Biologists From Austria

"The general notion in communication theory is that of information. In many cases, the flow of information corresponds to a flow of energy, e.g. if light waves emitted by some objects reach the eye or a photoelectric cell, elicit some reaction of the organism or some machinery, and thus convey information."

"While we can conceive of a sum [or aggregate] as being composed gradually, a system as a total of parts with its [multiplicative] interrelations has to be conceived of as being composed instantly."

"A system can be defined as a set of elements standing in interrelations. Interrelation means that elements, p, stand in relations, R, so that the behavior of an element p in R is different from its behavior in another relation, R’. If the behaviors in R and R’ are not different, there is no interaction, and the elements behave independently with respect to the relations R and R’."

"You cannot sum up the behavior of the whole from the isolated parts, and you have to take into account the relations between the various subordinate systems which are super-ordinated to them in order to understand the behavior of the parts."

"Progress is only possible by passing from a state of undifferentiated wholeness to differentiation of parts."

"Therefore, general systems theory should be, methodologically, an important means of controlling and instigating the transfer of principles from one field to another, and it will no longer be necessary to duplicate or triplicate the discovery of the same principles in different fields isolated from the other."

"Apparently, the isomorphisms of laws rest in our cognition on the one hand, and in reality on the other."

"We realize, however, that all scientific laws merely represent abstractions and idealizations expressing certain aspects of reality. Every science means a schematized picture of reality, in the sense that a certain conceptual construct is unequivocally related to certain features of order in reality;"

"There are quite a number of novel developments intended to meet the needs of a general theory of systems. We may enumerate them in brief survey:"

"# Cybernetics, based upon the principle of feedback or circular causal trains providing mechanisms for goal-seeking and self-controlling behavior."

"# Information theory, introducing the concept of information as a quantity measurable by an expression isomorphic to negative entropy in physics, and developing the principles of its transmission."

"# Game theory, analyzing in a novel mathematical framework, rational competition between two or more antagonists for maximum gain and minimum loss."

"# , similarly analyzing rational choices, within human organizations, based upon examination of a given situation and its possible outcomes."

"# or relational mathematics, including non-metrical fields such as network and graph theory."

"# Factor analysis, i.e., isolation by way of mathematical analysis, of factors in multivariable phenomena in psychology and other fields"

"# General system theory in the narrower sense (G.S.T.), trying to derive from a general definition of “system” as complex of interacting components, concepts characteristic of organized wholes such as interaction, sum, mechanization, centralization, competition, finality, etc., and to apply them to concrete phenomena."

"If the variables are continuous, this definition [Ashby’s fundamental concept of machine] corresponds to the description of a dynamic system by a set of ordinary differential equations with time as the independent variable. However, such representation by differential equations is too restricted for a theory to include biological systems and calculating machines where discontinuities are ubiquitous."

"We completely agree that description by differential equations is not only a clumsy but, in principle, inadequate way to deal with many problems of organization."

"Science in the past (and partly in the present), was dominated by one-sided empiricism. Only a collection of data and experiments were considered as being ‘scientific’ in biology (and psychology); forgetting that a mere accumulation of data, although steadily piling up, does not make a science."

"The 19th and first half of the 20th century conceived of the world as chaos. Chaos was the oft-quoted blind play of atoms, which, in mechanistic and positivistic philosophy, appeared to represent ultimate reality, with life as an accidental product of physical processes, and mind as an epi-phenomenon. It was chaos when, in the current theory of evolution, the living world appeared as a product of chance, the outcome of random mutations and survival in the mill of natural selection. In the same sense, human personality, in the theories of behaviorism as well as of psychoanalysis, was considered a chance product of nature and nurture, of a mixture of genes and an accidental sequence of events from early childhood to maturity. Now we are looking for another basic outlook on the world -- the world as organization. Such a conception -- if it can be substantiated -- would indeed change the basic categories upon which scientific thought rests, and profoundly influence practical attitudes. This trend is marked by the emergence of a bundle of new disciplines such as cybernetics, information theory, general system theory, theories of games, of decisions, of queuing and others; in practical applications, systems analysis, systems engineering, operations research, etc. They are different in basic assumptions, mathematical techniques and aims, and they are often unsatisfactory and sometimes contradictory. They agree, however, in being concerned, in one way or another, with "systems," "wholes" or "organizations"; and in their totality, they herald a new approach."

"Conventional physics deals only with closed systems, i.e. systems which are considered to be isolated from their environment... However, we find systems which by their very nature and definition are not closed systems. Every living organism is essentially an open system. It maintains itself in a continuous inflow and outflow, a building up and breaking down of components, never being, so long as it is alive, in a state of chemical and thermodynamic equilibrium but maintained in a so-called steady state which is distinct from the latter."

