A few years ago during COVID I hosted the Alternative Natural Philosophy conference online (see ANPA 41 Web Conference – Alternative Natural Philosophy Association). It was a great event, with many contributions from leading physicists and mathematicians, touching on really profound issues in science. One of the participants, Prof. Colin Rourke (see Colin P. Rourke - Wikipedia - Colin Rourke's WWW Homepage (warwick.ac.uk)), gave a presentation on astrology and physics ("Intertial Drag, Dark Matter and Astrology") which was very thought provoking. Interest in the esoteric in modern physics has a surprisingly long history, with Wolfgang Pauli's collaboration with Carl Jung about synchronicity being perhaps the most significant engagement. Of course, nobody tells you this stuff in university. Why not?
Colin's presentation starts with an exploration of the structure of the arms of galaxies (for which a theory of intertial drag is proposed), alongside important critiques of the idea of a singularity (what's that, exactly?), and the big bang (didn't happen - "there are things in the universe which are older than the big bang"). He then turned to astrology, using some fascinating and convincing examples using astrological charts (see https://youtu.be/BVIWEXBEcqg?t=3326). Rourke's argument focuses specifically on gravity and gravity's effect on physiology (he discounts electromagnetism because it is too weak). The focus on gravity is an argument that has also been made by John Torday. Because of gravity, the relative positions of planets is important. Importantly, he sees the gravitational effects as largely independent of distance. Rourke mentions Liz Green (Liz Greene | The Centre for Psychological Astrology (cpalondon.com)) and her unnervingly accurate predictions about the fall of the Soviet Union, and more recent Russian history.
The discussion at the end of Colin's presentation is well worth listening to. One by one, the sacred cows of modern physics are sacrificed, from the standard model to the state of modern science, and particularly the role of money in scientific institutions. The discussion centres on what academics are no longer allowed to talk about (John Williamson - "all the money goes on old shit, not new shit"). John also makes some interesting comments about the future of modern chemistry. Lou Kauffman argues that science should be pursued for science's sake.
I was updating my CV the other day, and feeling a bit depressed about the range of publications I have. It's so diverse, from cybernetics, to education, to biology and music. It makes sense to me, but it doesn't fit the modern paradigm of the university. And yet, it is precisely in the space of the deep arguments for science that this web discussion focusses on.
But back to astrology... I was pulled back to this presentation because I've experienced my own astrological experiences recently - particularly a Sun-Venus conjunction. That's a very powerful attractive force and when you experience this in ordinary life, you tend to think "Wow! what is that about?!". Astrologically, the Sun is all about the self, while Venus is (broadly) about love. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to image what happens when they come together. It's an explosive combination, particularly when other factors might present complex or conflicting signals. The dynamic of strong attraction and complex interactions mean that when this kind of thing happens, it can't be ignored. Why does this happen? For that, we would have to look at Jung and Pauli's stuff on synchronicity.
The remarkable thing about this is (whatever one might think about the astrological theory), its effects are palpable. That means that consciousness is (or consciousnesses are) in some sort of dance with the universe. That would contribute to an explanation of telepathy, for example (see Improvisation Blog: Telepathy (dailyimprovisation.blogspot.com)). Is this coordinated by gravitational forces? Perhaps the moon, which clearly and unambiguously have a direct impact on the physical environment, is a good place to start. That's about the waxing and waning of emotion...
1 comment:
Colin Rourke refers somewhat tangentially to the role of gravitational force in astrology. Yet astrology is an accounting for human behavior, under the influence of the environment, including the force of gravity. The key to this interrelationship is the role of gravity in the evolution of physiology, which has been shown experimentally to be dependent on the force of gravity (Torday 2003). But it must be kept in mind that other than the initiation of life, the interplay between gravity and physiology is not one-to-one, it's a function of the history of the organism. So for example, the force of gravity comes into play in the water-land transition, the increase effective force of gravity being compensated for by the duplication of the Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein (PTHrP) Receptor gene, enhancing calcium deposition in the bone, allowing the skeleton to resist the increased force of gravity on land. And those boney fish with the most capacity for PTHrP signaling also acquired alveoli in the evolving lung and glomeruli in the evolving kidney due to the enhanced PTHrP signaling too. The 'trick' is to see these evolving traits in their environmental context, which is ever-changing because the Cosmos is expanding.
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