On the Moon - A Surfer's Reference

*********************
**** ON THE MOON ****
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A Surfer's Reference

--- mountain man
--- Falls Creek, Oz.
--- Bushfire Christmas, 2001


COSMIC EFFECTS OF THE MOON ON LIFE ON EARTH
===========================================

0. In the very BEGINNING, for the last time anyway, the
first effect of the moon was heavy duty.  If scientific
research is correct the moon closed down the planet
entirely as far as life would have been concerned.

Although still provisional, the most widely accepted
theory concerning the origin of the moon is the
Collision-Ejection Theory: a Mars sized planet struck the
Earth, ejecting large volumes of matter. A disk of orbiting
material was formed, and this matter eventually condensed
to form the Moon, but never has the moon orbited the earth!

Since that time four and a half billion years ago, the moon
and (a transformed) earth have been engaged in the cosmic
dance of life about a common center of mass (barycenter)
that today resides about 1600kms under the earths surface,
and moves about in response to the cyclically changing
distance between the earth and the moon. The earth and the
moon are thus inextricably linked as a binary system.

When life evolved 3.8 billion years ago, it did so within
the gravitational, magnetic and electromagnetic dynamics of
the earth/moon binary in orbit about the cosmic life-giving
"fire" of the sun.

Let's continue with further expert scientific reflections,
and plainly state three reasons why the moon has a profound
(cosmic) influence in the terrestrial affairs of man:

1. The moon made it possible for man to evolve and so exist.
2. The moon made it possible for him to develop mathematics
   and science.
3. The moon made it possible for him to transcend Earth and
   conquer space

These three issues are adequately outlined by Isaac Asimov,
writing not as a science fiction writer, but more of a
scientific recordalist, at the last of the Apollo series
launchings, in mankind's attempt to reach the moon a sixth
time, late in the northern planetary autumn of 1972.

In summary mode, the evolutionary pathway between life in
the ocean and the emergence of life on the planet's land
surface leads through the environment of the inter-tidal
zones.  Without the intertidal zone (gravitationally caused
2 parts by the moon, and 1 part by the sun) life could not
have made the sudden jump from the ocean to the land,
argues Asimov.

He goes on to demonstrate that for the early astonomers the
biggest problem in all their theories of time keeping
(primarily for the turn of the seasons and the year) was
that the monthly (this word is derived from the word moon)
cycles of the moon "did not fit exactly" into the annual
cycle of the seasons.  The attempt to determine the reason
for the cycles of the moon (lunar months) not conforming to
the cycles of the sun (the seasons, and the solar year)
started man on a pathway of scientific and mathematical
discovery.

Asimov, who is very much regarded as a commentator on the
history of science and mathematics, goes on to point out
that if our planet did not have a moon, the first step into
space (to a neighbouring planet) would have been too large.
Elsewhere, in other works, he argues that Earth and Moon
should be considered a binary planet, not a planet and a
satellite. Anyway, in regard to the above 3 points, here
are his arguments, entitled "The Triple Triumph of the
Moon":
http://www.mountainman.com.au/i_asimov.html


4.  It is often said that the gravitational influence of
the moon is equivalent to the weight of a mosquito,
insignificant, cannot possibly influence ..., etc.  It is
certainly an empirical fact that the tidal pull on the
earth's oceanic expanses and depths due to the
gravitational attraction of the moon and the sun is far
weaker than Earth's own gravitational tug by a factor of
about ten million. How could such a small influence be
experienced, or detected, by living beings?

We, as surfers know the answer by direct experience of
oceanic nature: twice a day, all over the Earth, this
relatively weak (cosmic) gravitational pull from the sun
and moon is moving literally billions of tons of water to
and fro.  This relatively miniscule gravitational influence
of the sun and moon can have such an effect because of a
phenomena called resonance, which is created by the
dynamics of the earth/moon binary and the sun.

The other lesson to be reinforced here is that very very
very very very small and insignificant influences in
dynamical systems can play very significant roles in the
evolution of such systems.  Why?  Simply because of the
time scales for which these systems have existed. Often
it is just a question of patient persistence.

Let's move on ... I am expecting some swell just after
Christmas, and this will put a stop to all this ascii
business.


5.  The AsAboveSoBelow Hypothesis: Emergent properties and
systematics of evolving life within any environment mimic
and respond to the dominant influences generated and
sourced from the "environment of that environment".

