How blossomingly I rejoice! All hail to the new! All is born of water and upheld by water too! Transpierced thus am I by beauty and by truth! Oh great ocean, grant us thine eternal ruth!

For wouldst thou not send clouds, nor bounteous streams endow,

Nor perfect the currents, nor rivers here and there bestow,

Then where would mountains be and what of plains and world?

For thou alone it is that keeps this freshest life unfurled.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Water - a Living Substance
WATER! Where do we begin our quest in search of the true nature of this remarkable substance, this wondrous, many-facetted jewel, which is both Life and liquid? So Primordial, primeval and fundamental is the function of water that it begs the question as to which came first, life or water. Thales of Miletus (640-546BC) 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 also firmly held by Viktor Schauberger, who was water as the 'original' substance formed by the subtle energies called into being through the 'original' motion of the Earth, itself the manifestation of even more sublime forces. Being the offspring or the 'First Born' of these energies, as he put it, he maintained and frequently asserted that "Water is a living substance!" a notion to which Goethe also subscribed in the above poem.1 

As a living entity, Viktor saw water as the accumulator and transformer of the energies originating from the Earth and the Cosmos, and as such was and is the foundation of all life-processes and the major contributor to the conditions which make life possible. Not only that, but once mature, water is a being invested with the power of extraordinary giving and gives of itself to all things requiring life in the ECI's Great Plan. It is the ECI's faithful life-messenger and, in its eternal cycles, coils and twists in its natural movement about the path of evolution, like the serpents on Mercury's staff.

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 he 'First' substance - Water - whose boundaries and banks are the capillaries that guide in which it circulates.2

Viktor Schauberger

Water is therefore a being that has life and death. With incorrect, ignorant handling, however, it becomes diseased, imparting this conditions 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. With this awareness we can see just how vital it is that water should be handled and stored in such a way as to avoid such disastrous consequences. When we fail to perceive water as a living entity which nurtures all life, we arrest water's creative cycles, we stop life and water is transformed into a dangerous enemy.

Viktor Schauberger's understanding of water and what he achieved as a result is well exemplified in this quotation from his book, Our Senseless Toil, written in 1933: 

It is possible to regulate watercourses over any given distance without embankment works; to transport timber and other materials, even when heavier than water, for example ore, stones, etc., down the centre of such water-courses; to raise the height of the watertable in the surrounding countryside and to endow the water with all those elements necessary for the prevailing vegetation. 

Furthermore it is possible in this way to render timber and other such materials non-inflammable and rot resistant; to produce drinking and spa-water for man, beast and soil of any desired composition and performance artificially, but in the way that it occurs in Nature; to raise water in a vertical pipe without pumping devices; to produce any amount of electricity and radiant energy almost without cost; to raise soil quality and to heal cancer, tuberculosis and nervous disorders.

…the practical implementation of this… would without doubt signify a complete reorientation in all areas of science and technology. By application of these new found laws, I have already constructed fairly large installations in the spheres of log-rafting and river regulation, which as is known, have functioned faultlessly for a decade, and which today still present insoluble enigmas to the various scientific disciplines concerned.3 

But before going further, let us acquaint ourselves with some of the more commonly known facts about water. First of all, whence did water come? Obviously it cannot have come from the upper atmosphere, since as we saw in chapter 6 the water molecule is actually dissociated at high altitudes. Where else do we look then? If not above then perhaps below, because the atmosphere does not seem conducive to its formation. If below then where? Has it been contained in a crystalline state in ore-bearing rocks since the Earth began? There is some evidence to suggest that it has.

In The Divining hand4 Christopher Bird describes the pioneering theories and discoveries of Stephan Riess in the United States, which like Viktor Schauberger's completely contradicted established hydraulic theory. According to Stephan Riess under certain conditions the oxygen and hydrogen gases present in certain types of rock can be released due to the effects of geothermal heat and a process akin to triboluminescence, a phenomenon relating to the light given of by crystalline rocks under friction or violent pressure. This glow is attributed to the energy given off by the electrons contained the rocks as they return from a pressure induced, excited state to their rest orbits. As a discharge it imparts free energy to the surrounding material, which could be sufficient to cause the hydrogen and oxygen released by the pressure to form new water under a process of cold oxidation.

Riess called this virgin water, and as a result of his knowledge he was able to tap straight into formations of hard rock of the right composition and obtain very large quantities of water, in some cases as much as 3,000 gallons per minute. All this right out in the middle of the desert, where no water could be expected. Unfortunately, his efforts to provide needy areas with copious quantities of superb quality, fresh water were sabotaged. As happened to Viktor Schauberger before him, Christopher Bird relates how Riess was slandered and his ideas brought into disrepute through the scurrilous activities of certain high officials in the state of California, whose interest were threatened by Riess' discoveries.

As a liquid, water is chemically described as H2O and is a dipole molecule comprising two hydrogen atoms, one positive and one negative, and one negative oxygen atom containing two positive charges. Due to the distribution of the charges around the nucleus, the angle between the two hydrogen atoms is 104.350, as shown in upper right-hand inset in fig. 8.1. According to Kenneth S. Davis and John Arthur Day, pure water is actually a mixture of 18 different molecular compounds and 15 different kinds of ions, making a total of different substances5. In this regard The Secret Doctrine comments:

Even on the next higher plane, that single element which is defined on our Earth by current science, as the ultimate undecomposable constituent of some kind of matter, would be pronounced in the world of a higher spiritual perception as something very complex indeed. Our purest water would be found to yield, instead of its two declared simple elements of oxygen and hydrogen, many other constituents, undreamt of by our terrestrial modern chemistry. 6

In its pure form, being a compound of the two gases hydrogen and oxygen, water could technically be described as an oxide of hydrogen. Water is no self-contained, isolated 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 is sometimes described as the universal solvent. As such it is able to provide the basis for an intimate intermixture of substances which Viktor referred to as an 'emulsion'. The more complex the make-up of constituents dissolved or suspended in water, the more complex the emulsion and the broader the spectrum of its properties. Carbon, its so-called inorganic counterpart, has a similar capacity above and beyond all other elements. At a physical level water is to be found in three states of aggregation, solid (ice), liquid (water) and gaseous (water vapour) and in terms of its structure as a liquid, it tends more to the crystalline, as it continually forms and re-forms nodes of temporary crystallisation, exhibiting a space-lattice structure, such as is shown in figs. 8.2 & 8.3 taken from a homeopathic study of water by Dr. Gerhard Resch and Prof. Viktor Gutmann7.

The Anomaly Point of Water
The anomalous expansion of water is also a factor of major importance. While this has already been pertly covered in chapter 7, further elaboration is necessary. To recapitulate briefly: As a liquid, the behaviour of water differs from all other fluids. While all fluids become consistently and steadily denser with cooling, water reaches its densest state at a temperature of +40 Celsius (39.20 Fahrenheit). This is the so-called 'anomaly point', which is decisive in terms of its potency and has a major influence on its quality. Below this temperature it once more expands. At +40C water has a density of 0.99996 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3), has the least special volume and is virtually incompressible (fig. 8.1).

Plus 40C also signifies the temperature where water has it's the highest energy content and is in what Viktor 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 spacially neutral condition. In order to protect water's health, energy and life-force, certain precautions must be taken, which will be addressed later. For the present it is important to realise that the +40C anomaly is crucial to water's diverse functions. Viktor's theories about the temperature gradient and their implementation will be elaborated in the following section.

If water's temperature rises above +40C, it expands. When it cools below this level then it also begins to expand and becomes specifically lighter. This anomalous expansion below +40C is vital to the survival to fish life, for as the water expands and cools further it eventually crystallises as ice at 00C, thus providing a floating, insulating sheath, which protects the aquatic life underneath from the harmful effects of serve external cold in winter. The specific gravity of water at +00C =0.99984g/cm3. As 1 spacial unit of water expands into ice, its volume increases in the ratio of 0.9168:0.99984 or 1:1.09058, which is equivalent to an increase in displacement of about 1/11th of its former volume as water. This is why ice floats.

Dielectrics and Electrolysis
While pure water's high dielectric value of 81, namely its capacity to resist the transfer of an electric charge, has already been mentioned in chapter 7, there is another aspect to this which, in the light of Viktor Schauberger's concept of hydrogen as the carrier of oxygen and carbone (fig. 5.1, see p. 83),needs to be looked at in relation to one of the major fallacies of science. Still taught as Gospel truth in all schools and universities, electrolysis is supposedly the process by which water is dissociated into its constituent atoms of hydrogen and oxygen. However from the above we know that pure water will not transmit an electric current and this factor is also used to measure the pollution of water using what are called electro-conductivity units or ecus. The greater the content of dissolved and suspended matter in water, the greater its capacity to carry an electric current and the higher the values in ecus registered.

In order to set the process of electrolysis in motion, however, it is necessary to add some acid, such as sulphuric acid - H2SO4 - to the distilled water, the acid here always being referred to as the 'catalyst'. A catalyst is an element or agent which inaugurates a given reaction, but is not itself affected or changed in any way by it. This can be learnt from any physics textbook. From time to time, however, if electrolysis is to continue, more acid must be added otherwise the process will cease and all that will be left once again is water. But this acid was supposed to be the catalyst and therefore impervious to the effects of the electric current! What happened to it?

