces hydrogen, one of the key elements of the water molecule and present in all carbohydrates and fats, both of which are essential to metabolism in all organic life. One effect of this hydrogen replacement may well be the removal of the hydrogen atoms in the fatty substances surrounding and enclosing the cells, the cell walls, which act as a dielectric membrane and conserve and separate the bioelectric charges responsible for the cells’ correct function.

On the other hand, it (chlorine) may also create certain quantities of hydrochloric acid in the blood itself, which as a digestive juice normally resides safely confined within the walls of the stomach, and as a result may add to the overall acidity of the blood, thereby reducing the blood pH^*6 to levels below the normal, healthy level of 7. As a powerful oxidant it also accelerates the metabolic processes of oxidation, on the one hand creating additional heat and on the other consuming oxygen destined for other purposes, and if these occur above the naturally prescribed levels, in most organisms it leads to premature aging.

What more needs to be said, apart from the fact that all these abnormal oxidizing processes cause the dislocation of the natural energy flows in the body, which in turn raises its general temperature, thus placing it in a disease-prone condition—disease after all being the way Nature removes all organisms that are no longer healthy or viable in her scheme of things and that stand in the path of evolutionary progress. In confirmation of chlorine’s disease-causing function, a recent study found that in water purification it “produces by-products that cause 18 percent of rectal cancers and 9 percent of bladder cancers.”¹¹

But this is not where it all ends. Ultimately all these malpractices not only have the direst consequences for the body, but also for its more immaterial attributes, and here we shall quote Schauberger once more: “A particular inner temperature produces a certain physical form which in turn generates the special kind of immaterial energy we encounter in a more or less highly developed form as character. Hence the old saying ‘Mens sana in corpore sano’ (a healthy mind in a healthy body). If the composition of the basic substances of the body should in any way be altered, then the metabolic basis for the further growth of the body must not only change, but its spiritual and intellectual growth and further development as well.”¹²

Schauberger saw the proper physical formation of the brain as being crucial to what it produces in the way of concepts, ideas, and behavior, ethical and otherwise. The lower the quality of the physical structure, the more inferior the morals and ethics. In the same way that narrowly spaced annual rings of trees produced high-quality, resonant timber, he saw the production of good thoughts in harmony with nature and, in consequence, good character traits as possible only with a well and healthily grown and developed brain with close-knit windings.

Unwholesome food, poor water, and the resultant slight overheating, in his view, gave rise to the formation of coarse convolutions in the brain’s overall structure, creating a brain that was incapable of either functioning intuitively or of comprehending the subtleties of nature’s processes. It degenerated into an organ able only to think logically, but never “biologically,” never with a living logic aware of natural energetic interrelations and interdependencies. Such a brain could be likened to a poorly designed musical instrument constructed of inferior materials and thus unable to create truly harmonious sounds affecting the world harmoniously. There is plenty of evidence in support of this, for daily we are made aware of the rise in mental afflictions, depression, dyslexia, irrational and brutal behavior, and hyperactivity, to name a few conditions that are affecting more and more people at an increasingly younger age.

It is high time a thorough investigation and highly publicized public inquiry into present methods of water purification be undertaken immediately by an independent body of competent, unsubornable individuals. These should be selected from all branches of science and medicine, including so-called alternative practitioners, whose expertise in some areas far exceeds those of orthodox disciplines. Should its publicized findings recommend the immediate cessation of current practices in water purification, then neither the government nor the respective authorities should be able to continue to hoodwink the population, and they should be forced by the ballot box to take action and undertake the necessary and urgent remedial measures to give us healthy, life-giving water.

The Storage of Water

Whether our water is commercially processed or we obtain it from natural sources, we must care for the very limited stocks of water still available. This means we must treat it in the way demonstrated to us by nature. First and foremost, water should be protected from sunlight and kept in the dark, far removed from all sources of heat, light, and atmospheric influences. Ideally it should be placed in opaque, porous containers, which on the one hand cut out all direct light and heat, and on the other allow the water to breathe, which in common with all other living things, it must do in order to stay alive and healthy.

