Biorhythm

Biorhythm is an attempt to predict various aspects of a person's life through simple mathematical cycles. Most scientists believe that the idea has no more predictive power than raw chance,[1] and consider the concept an example of pseudoscience.[2][3][4][5]

Contents

Beliefs

Basic rhythm details
  • Physical cycle
    • 23 days; Circavigintan
    • coordination
    • strength
    • well-being
  • Emotional cycle
    • 28 days; Circatrigintan
    • creativity
    • sensitivity
    • mood
    • perception
    • awareness
  • Intellectual cycle
    • 33 days; Circatrigintan
    • alertness
    • analytical functioning
    • logical analysis
    • memory or recall
    • communication

According to believers in biorhythms, a person's life is affected by rhythmic biological cycles which affect one's ability in various domains, such as mental, physical, and emotional activity. These cycles begin at birth and oscillate in a steady sine wave fashion throughout life; thus, by modeling them mathematically, a person's level of ability in each of these domains can be predicted from day to day.

Most biorhythm models use three cycles: a 23-day "physical" cycle, a 28-day "emotional" cycle, and a 33-day "intellectual" cycle. Although the 28-day cycle is the same length as the average woman's menstrual cycle and was originally described as a "female" cycle (see below), the two are not necessarily in any particular synchronization. Each of these cycles varies between high and low extremes sinusoidally, with days where the cycle crosses the zero line described as "critical days" of greater risk or uncertainty.

In addition to the three popular cycles, various other cycles have been proposed, based on linear combination of the three, or on longer or shorter rhythms.[6]

Calculation

The equations for the cycles are:

where t indicates the number of days since birth.

Simple arithmetic shows that the simpler 23 & 28 day cycle repeats every 644 days (or 1 3/4 years) while the triple 23 & 28 & 33 day cycle repeats every 21,252 days (or 58.2+ years).

History

The notion of periodic cycles in human fortunes is ancient; found for instance in natal astrology and in folk beliefs about "lucky days." The 23- and 28-day rhythms used by biorhythmists, however, were first devised in the late 19th century by Wilhelm Fliess, a Berlin physician and patient of Sigmund Freud. Fliess believed that he observed regularities at 23- and 28-day intervals in a number of phenomena, including births and deaths. He labeled the 23-day rhythm "male" and the 28-day rhythm "female," matching the menstrual cycle.

In 1904, psychology professor Hermann Swoboda claimed to have independently discovered the same cycles. Later, Alfred Teltscher, professor of engineering at the University of Innsbruck, came to the conclusion that his students' good and bad days followed a rhythmic pattern of 33 days. Teltscher believed that the brain's ability to absorb, mental ability, and alertness ran in 33-day cycles.[6]

The practice of consulting biorhythms was popularized in the 1970s by a series of books by Bernard Gittelson, including Biorhythm — A Personal Science, Biorhythm Charts of the Famous and Infamous, and Biorhythm Sports Forecasting. Gittelson's company, Biorhythm Computers, Inc., made a business selling personal biorhythm charts and calculators, but his ability to predict sporting events was not substantiated.[7]

Charting biorhythms for personal use was popular in the United States during the 1970s; many places (especially video arcades and amusement areas) had a biorhythm machine that provided charts upon entry of date of birth. Biorhythm programs were a common application on personal computers; though biorhythms have declined in popularity, there are numerous websites on the Internet that offer free biorhythm readings. In addition, there exist free and proprietary software programs that offer more advanced charting and analysis capabilities.

In the workplace, railroads and airlines have experimented the most with biorhythms. A pilot describes the Japanese and American attitudes towards biorhythms.[8] He acknowledges, researching his pilot logbook, that his greatest errors of judgment occurred during critical days, but concludes that an awareness of one's critical days and paying extra attention is sufficient to ensure safety. A former United Airlines pilot confirmed that United Airlines used biorhythms until the mid-1990s, while the Nippon Express air freight still uses biorhythms.[9]

Plausibility

Proponents of biorhythmics call it an established interdisciplinary area of scientific endeavor which is still speculative—a protoscience. Critics state that biorhythms are based only upon numerological associations. The plausibility of biorhythmics is contested by mathematicians, biologists and other scientists. The most basic assertion is that even if it is assumed that physiological rhythms do exist, it is not clear why they should necessarily begin on the day of one's birth.

In some ways, biorhythmics resembles chronobiology, the study of biological rhythms. Through medical research, doctors have found that there are periodic biological cycles in a person's lifespan, such as the circadian rhythm (from Latin circa diem; literally, "about a day"), but few doctors believe they correspond to those described as "biorhythms." To proponents, these discoveries (among others) demonstrate that people are affected by physiological, emotional and intellectual rhythms, though the exact relationships to the biorhythm cycles are not precisely understood. Studies regarding the effects of biorhythms on the human condition are still conducted.

The biorhythm theory is often presented as having scientific validity. Biorhythm critics' responses range from opposing it as harmful, to ignoring it, to treating it as entertainment. Some of the criticisms of the various theories in the category of biorhythmics are:

Some biorhythm critics say that biorhythms can be thrown off by such occurrences in the calendar as the beginning of the new year, holidays, or something as simple as the start of the week.