As the process of electrolysis proceeds, oxygen gas and hydrogen gas are indeed released, the negatively charged hydrogen ions migrating towards the positive electrode and the positively charged oxygen ions towards the negative electrode. Are these released gases actually derived from the water, however, or do they originate from the added acid? Sulphuric acid is formed of 2 hydrogen atoms, 1 sulphur atom and 4 oxygen atoms. If these gases are in fact produced through the dissociation of the acid rather than the water, then the whole process of electrolysis as presently taught is a widespread fraud as Viktor claimed in his 1932 article "Electrolysis"8.

The Secret doctrine also advances thought-provoking comment on what might be the state of being of the various elements of acid and water when combined as a mixture in electrolysis.

The question whether Hydrogen and Oxygen to exist when they combine to form water, is still a moot one, some arguing that since they are found again when water is decomposed, they must be there all the while; others contending that as they actually turn into something totally different they must cease to exist as themselves for the time being; but neither side is able to form the faintest conception of the real condition of a real condition of a thing, which has become something else and yet has not ceased to be itself.9 

It appears then that water retains its identity when in the electrolyte (the mixture of water and acid), and once the electrolytic process has been completed, then all that remains is again water.

A further life-giving property of water is its high specific heat and thermal conductivity (which were studied in chapter 6), namely the ability and the rate at which it absorbs and releases heat. This means that a large input or extraction of heat energy is required to bring about a change in density and temperature. The lowest point of the curve of the specific heat values for water, however, is +37.50C or 99.50F (fig. 8.1). It is remarkable that the lowest specific heat of this 'inorganic' substance - water - lies but 0.50C (0.90F) above the normal +370C (98.60F) human blood 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% water, together with many other animals and creatures, to survive a relatively large range and fluctuation of temperatures and still maintain our own internal bodily temperature. Pure accident so we are told, or is it clever, symbiotic design?! If the blood in our bodies had a lower specific heat, it would mean that it would heat up much more rapidly to the point where we would either start to decompose or freeze if exposure was to extreme cold.

However, in our mechanistic world we are used to thinking about temperature in gross terms (automobile engines operate at temperatures of 1,0000C (1,8320F) or so and many industrial processes employ extremely high temperatures. Despite the fact that we begin to feel unwell if our temperature rises by as little as 0.50C (0.90F), we fail to see that non-mechanical, organic life an health are based on very subtle differences in temperature. When our body temperature is +370C (98.60F) we do not have a 'temperature' as such. We are healthy and, recalling Viktor's view, are in an 'indifferent' or 'temperature-less' state. Just a 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. 

Water and its vital interaction with the forest was Viktor's principal preoccupation, viewing water as the 'Blood of Mother-Earth', which in contrast to Carl Riess' theories mentioned earlier, was born in the womb of the high forest. This will be examined more fully later. Our mechanistic, materialistic and extremely superficial way of looking considering water to be anything other than inorganic, i.e. supposedly without life, but which, while apparently having no life itself, can nevertheless miraculously create life in all its forms. 

Life is movement and is epitomized by water 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 his planet. How then could it ever be construed as life-less as in the chemist's clinical view of water, defined as the inorganic substance H2O?

This cryptic symbol 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, i.e. 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.

Qualities of Water 
But what is this marvelous, colourless, tasteless and odourless substance, which 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 undoubtedly they do. 

Apart from the actual treatment of water investigated in chapter 15, certain types of water are more suitable for drinking than others, the following being a general classification to be read in conjunction with fig.8.4. 

DISTILLED WATER
This is what is considered physically and chemically to be the purest form of water. Having no characteristics other then total purity, it has a pre-programmed will to itself all the substances it needs to become mature itself, and therefore absorbs and grasps at everything within reach. Such water is really quite dangerous if drunk continuously long-term. When distilled water (aqua destillata) is drunk it acts as a purgative, stripping the body of trace minerals and elements. On occasion it has been used for its short-term therapeutic effect, such as in the so-called 'Kneipp cure', where it acts to purge the body of excessive deposits of various materials.

METEORIC WATER - RAINWATER
While the purest naturally available water, noxious atmospheric pollutants aside, meteoric water or rainwater is also unsuitable for drinking in the 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, still immature, and needs to undergo certain ripening processes in order to be able to be absorbed by the body and to be of benefit to it. When drunk as melted snow-water, it also gives rise to certain deficiencies and if no other water is available on occasion of the thyroid gland.

JUVENILE WATER
Juvenile water, again, 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, etc., from quite a long way down. It has not yet resolved itself into a mature structure and is therefore still of 2-star 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 - dams, reservoirs, etc. - 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 of atmospheric exposure to heavy oxygenation and to heat exposure from the Sun. The Sun's heat removes a great deal of the character and energy of water.

GROUNDWATER
Groundwater is already much better, often expressing itself as a seepage-spring, which is water emanating from lower levels and which seeps out at 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 SPRING WATER
True springwater, and 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 colour, 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. 

Apart from the above water's there are artesian waters obtained from bores, which are of unpredictable quality. At times they may be saline and at others, brackish, or fresh. One can never be sure that bore-water will necessarily be of drinking quality. Well-water would probably lie between ground-water and seepage-spring water, but most probably can be likened 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 in a later chapter, because we must now turn our attention to the temperature gradient which, after the anomaly point of +40C, is the next most important factor in the understanding of water and its proper, natural handling. 

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 bowels of the Earth as a spring. As a true spring, in contrast to a seepage spring, this has a water temperature of about +40C (39.20F). 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, 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 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 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, 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 temperature 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 bottom-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 mentioned earlier, which eventually led Viktor 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.

The omission of temperature in the form of the 'temperature gradient' 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, viscosity, to name a few, are taken into account in numerous formulate, the temperature 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 a inorganic substance. Therefore, except for certain defined water-temperatures 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, sometimes infinitesimal variations in temperature that are crucial to the natural, healthy movement of water and optimal flow-regimes in streams.

Viktor Schauberger defines the temperature 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 +40C, or; 
b) when the density and temperature increase from freezing and below towards +40C. 
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 +40C, either upwards or downwards, 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 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 towards the anomaly point of +40C 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 predominate. On both upward and downward paths life emerges at the intersection of these two 'temperaments' a 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 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. In more mathematical 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 ½=2 equals 1.

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 he 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 differently according to whichever temperature gradient is in force. In its concentrative, cooling, energizing function the +40C-approaching, 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 +40C-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 become 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 upon the stage of life at its appointed time. The positive temperature gradient, however, like temperature Type A and biomagnetism (see p. 103), must play the principle 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.

Two exceptions, the frictional losses of this pipe are always far less than those of the other pipes.

14.3 The Circulation of Blood 
Continuing our examination of enclosed flows we will now examine another form of flow, namely the circulation of the blood. Viktor Schauberger stated on many occasions that the heart was not pump, for it does not pump as much as 'being pumped'! In a similar vein, he also said that a bird does not fly, but is 'flown' and a fish 'is swum'. In view of the results of the Stuttgart investigation described above, this statement seems in part confirmed. Its function, in his view, was far more that of a regulator of the blood flow, and although he heart does produce spurts of blood during its contraction, it was not actually a pump.

His explanation for the Stuttgart phenomenon was that the flow of water was in resonance with the double-helical form of the pipe, stating that this also applied to blood vessels too, which were the elements responsible for the blood's circulation. While the arteries and capillaries themselves have a peristaltic, pulsatory action, there are also other factors involved, which will be examined later. This pulsation was observed by Professor Kurt Bergel of Berlin (ca.1925-30) when, after a few days of incubation to allow for small blood vessels to form around the yolk-sac, he carefully opened up a bird's egg. Upon doing so he noticed that the blood vessels surrounding the yolk-sac pulsated before they cooled off, although no heart had as yet been formed.

Professor Bergel also held the same view as Viktor Schauberger, rejecting the idea that the heart was a sort of pump whose task was to impel blood to every part of the body. Bergel maintained that this was carried out by "the millions of highly active capillaries permeating the body," and that "health and disease are primarily dependent on the faultless or disturbed activity of the capillaries."8

The actual movement of the blood, therefore, would appear to arise initially due to the processes of pulsation. In the light of the Stuttgart Investigation, however, it could be argued that the flow is enhanced by the configuration of the blood vessels themselves, whose shape and structure, recalling the discussion on new energies in chapter 3, represent the secondary effect of the immaterial energy flow that created them in the first place. In addition, the viscosity of the blood is known to decrease usefully or intentionally in inverse proportion to the diameter of the blood vessels, which also adds to its friction-free movement in the smallest vessels - the capillaries.