The present system of bottling water in clear, transparent bottles, for example, detracts from the water’s quality because it is exposed to light and heat. When a glass of good water is left out in the sun, little bubbles form on the glass as the carbonic acid, the principal ingredient of good water, is converted into carbon dioxide through increased temperature and light. Like wine, water needs to be kept in the dark in an opaque bottle sealed with a breathing cork, and it is not without reason that good wine is matured in wooden casks.

In terms of what we can achieve personally, we should at all times ensure that our storage vessels, bottles, and tanks are thoroughly insulated so the contained water is maintained at the coolest temperature possible under prevailing conditions. The materials most suited to this are natural stone, timber (wooden barrels), and terra-cotta. Perhaps more than any other material, terra-cotta has been used for this purpose for millennia. Terra-cotta exhibits a porosity particularly well suited to purposes of water storage. This is because it enables a very small percentage of the contained water to evaporate via the vessel walls.

Evaporation is always associated with cooling (vaporization, releasing heat), and according to Walter Schauberger, if the porosity of the container is correct, for every 600th part of the contents evaporated, the contents will be cooled by 1°C (1.8°F). Therefore, if such a vessel is positioned where there is a reasonable movement of air, the water will cool and approach its anomaly point, its state of highest health and “indifference” at a temperature of +4°C (39.2°F).

Another important factor is the actual shape of the container itself. Most storage containers in use today take the form of cubes, rectangular volumes, or cylinders. While these are the shapes most easily and economically produced by today’s technology, they have certain drawbacks in terms of impeding natural water circulation and promoting water suffocation.

Due to their rectangular shapes and/or right-angled corners, stagnant zones are created that provide a suitable environment for the propagation of pathogenic bacteria. And since the materials used are generally galvanized iron, fiberglass, concrete, or steel—all impervious materials—the contained water is unable to breathe adequately and suffocates as a result. In this debilitated state it becomes a water cadaver, quickly becomes diseased, and requires further disinfection.

Taking Schauberger’s maxim “Comprehend and Copy Nature” as our guide, we should therefore make use of the shapes Nature herself selects to contain, guard, and maintain life, in other words, eggs and their derivations. Should we now make a study of those shapes nature chooses to propagate and maintain life, it soon becomes apparent that the cubes and cylinders have no place in nature’s scheme of things. For the safe storage of her vital fluids and materials nature chose eggs and elongated egg shapes such grains and seeds, because she in her wisdom had determined that these produce the optimal results.

Compared with cubes and cylinders, as shown in figure 3.11, these shapes have no stagnant zones, no right-angled corners that inhibit flowing movement. By placing egg-shaped terra-cotta vessels in shaded areas, exposed to air movement, the evaporative cooling effect will be significantly enhanced. Since all natural movement of liquids and gases is triggered by differences in temperature, so too inside the egg-shaped storage vessel, cyclical, spiral, vitalizing movement of the water will be induced. Movement is an expression of energy, and energy is synonymous with life. The external evaporation causes cooling of the outer walls and the water in their immediate vicinity. Being cooler and therefore denser, water becomes specifically heavier and sinks down along the walls toward the bottom, at the same time forcing the water there to rise up the center and move toward the outside walls. Continual repetition of this process results in the constant circulation and cooling of the contents. As Lord Thurlow said, “Nature is always wise in every part.”

Figure 3.11. To hold all-important water, Nature chooses egg-shaped or more elongated seed-shaped containers, which do not have corners that form stagnant zones in which pathogenic bacteria can propagate.

CONCLUSIONS

In light of these facts the task we presently face is monumental and far transcends short-term economics, politics, and national self-interest. As a first priority, a program of re-education about water and its essential nature should be inaugurated globally, because the future of water is synonymous with our own. This task requires a committed cooperation from all concerned if there is to be any chance of real success. Here there is no room for competitive behavior or strategies for privatization and profit, for water is a substance nature has made freely available to all and it is our natural birthright. It is imperative that it be made clearly and irrefutably obvious to government that all present economic policies, driven by finance and policies based on economic expediency for short-term gain, will become purely academic and therefore without value or relevance unless the future of the two cornerstones of life on this planet is first assured. Without clean, healthy water and an abundance of thriving vegetation, no economy of any kind is sustainable. These are, and have ever been, the fundamental bases of existence and evolutionary development. Without them all unnatural economies are doomed and so too the countries and peoples that espouse them. Life as we know it will be extinguished. It’s as simple as that!

