The Water Wizard – The Extraordinary Properties of Natural Water E-Book

Viktor Schauberger

• Herausgeber: Gill Books
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 1999

Beschreibung

More energy is encapsulated in every drop of good spring water than an average-sized power station is presently able to produce. Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) Water – all life depends on it. Yet how often do we stop to consider its true significance, its essential nature? The Water Wizard, the first volume of the Eco-Technology series which presents the original, passionate and convincing research of Viktor Schauberger in translation for the first time, looks at the importance of water to our daily lives. Schauberger was a pioneering genius who combined keen observation of Nature with intuitive brilliance and a sharp engineer's brain. One of the first genuine environmentalists, he was predicting ecological catastrophe when no-one else could see it coming. In the era of global warming, deforestation and desertification, Schauberger's predictions are now being proven right. A fearless exponent of natural energy who revelled in doing battle with contemporary orthodox scientists, his work is enjoying a worldwide revival because he was able to convey how an understanding of Nature's subtle energies is essential to our survival. Schauberger made a lifelong study of water – from mountain streams to river flows and from domestic supplies to advances hydraulics – developing profound and radical theories about its inherent energies, which earned him the name of 'the Water Wizard'. According to Schauberger, water is akin to blood in the human body – the most important life-giving and energy-empowering substance on the planet. Yet, with incorrect, ignorant handling, it becomes diseased, affecting human, animal and vegetable life alike, causing physical decay and, in the case of people, their moral, mental and spiritual deterioration as well. Sadly, the same extractive and water management policies that Schauberger indicts in The Water Wizard, which brought devastation and widespread pollution in his day, are still being practiced today, leading to a revival of interest in Schauberger's work. Themes covered in The Water Wizard include: - The natural pulsation of water and how to maintain it - How minute differences in temperature affect the natural function of water in the earth, in plants and in rivers - How to regulate rivers without damaging their vitality and health - The natural conversion of sea-water into fresh water - The consequences of sterilisation and chlorination of water. The Eco-Technology series makes available for the first time Viktor Schauberger's original writings and passionate debates. Callum Coats has painstakingly collected, translated and edited the material for what promises to be the most definitive study yet of this extraordinary man's life and work. The Water Wizard: Table of Contents A Brief Introduction to the Natural Eco-Technological Theories of Viktor Schauberger - The Nature of Water - The Quantitative and Qualitative Deterioration of Water - The Conduction of the Earth's Blood - Temperature and the Movement of Water and Other Unpublished Texts on River Engineering - Fundamental Principles of River Regulation and Status of Temperature in Flowing Water - The Natural Movement of Water over the Earth's Surface - The Rhine and the Danube - The Dr. Ehrenberger Affair - The Learned Scientist and the Star in the Hailstone - Appendix: Patent Applications

Leseprobe

THE WATER WIZARD

The Extraordinary Power of Natural Water

Viktor Schauberger

translated & edited by

Callum Coats

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Foreword

A brief introduction to the natural eco-technological theories of Viktor Schauberger

The Nature of Water

The cancerous decay of organisms

The substance — water

Concerning processes of ur-creation, evolution and metabolism

High-frequency water

The natural reconversion of seawater into fresh water

Fire under water

Notes on the secret of water

The production of fuels

The difference between energising substances and fuels

The Quantitative and Qualitative Deterioration of Water

The deterioration of water

The sterilisation of water

Consequences of chlorination of water

The consequences of contemporary water-purification processes

An experiment

Water Supply and the Mechanical Production of Drinking Water

Water supply

The consequences of producing drinking water by purely mechanical means

Deep-sea water

The Conduction of the Earth’s Blood

The double-spiral-flow pipe

The pulsation of water

Healing water for human, beast and soil

Temperature and the Movement of Water

River regulation — my visit to the Technical University for Agricultural Science

Turbulence — concerning the movement of water and its conformity with natural law

“Temperature and the movement of water”

Preamble

Temperature gradients — full & half hydrological cycles

The groundwater table

The drainage of water

Basic principles of river regulation

The interrelationship between groundwater & agriculture

Fundamental Principles of River Regulation

Turbulent phenomena in flowing water

Temperature gradient, riverbed slope and river bend formation

The influence of the geographical situation and the rotation of the earth

The general tasks of river regulation

The regulation of temperature gradient

The movement of temperature in mass-concrete dam walls

Expert opinion of Professor Philipp Forchheimer

The Natural Movement of Water over the Earth’s Surface

(The atmospheric cycle) and its relation to river engineering (part 1)