In short, it is not "turtles all the way down" (Douglas
Adams), but "environments all the way up and down" the
scales of observation.  The "As it is above; so it is
below" hypothesis is often attributable to Hermes, and/or
the Hermetic wisdom:
http://www.mountainman.com.au/hermes.html

Cosmic Banditos interested enough in atomic and nuclear
physics to pull a job on a library should understand that
the environments of the cosmos can be considered as a form
of continuum which might be outlined somewhat like this:




Mapping the Environmental Domains 
of the natural cosmos
according to their scale of systematics 
and the theories of the contemporary scientific program.

MTM Version 4: Bushfire Christmas 2001
=============================================================
## SCALE (Domain)       Science (Theories of Science)
=============================================================
-8 sub-quark            TOE?(Superstrings,Technicolor,Aether)
-------------------------------------------------------------
-7 sub-nuclear          Hadronic Physics (QCD,Std Model)
-------------------------------------------------------------
-6 nuclear              Nuclear Physics (QCD)
-------------------------------------------------------------
-5 sub-atomic           Muonic atoms, muon catalyzed fusion
-------------------------------------------------------------
-4 atomic               Atomic Physics (QM,QED,e-weak Std)
-------------------------------------------------------------
-3 molecular            Chemistry (QM, Thermodynamics)
-------------------------------------------------------------
-2 bio-molecular        Bio-Chemistry, Bio-Physics (--?--)
-------------------------------------------------------------
-1 cellular             Micro-Biology, (Endosymbiosis)
==============================================================
00 organism             N&FD,Biology,NG (Evolution)(Observer)
                        The "Inner World" and stoke dwell here.
                        All the disciplines of man dwell here.
================================================================
01 ecosystem            "ALL Std Physical sciences" ("Nature")
                        Oceanic surf and surfers dwell here.
                        All disciplines are "put to the test".
---------------------------------------------------------------
02 planet               N&FD/Geology/Meteorology/NG (Gaia?)
----------------------------------------------------------------
03 moon                 N&FD/Astronomy/Tides/Geology/NG
----------------------------------------------------------------
04 solar system         N&FD/GR/NG/Solar Physics,
----------------------------------------------------------------
05 galactic system      GR/Newtonian Gravitation(NG)
----------------------------------------------------------------
06 galactic clusters    GR/Newtonian Gravitation
----------------------------------------------------------------
07 observable universe  Cosmology (Big Bang/Tired Light/SS/MH)
----------------------------------------------------------------
08 Further??            ??? Cosmology
================================================================
Notes: (1) N&FD=Newtonian & Fluid Dynamics, (2) MH=Molecular H.
================================================================

Lets look at some of this above.  What it is saying is that
we are essentially hanging out at level zero - scale of the
living organism.  We are each within a unique, often shared
ecosystem, within the terrestrial environment, within the
local (and then more remote) cosmic environments.  The lens
of observation is turned outwards it becomes the telescope
to the cosmic environments within the greater and greater
cosmic environments.

When the lens is turned inwards, into the very matter
which constitutes the (living and non-living) outward
forms of nature, it becomes the microscope and then the
cloud chamber.  The modern atomic theory often commences
with an account of the theory of Democritis (420 odd BC).

These smaller and smaller layers of nature are operating
concurrently, within us, just as are the outward ever
increasing environments.  Everything is going on at once
in a very harmonic fashion, and appears to have done so
for a long time.



6. LIFE: But certainly, man has evolved from the marvel and
miracle which is living nature, and we are told that one
of the ways to view the great golden chain of being is
through the links of DNA replication. (DNA has a double
helix structure, as does the celestial pathway of the
earth/moon binary, this as an aside.)  This cyclic
replication processes of life, in 3.8 billion years, would
have seen a fair number of tidal fluctuations manifest in
terrestrial environment as a direct result of the dynamics
of the earth, moon and sun in the cosmic environment.

For a start, the first 2 billion years of terran life were
exclusively in the ocean we surfers immerse ourselves in,
sometimes more than daily. Life in those days were photo-
synthetic replicators, much like ancient plankton. Now that
is a long time for life to be sloshed around with the tides,
not for this tidal influence to have been utilised as a
foothold - a constancy which could be mainly relied upon -
within the deeper metabolism of life and survival toolbox.