Two further contributing factors are also present. The first is the positive temperature gradient between the innermost parts of the body and the extremities which, as shown previously induces a movement from warm to cold areas. In this regard the vitalizing effect of a cold shower on the blood circulation is well known (stimulation and enhancement of warm-to-cold flow), whereas a long hot bath tends to produce physical lassitude (reduction of differences between internal and external temperatures). The second is the result of the difference in the physico-chemical composition and therefore the energetic characteristics of arterial and venal blood.

This qualitative difference is partly due to the developing physical vacuity (and therefore suction) created by the progressive absorption of positively-charged oxygen carried by the arterial blood, which increases towards the extremities (skin and hair replacement, wound repair, etc.), where the absorption is greatest, and partly due to the rising desire for the reabsorption of oxygen in the lungs by the negatively-charged, carbone-rich venal blood. Since these two types of blood carry opposite charges, the muscular contraction and closing action of the heart is therefore triggered through the periodic equalization of positive and negative charges, which reach a maximum in the venal and arterial chambers of the heart itself, due to the large charge-carrying volume of both.

The hallmark of all life-processes is pulsation and, rather than acting as a pump, the vital function of the heart is therefore to promote a pulsation in the flow. Following from the above it can also be stated with a large degree of certainty that we breathe not because the heart 'pumps', but that the heart 'pumps' because we breathe (intake of positively charged oxygen and expulsion of negatively charged CO2 and water).

In the case of a growing foetus, however, which does not breathe as we do (its blood being oxygenated via the placenta), the heart may actually behave like a pump, reinforcing the action of the pulsating blood vessels until the moment of birth. Since the movement of blood is conditioned in part by differences in internal and external temperature, prior to this event the normal temperature-induced component of blood flow would be rendered virtually inoperative, due to the minimal temperature variations within the insulating amniotic fluid of the womb. Therefore during pregnancy a 'pump' might well be a necessary auxiliary. Once birth has occurred, the first vital breath taken and the infant's body exposed to larger variations in temperature, then the heart assumes its proper function of pulsator and flow regulator. But if the heart actually is a pump, as presently claimed in medical circles, then what force must it apply to carry out his vital task?

A while ago I happened upon an article by Dr. Ernst O. Attinger entitled "Hydrodynamics of blood Flow"9 in which was described the blood circulation of a 13kg dog. The upper diagram in fig.14.10 depicts the general organisation of the cardiovascular system, where the venal beds are shown in black, whereas the lower stepped diagram provides data concerning the various vascular beds (the different types of blood vessel) of a 13kg dog, listing the values of the viscous resistance, length of branches, volume of flow, diameter, etc, of the different categories of blood vessel. When I calculated the total length of all the branches in each segment of the 13kg dog's vascular tree, I found that the total overall length of all the blood vessels in the system amounted to 1444,017,280 centimetres or 1,440.173km! On a pro rata basis, this would mean that the human body, averagely 5.5 times the size of the dog by weight, i.e. 71.5kg, would contain at least 7,920km of blood vessels! Data from other sources on the other hand places this at 60,000 miles or 96,500km10.

In recent correspondence with Dr. Attinger about his paper, the average value of the viscous resistance to be overcome by the dog's heart in order to move the blood, amounts to 5,332 dyne sec/cm-5, which is equal to a force of 0.005437kg or about 51/2 grams (1 dyne =1.0197x10-6kg), the average flow velocity in the capillaries being considerably less than 1cm/sec.

According to Walter Schauberger the output of the human heart amounts to 0.003 horsepower but, wanting further confirmation, I made enquiries at the University of Queensland and was told that it functions at about 1.5 watts. With this small amount of energy, equivalent to the average torch battery, 1/10th of a litre of blood is delivered to the arterial network about 75 times a minute or100,000 times a day. Over an average lifetime at roughly 8,000 litres per day, 175 million litres of blood pass through the heart.

Presumably this dog's heart functioned with some what less energy due to its smaller size. It therefore seems almost inconceivable that the relatively small heart of this 13kg dog would have sufficient power to force the blood through 1,440km of blood vessels, which in the light of the above does seem to be a Herculean task. The power of the heart, therefore, would appear phenomenal for its size and, according to Walter Schauberger's research in this area, it has been determined that the work of the human heart would be enough to raise a weight of about 40 tonnes per year to a height of 1m. I have also carried out my own calculations, and the figure I arrived at was 4,296.78 tonnes11.

Apart from the reduction in blood viscosity with the decrease in the size of the blood vessels, if as has been suggested earlier, energy creates the vessel most conducive to its desired form of movement in a given situation, then the pulsating, almost frictionless flow of blood over these enormous distances becomes more understandable. The factor omitted in all scientific calculation in hydrodynamics, however, or any other energetic process for that matter, is the natural desire for energy to move frictionlessly in healthy, animate, organic systems.

In the light of this research, of the description of double-spiral pipes, the Stuttgart investigation and the circulation of blood, it can be see that Viktor Schauberger's theories have been thoroughly vindicated. Perhaps, therefore, their description here will provide the basis for more productive investigative research and practical application, which is most urgently needed if we are to emerge from our present ecological and environmental crisis.

We who commune with you and speak with you from time to time, we would that the whole of the earth might become clothed with the beauty of such personalities, so that the life-giving force may stream through the ethers from the awakened hearts of those who know themselves to be mediums; that the healing quickening force may stream from their feet unto the earth, may stream from their hands to stimulate the animal creation to a greater unity; and greater power shall stream forth from their thoughts in wisdom and in peace, and shall indeed become a radiant nimbus of light which is illuminating all the world around.

Set before yourselves, oh beloved ones, the desire to become lights unto the world; desire to become centres power and healers of the loved ones, and thus shall you indeed fulfil your spiritual destiny, not in the sense that you are seeking to understand whether you are the children of the Most High, but in the sense that you are living in the realisation that you are indeed centres of power-centres of light-living souls which are part of the Great Master Creator whose power is sent forth through you. 

And so unto the Master Creator of All-unto the Lord of Light we would lift you, that for a while the radiant centre may become opened-the light may stream forth-and the Glory of the Lord of Light may become manifest upon the earth itself. May there be light every opened heart-may there be radiance from every opened mind-may there be life force from every living spirit, and may each one serve in their own place.

ROSE-PINK AND ROSE-RED 
My beloved brothers and sisters, I come to release into the atmosphere of the earth, the rose red rays of heavenly love and the energising rays which are created and released in spirit. For most surely this is what you need each every one as you take your way through the many, many difficulties of your mortal existence. For is it not that often you feel within your heart clod and alone? Is it not also that you feel the chill of your wintry winds and you feel that the chill of the winter time enters not only into your body, but also into your inward soul and into the very secret places of your heart? I would say that this feeling of chill and of cold is not only of the temperature of this your English land: it is also because you are feeling the lack of the rose pink rays of loving affection which, when they are present, will make it possible for you to endure the chill of the winter without dismay and often without harm.

Is it not true that often and often again, those who are lovers will walk together in the chill of the wintry winds, and will sit together in places which are cold and icy, and yet the cold of the winter does not appear to affect the bodies, because they are warmed spiritually by the interplay of rose red colour which streams out from the heart and from the aura, and warms them from the spirit unto the body itself. For most surely I would say to you, the rose red rays are the rays of warming love and of kindly affection and of gentle friendliness. They are the rays which stimulate the heart and the soul and the very being of human and of animal kind, unto health and unto warmth and unto joy.

It would seem to me that many of you are chilled within the heart and chilled within your inward being because your lives are devoid of the warmth of affection. Some of you have separated from those you love (or the ones who should be nearest to you are absent) and you have not yet learned the inwardness of the truth, that love may stream out from your heart in warmth and in joy, whether the beloved be with you or whether the beloved be absent. The true understanding of the necessity of the rose red rays of love is simply that you love, and you continue to love, and you radiate, and you continue to radiate, the warmth of your affection unto all persons and unto all things giving them what you may not give unto the beloved of your heart.

I would say to you, in these years of earthly experience, there is a great and very difficult lesson being learned by all those who are taking life's earthly incarnation. That is that each one of you has to learn to love in certain degree of isolation and yet, in that isolation, to give forth lovingness. In the previous times of earth's history, life was composed of the group-the family group; sisters and brothers living in proximity one unto the other; husbands and wives remaining within or near to the circle of their family; parents remaining within the circle of the love of their children, and this created the group love. There was an interchange of the rose red force of love from grandparents unto grandchildren, and from these children unto others who belonged to their family groups; and so-in the times of the past-the rose red rays flowed from heart unto heart naturally, in the family groups, as they lived out their lives.

Here, as you are coming through into this great new age of experience, a different pattern shows itself in all the communities of your earthly life and especially in your earthly cities; a pattern of life which means that the family unit becomes separated and people (instead of remaining in proximity one with the other) are slowly drifting into isolation. Husbands are leaving their wives, children are leaving their parents and old people are left to live out their lives in isolation. Many of you show forth this pattern within yourselves of this isolation, in that you live alone, or in that you are separated from your family groups and you forget-in this semi-state of isolation, and in the quietness of your aloneness-you forget that you need the rose red rays of love and of friendliness, and without them you faint and you fail, and you become alone and grey.