(The atmospheric cycle) and its relation to river engineering (part 2)

Tractive force considered

Concerning rivers and water

The transport of sediment

The Rhine and the Danube

The problem of the Danube regulation

The Rhine battle

Energy-bodies

The Dr. Ehrenberger Affair

Questions

The Learned Scientist and the Star in the Hailstone

Appendix

Specification of patent no. 134543

Specification of patent no. 138296

Specification of patent no. 142032

Specification of patent no. 117749

Specification of patent no. 113487

Specification of patent no. 136214

Glossary

Notes

Copyright

About the Author

About Gill & Macmillan

Foreword

It was a Swedish engineer and anthroposophist, Olof Alexandersson, who wrote the first popular introduction to the radical ideas of Viktor Schauberger. I came across this attractive little book in 1979 and had it translated into English. Living Water is now in its eighth printing and has inspired many to go on to Callum Coats’ in-depth study of Schauberger’s ideas, Living Energies, which was published in 1996. My friendship with Callum goes back to 1981 when he confided in me his wish to write a definitive work on Viktor Schauberger. Callum had met Viktor’s son, Walter Schauberger, in 1977 and was to spend three years studying with Walter at his Pythogoras-Keppler System Institute in Lauffen, in the Saltzkammergut near Salzburg. During that time, Callum was given access to all Viktor’s writings.

Viktor Schauberger did not start seriously to write about his ideas and his discoveries until the age of 44, when he acquired a distinguished sponsor in Professor Philipp Forchheimer. As Callum describes later in this volume, Forchheimer, a world famous hydrologist, had been asked by the Austrian Government to report on Schauberger’s controversial log flumes, which transported large amounts of timber from inaccessible locations without damage. He was so impressed with Schauberger’s discoveries that he asked him to write a paper which was published in 1930 in Die Wasserwirtschaft, the Austrian Journal of Hydrology. This paper attracted the attention of the President of the Austrian Academy of Science, Professor Wilhelm Exner, and resulted in a commission to write a more detailed study of his theories for that same magazine under the title Temperature and the Movement of Water.

Schauberger’s ideas flew completely in the face of conventional ideas of hydrology and water management and, as a result, gained him many enemies in scientific circles. The reason Viktor developed the strong feelings about orthodox scientific research that you will read in this and subsequent volumes was partly to defend himself from their attacks, and partly out of his despair at witnessing the ongoing destruction of the natural environment by their blind and uncaring technologies. It was this despair that motivated him to write his only book, Our Senseless Toil – the Cause of the World Crisis. It was published at a time of severe depression, when many were worried about the future.

After Forchheimer died, Schauberger found another ally in Professor Werner Zimmermann who encouraged Viktor in 1935-1936 to write about the damage being wrought to the great rivers, the Rhine and the Danube, in a small ‘new thought’ magazine Tau. After Schauberger’s death, two magazines published further collections of Schauberger’s writings: Implosion was started by a student and collaborator of Viktor’s, and published a number of his articles in the 1960s. Mensch und Technik in the 1970s published articles by and about Viktor Schauberger for the more free-thinking scientific community.

Callum Coats has skilfully woven together these articles, together with correspondence with other scientists, friends and officials of one kind or another, into a fascinating tapestry which gives a true and very readable account of Schauberger’s impassioned campaign to alert the world to the dangers of the prevailing scientific dogma. Unfortunately, not much has changed, and Schauberger’s vision of how humanity must work cooperatively with Nature if we are to have a future, is perhaps more relevant than ever.

Callum arranged this massive amount of material into a large volume, Eco-Technology. In considering this for publication, we realised that it would be much more accessible in several volumes, arranged by theme. This first one, The Water Wizard, is devoted to Schauberger’s ideas about water and rivers. The second, Nature as Teacher, concerns the wider implications of his ideas on water and energy. The third, The Fertile Earth, describes the way trees transform energy, and the processes of fertilisation of the soil. The final volume, The Energy Revolution, gathers together the discussion and description of Schauberger’s appliances for purifying and energising water and for producing vast amounts of virtually free energy. Together with Living Energies, the Eco-technology series give a complete account of the vision and genius of one of the founders of the present ecological movement, and are an inspiration for all those who wish to see our precious Earth saved from extinction by short-sightedness and greed, and the emergence of a new partnership with bountiful Nature.