If we are to believe in this golden chain of being which
extends back through our parents, to our ancestors, to our
ancient progenitors of life, then our life's story began in
these ancient seas.  Venus and Earth and Mars in those days
when life first appeared on Earth, all had a dominantly CO2
(carbon dioxide) atmosphere. Over the course of 2 billion
years, these oceanic photosynthesis replicators gradually
reduced the CO2 and raised the level of oxygen to its
current levels (20%).  This enabled the evolution of
aerobic life forms, such as us surfers  ;-).

See the articles on the Gaia Hypothesis for further info:
http://www.mountainman.com.au/gaia.html


7. SUN: Difficult it is to describe the cosmic influence of
the moon on life on this planet without taking into
parallel account the more complete set of cosmic influences
that in concert effect all things in their realm of
interaction. The Moon in ancient days was referred to as
"The Great Light of the Night".  The "Great Light of the
Day" consumed the light of the moon, and brought forth
great heat, over and above the Ice Ages.

There is no doubt that the ecosystemic engine is the sun
and its sunshine.  One of the fundamental roles that this
ecosystemic engine services is provision of the driving
force of the water-cycle within the planetary atmosphere,
without which, life would cease.

The sun creates provision of what the contemporary
scientific program calls "electromagnetic energy" to the
terrestrial environment. Sunshine, by any other name.
The living beings of the kingdom of plants, as did their
ancient descendants, the first photosynthesis replicators,
take in carbon dioxide and return oxygen to the
atmospheric (planetary) environment.

The dynamics of the spinning planet and the sun causes
night and day.  To us, borne as indigenous beings into
this terrestrial environment second-by-second as we
breathe, it appears that the cosmic fire is quantised,
being ON or OFF. All creatures, great and small exhibit
such behaviour, and in general the sleep and are awake,
in daily succession, through all the days of their lives
(dont worry, this text is not going to be serialised).

This is a dominant influence - we are attuned to operative
systematics according to this natural phenomena. More on
this later.

We orbit Sol on the chariot of the earth/moon binary.  There
is no doubt Pythagoras was right in his claim that "the fire
is at the center".  It is unusual enough to note that when
academic treatments of ancient western history examine the
novelty of the concept of heliocentricity (sun-centered),
always mentioned is Aristarchus, but never Pythagoras.

Old Pythag still has his equations in Relativity Theory,
and even expressed the notion of a "counter-earth" in
relation to the moon, which was very close to the idea of a
binary system, if not spot on the money.  We will meet more
of Pythagorean notions further up the track here, hopefully.

To conclude this section, besides the influence of the moon
resonant on the 6 hour and 14 minute (approx) scale, there
is the stronger influence of the sun resonant on the annual
cycle of the earth/moon system about the sun. Whatever this
thing gravity is, its interaction is relentless, as we all
well know.  It persists through the free-falls from the
largest of oceanic waves ...

It persists through the free-fall of the earth and moon
about their common barycenter, the free-fall of the
earth/moon binary about the barycenter of the solar system
(this is not the same as the center of the sun, hence
arises the cause of the 11 year sunspot (solar maxima to
solar minima) cycles)), the free-fall of the solar system
about the Milky Way, and the free-fall of the Milky Way
galaxy towards its own cosmic destination.


Let there be light!  This is the commandment of life, and
the mandatory requirement of living systems.
Electromagnetic energy from the sun is at the corner-stone
of the natural ecosystems, and without it, we would not
exist for long after the plants gave up their vegetable
ghosts.  (I could hardly say pushing up daisies, eh?  ;-).



8. GEOCENTRICITY: We need to have one last long look at
this (ancient) conception of geocentricity.  In this world-
view, the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars were all
considered to revolve in fixed and concentric spheres which
were centered on the terrestrial environment of earth.

Now, we are alot more "educated", and we are privy to
information not revealed (in any generic sense) to the
ancient people.  And we do *know* positively that this
geocentric arrangement is not the case any more!!

Or is it?

If you have already checked Isaac's article at item (2) you
will perceive that the sun, the planets and the stars have
all been released from the geocentric concept.  But the
moon remains. In fact, of all the cosmic bodies, it was the
only ever the moon, which was geocentric.

Why is this important? Keeping this in mind, we should
take special care in choosing to disregard the opinion of
the ancients on matters relating to the influence of the
moon on the life on this planet. Our modern scientific
program can determine that they had it wrong about the sun,
the planets and the stars. But modern science can hardly
say that their geocentric model was incorrect with
reference to the moon. Anyway, time to move on ....