It is because you need the rose pink rays that, out of your aloneness and isolation, you develop the inward subtleties of disease and of illness which quietly begin to afflict your minds and your bodies. When you come into groups and when you enter into the friendship of your varying spirit circles, you are aware of warmth and you become conscious of healing. You are restored-because we interblend with your aura and we interblend into your groups the stimulating rose pink rays, that your heart may begin to glow more with lovingly warmth, and health and harmony may be restored in your inward being.

I would say to you, beloved ones, you need wisdom and you need understanding as you learn to live your ways in the mortal life. You need the peace found in isolation, but you need also the warmth of friendliness and the interchange of the warm colour rays which are to be found when you are with people who love you. They may argue with you, disagree with you and make life difficult for you; nevertheless you need the rose pink rays which are emitted from their aura in the warmth of love and in the kindliness of friendship. And so I would say to those who are seeking to learn the lessons of healing: to you who wish to give forth and heal the sicknesses of the world and the sickness of your brothers and your sisters: remember that your healing is not only to be found in the overcoming of pain and of disease, but it can be in the simple fundamental healing which takes place in the restoration through kindly friendliness and in the gentleness of loving concern one for the other. So I would say, do not be so sparing in your kindliness. Give of yourselves more generously, and be a little more generous unto those who are lonely, unto the ones who are alone, unto the aged, unto the difficult, because these are the ones who need your healing in the rose pink rays of loving kindness and gentleness of concern. Each of you as you wish to heal, those of you who are seeking to serve Spirit, you should be able to lay in thankfulness before your Master Creator, day by day, the pearls of your unobserved kindliness, the pearls created by service, the pearls created by the warmth of your quiet healing and your gentle love. It is out of such pearls that the great rosaries of your prayer will be created, the rosaries which are like great strings of glowing beads that stretch from yourselves unto the high places of the spirit and bind you into a shining bondage with those high spirits who desire to impart unto you the fullness of their power and the beauty of their inspiration. 

The way from the lesser self unto the higher self is not built out of the praise of men. It is not created out of the little writings in newspapers. It is not created out of the adulation and the praise of those who have seen what you do. The way out of the lesser self into the greater self is created in secrecy, in silence and step by step, by your own secret and lovingly service unto the unlovable, unto the lonely, unto the sick, who often may not even thank you because they are unaware of what they have been given. So I would say, give. Give of the warmth of your love in the secrecy of your prayer. Give of the warmth of your thoughts as you take way day by day. Break out of the encirclement of self-pity which binds you all round as in a cold shell, in which you are devoid of the rose pink warmth of flowing love. Break out of your garments of self pity and become like the blossoms of your earth, which break out of the encircling bud and show forth the radiant beauty of their petals in an unfoldment of colour and of joyfulness. For most surely I would say as you learn to do so, then indeed you show forth the beauty of the spirit. You restore the divine circulation within your spiritual being by means of which the circulation may be restored within the mortal and physical being. For there is a beautiful and inward subtle relationship between the circulation of the force in the spiritual body and the circulation of the force in the mortal body itself. Those whose hearts outflow in love and compassion do not develop the closed-in diseases of the circulation: but those whose hearts have been wounded by sorrow and who close I their heart through self-pity, these interfere with the divine circulation of love in the spiritual being, and through this they interfere with the circulation of the mortal and the physical body itself. Because this is true and because we would lay upon you our garment of rose red love, so often and often again, we bring you the rose pink rays to warm the heart, and the rose pink thoughts of affection. When the warmth of the heart grows cold in earth's children, and you come to the life of the spirit, we take you into the gardens of healing in which the roses bloom in perpetual beauty; and those who have loved to tend the blossoms of the earth and whose joy was in the gardens, these guard the gardens of the spirit and bring together the roses of the spirit, that in these beautiful gardens, filled with the rose pink blossoms of healing, those who are lonely, those who are cold, coming to the spirit life may rest awhile and wall amongst the roses, and, resting there, may inbreathe the perfume and absorb the radiance of the colour, until their spirit being glows and shines in the warming rays, and it may be said that healing has taken place even for these. So to you, too, I would say: For those whom you have not been able to love. Those whom you have forsaken in the earthly way, the aged ones from whom you have separated yourselves and whom you have allowed to die in loneliness in the time of their old age, cease to torment yourselves with the remembrance of what you did not do for them, but send unto them your pink thoughts, surround them with the beautiful roses created by your love, and so indeed shall you heal them and speed them upon their way with the love that you failed to give in the times of your earthly experience.

Encourage one the other. Do not cast each other down by your lack of lovingness, by your harshness of criticism. Be gentle one with the other. Give out the rose pink rays of your warmth and compassion and your lovingness. And thus shall you all most surely, most slowly and most beautifully emerge out of the limitations of the past, into the greatness of the future, wherein you may say, as you look back over the passage of time, as you look back on the expansion one of the other, you may say, "Indeed here is the work of the spirit! Here is the blossoming of the soul! Here is the showing forth of the rose pink rays of love and kindly endeavour which we have tried to exchange one between the other." 

We would that we might look down upon you from the high planes of the spirit and that we might behold your earth, not clad in the greyness of despondency, but that we might behold it like a beautiful rose garden, since from every heart the rose pink rays are streaming out and each and every one of you show the rose and the gold of your spiritual endeavour in the inward place of the soul. How beautiful it would be! How beautiful t is when we see it see it so, much more beautiful to behold than people clad in their grey garments of self-pity and pressed all around and about by the greyness of their fears. Shine and glow and flame and be yourselves, beloved ones, in the warmth of the spirit and then indeed shall you go forth as the right royal children of the most high God, serving, healing and blessing wheresoever you may go.

From the gateway of the seventh sphere I looked forth and beheld the glory of the Spirit, the heart of Light, which I think is God. It is not possible to describe to you the radiance and the beauty of His Power, but if you can visualize within your mind some mighty lake of water, lying calm and translucent and unmoving and then, gleaming upon it the radiance of a sun which is not of a dazzling splendour, but soft, beautiful as moonlight and yet without the vagueness of moonlight; and within the heart of this great radiance, a centre which is like a glowing heart-rosy, gentle, palpitating and throbbing throughout the whole; then try to feel this enormous stillness-radiance palpitating with life and with love, flowing in you and through you and in all things-then, indeed, you might have some symbol, some vague understanding of that which we know as THE GLORY. So from Thee, oh THOU Great Master Creator, we would draw the rose pink rays of heavenly love to bless and to seal all earth's children into Thy Service, and unto Thy Lovingness, from this day unto all the days which are to be.

RUBY, MAUVE AND PURPLE
Beloved ones, there are many treasures which the human heart desires, as it takes its way through the mortal world.

"What then," you will say to us, "What then is the treasure of the soul which we should seek and which we should amass that it may abide in this world and in the life which continues beyond the mortal span? Is there such treasure?" We would say to you, beloved ones, the treasure which endureth forever is not the treasure of man's praise, nor yet of man's blame; it is not to be found in the wealth and possessions of the earth, but it is to be found in the jewels of the spirit-for the jewels of he spirit are the treasure of the spirit, and it is this treasure which does not fade, nor rust, nor die away, for it increases with the journey of the soul as it goes on into the world of light.

Wherein, then, lies the gaining of the treasure of the spirit? We would say to you that it comes to pass in this wise. There are those upon the earth who have for another soul the true, deep, yearning tenderness of love; and who with the tenderness of love find that they must, for the beloved one, sacrifice long hours of sleep, and sacrifice their hours of pleasure, and must even sacrifice sometimes the comfort of the body; for they who love much will sacrifice all that is dear to them for the one who is beloved.

Yet even in this sacrifice for love there is a pain, and there is often a bleeding of the heart-for the beloved one does not always appreciate the sacrifice, and does not always see the goodness that is there. Is not the lover spurned by the beloved? An does not the beloved often receive from the lover the deep wounds of misunderstanding and the little pin-pricks within the heart which are the words carelessly spoken and the thoughts which are wrongly directed?

The wounds of the heart are the wounds which are received lovingly and silently; the wounds of the heart only come when there is a great tenderness of love, and it is as if the heart itself bleeds for the one which it loves. And when there has been a sufficiency of loving, and when there has been a greatness of sacrifice, then it is within the spiritual body which is the counterpart of the physical body, that we see slowly coming into being that which we call the spiritual life blood of the heart, forming itself into the rubies of the spirit; forming itself into the treasures of the heart which are the glowing red jewels which abide forever-for these are the jewels of sacrifice.

This is treasure indeed, oh beloved ones.. Treasure which you shall proudly wear when you leave the physical body, and which is the symbol and the sign unto all who shall see you. This man, and this woman, has lovingly served and waited, and has lovingly sacrificed for love, so that the heart has bled, and the ruby jewel is the symbol and the sign of his love. 