Alick Bartholomew, Wellow, December 1997

A Brief Introduction to the Natural Eco-Technological Theories of Viktor Schauberger

Viktor Schauberger (30 June 1885 – 25 September 1958) was born in Austria of a long line of foresters stretching back some four hundred years. He developed a gift for accurate and intuitive observation so great that he was able to perceive the natural energies and other phenomena occurring in Nature, which are still unrecognised by orthodox science. Refusing to attend University at the age of 18, to the fury of his father, Viktor Schauberger left home and spent a long period alone in the high, remote forest, contemplating, pondering and observing any subtle energetic processes taking place in Nature’s laboratory, where they were still undisturbed by human hand. During this period he developed very profound and radical theories, later to be confirmed practically, concerning water, the energies inherent in it and its desired natural form of motion. These eventually earned him the name of ‘The Water Wizard’.

For the whole of his life he fought a running and often acrimonious battle with academia and its institutions, since his theories in the main were diametrically opposed to the so-called established facts of science. His practical demonstration of them always functioned as he had theorised, however, for he had come to understand the true inner workings of Nature and was able to emulate them.

Viktor Schauberger’s theories afford new insights into the naturally correct or ‘naturalesque’ management of water. This encompasses its proper handling, storage, and conduction by means that promote its self-purification, the retention and enhancement of its natural energies and health. In this book, the close interrelationship between water and the forest (as a water-producer – not a water consumer) is examined. The problem of soil salinity and how this comes about through over-exposure of the soil to the radiance of the Sun through deforestation and faulty agricultural practices, are also addressed. Indications are given as to how these may be avoided and overcome, due to Viktor Schauberger’s radical and fundamentally new understanding of the coming into being and functioning of the groundwater table in relation to soil temperature.

As a natural organism, water is formed and functions according to Nature’s laws and geometry, the latter exhibiting none of the elements of the straight line, circle and point, the basis of modern mechanical and technological artefacts. Reflecting Nature’s principal constant, namely that of continuous change and transformation, the vortex epitomises this form of open, fluid and flexible motion. Through his study of the vortices occurring naturally in flowing water and in the air in the form of cyclones and tornadoes, Viktor Schauberger developed his theories of implosion. It was through the research and development of these theories that he was able to produce spring-quality water and generate considerable energies in and with water and air.

In listing some of his accomplishments one could not do better than to quote from his book, Our Senseless Toil, written in 1933:

“It is possible to regulate watercourses over any given distance without embankment works; to transport timber and other materials, even when heavier than water, for example ore, stones, etc., down the centre of such water-courses; to raise the height of the water table in the surrounding countryside and to endow the water with all those elements necessary for the prevailing vegetation.”

“Furthermore it is possible in this way to render timber and other such materials non-inflammable and rot resistant; to produce drinking and spa-water for man, beast and soil of any desired composition and performance artificially, but in the way that it occurs in Nature; to raise water in a vertical pipe without pumping devices; to produce any amount of electricity and radiant energy almost without cost; to raise soil quality and to heal cancer, tuberculosis and a variety of nervous disorders.”

“… the practical implementation of this … would without doubt signify a complete reorientation in all areas of science and technology. By application of these new found laws, I have already constructed fairly large installations in the spheres of log-rafting and river regulation, which as is known, have functioned faultlessly for a decade, and which today still present insoluble enigmas to the various scientific disciplines concerned.”

Water and its vital interaction with the forest was Viktor’s principal preoccupation. He viewed water as a living entity, the ‘Blood of Mother-Earth’, which is born in the womb of the forest. Our mechanistic, materialistic and extremely superficial way of looking at things, however, prevents us from considering water to be anything other than inorganic, i.e. supposedly without life but, while apparently having no life itself, can nevertheless miraculously create life in all its forms. Life is movement and is epitomised by water, which is in a constant state of motion and transformation, both externally and internally. In confirmation of this fact, water is able to combine with more substances than any other molecule and, flowing as water, sap and blood, is the creator of the myriad life-forms on this planet. How then could it ever be construed as life-less in accordance with the chemist’s clinical view of water, defined as the inorganic substance H2O? This short description is a gross misrepresentation. As the fundamental basis of all life, water is itself a living entity and should be treated as such. Failure to do so quickly transforms it into an enemy, rather than the nurturer and furtherer of all life that it should be.

“This civilisation is the work of man, who high-handedly and ignorant of the true workings of Nature, has created a world without meaning or foundation, which now threatens to destroy him, for through his behaviour and his activities, he, who should be her master, has disturbed Nature’s inherent unity.”

