Estado de tensiones estático

part from other factors (some cannot be defined quantitatively), encompassing such aspects as turbidity (opaqueness), impu- rity, and quality, the most crucial factor affect- ing 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 bowels of the Earth as a spring. As a true spring, in contrast to a seepage spring, this has a water tempera- ture 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 valleywards. In its natural, self-cooling, spi- ralling, 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 the forest, 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 cor- rect 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, longi- tudinal, clockwise-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 tempera- ture and leading to a faster, more laminar, spiral flow.

To protect itself from harmful effects of excess heat, water shields itself from the Sun with over-hanging vegetation, for with increasing heat and light it begins to lose its vitality and health, 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, 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 bot- tom-strata retain the power to shift sediment of larger grain-size (pebbles, gravel, etc.) from the centre of the watercourse. In this way the danger of flooding is reduced to a minimum. The spiral, vortical motion men- tioned earlier, which eventually led Viktor Schauberger to the formation of his theories concerning 'implosion', creates the condi- tions where the germination of harmful bacteria is inhibited and the water remains disease-free.

The omission of temperature in the form of the 'temperature gradient' in all hydraulic calculation has resulted in the most devastat- ing floods and the ruination of almost all waterways. While flow velocity, shear force

116 Living Energies

(sweeping force), sediment load, turbidity, viscosity, to name a few, are taken into account in numerous formulae, the tempera- ture gradient, which significantly affects the function of all these different factors, 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. There- fore, except for certain defined water-temper- atures required for specific purposes, cooling, heating, etc., the temperature or variations in temperature of any given water or water- body has been considered totally immaterial to the behaviour 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. This attitude has apparently remained unchanged.

In early July 1991 I attended a symposium on river engineering at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia, for the express purpose of discovering the state of the art in hydrology with regard to water temperature. The keynote speaker was Prof. John F. Kennedy (!!), a hydraulicist of world repute, director of the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research and Hunter Rouse Professor of Hydraulics at the University of Iowa in the United States. As he spoke I sat ready with pencil and paper to record every mention of the word 'temperature'. By the end of the hour's very interesting address, in which Professor Kennedy expressed his great love of rivers, I had only one tick on my paper! Afterwards, wanting more precise data, I spoke with him for about 15 minutes, describing Viktor Schauberger's theories about water movement and temperature and the fact that in the 1930s they had had the full support of an equally world renowned hydrologist, Prof. Philipp Forchheimer, with whose work Professor Kennedy was acquainted. However, according to Kennedy, the influence of temperature on the dynamics of water flow was still considered negligible

and therefore never taken into account. Having had this information straight from the horse's mouth, as it were, it is therefore to be concluded that temperature, as a factor in river engineering, is still ignored. As we shall see, however, it is precisely the small, some- times infinitesimal variations in temperature that are crucial to the natural, healthy move- ment of water and optimal flow-regimes in streams.

Viktor Schauberger defines the tempera- ture gradient, of which there are two forms, as follows:

A positive temperature gradient exists; a) when the temperature of the water

decreases and its density increases towards the anomaly point of +4°C, or; b) when the density and temperature

increase from freezing and below towards +4°C.

c) When ground or water temperatures are cooler than air temperatures.

A negative temperature gradient exists; d) when the movement of temperature is

away from +4°C, either upwards or down- wards, both of which signify a decrease in density and energy.

In fig. 8.1 (p. 109) the direction of movement of these two temperature conditions are shown as two curves delineating the varia- tions of volume and density with tempera- ture. Here it can be seen how, with cooling, the volume decreases and the density increases, and vice versa with heating. A movement of temperature towards the anom- aly point of +4°C always involves a positive temperature gradient, whereas a movement in the opposite direction is indicative of a negative temperature gradient. Remember here that heat, or whatever is suspended in a given medium (air or water), always flows or is transported towards cold.

Both forms of temperature gradient are active simultaneously in Nature but, for there to be evolution instead of devolution, the positive temperature gradient must predomi- nate. 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, potential 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 posi- tive temperature gradient is very powerful, then the effect of the reciprocally weaker nega- tive temperature gradient is beneficial and promotes the outbirth into physical form of the highest quality substances. In more mathe- matical terms, if as seen in fig. 4.6 the total effect of two dialectic opposites equals the unity, i.e. 1x1=1, then if one of the aspects is reduced to a half, the value of the other is two. Despite the changed characteristics and properties, the overall value of the unity 1 has not been changed, however, because 1/2 x 2 equals 1.

Conversely, if the roles and ratios are reversed and the negative temperature gradi- ent 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 will be seen later.

As it flows, water acts completely differ- ently according to whichever temperature

gradient is in force. In its concentrative, cool- ing, energising function the +4°C-approach- ing, positive temperature gradient has a formative effect. It is a process whereunder living systems can be built up, since in water it draws the ionised substances together into intimate and productive contact, for here the contained oxygen becomes passive and is easily bound by the cool carbones, thereby contributing beneficially to healthy growth and development. The +4°C-deviating, nega- tive 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 oxy- gen become increasingly aggressive and reverses its role as co-creator and benefactor, turning into a destroyer and fosterer of dis- eases 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 decompo- sition each has its special role to play in Nature's great production, but each must enter upon the stage of life at its appointed time. The positive temperature gradient, however, like temperature Type A and bio- magnetism (see p. 103), must play the princi- pal role if evolution is to unfold creatively. Unfortunately with our myopic fixation on heat-producing and therefore destabilising, depletive technology, we have turned this sublime order upside down and are now reaping the ever more awesome fruits of our misguided labour.

Notes

1 . " T h e O x a n d t h e C h a m o i s " , b y V i k t o r Schauberger: TAU magazine, No.146, p.30: Werner Zimmermann.

2. Our Senseless Toil, Pt.I, p.ll. 3. Our Senseless Toil, Pt.I, p.4.

4. The Diving Hand by Christopher Bird: New Age Press, USA ISBN 0-87613-090-2.

5. Water - The Mirror of Science by K.S. Davis & J.A.Day: Heinemann Educational, London, 1964. 6. The Secret Doctrine by H.P. Blavatsky, (Adyar Ed.,

1971), Vol.1, p.125: Theosophical Pub., Adyar, India.

7. Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen der Homoopathie, "Scientific Foundations of Homeopathy": Barthel & Barthel, Postfach 57, D-82069 Schaftlarn, Germany, ISBN 3-88950-025-0.

8. Quoted from Viktor Schauberger's article, "Electrolysis", Der Wiener Tag newspaper, No.3443, p.20,18th December 1932.

9. The Secret Doctrine, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, (Adyar Edition 1971), Vol.2, p.266, Stanza II: Theosophical Publishing, Adyar, India.

9

THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE

As a precursor to the evolvement of other life-forms, water's most vital function is its ceaseless, life-giving cycle through, around and over the Earth. This is normally referred to as the 'Hydrological Cycle' or 'Water Cycle' and involves the movement of water from subterranean regions to the atmosphere and back again. In terms of Viktor's concepts, however, we have to differentiate between the full and the half hydrological cycles, the differ- ence between which is presently unrecognised by science. This difference, however, is crucial to the understanding of what is presently happening worldwide climatically.