And as the journey continues into the world of light, what do we behold there? We behold that the ruby jewels are proudly worn, and around them often are woven the golden jewels which are the jewels of wisdom, and which enhance the ruby jewel of love. For those who labour much in the service of the beloved ones; those who sacrifice much for those who bring unto them sometimes only pain; do they not gain wisdom in their search? Do they not come unto a fuller understanding of the meaning of the soul as it progresses along the pathways of life? Do they not draw from the whole fabric of life itself the golden threads of hope and of wisdom, that they may weave around them the jewels of sacrifice and enhance them, that sacrifice and wisdom may be woven together? Beautiful are these jewels, and proud are those who wear them!

There are the treasures of wisdom to be seen in the mauve and purple jewels which the spirit attains as it searches for wisdom by desiring through the understanding of the mind, and through the development of the spirit, to understand the laws of the Master Creator.

When the years have passed away and the brain has grown weary in its search and much sacrifice has been made in the desire for the understanding of the Master Creator, then, indeed, the ruby jewel of love is formed, but it is a deeper hue, for it is the deep purple of the wisdom which is crystallized within the soul. How we rejoice, and how glad we become when we see the amethyst rays developing within the human aura, for these show the development of quiet wisdom, quiet understanding and the healing which accompanies it. The royal shades of deep purple, these, too, are the colours of strength and of power; the personality who has the gift of oratory, such a one has a purple ray within the aura; the one who is able to wield the scepter with justice, this one, too, carries the purple of power. The man and the woman who an hold responsibility for the work that they do amongst large numbers of people, these, too, develop the royal purple of power within the aura. But the purple must be balanced by gold, and it must be blended with rose, ere ever the soul may use the power with love and with wisdom.

Sometimes it seems to us that you understand but dimly the part we play when we companion you, day by day, in the midst of your multiple activities of the earth and in your endeavour and striving after healing and truth. It is that we come to you because within your spiritual aura we may behold the latent greens of a beautiful patience, or the latent purple of a beautiful power, or because we behold within your aura a radiant blue, which is still overlaid by the weaknesses and the materialistic life of the earth. Beholding it we will often say to you: "You have the capacity within yourself for service; you have within yourself the power of devotion."

It is because we see these lovely colours which betray the latent beauty which is to be developed; it is because of this that we come near you and companion you day by day. Thus it is that you will have those who come robed in delicate shades of mauve, that they may blend and stimulate their influence with the aura of those who as yet realise only a small degree of the high devotion of love and prayer, and whose devotion is often weakened and destroyed by doubts and fears.

But this spirit standing near will blend with your aura the gentle mauves and purples so that the colours of your own aura are strengthened and made secure; and when that work has been accomplished, then that spirit will pass silently on to serve and strengthen another.

Therefore we say unto you, beloved ones, as you live day by day, accept the experiences which come to you with a joyful thanksgiving, and if it is that your pathway is fraught with pain, if it is that your way becomes darkened with sorrow, or if it is that your way becomes enriched with a greatness of love-yet give unto the Master Creator a thanks for this experience, for always it is increasing the treasure of your soul.

Come not unto us with hands which are free of the treasures of the soul; come not unto us with a heart which has been emptied of love; come not, as some come, into the radiant light, empty and ashamed. Rather come unto us with the fullness of your experience, and with your jewels shining upon your robes as the symbol and the sign that you have gained a treasure which you may carry through, and through the worlds of light. A treasure which shall be yours unto all the times that shall be. 

GOLD 
Beloved ones, I would try to-day to extract from the pure and beautiful radiance of light, that golden ray which is so essential to your understanding, so necessary to your life whilst you are living in the mortal ways of the flesh and in all the ways of your daily experience. Truly do I say to you, beloved ones, the golden ray is the ray of wisdom; it is the light of joy; it is the power which stimulates spiritual growth and spiritual unfoldment. Where there is gold there is hope. Where there is gold there is laughter. Where there is gold, there indeed, is to be found happiness. Although all things of the earth may appear to be grey and dead, nevertheless, if the gold of the spirit is there then indeed hope, renewal and spiritual power will come into its manifestation. Because this is so, the Master Creator has set his signet in a golden sign upon most things which live in your earthly world.

Is it not true that as the natural things of the earth come into their blooming and their natural growth, they each one show upon themselves the golden mark of the creative power? The grass and the rush and the leaf and the twig at some time in their development show forth a touch of gold. The leaf in its unfoldment is green, but I would say to you if you look with the discerning eye and you search with the observing eye, you will discover that upon the leaf there is still hidden the secret touch of gold. 

Within the blossoms (the beautiful healing flowers which grow upon your earth, the flowers whose scent can bring healing unto the inner soul and spirit of the individual) is carried somewhere a touch of gold, either within their hearts, or upon their petals, or in the encasement which keeps them in their beautiful shape and form, because within each living thing is the imprint of the creative power which in the kiss of light brings forth a hint of gold. All that is good, all that is healing, all that is created carries the sign of gold upon itself, while those things which belong to the destructive world, the things which may harm or kill or destroy, these are devoid of the golden radiance because they do not as yet carry upon themselves the golden recreative touch.

Should it therefore be strange that we bring unto you the golden radiance and golden ministry of the joy of spirit? All around and about you there move the spirits who bring unto you the golden thread of their ministering power; the golden thread of the joy which they interweave in and out of your aura so that you may be a little brighter and a little more hopeful, somewhat changed within yourselves. Most surely and most truly, we use gold from the spirit with knowledge, with power and with wisdom, much as it was used in the temples of olden times, when gold was woven into the ornamentation upon the walls and upon the ceilings, that the vibratory power of the golden metal might gleam and shine and reflect into the minds of the ordinary people coming to the temples for enlightenment and for joy. Even now, so do we from the sprit life use gold. So fear not, because you are the children of the Spirit, and you are growing more certainly into this knowledge that you are the children of your Heavenly Father. You are not alone as you walk upon the way, for as you turn your face towards Spirit, and try to open your mind to the influence of Spirit, then each and every one of you becomes encircled all around about by a golden protective power, a golden light, whereby you are each on known and recognised.

This is no mere symbol. It is a living thing which takes place within your soul, as you turn towards the light, as you lift up your mind unto spirit, as you try to evolve within yourself the knowledge of the eternal truths of life, so does there begin to grow and to glow within the inward spiritual aura a light which is the golden light of hope, the golden light of truth, the golden flame of your inwardness of prayer and dedication. From this golden radiation which you emit, we of the spirit are able to withdraw, as it were, a little radiant thread out and around you, so that each one becomes encircled by the golden ring of your own fire, the golden fire emitted from your heart, he golden sign which says unto every spirit, no matter wheresoever you may go: This one walks in the circle of protection, this one has been sealed into the service and the power of the Spirit, and as your power of knowledge is unfolding, so does there begin to gleam and shine within your aura a golden beauty.

Keep not this golden beauty unto yourselves; rather know that as spiritual beings living your lives upon the earthly world, you can send forth from your own mind golden threads of hopeful thought, golden thoughts of joy to lighten the ways of earth's sufferers, and to bring unto earth's lonely and hopeless ones a brightening of their condition, as they are touched by the golden radiance which you yourselves spread out and exude as golden drops of joy. Be not sparing in your giving, but be generous. You may possess nothing of the gold of the earth, but if you have the gold of the spirit within your heart and the gold of the spirit within your mind then indeed you are rich. beloved ones, because you are rich with the richness of the spirit and he who has the gold of joy, and he who has the gold of hope, and he who has the gold of knowledge can walk amid all the fears, all the changes, all the circumstances of the earth and yet can never be poor, for the gold of the spirit endures and endures and is replenished and is replaced from the infinite source of light and from the great Giver of all good gifts. 

Now I would gather you up, each one, that you may take into your hands as a little leather pouch the essence of the thoughts which I have imparted to your minds. Take it unto yourself and gather into it something of the golden radiance of the spirit, and then fold around your pouch the little string of dedicated thought and your desire for good, that it may be taken into the hidden places of your heart, and secreted in the inner place of your mind, and it may become your treasure.

Oh Thou great giver of Light! Thou great Creator of Good! Your children hold before you their little purses! Fill them with your golden radiance: touch them with your golden beauty and, as they secrete within their inward minds the treasures of wisdom, may they each one learn to use it wisely and well, that as they go forth from this place unto all the outer ways of the earthly life, they may go as rich men and women, the rich merchants of your love, carrying forth the wealth of the spirit into all the ways wherein they may go.

SILVER 
The silver thread of Holy Influence weaves and interweaves in the midst of all that has been created. In the great world of nature it is woven as the ever-running thread of light, which glimmers through leaves and touches the earth into life and new activity; it is shown as light and radiance which warms and quickens all things in the natural world. The silver thread of Divine Influence is to be found in all things that live, for is it not within the life of the fiercest animal shown forth as tenderness and devotion unto their own? Is it not to be found in all creatures which have the poor of affection, of a feeling within themselves? In them, indeed, is the silver thread of love, shown forth according to the nature of the creature. In man, too, the same silver thread of Holy Influence is to be discerned in that every man and every woman, however gross or however illuminated the life may be, still have a consciousness of good and an understanding of the upward growth of the soul; each one catches the silver thread and it is unto them a hope and an inspiration whereby they may climb for ever upwards, out of the deep valleys of self on to the high, beautiful peaks inspiration.