9. Earth’s Oceanic Tides and the synchronization of the
rotational period of the Moon and the orbital period of
the Earth-Moon system.   This covers the reason why the
moon only shows (almost) the same face to us ...

The oceanic tides slow the Earth’s rotation via tidal
coupling and gravitational locking.  The moon's rotational
period and the orbital period of the Earth/Moon binary are
of the same length.  Further info quoted from:
http://mae.uta.edu/~musielak/PHYS1445/lecture14.htm
==================[start quote]============================
This was not always true, but over billions of years the
tidal coupling of the Earth and the Moon has led to this
synchronization. The synchronization is not yet complete.
The Earth is slowly decreasing its rotational period and
eventually the Earth and Moon will have exactly the same
rotational period, and these will also exactly equal the
orbital period. At the same time, the separation between
the Earth and Moon will slowly increase in just such a way
as to conserve angular momentum for the entire system.
==============[end quote]==================================



10. MAGNETISM:  This is an interesting subject area, the
extent of which is, imo, not yet fully comprehended by the
scientific program. Recent research and development within
the scientific program has discovered that the detection of
both the static condition of the geomagnetic field (Earth's
magnetic field), and the fluctuations of the same, are able
to be identified by living systems for a number of purposes,
including navigation, and seasonal calibration.  I think
this discovery is but the tip of the iceberg, and that all
life is attuned to the earth's magnetic field.

Now a great part of the geomagnetic field is exposed within
the planetary atmosphere, and as such is greatly influenced
by the solar wind of charged particles, and subject to the
11 year solar sunspot cycle.  The atmosphere of air here
has a mass, and behaves like the ocean, and is subject to
lunar tidal variations.  Consequently, the moon also
produces tidal fluctuations in the geomagnetic field, to
which all life is attuned. Some of the information reported
here has been derived from:
http://www.mountainman.com.au/astrology_01.htm


11. SOLUNAR THEORY: First named by John Alden Knight, the
"theory" relates to the activities of fishing and hunting.
Detailed references can be found by any search engine, and
here is a summary:   The jist of the theory relates to the
observation of the specific cycle of feeding habits of fish,
and game, etc, as recorded by the author.  This might only
be regarded as borderline "science", however it does not
lack its "empirical evidence" through the statistics of
fishing and gaming records over a prolonged period of time.

Essentially the theory claims that there exists a greater
activity of feeding at quite specific times which
correspond with the turning of the tide (ie: half an hour
each side of high or low tide).  This greater activity is
highly accentuated if it coincides with moonrise or sunrise,
moonset or sunset.  The claims made specifically refer to
mountain lakes, rivers, streams, and inland water courses,
away from the deep ocean.

The maxima cycles of the Solunar theory are calculated "as
if" the ocean covered the entire planet.  John Alden Knight
apparently made substantial analysis of fishing and gaming
catches during the 1920's and 1930's in Florida, USA, which
supported these claims. While this is all very well and
good for the fishing enthusiast, for the scientist it must
suggest that there *does exist* some form of (lunar) tidal
influence on the feeding habits of fish and of game, which
is below the level of direct present day detection.




12. EARTH AND SUN AND MOON .......

In the morning we will wake up and take to the air
Look back at the planet - I'm glued to my chair
Southern half is burning as we climb through the sky
Sea-birds softly falling, smoke way up high

There's the contours of the mountains, the deserts and the plains
And a hurricane is blowing, and it turns once again
Now there's oil spills in the water where columbus once sailed
And there's history and mystery and it's rolling away

I wish you could see this great mystery
Earth and sun and moon human tribe, thin blue line
Earth and sun and moon will survive

Sediment is plowing from river to sea
Now where are the mighty nations, no lines to be seen
An axe upon the broken ground, the sigh of the trees
And its floating in the ether, it brings me to my knees

Too messed up to care,
Anyone got a wing and a prayer,

In the blink of an eye
Thank you and good night

Earth and sun and moon human tribe, one thin blue line
Earth and sun and moon will survive, will survive, we will survive

--- MIDNIGHT OIL.



13.  WOMOON? On the female menstrual cycle being the same
as the cycle of the moon, much has already been written, so
why repeat it? I do not pretend to know the answer to this
question.  However, I do know that there is at least one or
two another cosmic cycles of between 25 and 28 days, namely
the spin of the sun itself on its own axis. The Sun rotates
every 25 days at the equator and takes progressively longer
to rotate at higher latitudes, up to 35 days at the solar
poles.