"Biologically, life is not maintenance or restoration of equilibrium but is essentially maintenance of disequilibria, as the doctrine of the organism as open system reveals. Reaching equilibrium means death and consequent decay. Psychologically, behaviour not only tends to release tensions but also builds up tensions; if this stops, the patient is a decaying mental corpse in the same way a living organism becomes a body in decay when tensions and forces keeping it from equilibrium have stopped."

"Also the principle of stress, so often invoked in psychology, psychiatry, and psychosomatics, needs some reevaluation. As everything in the world, stress too is an ambivalent thing. Stress is not only a danger to life to be controlled and neutralized by adaptive mechanisms; it also creates higher life."

"The concept of man as mass robot was both an expression of and a powerful motive force in industrialized mass society. It was the basis for behavioural engineering in commercial, economic, political and other advertising and propaganda; the expanding economy of the 'affluent society' could not subsist without such manipulation. Only by manipulating humans ever more into Skinnerian rats, robots buying automata, homeostatically adjusted conformers and opportunists (or, bluntly speaking, into morons and zombies) can this great society follow its progress toward ever increasing gross national product."

"Our civilization seems to be suffering a second curse of Babel: Just as the human race builds a tower of knowledge that reaches to the heavens, we are stricken by a malady in which we find ourselves attempting to communicate with each other in countless tongues of scientific specialization... The only goal of science appeared to be analytical, i.e., the splitting up of reality into ever smaller units and the isolation of individual causal trains...We may state as characteristic of modern science that this scheme of isolable units acting in one-way causality has proven to be insufficient. Hence the appearance, in all fields of science, of notions like wholeness, holistic, organismic, gestalt, etc., which all signify that, in the last resort, we must think in terms of systems of elements in mutual interaction...""

"What I consider completely sterile is the attitude, for instance, of Bertalanffy who is going around and jumping around for years saying that all the analytical science and molecular biology doesn’t really get to interesting results; let’s talk in terms of general systems theory … there cannot be anything such as general systems theory, it’s impossible. Or, if it existed, it would be meaningless."

"Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a distinguished biologist, occupies an important position in the intellectual history of the twentieth century. His contributions went beyond biology, and extended to psychology, psychiatry, sociology, cybernetics, history and philosophy. Some of his admirers even believe that von Bertalanffy's general systems theory could provide a conceptual framework for all these disciplines."

"Many of the ideas surrounding systems and systems theory come from Ludwig von Bertalanffy's 1928 graduate thesis, in which he describes organisms as living systems."

"Our conception is that of a theory about the system in an inertial state... if the organism is a system in an inertial state, as our law expresses it, the metabolic processes generally have to follow the established system; the ever progressing findings must replace the general expression of 'a system in an inertial state' by a more and more detailed knowing about the nature of this system and its chemical, osmotic, fermentive system conditions."

""Unfortunately, catastrophes or scandalous disclosures always have to happen before humanity realises that it is only its own mistakes that have led it into misfortune. These are all the more difficult to rectify, because in the main they have been made by the authorities, who will not commit suicide themselves, but in order to save their own skins, they would rather that all Life should perish before they acknowledge their errors.'"

"The essential nature of growth is none other than the overcoming of earthly weight."

"Nothing falls entirely! Nothing dies away completely! Nothing can totally deprive another of its rights! On the contrary, the deeper the fall, the higher the reactive upswing!"

"Water is a living organism!"

"My dear friends! We move everything back to front. What we are doing is wrong and contrary to Nature. Nature moves in other ways. She primarily employs drawing, i.e. sucking energies, since these are indispensable to Nature for the growth and maintenance of life. Nature uses pressure energies and explosive forces only for reducing quality and destruction. Atomic physicists also work upside down. They would be more correct if they started with simple nuclear fusion. They should set about the cold transformation of hydrogen into helium, as Nature has done over the millions of years of Creation. Today's technology has a tiger by the tail, because it splits the heaviest atoms with the greatest development of heat and an enormous expenditure of energy."

"It is important for human beings and animals to drink healthy water. Chemically purified water, chlorinated or ozonated water is no longer living and healthy water. Good water, full of life and rich in energy, is synonymous with strong and healthy life. Bad water is synonymous with sick life. No water is the same as no life."

"How can it be easy to understand Father Schauberger's language—his work belongs to the future."

"You may have lived a calm and contented life—but from the moment you come face to face with the ideas of Viktor Schauberger, you will never again have peace in your soul."

"Viktor Schauberger's early appreciation of the intimate relationship between water and forest, and their dual influence upon water resource management, the landscape's health within particular precipitation areas—is undoubtedly correct. ...Schauberger's theories about Europe are, in the tropics, ...verified in a convincing and shocking way. We, in the temperate regions will, in the long run, experience similar damage... if harmful ecological measures are allowed to continue..."

