Check It! Biorhythm Theory Edition

Tonight’s post deals with an idea dating from the 19th century, conceived by one Wilhelm Fliess, a Berlin surgeon and long-time associate of Sigmund Freud: that of biorhythms, an alleged biological cycle supposedly ‘ignored’ or ‘dismissed’ by scientists who make their living studying biological cycles. Fliess proposed the existence of a ‘male’ (now, ‘physical’) cycle of 23 days, and a ‘female’ (now, ‘emotional’) cycle of 28 days in the initial concept for his theory, based mostly on numerological jiggery-pokery. Also briefly dealt with is a contributor to this idea, Hermann Swoboda, who added the ‘mental’ (now the ‘intellectual’ cycle) of 33 days. In various mutations of this theory, none of which are consistent with each other, there have been added a ’spiritual’ cycle, a ‘mastery’ cycle, an ‘intuitive’ cycle, and others added to the traditional Fliess/Swoboda version, many of which are combinations of other cycles. Anyhoo, this post, I’ll provide links to a variety of websites, many critical of biorhythms, and others not so, so sit back, and click away at whatever hits your fancy to look at concerning this relatively benign pseudoscience.

[1]…a link to the Skeptic’s Dictionary with an intro to Biorhythm Theory…

[2]…a fairly decent treatment of the subject on Wikipedia.org…

[3]…in the Scienceblogs.com archives, a critical post discussing this theory…

[4]…a surprisingly critical article on an apparently pro-biorhythm website…

[5]…another pro-biorhythm website at Whitestranger.com…interesting…

[6]…a link to the Biorhythm Theory page at Biorhythmcontrol.co.uk…

[7]…and finally, an article on Psychology.wikia.com on the ‘father of biorhythms’ Wilhelm Fliess…