Is not the same silver thread of Divine Influence to be found in the spirit life, in that those who are freed from the body and dwelling within this land of radiant light, still these, too, hold fast unto this silver thread by which they are able to draw themselves upward to greater glory; upward towards greater light, because it is the silver thread of Divine Influence within the soul which is forever at work, and forever bringing out of all things, created beauty and order, light, and progression. So it is because of this silver thread Holy Influence and Love, that we of the spirit come close unto those of the earth who are trying to catch hold of the silver thread, as it is known most surely to those of the spirit life, that together they may rise to greater heights and may see, with an increased clarity of vision, that all things belongs unto the Master Creator of All.

So you come at last to see that there is no darkness so deep, but somewhere within it is to be found some thread of silver light, there is no state so gross but what there is the hope of transmutation because the silver thread of love is always to be found there, and through all the chaos and the great unrolling changes of the mortal world, there, too, is the silver thread of Divine Love and Beauty to be seen; slowly bringing all things into order; slowly regenerating chaos and bringing it into harmony. So, beloved ones, we would gather into one complete unity the silver threads of love and spiritual aspiration - as it is shown forth in the heart and the soul of each one, that the silver threads may become woven into one beautiful love cord, together with wholeness of unity and purpose, that through the mingled strands of this beautiful silver rope there flows unto all, light, healing, beauty and power.

Beloved ones, it is with joy we come to bring unto your realisation the wonder of this silver thread created by your God, your Heavenly Father. It is in the realisation of this wonderful influence in all things that we would say the greatest power of spirit revelation is blossoming in your world to-day. When the first plans and campaigns were made in the Centres of Light - that spirit should try to break through to earth and to bring a revelation through their mediums - the first thought and the first plan was to bring unto man a true understanding of his spiritual nature and through that understanding, a clearer relationship unto his God. The understanding now sought is not only that the spirit lives, but in what state it lives and of what nature is spirit itself. Therefore we would say to you, the fruits of the work and the fruits of the revelation which have been made over long years of patient devotion unto this task, are to be seen in the flowering of a new consciousness within the soul and the mind, the flowering of hope, the flowering of knowledge, the growing of understanding and the sense which each one is gaining, that they stand upon the pathway of experience and sow into the field of human life the seed of goodness; with the knowledge and joy, even if they see not the reaping of the sowing, within the time of earthly experience.

I would say to you, it is so true that from day to day, from week to week and from year to year, there is woven in and through your own life and the lives of those who are closely linked with you, a singing melody, which is like the weaving and the interweaving of simple notes, which woven together create melody and can be shown forth either as a discord or as a harmony. The singing melody is the daily life. Sometimes each of you in your thinking of the pattern of human life are aware of this, and yet is it not true that as you grow in knowledge, as your understanding deepens, you are each one inclined to overlook the truth that each one needs within the singing melody of the daily life, that perfect silver note which is sounding like a true and beautiful note, and which we call the echoing note of true worship. As you grow away from the set and orthodox ways of your old religion, you tend to feel that this worship is something which is not altogether necessary. In falling into this ever-changing pattern of your giving of service and of your receiving of service, you are inclined to overlook the fact that this note of worship sounds like a silver trumpet through all the symphony of life. You who are growing in wisdom and you who are unfolding the inwardness of knowledge should understand this, and rather than ceasing to worship, you should each one learn to strike the silver note within your own lives, with a regularity and with an understanding, realising that even as the child goes forward, through his reverence and adoration, so does the human soul go forward, step by step, rising ever slowly, ever more slowly, by setting for himself or herself a time for the contemplation of the things of the Spirit. A time in which adoration may be given unto the Great Master Creator and Maker of all good things.

When those of you who are able to come into this inward sense of praise and of worship are able to enter into the deep inward silence of meditation, then I would say to you, beloved ones, as you feel the peace and the holiness and the power flooding your soul with blessing, do not forget, do not cease to give thanks unto the Great Giver of all, and your praise and your worship for the goodness which has come unto you. For it is true that as you thank your God for the gift of healing, as you thank your God for the richness of friendship, and as you thank your Lord for the simple joys which bless your lives as with a silvery dew, so do you strike within your inward soul by this gesture of thankfulness that which resounds like a little silver note within the singing symphony of life, which, as it echoes and re-echoes within you and around you, creates sweetness and a harmony and a beauty that is good for us to see, as well as being something which may echo and sound throughout the spheres until it comes back again in beauty unto the Source from which all goodness flows.

Although I say unto that which you receive from on High, you must also return by praise, I would say that from on High, in silence and beauty, peace and love may flood your being in your time of prayer, and as you go forth into your outer life that which you have received is imparted in friendship and in beauty unto those whom you may meet from day to day. As they are enriched, and as they are uplifted, and as they are healed, then may it be from their souls there may sound the note of praise, and the wave of light may go back unto the Source, coming back unto you in renewal and in peace.

So, flowing, moving, vibrating and healing, perfect power comes unto earth, returns again unto Spirit, flows through the instruments, the earthly channels, comes back again in purity and in peace unto the Eternal Source, and then comes back to earth once more. This is the perfect circle, the circle in which the incarnate life is enclosed; it is the circle of eternity; it is the perfect circle of Divine creation. When man stands upright upon his feet, upright in his spiritual stature - with arms outstretched - he is the Cross within the centre of the ever-flowing Circle.

May the Cross shine and glow within the ever-flowing Circle of Eternal Life, Eternal Light, Eternal Love, Eternal ever-flowing creative Beauty. As the cross, which is man, shines there, so may it give forth through the hands - healing, and through the feet - healing, and through the eyes - healing, and benediction. For these who receive the silver blessing belong to Thee, oh Thou Great Giver of All, and unto them we bring the symbol of Peace, Perfect, Peace, here and now, to abide with them forever.

"…the White House has approved a proposal to spend up to $1 billion to help US companies compete with Japan in making sophisticated computer display screens … The plan builds on current research programmes paid for by the Pentagon and the Energy Department, for which Congress already has authorized $100 million."
San Francisco Chronicle1

INDUSTRIAL GROWTH DEPENDS in part upon a steady stream of technological innovations. These advances improve the productivity of corporations, provide them with better access to geographically dispersed markets and resources, and expand the range of products they sell.

Corporations rely heavily on publicly funded research for these innovations. In the United States alone, government expenditures on research total some $65 billion a year. A recent study on the origins of technological innovation demonstrated that such research is a "fundamental pillar of industrial advance". The study showed that for the most part corporations do not rely on themselves for the research that fuels their growth: nearly three-quarters of American industrial patents in recent years were based on research financed by the public-either directly, by governments, or indirectly, through non-profit agencies.2 

'Nearly three-quarters of American industrial patents in recent years were based on research financed by the public.'

The governments of industrialised countries are the biggest sources of funds for research and development. Among them, the US, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada provided more than $170 billion for research annually in the early 1990s.3 More than a third of that total went towards military spending, with spinoffs that eventually reach industry in general. Little of this spending generates anything of fundamental use to small-scale producers or locally-based economics, but instead adds to the technological treadmill that undermines rural life.

In agriculture and health, much of the research funding is being poured into biotechnology. The $3 billion the US government will be spending on the human genome project has garnered the most publicity, but numerous other biotech projects are also being funded. The US Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation have teamed up to provide $100 million for researching the genome of a small mustard-like plant that has emerged as a key model for genetic engineering. This research will ultimately benefit pharmaceutical and agricultural biotech firms.4 Similarly, the UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) provided businesses with 7.5 million in biotechnology R&D grants in 1994 alone. This research went hand-in-hand with DTI's Biotechnology Means Business Programme, which "promotes the use of modern biotechnology by companies which have not previously used it within their operations."5 

Germany also earmarks considerable amounts of public funds for high-tech research. The German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR), for example, employs more than 4,000 people in seven research centres, working on aviation, space flight, and energy technologies. According to information provided by the organisation, "results from this research and development work… plays a significant role towards securing the industrial and technological position of Germany".6 Such public investments in research pay off handsomely for corporations, which can improve their efficiency and obtain marketable innovations at little or no cost.

A COSY RELATIONSHIP
Though geared toward the needs of corporations, much of the research conducted today occurs on university campuses. The universities themselves are willing participants in this system, since the flow of grant money from governments increasingly depends on performing research that corporations want. Universities can even make out at both ends by receiving payments for the fruits of research conducted at public expense.

Lawrence Soley describes how this works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For a small fee, some 300 corporations are provided with M.I.T. research reports, invited to symposia and seminars, and given personal access to M.I.T.'s faculty. As the catalogue for the university's Industrial Liaison Program unabashedly points out, M.I.T. places "at the disposal of industry the expertise and resources of all the schools, departments and laboratories of M.I.T." The $10,000 to $ 50,000 per year corporations pay is a pittance, considering that they are being given access to the half-billion dollars in research done at M.I.T. annually - almost all of which is funded by the US government.7

Similarly, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee licenses research findings to corporations and works directly with them on product development. The aim of its Office of Industrial Research and Technology Transfer is to help "business and industry…convert research results obtained in the university into commercial products, process and services."8 As at M.I.T., most of those research results are the product of public funding.

