and spiral became hallmarks for Viktor Schauberger, as for him
they were the key to all creative movement. As we shall demon-
strate later, the vortex is most clearly seen with water, which it
uses to purify and energize itself, introducing finer energies to
wipe clean the bad energies of the water's previous memory of
misuse.
One could use the metaphor of a musty room that feels stale
and unwelcoming. Once sunlight and fresh air are allowed to pen-
etrate, the unpleasant atmosphere is quickly transformed. It is a
natural law that the more refined energy always prevails over the
coarser.^3 As Viktor Schauberger demonstrated, Nature's evolu-
tionary imperative is continually to refine and to create greater
complexity and diversity, the vortex being the key process in this
endeavour.Energies as creative process
We normally think of energy as the power to do work, as to be able
to run across a busy street. But thought is also energy. For the
human, creativity is dependent on thought. Between having an idea
and our wish to see it fulfilled lies a complex creative process.
If I want to make an apple pie, there is first the idea, then the
planning, translating this through visualization and then finally
the physical creation of the pie. This is much more important
than we realize. From the simplest task like tying your shoelace,
to the complex challenge of becoming a tennis champion, the bet-
ter the 'mind pictures' of how we are going to perform the
required actions, the more successful will be the outcome. The
force, the impulse, which is the motivator for us to create, is an
unseen energetic process.
Viktor Schauberger shows us that we need to think of energy in
Nature as the potential for creation, not as a mechanical working
process. He criticized our present view of how Nature works as
untenably mechanistic, which he said this is one of the main rea-
sons why we're in such a mess. Our culture thinks of Nature as being
like a big machine that can be manipulated and its resources
extracted for our own greed, rather than a creative system that has
a purpose.
Productive energies make it possible for life forms to arise that
are appropriate to the needs of the environment. It is as if Nature
- DIFFERENT KINDS OF ENERGY