"This is not the place to discuss the validity of his theories... only a small number of them have been able to be tested. ...[I]f his central theme is correct... this embodies a revolutionary discovery of crucial importance. ...Schauberger wished to make practical use of nature's reconstituting principle of 'cycloidal spiral motion' ...However his theories may be regarded, ...he was a great friend of Nature and a man with original, grandiose and often revolutionary ideas. Many have been moved by his ideas about Nature and his philosophy of life..."

"Water was his consuming interest. He set out to discover its laws and characteristics and the connection between its temperature and its motion. He noticed how water running from a mountain stream was at its greatest density, the so-called 'anomaly point' of +4°C, and [apparently] at its highest quality. Salmon and trout, during spawning, drive themselves towards these sources, and he found the richest... vegetation in these spots."

"He... became interested in the behaviour of trout and salmon in mountain streams. The... trout could lie motionless... in the strongest current. ...He ...organized his woodsmen to warm up about 100 litres of water and pour this in ...upstream ...The meagre 100 litres ...did not noticeably warm up the stream. However, ...the trout ...until then ...motionless ...was only with considerable effort able to maintain its position. This convinced Schauberger... that there was ...a connection between the water's temperature and the trout's behaviour. ...[A]lso ...the trout's ability to jump up high waterfalls with little apparent effort. ...[H]e saw evidence for his theory that the trout exploited some hitherto unknown source of energy within the water."

"Viktor Schauberger has observed water and seen and recorded more than all the scientific instruments put together so far."

"[T]he Upper Austrian forester, naturalist and natural philosopher, Viktor Schauberger... is without a doubt one of the most fascinating figures of this century."

"His fundamental realization was that hydrologists (with the exception of a small group he was... able to convince) do everything backwards."

"Schauberger... arrived at the opinion that the "explosion technology"... of burning and destroying, is... wrong and... in contradiction to nature. He opposed... internal combustion engines, "the fire-breathing monsters," with that of the power of "implosion." ...[I]nternal combustion worked centrifugally, destructively and detrimentally to life, it changed natural products of high quality ...as coal and oil into waste products ...which place an enormous burden on the environment and... will ...lead to its destruction. ...Nature ...only uses disintegrating forces to decompose sick, weak or unviable elements, in the form of spoilage and decay... the starting point for the development of new, more important life. In burning and combustion, this "sacred principle" is interrupted... In contrast... implosion is ...product refinement ...material ...is transformed into something of greater worth. ..."Nothing explodes in a plant," said ...Schauberger."

"Contrary to centrifugal explosion, implosion works inwards, towards the center, centripetally. It concentrates the power towards the center where it... becomes... strongest. ...In the water, the wind, in the sap... and in the blood... movement ...take[s] ...an implosive [course] ...concentrating itself at the center. Bodies of water left to flow naturally turn within themselves, make winding movements that breathe and shelter life. They... regenerate waste water... and... revitalize it. And in the whirlwind... spiral motion is present with a vacuum and low temperatures in the inmost core. The same system is seen in... the universe as spiral nebula. Schauberger recognized this principle while observing in water."

"He tries to explain the puzzle of how a trout can make a standing jump several meters high against the enormous force of a waterfall. His conclusion: the spiraling free-falling water... creates a wake at the center. The trout searches out this counter-current... the mass of the falling water opens... a gap for a fraction of a second, it slips through and, sucked up the center by the countercurrent... is thrown up... This makes it easy to visualize the inner energy... in... clouds... wind and the water. Birds behave... much like trout..."

"[I]t seems timely that the radical departure in energy concepts presented here, should be available now, when the tide of human development is turning and the impetus of this renewing flood can be harnessed to launch Viktor Schauberger's pioneering discoveries into a world more ready than ever it implement them. At a time also, when the activities of humanity are increasingly seen to be on a head-on collision course with Nature's processes."

"We have never... thought to question the influence that continual exposure to unnatural straight lines may exert on our mental, intellectual and emotional processes, on the energies that motivate and animate us and cause us to behave... Such is the desensitizing effect that we will perhaps have to change our living spaces in order to make possible the leap to the next higher state of awareness, to be able to appreciate Nature's processes and attune ourselves to them. No doubt it was for all of these reasons the Viktor Schauberger so joyfully declared: "In the whole machine there is no straight line or circle". By this he meant that the overall design and shape of his devices were founded on completely different parameters to those of current design. Gone are the mortifying elements of Euclid. ...[T]hese machines incorporate the swirling spirals and sinuosities, the open elements of non-Euclidean geometry so prevalent in Nature."

"A healthy forest, untouched by forestry technology, is made up of a strange mixture of vegetation. Alongside well-defined areas of noble trees, conditions of apparent chaos can be found, which can best be described as irregular confusion. People who are not aware of the importance of the balance in Nature, of which the forest is a part, want to clear areas of everything they do not consider to be useful. A great deal of sensitive concern and observation is necessary to begin to understand why Nature depends on an apparently chaotic disorder."