Apart from the more familiar categories of water, there are, according to Viktor Schauberger, as many varieties of water as there are animals and plants. Were water merely the sterile, distilled H2O as claimed by science, it would be poisonous to all living things. H2O or ‘juvenile water’ is sterile, distilled water and devoid of any so-called ‘impurities’. It has no developed character and qualities. As a young, immature, growing entity, it grasps like a baby at everything within reach. It absorbs the characteristics and properties of whatever it comes into contact with or has attracted to itself in order to grow to maturity. This ‘everything’ – the so-called ‘impurities’ – takes the form of trace elements, minerals, salts and even smells! Were we to drink pure H2O constantly, it would quickly leach out all our store of minerals and trace elements, debilitating and ultimately killing us. Like a growing child, juvenile water takes and does not give. Only when mature, i.e. when suitably enriched with raw materials, is it in a position to give, to dispense itself freely and willingly, thus enabling the rest of life to develop. Before the birth of water, there was no life.

But what is this marvellous, colourless, tasteless and odourless substance, which quenches our thirst like no other liquid? Did we but truly understand the essential nature of water – a living substance – we would not treat it so churlishly, but would care for it as if our lives depended on it, which undoubtedly they do.

“The Upholder of the Cycles which supports the whole of Life, is water. In every drop of water dwells the Godhead, whom we all serve; there also dwells Life, the Soul of the ‘First’ substance – Water – whose boundaries and banks are the capillaries that guide it and in which it circulates.”

“More energy is encapsulated in every drop of good spring water than an average-sized powerstation is presently able to produce.

Water is a being that has life and death. With incorrect, ignorant handling, however, it becomes diseased, imparting this condition to all other organisms, vegetable, animal and human alike, causing their eventual physical decay and death, and in the case of human beings, their moral, mental and spiritual deterioration as well. From this it can be seen just how vital it is, that water should be handled and stored in such a way as to avert such pernicious repercussions.

“Science views the blood-building and character-influencing ur-organism1 – ‘water’ merely as a chemical compound and provides millions of people with a liquid prepared from this point of view, which is everything but healthy water.”

But what does modern, de-naturised civilisation care, as long as it receives a suitably hygienised, clear liquid to shower, wash its dishes, clothes and cars. Once down the plug-hole in company with all manner of toxic chemicals and detergents, all is comfortingly out of sight and out of mind.

“Our primeval Mother Earth is an organism that no science in the world can rationalise. Everything on her that crawls and flies is dependent upon Her and all must hopelessly perish if that Earth dies that feeds us.”

Although the chlorination of drinking and household water-supplies ostensibly removes the threat of water-borne diseases, it does so, however, to the detriment of the consumer. In its function of water steriliser or disinfectant, chlorine eradicates all types of bacteria, beneficial and harmful alike. More importantly, however, it also disinfects the blood (about 80% water) or sap (ditto) and in doing so kills off or seriously weakens many of the immunity-enhancing micro-organisms resident in the body of those constantly forced to consume it. This eventually impairs their immune systems to such a degree that they are no longer able to eject viruses, germs and cancer cells, to which the respective host-bodies ultimately falls victim.

The appearance of AIDS, therefore, and the enormous increase in all forms of disease, cancer in particular, would have come as no surprise to Viktor Schauberger. Apart from the other inevitable disturbances to the ecology and the environment occasioned by humanity’s unthinking activities, he foresaw it all as early as 1933.

“For a person who lives 100 years in the future, the present comes as no surprise.”

Apart from other factors (some cannot be defined quantitatively), encompassing such aspects as turbidity (opaqueness), impurity, and quality, the most crucial factor affecting the health and energy of water is temperature.

As a liquid, the behaviour of water differs from all other fluids. The latter become consistently and steadily denser with cooling, water reaches its densest state at a temperature of +4°C (+39.2°F), below which it grows less dense. In contrast, water’s behaviour is anomalous, because it reaches its greatest density at a temperature of +4°C (+39.2°F). This is the so-called ‘anomaly point’, or the point of water’s anomalous expansion, which is decisive in this regard and has a major influence on its quality. Below this temperature it once more expands. This highest state of density is synonymous with its highest energy content, a factor to be taken carefully into account, since energy can also be equated with life or life-force. Therefore if water’s health, energy and life-force are to be maintained at the highest possible level, then certain precautions must be taken, which will be addressed later.

Conceived in the cool, dark cradle of the virgin forest, water ripens and matures as it slowly mounts from the depths. On its upward way it gathers to itself trace elements and minerals. Only when it is ripe, and not before, will it emerge from the womb of the Earth as a spring. As a true spring, in contrast to a seepage spring, this has a water temperature of about +4°C (+39.2°F). Here in the cool, diffused light of the forest it begins its long, life-giving cycle as a sparkling, lively, translucent stream, bubbling, gurgling, whirling and gyrating as it wends its way valleywards. In its natural, self-cooling, spiralling, convoluting motion, water is able to maintain its vital inner energies, health and purity. In this way it acts as the conveyor of all the necessary minerals, trace elements and other subtle energies to the surrounding environment. Naturally flowing water seeks to flow in darkness or in the diffused light of the forest, thus avoiding the damaging direct light of the sun. Under these conditions, even when cascading down in torrents, a stream will only rarely overflow its banks. Due to its correct natural motion, the faster it flows, the greater its carrying capacity and scouring ability and the more it deepens its bed. This is due to the formation of in-winding, longitudinal, clockwise – anti-clockwise alternating spiral vortices down the central axis of the current, which constantly cool and re-cool the water, maintaining it at a healthy temperature and leading to a faster, more laminar, spiral flow.

To protect itself from harmful effects of excess heat, water shields itself from the Sun with over-hanging vegetation, for with increasing heat and light it begins to lose its vitality and health, its capacity to enliven and animate the environment through which it passes. Ultimately becoming a broad river, the water becomes more turbid, the content of small-grain sediment and silt increasing as it warms up, its flow becoming slower and more sluggish. However, even this turbidity plays an important role, because it protects the deeper water-strata from the heating effect of the sun. Being in a denser state, the colder bottom-strata retain the power to shift sediment of larger grain-size (pebbles, gravel, etc.) from the centre of the watercourse. In this way the danger of flooding is reduced to a minimum. The spiral, vortical motion mentioned earlier, which eventually led Viktor Schauberger to the formation of his theories concerning ‘implosion’, creates the conditions, where the germination of harmful bacteria is inhibited and the water remains disease-free.

Another of its life-giving properties is its high specific heat – lowest at +37.5°C (+99.5°F). The term “specific heat” refers to the capacity and rapidity of a body to absorb or release heat. With a relatively small input of heat fluids with a high specific heat warm up less rapidly than those with a lower specific heat. How strange then, and how remarkable, that the lowest specific heat of this “inorganic” substance – water – lies but 0.5°C (0.9°F) above the normal +37°C (+98.6°F) blood temperature of the most highly evolved of Nature’s creatures – human beings. This property of water to resist rapid thermal change enables us, with blood composed of 80% water, to survive under large variations of temperature. Pure accident so we are told, or is it by clever, symbiotic design?! However, we are used to thinking about temperature in gross terms (car engines operate at temperatures of 1,000°C (1,832°F) or so and many industrial processes employ extremely high temperatures). Despite the fact that we begin to feel unwell if our temperature rises by as little as 0.5°C (0.9°F), we fail to see that non-mechanical, organic life and health are based on very subtle differences in temperature. When our body temperature is +37°C (98.6°F) we do not have a ‘temperature’ as such. We are healthy and in a state that Viktor Schauberger called ‘indifferent’ or ‘temperature-less’. Just as good water is the preserver of our proper bodily temperature, our anomaly point of greatest health and energy, so too does it preserve this planet as a habitat for our continuing existence. Water has the capacity to retain large amounts of heat and were there no water vapour in the atmosphere, this world of ours would be an icy-cold, barren wasteland. Water in all its forms and qualities is thus the mediator of all life and deserving of the highest focus of our esteem.

“To Be or Not to Be: In Nature all life is a question of the minutest, but extremely precisely graduated differences in the particular thermal motion within every single body, which continually changes in rhythm with the processes of pulsation.”

“This unique law, which manifests itself throughout Nature’s vastness and unity and expresses itself in every creature and organism, is the ‘law of ceaseless cycles’ that in every organism is linked to a certain time span and a particular tempo.”

“The slightest disturbance of this harmony can lead to the most disastrous consequences for the major life forms.”

“In order to preserve this state of equilibrium, it is vital that the characteristic inner temperature of each of the millions of micro-organisms contained in the macro-organisms be maintained.”