A long-term view is now the imperative of the hour, which means taking appropriate steps now to ensure success and stability in the mid-and long-term future. For this, as Schauberger sought to teach us, a new and far profounder knowledge of nature is necessary, so that whatever is implemented by way of remedial measures will be in harmonious accordance with nature’s laws. As never before, we now stand at a watershed and must all act together in consort, for we are, each one of us, inextricably interconnected with the whole, as so eloquently depicted by the great German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the following poem:

All things into one are woven, each in each doth act and dwell,

As cosmic forces, rising, falling, charging up this golden bell,

With heaven-scented undulations, piercing Earth from power Sublime.

Harmonious all and all resounding, fill they universe and time!

Amidst life’s tides in raging motion, I ebb and flood—waft to and fro!

Birth and grave, eternal ocean, ever-moving, transient flow.

Such changing, vibrant animation, the very stuff of life is mine,

Thus at the loom of time I sit and weave this living cloth divine.

NEW ENERGY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF MAVERICK SCIENTISTS

We are entering a scientific age, but it will be a science which passes out of the impasse which it has now reached and which—having penetrated as it has into the realm of the intangible—will begin to work far more subjectively than heretofore. It will recognize the existence of senses which are super-sensory and which are extensions of the five physical senses, and this will be forced upon science because of the multitude of reliable people who will possess them and who can work and live in the worlds of the tangible and the intangible simultaneously. The mass of reputable testimony will prove incontrovertible. The moment that the subjective world of causes is proven to exist (and this will come through the indisputable evidence of man’s extended senses) science will enter into a new area; its focus of attention will change; the possibilities of discovery will be immense and materialism (as that word is now understood) will vanish. Even the word “materialism” will become obsolete and men in the future will be amused at the limited vision of our modern world and wonder why we thought and felt as we did.

DJWHAL KHUL

How often in the past one hundred years has publicly funded institutional scientific research resulted in major scientific and technical innovations? And how often have such discoveries come from the derided and ostracized loner in his “skunk works”? Even a superficial review shows a massive trend in favor of the latter.

Bell and the telephone; Parsons, Tesla, and the turbine; Edison and the electric light and recorded sound; Marconi, Tesla, and radio; the Wright Brothers and flight; Carl Benz and the automobile; the Lumière brothers and cinema; Otto Mergenthaler and the Linotype machine; Armon Strowger and the automatic telephone exchange; George Eastman and celluloid photographic film; Fritz Haber, the historian who taught himself chemistry and fixed atmospheric nitrogen; Wegener and continental drift; Pollen and automatic fire control; Baird and television; Whittle and the jet engine; Chester Carlson and Xerography; Eckert and Mauchly and the commercial computer; Edwin Land and Polaroid photography; Christopher Cockerell and the hovercraft. Even where the innovator belongs to a recognized institution he or she is often a loner who achieves success by swimming against the currents of orthodoxy, like Alan Turning and the first British computers, or even Watson and Crick, who had been told to drop their study of DNA but continued it as “ bootleg” research.

Of course, one can also compile a long and distinguished list of discoveries in institutional science, especially from the great universities like Oxford and Cambridge and especially in important basic fields such as atomic physics and astronomy. But, somehow, it is difficult to draw up a list that carries quite the same diversity, the same romantic air of excitement and innovation and one that has so obviously influenced every single aspect of twentieth-century life so fundamentally. Anyone who switches on the electric light, turns on the television, makes a phone call, watches a film, plays a record, takes a photography, uses a personal computer, drives a car or travels by airplane has the lone eccentric to thank, not institutional science.

RICHARD MILTON,
ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE