The terrestrial environment is teeming with electromagnetic
phenomena and their secondary effects, which are demonstrably
related to greater events in outer space. Dr Harold Burr of Yale
University kept extensive records of the voltage changes meas-
ured in holes bored in the trunks of trees. When both ends of a
wire were inserted into two holes vertically a yard apart, an elec-
trical current could be detected moving either up or down, at dif-
ferent voltages, in regular cycles that were not related to the
Moon's phases, but to some other unidentified non-terrestrial
source. His records showed that all trees, even hundreds of miles
apart, would simultaneously experience the same changes of the
voltage and direction of the current. It is as if the whole family of
trees responds to the same electrical rhythm, like a cosmic
breathing.^10
It seems that there are universal laws, not yet fully understood,
which guide an organism's growth into predetermined patterns. As
the vehicle for creative energy, the spiral is clearly involved in the
organic growth of plants and embryos. Buds contain all the concen-
trated energy of the future plant, and their mathematical analysis
can yield clues as to how this formative energy is expressed. Rudolf
Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, initiated these studies,
which have been developed in great detail by the projective mathe-
matician Lawrence Edwards.^11
Edwards discovered that tree buds expand and contract in a
curious rhythm, specific to the species. He applied Steiner's theory
that a species often has a particular connection to a planet. Steiner
suggested correspondences between particular trees and flowers
and certain planets, for example, the oak with Mars, and the beech
with Saturn. The results clearly showed that these bud pulsations
are linked to the cycles of particular planets. The Moon on its own
had little effect, but when amplified by an alignment with Saturn
(for the beech) and to Mars (in the case of the oak), showed unmis-
takable fortnightly rhythms. There was one beech tree studied that
did not show these phenomena. It was found to be growing a few
yards from an electricity supply substation!
The confrontation of two geometric systems
Schauberger was at odds with scientific rationalism. He described
our prevailing Euclidean geometric system as 'techno-academic.' It
- NATURE'S PATTERNS AND SHAPES