There have been some three dozen studies supporting biorhythm theory but all of them have suffered from methodological and statistical errors.[10] An examination of some 134 biorhythm studies found that the theory is not valid.[10]

Supporters continued defending the theory after Hines' review of 134 studies, causing other scientists to consider the field as pseudoscience:

An examination of some 134 biorhythm studies found that the theory is not valid (Hines, 1998). Some people believe that that theory is empirically testable and has been shown to be false. Terence Hines believes that this fact implies that biorhythm theory 'can not be properly termed a pseudoscientific theory'. However, when the advocates of an empirically testable refuse to give up the theory in the face of overwhelming evidence against it, it seems reasonable to call the theory pseudoscientific. For, in fact, the adherents to such a theory have declared by their behaviour that there is nothing that could falsify it, yet they continue to claim the theory is scientific. (from Carroll's "The Skeptic's Dictionary")[5]:175

See also

References

  1. ^ "Effects of circadian rhythm phase alteration on physiological and psychological variables: Implications to pilot performance (including a partially annotated bibliography)". NASA-TM-81277. NASA. 1981-03-01. http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19810016185&hterms=NASA-TM-81277&qs=Ntx%3Dmode%2520matchallany%26Ntk%3DAll%26Ns%3DLoaded-Date%7C1%26N%3D0%26Ntt%3DNASA-TM-81277. Retrieved 2011-05-25.  "No evidence exists to support the concept of biorhythms; in fact, scientific data refute their existence."
  2. ^ Carroll, Robert Todd. "Biorhythms". Skeptic's Dictionary. http://skepdic.com/biorhyth.html. Retrieved 2008-02-21.  "The theory of biorhythms is a pseudoscientific theory that claims our daily lives are significantly affected by rhythmic cycles overlooked by scientists who study biological rhythms."
  3. ^ Clark Glymour, Douglas Stalker (1990). "Winning through pseudoscience". In Patrick Grim. ? Philosophy of science and the occult. SUNY series in philosophy (2, revised ed.). SUNY Press. pp. 92, 94. ISBN 0791402045, 9780791402047. http://books.google.es/books?id=5VewAkDw8h0C. "They'll cheerfully empty their pockets to anyone with a twinkle in their eye and a pseudoscience in their pocket. Astrology, biorhythms, ESP, numerology, astral projection, scientology, UFOlogy, pyramid power, psychic surgeons, Atlantis real state (...). (...) your pseudoscience will have better sales potential if it makes use of a misterious device, or a lot of calculations (but simple calculations) (...) The great models [of this sales potential] are astrology and biorhythms (...)" .
  4. ^ Raimo Toumela (1987). "Science, Protoscience and Pseudoscience". In Joseph C. Pitt, Marcello Pera. Rational changes in science: essays on scientific reasoning. Boston studies in the philosophy of science. 98 (illustrated ed.). Springer. pp. 94, 96. ISBN 9027724172, 9789027724175. http://books.google.es/books?id=9e_-_O1OgTYC. "If we take such pseudosciences as astrology, the theory of biorhythms, suitable parts of parapsychology, homeopathy and faith healing (...) Such examples of pseudoscience as the theory of biorhythms, astrology, dianetics, creationism, faith healing may seem too obvious examples of pseudoscience for academic readers." 
  5. ^ a b Stefan Ploch (2003). "Metatheoretical problems in phonology with Occam's Razor and non-ad-hoc-ness". In Jonathan Kaye, Stefan Ploch. Living on the edge: 28 papers in honour of Jonathan Kaye. Studies in generative grammar. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 166, 174–176, 186, footnotes 15 and 17 in page 199. ISBN 311017619X, 9783110176193. http://books.google.es/books?id=0WT96J7swIwC. "the following quote about the pseudoscientific biorhythm theory [p. 174–175] (...) we can eliminate ad hoc hypotheses (i.e. arbitrariness) that are the hallmark of all pseudosciences (astrology, biorhythm theory, (...) [p. 176] Unfortunately, in the case of the most socially successful [not scientific] theories, just as in the case of astrology and biorhythm "theory", we are dealing with something that resembles quackery closely. [p.186] (...) what matters is that falsifying data is systematically discounted in this pseudotheory. [p. 199]" .
  6. ^ a b http://www.skepdic.com/biorhyth.html
  7. ^ Hoffmann, Frank W., and William G. Bailey, Mind and Society Fads, 1992.
  8. ^ "A man named Joseph and we knew him not!; Interpretation of Biorhythms regarding Flight Operations". (ed. Anecdotal evidence; pilot describes the Japanese and American attitudes towards biorhythms.)
  9. ^ Singh, Rita; S.K. Ghosh (2006). Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Biophysics. Global Vision Publishing House. ISBN 9788182201521. 
  10. ^ a b Hines, Terence (1998). "Comprehensive Review of Biorhythm Theory" (PDF (summary)). Psychological Reports 83 (1): 19–64. doi:10.2466/PR0.83.5.19-64. PMID 9775660. http://ammonsscientific.com/link.php?N=10326. Retrieved 2008-01-13. 

Further reading

Books

Research publications

Biorhythmics

Chronobiology related

External links

Biorhythms at the Open Directory Project

Theriomancy
Bibliomancy
Scrying
Cleromancy
Necromancy
Somatomancy