It could well be the influence of the orbit of the moon, as
the popular urban (and sylvan) myth goes, but it could also
be that that each woman follows the solar activity of a
particular part of the sun (latitude).

Charged particles ejected from the Sun form the "Solar
Wind" and this flows continuously through interplanetary
space. It transports part of the Sun's magnetic field into
space, and this interacts with the geomagnetic field.

Features of the solar wind reaching the Earth tend to
repeat about every 27 days and 43 minutes.  Analysis of
empirical data shows that the Sun has maintained his
steady rhythm, for at least 38 years.   Go figure ...



14: FARMING BY THE MOON: The purposeful cultivation of
crops has been ongoing for at least 6,000 years, possibly
10,000 years and in all likelyhood, its roots will be found
to be a great deal older.  The regular succession of the
phases of the moon, and the number of these cycles were
tracked by ancient man in order to keep track of the
seasons.  The sun gave the big picture of the year and the
seasons, but the moon provided the subtle detail of change
in between the seasons.  Together, the sun and moon were
the calendar used by our ancestors.

The Egyptian and Chinese pyramids, and the thousands of
megalithic structures (eg: Stonehenge) in the British Isles
and western europe (built, coincidently a thousand years
before the great pyramids) are all horizon declinometers.
What is an horizon declinometer?  Essentially, it is a very
accurate (scientific/astronomical) instrument used to
observe the rising and setting of the sun, the moon and
planets and some of the stars closer to the ecliptic. Most
of these structures were constructed on line of sight taken
between the rising and setting of the sun at mid-summer
and/or mid-winter's day.

Prediction ... the decision about exactly when to plant,
when to breed stock, etc was a very critical decision.
Knowlege of the seasons, and the ability to determine
exactly where one was - how many moons into Spring or
Autumn, etc - in the year, was probably one of the most
important elements of knowlege of a community.

It greatly assisted the process of survival.

By the calendar of the moon the seasons were mapped into
the months. Much more could be written about the various
addages which have been handed down about the planting of
crops at certain phases of the moon, but much is also very
dependent concerning the environment local to the plant,
and the type of plant.  Much has already been written, in
the west, beginning with "WORKS AND DAYS" by Hesiod (about
700BC) through to the publications of biodynamic farming
methods following lectures by Rudolf Steiner in 1924.



15: FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON

A thrill of excitement ran through the meeting.

Barbicane, having by a rapid movement firmly fixed his hat
upon his head, calmly continued his harangue:

"There is no one among you, my brave colleagues, who has
not seen the Moon, or, at least, heard speak of it.  Don't
be surprised if I am about to discourse to you regarding
the Queen of the Night.  It is perhaps reserved for us to
become the Columbuses of this unknown world.  Only enter
into my plans, and second me with all your power, and I
will lead you to its conquest, and its name shall be added
to those of the thirty-six states which compose this Great
Union."

"Three cheers for the Moon!" roared the Gun Club,
with one voice.

"The moon, gentlemen, has been carefully studied,"
continued Barbicane; "her mass, density, and weight; her
constitution, motions, distance, as well as her place in
the solar system, have all been exactly determined.
Selenographic charts have been constructed with a
perfection which equals, if it does not even surpass, that
of our terrestrial maps.  Photography has given us proofs
of the incomparable beauty of our satellite; all is known
regarding the moon which mathematical science, astronomy,
geology, and optics can learn about her.  But up to the
present moment no direct communication has been established
with her."

A violent movement of interest and surprise here greeted this
remark of the speaker.

"Permit me," he continued, "to recount to you briefly how
certain ardent spirits, starting on imaginary journeys,
have penetrated the secrets of our satellite.

---Extract from FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON,
   by Jules Verne (about 1865)



16: Consequences of the NOCTURNAL MARSUPIAL NICHE:
    Exposure to the Moon - Evolution of Consciousness

You'll not find this item in any scientific publication,
I'd venture, as it is a hypothesis of mine which runs
something like this ...

Expanded consciousness (in mammals particularly) was a
result of their nocturnal niche, and their exposure to
the subtle nature of solar electromagnetic energy, as
provided by the moon over millions of years of evolution.