The No. 1 enemy of water is excess heat or over-exposure to the Sun’s rays. It is a well-known fact that oxygen is present in all processes of organic growth and decay. Whether its energies are harnessed for either one or the other is to a very great extent, if not wholly, dependent on the temperature of the water as itself or in the form of blood or sap. As long as the water-temperature is below +9°C (+48.2°F), its oxygen content remains passive. Under such conditions the oxygen assists in the building up of beneficial, high-grade micro-organisms and other organic life. However, if the water temperature rises above this level, then the oxygen becomes increasingly active and aggressive. This aggressiveness increases as the temperature rises, promoting the propagation of pathogenic bacteria, which, when drunk with the water, infest the organism of the drinker.

“Thus the development of micro-organisms and the opportunities for their propagation are simply a result of the condition in which the respective sickening macro-organism finds itself, which will be attacked by these parasites and which eventually must fall victim to them if its inner climatic conditions are no longer strictly regulated.”

But this aggressiveness is not confined to the domain of oxygen alone. When water becomes over-heated, due principally to the increasingly widespread clear-felling of the forest, the health-maintaining pattern of longitudinal vortices changes into transverse ones. These not only undermine and gouge into the riverbanks and embankment works, eventually bursting them, but also create pot-holes in the riverbed itself, bringing even greater disorder to an already chaotic channel-profile.

According to Viktor Schauberger, water subjected to these conditions loses its character, its soul. Like humans of low character, it becomes increasingly violent and aggressive as it casts about hither and thither seeking to vent its anger and restore to itself its former health and stability.

However, due to the senseless malpractice of the clear-felling of forests, we are destroying the very foundation of life. For with the removal of the forest, two very serious things happen:

1).During its flow to the sea, the water warms up prematurely to such an extent that it is warmed right down to the channel-bed. No cool, dense, water-strata remain and the sediment is left lying on the bottom. This blocks the flow, dislocates the channel and results in the inevitable, often catastrophic floods. Yet we still have the effrontery to call these awesome events ‘natural disasters’, as if Nature herself were responsible. Furthermore, due to the broadening of the channel, even more water is exposed to the Sun’s heat, resulting in over-rapid evaporation to the atmosphere. In many cases this overloads the atmosphere with water-vapour, which it is unable to retain in suspension. Deluges follow.

2).With the forest-cover now removed, the ground also begins to heat up to temperatures much higher than normal and natural. Dry soil heats up as much as five times faster than water. This has a two-fold effect:

a).The rejection and repulsion by the warmer soil of any incident rainwater, whose temperature in this case is generally lower. Cold rain will not readily infiltrate into warm soil. This results in rapid surface run-off and no groundwater recharge. The soil dries out.

b).An increase in pathogenic microbial activity, harmful to plant life.

The upshot of all this is more flooding, reduced groundwater quantity and lower groundwater table. One flood therefore begets the next in rapid succession. But since there is no groundwater recharge, the water-balance and natural distribution are completely upset. The remaining trees – the vital retainers of water – die, leaving the land barren and desiccated with the necessary sequel of drought. The less the tree-cover, the more extensive the flooding and the longer the period of drought, of water-lessness, which is synonymous with life-lessness!

Unnatural, quantity-inspired forestry practices, ignorant of Nature’s laws, and the over-warming of the soil arising from massive deforestation are the primary causes of the deterioration in water quality, climate and the sinking of the water table. The channelling of water through straight, unnaturally constructed, trapezoid canals, steel pipelines and other misguided systems of river regulation also force the water to move in an unnatural way and accelerate its degeneration and increase its disease-carrying capacity.

All around us we see the bridges of life collapsing, those capillaries which create all organic life. This dreadful disintegration has been caused by the mindless and mechanical work of man, who has wrenched the living soul from the Earth’s blood – water.

“The more the engineer endeavours to channel water, of whose spirit and nature he is today still ignorant, by the shortest and straightest route to the sea, the more the flow of water weighs into the bends, the longer its path and the worse the water will become.

“The spreading of the most terrible disease of all, of cancer, is the necessary consequence of such unnatural regulatory works.

“These mistaken activities – our work – must legitimately lead to increasingly widespread unemployment, because our present methods of working, which have a purely mechanical basis, are already destroying not only all of wise Nature’s formative processes, but first and foremost the growth of the vegetation itself, which is being destroyed even as it grows.

“The drying up of mountain springs, the change in the whole pattern of motion of the groundwater, and the disturbance in the blood circulation of the organism – Earth – is the direct result of modern forestry practices.

