Hidden Nature

Readers will have read Alick Bartholomew's article in this issue and will have gained an understanding of the principles of Viktor Schauberger's philosophy. Alick has been involved in publishing books about Schauberger since the early 1990s when he was running Gateway Books; he helped Callum Coats pull together his book Living Energies, plus four volumes of his writings on key ecological issues. He is therefore in a very good position to have written this introductory overview of Schauberger's work for the general reader; and, as mentioned at the end of his article, he has also produced a summary that gives the keys to Schauberger's thought.

The book is divided into six parts: An Alternative Worldview, How the World Works, Water - the Source of Life, The Life of Trees, Working with Nature, and The Energy Revolution. Towards the end of the book Alick quotes a striking passage from Viktor on education: 'Our much-vaunted educational system specialises in instilling the known. There is a token and often grossly insufficient acknowledgement of the process of knowing. The knower is the Cinderella of almost every educational system. Self-awareness is actually obscured by conventional education, which cultivates a mentality of splitting, separating and compartmentalising. Knowledge is gained of separate disciplines which are greatly divorced from the knower, isolated from each other and cut off from their connection to the life lived in the world'. Schauberger himself escaped such conditioning and cultivated a direct knowing similar to Barbara McClintock, this pioneering what will eventually become a participatory science. This also accounts for the enormous resistance that he encountered during his lifetime from trained experts and academics who relied in instilled knowledge. I am writing this review on the day when obituaries of Sir Peter Ustinov have been published, and it is indicative that his report from Westminster School stated that 'he shows great originality, which must be curbed at all costs'!

At the root of the difference between Schauberger and his scientific critics is a divergent philosophy of nature, as Alick points out. Modern science seeks to overcome and manipulate nature, and is based on mechanistic metaphors inherited from the 17th century. The new holistic science, along with sustainable agriculture and integrated health, seeks to work in harmony with nature - as argued by the Prince of Wales - and to harness our innate energy for healing. This divergence has led to what Mark Woodhouse calls a paradigm war where all the research resources and prestige are currently on the conventional side. However, as E. F. Schumacher pointed out, if humanity takes on nature (of which it is a part) it will find itself on the losing side. Eventually, the spirit of Schauberger's principles is bound to triumph as we situate our current reductionist approach within a larger holistic framework.

A deeper metaphor for our predicament lies, as Alick makes clear, in the fact that our technology is based (like our thinking) on splitting and the inherently destructive principle of explosion. Viktor used the opposite principle of implosion, and developed a corresponding technology, much of which was destroyed after the war. Work on 'free energy' continues, but has not yet been publicly demonstrated to the satisfaction of critical and open-minded scientists. The consequences of working against nature are becoming increasingly apparent in deforestation, falling water tables, pollution and overall environmental degradation, all of which was predicted by Viktor over 70 years ago.

Alick explains Viktor's theory of 'decomposing motion', which results in the devitalisation of water and a reduction of biodiversity. Water naturally regenerates itself through a spiral motion, which Viktor studied carefully and which accounts for his dislike of canals and straight pipes. He also explains the principles of river flow in relation to the creation of bends, the role of temperature and the appropriate planting of trees. The difference between the half and the full hydrological cycle is also elaborated. Without forest cover, for instance, the ground surface overheats and the cooler water cannot penetrate the warmer ground, hence there is no replenishment of groundwater and heavy rainfall causes catastrophic floods as it runs off. So there is an intimate relationship between forest cover and the quality of our water, which cannot be properly remineralised if it does not penetrate the soil.

Agriculture is another area where Viktor made seminal contributions. He observed how steel ploughs damage the soil by generating 'minute ferro-electric and ferro-magnetic currents that decompose the nutrient-laden water molecules in the soil'. Moreover they also deposit tiny particles of metal that rust and provide breeding grounds for pathogenic bacteria. Viktor's solution was to create a copper plough that had none of these harmful effects. Field trials in 1948 showed 40% greater yields in identical strips tended by copper instruments. He also invented a 'bio-plough' which rotates the soil 360 degrees thus minimising water loss and ensuring that sub-soil micro-organisms are not exposed to direct sunlight. These inventions (along with many others) could easily be subjected to fresh trials. Viktor's thinking was prescient of the emerging ecological and spiritual world-view and can act as a source of inspiration for a sustainable 21st century vision. Alick's book, with its readable text and informative illustrations, provides an essential primer.