The survival of our remote mammalian ancestors was
intimately bound up in their utilisation of the nocturnal
niche, and avoidance of the large numbers of predators
which essentially "dominated the day".  By niche, I mean
that specialised habitat which affords each species its
optimal chance of survival, and to the mammals' lot fell
the night, and the great Light of the Night, the moon.

The moon would have been a focus of attention to varying
extents by all living beings nocturnal, and it would have
provided a constant subtle stimulus through successive
generations to understand its mystery of constancy amidst
the ever-present modes of terrestrial change.

We have already seen that the more recent (recorded)
history of science and mathematics is intimately bound up
in the attempt to understand how the cycles of the moon
could be "interfaced" to the cycles of the sun.  I believe
this entire process started millions of years beforehand,
when species were forced into nocturnal niches.  At this
time, the great "Light of the Night" started to be mapped
in earnest within the elements of survival and knowledge,
and profoundly influenced the first evolutionary stirrings
of the cosmic aspect of what might only be called the
faculty we call the self-reflective mind.

This might sound like a circumstantial type of evidentiary
link - because a certain type of animal (mammals) had their
ancient evolutionary niche, and because the moon is the
brightest light of the night, the moon is responsible for
the emergence of higher consciousness on earth.  Many are
the parameters of developing life, and no one specific item
in the environment alone is responsible for the appearance
of the end product, rather this development itself is an
environment in which many factors inter-play.  My claim is
that one of the more fundamental processes in the evolution
of the self-reflective mind was exposure to the moon, over
prolonged timespans.

Although electricity and magnetism had been studied for
hundreds of years prior, the electromagnetic spectrum of
energy, as a conceptual entity in its own right, was only
identified last century. Modern science today reveals that
it is the electromagnetic energy of the sun which sits at
the heart of the terrestrial ecosystems, and is responsible
for the maintenence, directly or indirectly, of all living
systems.  This is role of daylight. What of its reflection?

What potentialities then are derived from the reflection of
this same life-giving sunshine off the surface of the moon?
Why should this reflected electromagnetic energy not have
the same or another (possibly more subtle) type of
(evolutionary) effect on life over large time spans?

Elsewhere we have seen that often it is not the strongest
and most dominant forces which contribute the most to the
evolution of dynamical systems.  Often the small persistent
influences are the most important in the longer run. Often,
too, multiple influences compete with and compliment each
other in the full picture.



17: DOMESTICATION OF FIRE:  Relatively little importance is
placed on the domestication of (terrestrial) fire in the
evolution of human consciousness by the bulk of those
academic articles which I have seen to date.  Why this is
relevant to our sojourn "On the Moon" will hopefully make
itself clear in the following section.

I believe that man's "domestic" association with fire
marked another important but little recognised milestone
in the development of human consciousness. Those who have
had the pleasure of sitting beside a fire under the moon
and stars for extended periods of time will understand that
light, whether firelight, moonlight or starlight, has the
characteristic of attracting and holding attention.

Setting aside all benefits related to defence and survival,
and the provision of heat and light, the domestication of
fire also brought with it prolonged sessions where the fire
was the focus of attention during the long vigil of the
night. It extended the potentiality of waking hours.  It
was, and still is, almost a living entity  - sometimes
friend and sometimes foe.  Down the long ages since it was
first purposefully employed, it has contributed to the
growing and emergent "flame of consciousness" which burnt
brightly in our ancient ancestors.  It enhanced the act of
self-reflection

As an aside, although much of the enhanced magnetic
material associated with the surface ash will rapidly be
dispersed by weathering, even a short duration campfire
forms an intense magnetic anomoly.  This information is
sourced from the IRM Quarterly, Winter 1999-2000.

Not the sun, but an emulation of the sun on earth. A source
of electromagnetic energy, a living mandala of attention,
the domestication of (terrestrial) fire separated the
various emergent species of life with its flames.

Most academic treatments of the evolution of consciousness
and of man look at the development of language and
communication as a key area. We should not argue with this,
it is most likely very true.  However it appears to me that
the first common subjects of communication, over and above
the needs of survival within the elements of nature, were
speculation and shared observation of the operation of
nature. In those days, as in these, nature has its
terrestrial and its cosmic aspects.


18: HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY and the MOON:  Search the academic
literature and you will not find many theories that attempt
to reference the full moon and the human psyche. There are
stories about the "lunatic" ward and the full moon, as well
as stories about statistical correlations between the full
moon and the hospital admission ward, activity at police
stations, binge drinking, dog-bites, violence, gambling,
and numerous other vices of excess.