“The pulsebeat of the Earth was factually arrested by the modern timber production industry.

“Every economic death of a people is always preceded by the death of its forests.

“The forest is the habitat of water and as such the habitat of life processes too, whose quality declines as the organic development of the forest is disturbed.

“Ultimately, due to a law which functions with awesome constancy, it will slowly but surely come around to our turn.

“Our accustomed way of thinking in many ways, and perhaps even without exception, is opposed to the true workings of Nature.

“Our work is the embodiment of our will. The spiritual manifestation of this work is its effect. When such work is carried out correctly, it brings happiness, but when carried out incorrectly, it assuredly brings misery.”

There is only one solution! Would we live and ensure a sustainable future then we must plant trees for our very lives, but far more importantly, we have a duty to do it for those of our children.

More immediately, however, we must care for the very limited stocks of water still available. This means treating it in the way demonstrated to us by Nature. First and foremost, water should be protected from sunlight and kept in the dark, far removed from all sources of heat, light and atmospheric influences. Ideally it should be placed in opaque, porous containers, which on the one hand cut out all direct light and heat, and on the other, allow the water to breathe, which in common with all other living things, it must do in order to stay alive and healthy. In terms of what we can achieve personally, we should at all times ensure that our storage vessels, tanks, etc., are thoroughly insulated, so that the contained water is maintained at the coolest temperature possible under the prevailing conditions. The materials most suited to this are natural stone, timber (wooden barrels) and terracotta. Perhaps more than any other material, terracotta has been used for this purpose for millennia. Terracotta exhibits a porosity particularly well-suited to purposes of water storage. This is because it enables a very small percentage of the contained water to evaporate via the vessel walls. Evaporation is always associated with cooling (vaporisation, however, with heat) and, according to Walter Schauberger (Viktor’s physicist son), if the porosity is correct, then for every 600th part of the contents evaporated, the contents will be cooled by 1°C (1.8°F), thus approaching a temperature of +4°C (+39.2°F).

While the material for the construction of a water-storage vessel has been described above, another important factor is the actual shape of the container itself. Most of the storage containers commonly in use today take the form of cubes, rectangular volumes of one form or another, or cylinders. While these are the shapes most easily and economically produced by today’s technology, they do have certain drawbacks in terms of impeding natural water circulation and water suffocation. Due to their rectangular shape and/or right-angled corners, certain stagnant zones are created, conducive to the formation of pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, since the materials used are generally galvanised iron, fibre glass, concrete, etc., i.e. all impervious materials, the contained water is unable to breathe adequately and suffocates as a result. In this debilitated state or as a water-corpse, it is no longer either healthy or health-giving and may require further disinfection.

Should we now make a study of those shapes that Nature chooses to propagate and maintain life, it soon becomes apparent that the cubes and cylinders mentioned above have no place in Nature’s scheme of things. Instead, eggs and elongated egg-shapes such as grains and seeds are employed, presumably because Nature in her wisdom has determined that these produce the optimal results. Historically speaking, it is evident that earlier civilisations such as the Egyptians and Greeks, renowned for their logic and constructional ability, were well aware of this, because they stored their grains and liquids (oils, wines, etc.) in terracotta amphorae, sealed with beeswax. All this despite the fact that for all rational, practical purposes, the shape was wholly unsuited to compact and efficient storage in terms of space and ease of handling. It is obvious that the selection of this form over any other was intentional and as the result of certain knowledge of the long-term storage properties of such shapes. In many amphorae that have surfaced in archaeological excavations over the last 100 years or so, grains of wheat have been found that were still viable and even after storage over 2,000 years, grew when planted. This fact alone should suffice to affirm the efficacy of the properties of vessels of such shape.

Taking Viktor Schauberger’s exhortation, Comprehend and copy Nature! as our guide, we should therefore make use of the shapes that Nature herself selects to contain, guard and maintain life, i.e. eggs and their derivations.

Compared with cubes and cylinders, these shapes have no stagnant zones, no right-angled corners that inhibit flowing movement. By placing our terracotta vessels in shaded areas, exposed to air movement, the evaporative cooling effect will be significantly enhanced and since all natural movement of liquids and gases is triggered by differences in temperature, so too inside the egg-shaped storage vessel, cyclical, spiral, vitalising movement of the water will be induced.