Sometimes corporations pay substantially more than bargain basement rates for the research they require. But Monsanto's $62 million arrangement with Washington University, Hoescht's $70 million deal with Harvard, and Ciba-Geigy's $20 million payoff to the University of California at San Diego effectively turn those institutions into appendages of the corporations that fund them. For their dollars, the companies get exclusive licences, patent rights, early access to research results, and access to the labs themselves. Despite the relatively large sums involved, the corporations are paying only a fraction of the cost of research; the difference is effectively a public subsidy.9

The marriage of corporate industry and publicly funded research institutions is now commonplace: a research center planned for Harvard University's Institute of Medicine, for example, will devote almost half its space to corporate offices and research facilities. Harvard will own the patents to any discoveries made at the institute, while the corporations will be allowed to market them. As usual, substantial funding will come from the US government, which currently provides more than half the $650 million annual budget of Harvard's Medical School and its affiliates.10

Even research funded by the former Soviet Union is now being exploited by corporations: in 1990, Monsanto paid $500,000 to a team of Russian biological scientists at Moscow's Shemyakin Institute in return for the right to market their discoveries in the West.11

European universities and corporations are similarly intertwined, but the European Commission is concerned that the relationship is not intimate enough. Thus, Europe's "limited capacity to convert scientific breakthroughs and technological achievements into industrial and commercial success [stems from] the still inadequate links between universities and business …and the lack of co-ordinated strategies between businesses, universities and the public authorities …"

In the future, therefore, Europe will be taking steps to further facilitate "the transfer of technologies from university laboratories to companies …"12

HIGH TECHNOLOGY, BIG SCALE
These trends are troubling not only because they reveal another layer of corporate welfare, but more importantly because of the inherent nature of the technologies that are being created with public funds. For the most part, the research infrastructure is creating technologies suitable only for the needs and purposes of huge corporations, thus propelling society still further in the direction of the large and global.

Even funding for basic research - which is thought to simply 'expand the frontiers of knowledge' - inherently promotes larger scale: as scientific knowledge has grown, so has the scale of technology infrastructures far beyond the small laboratories and backyard workshops of earlier scientists and inventors. The scale and the cost involved have already grown so large that only huge enterprises have the ability to conduct basic research or apply the findings.

Applied research is now so expensive in high-tech fields that even the largest business have difficulty financing it on their own - which helps explain the many mergers and partnerships among technology firms. When Toshiba entered into an agreement with rival Siemens, a spokesperson for the former said,

"The objective is to share the costs and the risk … because the development of the next generation of semiconductors requires huge costs - huge costs - and it is very difficult for any one company to do it alone."13

The expanding scale of technology also requires a parallel expansion in economic scale. Akio Morita, head of the Sony Corporation and a member of the Trilateral Commission, argued that "making the whole of the developed world essentially one big market" was necessary if industries were to sustain their growth curves:

"This is particularly true for the increasing technology-intensive manufacturing sector, which requires global markets to justify its huge investment needs".14 

In other words, today's technologies are so expensive they are only viable in the context of a huge, globalised economy.

The main beneficiaries of technologies created by publicity-funded research are corporations. If individuals can be said to benefit at all from these innovations, it is only in their role as consumers of an expanding line of corporate products. The technologies themselves remain firmly in the hands of corporations, adding to their power while furthering everyone else's dependence on the corporate world.

Some innovations help provide the infrastructure needed by large-scale economies: more efficient and higher speed transport, faster and more reliable telecommunications networks, new means of extracting energy from the Earth. Research in other areas - pharmaceuticals and biomedical products, agricultural chemicals and machinery, building products, etc. - is giving corporations tighter control over people's everyday needs.

Some research merely enables corporations to encourage consumers to buy new products - part of the 'new and improved' treadmill that keeps consumption high by creating new needs. One heralded achievement of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Center for Product Innovation, for example, was a redesigned coffee-pot for the Norelco Corporation.15 And the US Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has teamed up in a "strategic alliance" with toymaker Mattell on a "Hot Wheels JPL Sojourner Mars Rover Action Pack Set" - described in a pass release as "one example of how the Jet Propulsion Technology Affiliates Program works with industry".16 Your tax dollars at work.

UNDERMINING SMALL SCALE 
Most new technologies inherently benefit larger-scale operators at the expense of smaller ones. Nowhere has this been more true than in agriculture. In his book The Growth Illusion, ecological economist Richard Douthwaite describes how the introduction of diesel and electric irrigation pumps to a small village in India favoured the farmers who had the capital to invest in them, while those who remained with traditional methods - based on oxen - were irreparably harmed. The new pumps allowed more water to be pumped, and raised the yields of the farmers that used them. But the increased production ultimately led to a drop in crop prices; the water table also fell, adding to the burden on farmers using traditional irrigation methods.17 

Thus, this one new technology had increased the gap between the richest and poorest in the village, ultimately driving some farmers off the land; it also understanding the long-term sustainability of the agricultural system by depleting ground water supplies; and it siphoned money from the village to industrial pump manufacturers and energy firms. Yet the technology was no doubt introduced to the village by the agents of 'development' as a great step forward.

A similar pattern of events has unfolded in the industrialised world as well, as new technologies centred on machinery and chemical inputs increased labour productivity, but hurt small producers and ultimately decimated rural life. In Vermont, for example, half the dairy farmers in the state were driven out of business when refrigerated bulk tanks replaced the old 40-quart milk cans in the 1950s. The cost of adopting the new technology was too great for farms with less than 30 cows, and 20,000 small family farm workers were driven off the land. 18 The mechanical tomato-picker had a similar impact in California. The machine reduced the cost of harvesting tomatoes by $5-7 per ton, but the $50,000 price tag meant that only the largest farms could use it profitably. This one technology, developed at public expense by researchers at the University of California, led to a decline in the number of tomato farms from 4,000 in the early 1960s to about 600 in 1973.19

LAND GRANT COLLEGES
In the United States, much of the country's agricultural research takes place at hand grant colleges, institutions that were created specifically to strengthen and serve small farmers and rural life. Looking at that infrastructure reveals much about the impact of publically-funded research.

The land grant system - created by a series of legislative acts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - consists of agricultural colleges, experiment stations, and extension services. The language of the acts setting up the system leaves little doubt that it was intended to help maintain an agricultural way of life and a rural economy. Reference was made to "a sound and prosperous agricultural and rural life", and the "development and improvement of the rural home". The system was meant to "assure agricultural a position in research equal to that of industry, which will aid in maintaining an equitable balance between agriculture and other segments of the economy." It would also help disseminate "useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture and home economics."20 

If the land grant colleges had stayed true to these goals, they might have helped small farmers survive. Instead, the system ended up treating agriculture like any other industry, in which the primary goal is to increase production in general and labour productivity in particular. Most of the meaningful research and teaching in the land grant system was eventually devoted to technological innovations - primarily machinery and chemical inputs-that improved 'efficiency' so well that the vast majority of farmers were made redundant. In a description that sounds similar to trends in universities today, Jim Hightower and Susan DeMarco point out who this research has really helped:

"It is the largest-scale growers, the farm machinery and chemicals input companies and the processes who are the primary beneficiaries. Machinery companies such as John Deere, International Harvester, Massey-Ferguson, Allis-Chalmer and J.I. Case almost continually engage in co-operative research efforts at land grant colleges. These corporations contribute money and some of their own research personnel to help land grant scientists develop machinery. In return, they are able to incorporate technological advances in their own products. In some cases they

In the US, the energy sector is largely run by private-sector corporations, but massive subsidies have been provided to keep companies healthy, profitable, and growing. The watchdog group Alliance to Save Energy has estimated that the energy sector is subsidized at the rate of $21 billion to $36 billion annually.8 For the oil industry alone, subsidies and tax breaks have been in place for some 75 years, and have amounted to many billions of dollars. Another public interest group, Citizens for Tax Justice, estimates that just one tax break - the percentage depletion allowance - will cost the public Treasury $4.2 billion over the 1995-99 period. This is actually an improvement over earlier years, since the allowance was even greater up until 1975: in that year alone, the tax break amounted to $3 billion.9 

While the risks to the overseas operations of US oil companies are covered by taxpayers through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the US military further minimizes corporate risk by ensuring that regimes friendly to US interests gain power and hold onto it in oil-rich parts of the world. Importantly, this also ensures the continuous flow of oil. Protecting this source of energy does not come cheap. According to Edwin S. Rothschild, Energy Policy Director of Citizen Action, "the national security cost of oil is in the area of $57 billion per year; or approximately $9.19 per barrel of oil used in the US."10

Externalized costs sometimes run even higher. Despite all the rhetoric about democracy, the Gulf War was fought to ensure that the Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian oil fields continued to supply the industrialised world with the energy it requires. The direct costs for "Desert Storm" alone were over $60 billion, spread out among all the governments that participated.11 This does not include the cost to Iraq, nor does it put any value on the lives lost or the damage done to Persian Gulf ecosystems. None of these military costs is internalized in the price of petroleum.