Scientific research into any possible form of direct stats
correspondence between the phases of the moon and various
human behavioural phenomena has not yielded consistent
positive results.  Yet such anecdotes persist. The skeptics
like to call such "urban myths", and well they may be, but
when one is dealing with nature, one is dealing with
profound subtelty of the type described by Ralph Waldo
Emerson:

  "Nothing is rich
   But the inexhaustible wealth of nature.
   She shows us only surfaces,
   But she is a million fathoms deep"

My opinion on the matter is really given in (16) and (17)
above. I am of the opinion that all nature is a whole and
each part (living being/creature) is related to this whole.
I dont think direct correspondence is practical.  I think
that there is correspondence between the moon (and sun and
other cosmic entities) and the human inner world, but one
which has been established over evolutionary time scales,
and which is not at surface level (day-to-day) directly
correspondent behaviour.


19: THE MOUNTAIN MAN MANDALA:  We possess, it would seem,
both a terrestrial and a cosmic environment within our
inner being, and this has resulted from our survival over
evolutionary timescales within a terrestrial environment
that is embedded within a cosmic environment. Here is the
core of my observation on this:

  The Ecosystem of the Soul - Spirit of Sunshine
  ==================================================
  There is a great correspondence respectively between
  the earth and the moon and the sun as a *system*,
  and the heart and the mind and the soul (of an
  individual living human being) as a *system*.

Here I use the word "heart" in its ancient lyrical sense as
the center of instincts, emotions, intuition, etc as
distinct from the mind, the center of self-reflective
thought processes and ideas. These two faculties, the heart
and mind are a binary system which work in unison to effect
what we know as human consciousness.  The physiological
form of dual hemispheres in the human brain reinforces a
dual mapping; one to the (older) heart and life-support
faculties, and one to the regions of "higher
self-reflective thought".  More on this at:

http://www.mountainman.com.au/nature.html



20: MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES:

http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html
Full moon and lunar effects (Skeptics Dictionary)

http://www.borderlands.com/journal/lunar.htm
Lunar Influence on the Electrochemical Production of
Colloidal Silver (and other items) - by Michael Theroux

http://www.livingcosmos.com/unity.htm
The Unity of the Sun, Earth and Moon - Interesting site.

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/ap15fj/
The Apollo 15 Flight Journal - backtrack to communication
transcripts for the other missions.  My hat is off to them!

http://www.athenainstitute.com/lunarmpl.html
Lunar Influences on the Reproductive cycle in women.
Copyright c. Wayne State University Press, 1987
Journal: HUMAN BIOLOGY December 1987, Volume 59 Number 6

http://gcrio.ciesin.org/ASPEN/epnotes/summaries/480.html
Influence of Lunar Phase on Daily Global Temperatures
Robert C. Balling Jr. and Randall S. Cerveny - 1995

http://gcrio.ciesin.org/ASPEN/epnotes/summaries/694.html
A full Moon warms icy wastes - Fred Pearce,
New Scientist, Vol. 153, No. 2064 ... 11 January 1997

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/moonpage.html
NASA Fact and Resource Page for the Moon.




22. SELECTION OF LUNAR QUOTES:


  "I think that a particle must have a
   separate reality independent of the measurements.
   That is an electron has spin, location and so
   forth even when it is not being measured. 

   I like to think that the moon is there 
   even if I am not looking at it."

   --- Albert Einstein (1935)





23: PROJECT KICK-START:  Thanks Sponge!  Much
of this was written through the long vigilant hours over the
last days where the glow of burning bush fires approached
and receded, and then approached and receded from different
directions.

From: Neal Miyake (sponge@iav.com)
Subject: Down South Perspective (loooong Weisbecker email and poll question)
Newsgroups: alt.surfing
Date: 2001-12-18 21:22:50 PST


To all,
I've been on the e-list of Allan Weisbecker, author of "In Search of Captain
Zero."  He's down south in Costa Rica right now, surfing, writing, living.

Just for alt.surfing discussion, I've copied his entire email below.  This
is a typical Weisbecker email, with lots of thought and insight, being very
responsive to the people who write to him.

But the question that comes up from this is:  What sort of cosmic effect
does our moon really have on life on Earth?  Pete Brown, chime in anytime...

sponge

Email from Allan Weisbecker
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