SUBSIDIES FOR OTHER ENERGY SOURCES 
The US government provides energy subsidies for more than just the oil industry: since the goal has been to promote the growth of industry in general, subsidies are provided for all the large-scale, centralized energy forms the industrial system requires. As early as World War I, for example, the government was building dams to supply electric power to the munitions industry, and later to provide reliable power to the pacific Northwest's aluminium and aircraft industries.12 Today, government agencies or co-operative provide roughly one-fourth of all the electricity sold in the US. These producers benefit from indirect subsidies totaling $2.2 billion annually.13 

Major US electric utilities are poised to receive another major windfall from taxpayers. As deregulation of the industry proceeds, it seems likely that so-called 'stranded costs' will be passed on to taxpayers and consumers. In large measure these costs are the result of bad investments - usually nuclear power plants that are uncompetitive with other sources of electricity. Instead of writing off these losses, there are legislative moves places the value of the bailout at from $50 billion to $300 billion, while consumer and environment activities say it could reach $500 billion.14

Another way the federal government subsidizes a centralized energy infrastructure is by making sure that public lands are available for energy extraction. Approximately 750,000 acres of coal-bearing public land - containing over 1.5 billion tons of coal - are currently leased to mining interests. Oil companies have acquired leases to explore for oil on some 58, 000 federally-owned sites, including 5,000 offshore sites on the continental shelf, and the Clinton administration has recently authorised oil drilling in a previously sacrosanct wilderness area in Alasaka. In total, over 125 million barrels of oil and 1.7 trillion cubic feet of gas were extracted from federal lands in 1993 alone.15

The coal industry has been the recipient of many generous subsidies. The government sponsors research into technologies needed by the industry-including the Department of energy's $2.5 billion Clean Coal Technology programme. Government agencies ranging from the National Science Foundation to the Department of Defense also sponsored research on behalf of the coal industry - totaling $138 million in 1989. Mitigating the damage done by surface mining costs the public an additional $800 million a year.16

To these subsidies must be added the externalized costs of coal extraction and burning. Until 1977, no environmental reclamation on mines was required, and strip-mining operations in particular left behind scarred landscapes and polluted rivers and streams.17 Coal-fired power plants release heavy metals that pollute land and water many hundreds of miles downwind. They are prime culprits in the acid rain problem, and they add significant amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The pollutants they discharge also do significant damage to cropland and to public health. None of these costs is internalized in the price of coal: if they were, the price of coal might be ten times what it is today. Two researchers in England in dependently estimated the environmental coasts of electricity produced by coal-fired power stations: for each kilowatt-hour priced at less than 10p, estimates of the environmental costs ranged as high as 1.

Since its baseline is firmly drawn in the industrial era, modern education focuses far more on the workings of the technosphere than the biosphere. The implicit message is that life itself ultimately depends on technology and human-made institutions, not on the natural world. This delinking is a frequent feature of learned treatises on modern problems. A Yale University economist thus dismissed the impact of the greenhouse effect on the US, since "climate has little economic impact upon advanced industrial societies':

"Cities are increasingly becoming climate-proofed by technological changes like air-conditioning and shopping malls. …Studies of the impact of global warming on the United States and other developed regions find that the most vulnerable areas are those dependent on unmanaged ecosystems - on naturally occur ring rainfall, run-off and temperatures, and the extremes of these variables…. Most economic activity in industrialised countries, however, depends very little on the climate. Intensive care units of hospitals, underground mining, science laboratories, communications, heavy manufacturing and microelectronics are among the sectors likely to be unaffected by climatic change. In selecting whether to set up in, say, Warsaw or Hongkong, few business will consider temperature a weighty factor."13 

In this view, the world inhabited by industrialised peoples is so divorced from nature that major disruption to the biosphere would scarcely be noticed. Disruptions to the technosphere, on the other hand, would be catastrophic: "There is no life today without [computer] software", an executive of a major US based corporation claimed. Without computers, "the world would probably just collapse."14

As David Orr has observed about modern schooling, faith in technology "is built into nearly every part of the curriculum as a kind of blind acceptance of the notion of progress." 15 But corporations also use the educational infrastructure to gain acceptance for the specific technologies they control. This is particularly true in America, where corporations provide cash-starved schools with free study materials and teacher's kits laden with corporate-friendly messages. Monsanto, the corporation responsible for biotechnologies ranging from Roundup-ready soybeans to genetically-engineered bovine hormone, recently conferred an 'environmental' award on company employees who devised a "student education project … that worked to raise student awareness about environmental benefits from biotechnology."16 Along with seed corporation Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Monsanto also underwrote Field of Genes, a classroom curriculum for teachers that gives an industry spin on genetics, biotechnology, and genetic engineering.17 Similarly, the timber-industry giant Weyerhauser created a teacher's guide that suggests students discuss the "innovative practices" Weyerhauser has introduced to forest management.18

TRAINING FOR THE CORPORATE ECONOMY
A further function of the modern educational system is to prepare children and young adults for jobs in a corporate-dominated global economy. Even corporations readily admit that they depend on the educational infrastructure to churn out their labour force. Eminent European chemists recently issued a report concluding that Europe's chemical industry would relocate to another part of the world unless research received more government support. One of the report's authors noted that "industry is reliant on universities for its workforce, so we must ensure that academic institutions are properly funded".19

Having grown wealthier than many governments, corporations are increasingly willing to pay for the right to tailor the educational infrastructure to their specific needs. Corporations endow university chairs, pay for the construction of buildings and research facilities, and fund whole departments in fields useful to their commercial enterprises. England's Loughborough University, for example, is now offering a Bachelor of science degree in "Retail Automotive Management" - the country's first university-level degree in car-selling. Funding for the programme is being provided in part by the Ford Motor Company.20

Since corporations need a steady supply of MBAs, business schools have little trouble attracting corporate support. In Leasing the Ivory Tower, Lawrence Soley describes how the funding sources for a new building at Michigan State's business school are documented in the names of various building components:

"The second floor of the building is named after the Kresge Foundation, a 350-seat lecture hall is named for the Ford Motor Company, the fourth floor is named for a Toyota dealer, the fifth floor is named for the Chrysler Corporation, and the MBA lounge is named for the First of Michigan Corp."21

Corporate labels go on more than just building parts. Thanks to Bank of America's $3 million donation to the University of California at Berkeley, the new dean of the University's business school, Laura d'Andrea Tyson, is officially the 'Bank of America Dean'.

Though their influence is not always this visible, corporations are quite clear about what they expect from the educational system. In Britain a Graduate Employability Test, which "objectively measures and profiles the skills most often specified by employers", focuses on just three areas: "business awareness", "personal working style", and "computer skills".22 There is nothing location-specific about these skills, nor is there anything remotely connected with critical thinking, civic responsibility or moral understanding.

Today's well-trained workers can be ignorant about the local ecosystem, but their computer training must be up to snuff. According to Bill Gates, failure to be computer-adept means "you risk being ineffective in almost any kind of work you pursue".23 US government leaders apparently agree, since they are spending billions of dollars in public funds to equip schools with computers and to wire them for Interest access, with the goal of providing online access for every 12-year old. As bill Clinton explained, "This can make all the difference for communities struggling to make sure their students are ready for the 21st century."24

Transnational giant Monsanto has identified anew business opportunity because of the emerging water crisis and the funding available to make this vital resource available to people.

As it states in its strategy paper: "First, we believe that discontinuities (either major policy changes or major trendline breaks in resource quality or quantity) are likely, particularly in area of water, and we will be well-positioned via these business [owned by Monsanto and mentioned earlier in the paper] to profit even more significantly when these discontinuities occur.

"Second, we are exploring the potential of non-conventional financing (NGOs, World Bank, USDA, etc.) that may lower our investment or provide local country business-building resources."

Thus, the crisis of pollution and depletion of water resources is viewed by Monsanto as a business opportunity. For Monsanto, "sustainable development" means the conversion of an ecological crisis into market of scarce resources…
(Source: From an article by physicist Vandana Shiva, published in The Hindu, New Delhi, India, 1 May 1999; posted at< www.greenbuilder.com>)

In 1995, the Clinton Administration recognised that the Turkish Government used American arms in domestic military operations where human rights abuses occurred. In fact, turkey had forcibly evacuated, leveled and burned more than 3,000 Kurdish villages in the past decade. Most of the atrocities, which have cost over 40,000 lives, took place during Clinton's first term in office.

As an ally of the US through NATO, Turkey receives US weapons from dozens of companies including Hughes, Being, Raytheon and General Dynamics. Despite a horrifying Amnesty International report on violent abuse, the state Department passed arms deals with Turkey. The war in Turkey represents the greatest use of US weapons in combat anywhere in the world today.

Source: Kevin McKeirnan (kevinmck@silcom.com), The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, March/April 1999.