Movement is an expression of energy and energy is synonymous with life. The external evaporation causes cooling of the outer walls and the water in their immediate vicinity. Being cooler and therefore denser, this water becomes specifically heavier and sinks down along the walls towards the bottom at the same time forcing the water there to rise up the centre and move towards the outside walls. Continual repetition of this process results in the constant circulation and cooling of the contents.

Having discussed the above ‘ideal’ storage vessel and in view of the fact that they are presently not available on the market, it would be a sorry omission, if methods of improving existing installations were not also addressed.

The main factor to be taken into account here is that of exposure to light and heat. Where possible, all above-ground water tanks, whether of galvanised iron, fibre-glass or concrete, should be insulated on all sides and external surfaces through the application of sprayed foam or equivalent thermal barrier to a minimum thickness of 75mm. If not already white or of a light, heat-reflecting colour, then it should be so painted. For in-ground tanks, the top surface only need be insulated and rendered white in colour.

For many people dams or rivers provide the main source of water and certain simple measures can be taken to improve the quality of the water obtained from them.

Providing the surrounding soil is not impervious to water, a hole of suitable dimension, depth and capacity (say 1,000 – 2,000 litres) should be dug about 5 – 10 metres from the banks of the dam or river. If possible the depth should be equal to the depth of the latter. Wells dug next to dams should be situated above the highest water level. If the consistency of the soil is permeable enough, then water will percolate through the intervening soil and into the newly excavated well. Depending on the stability and load-bearing capacity of the soil (a structural engineer should be consulted if there is any doubt), a small concrete, perimeter footing should be placed at a safe and stable distance from the rim of the well. When the concrete has cured and set firmly, then a minimum of 1 course of blocks should be laid to prevent the entry of any surface water. In the case of wells next to rivers, however, it may be necessary to raise the height of the blockwork to just above the average height of flood waters to prevent contamination of the well water during floods.

The well should then be totally enclosed and sealed with a well-insulated timber and sheet-metal roof, or a concrete slab, and provided with an access hatch to service the pump and/or suction pipe and foot-valve. Preferably the pump should be located outside the well-space to avoid any possible oil pollution, etc.

The reason for having the 1,000 – 2,000 litre storage capacity mentioned earlier, is that it may only be possible to pump water intermittently, because the rate of replenishment from the main water source may be fairly slow, depending on the permeability of the soil.

In the event that the soil surrounding a dam or a river is impervious, then it would be necessary to excavate a channel about 600 mm wide between the well and the main water body. The lower part of this should be filled with clean, quartz sand to a depth of about 600 mm and the upper part back-filled with the excavated material and compacted. As the water percolates through either the existing soil or the emplaced sand most suspended matter will be filtered out. Also, because the water comes into the well at the lowest level from the main water source it will be as cool as possible under the prevailing conditions. In this state it is less likely to harbour harmful, pathogenic bacteria, which tend to populate the upper, more highly oxygenated strata of the main water body.

The use of this technique on the author’s own property produced an extremely clear, clean, odourless and good tasting water. Despite all outward appearances, however, it is still advisable to have such water tested by the responsible authorities for quality, purity and any possible contaminants.

In terms of its mineral, salt and trace-element content, river-water would generally be far richer than tank-water (rainwater). As for the immature and mature water discussed at the beginning, in most cases it would be necessary to supplement the mineral content of rainwater, if this is the only source of drinking water, in order to prevent the extraction of these from the body of the drinker. Here the suspension of an artificial-fibre sack (rot-proof) containing the dust of crushed basalt or other igneous rock used for road building (commonly known as ‘crusher dust’) would do much to enhance the composition of the tank water, because it will hungrily absorb those elements it requires to become mature. However, before adding any crusher dust to the water, it would be again advisable to test the resulting change in the quality by analysing the difference between two samples of tank water, one with crusher-dust added and one without as a control. Both samples should then be placed in a cool, dark place and left for at least a week before analysis of the mineral content, bacterial purity, etc. is carried out. This should be done by a suitably qualified specialist.

These suggestions for improving water quality are the result of my personal experience and understanding of Viktor Schauberger’s pioneering discoveries and theories.

Viktor Schauberger’s great dictum, frequently asserted, was C2 – Comprehend & Copy Nature, for it was only thus that humanity could emerge from its present crisis-stricken condition.

They call me deranged. The hope is that they are right! It is of no greater or lesser import for yet another fool to wander this Earth. But if I am right and science is wrong, then may the Lord God have mercy on mankind!

Indeed at the Stuttgart University of Technology, West Germany in 1952 these theories were tested under strict scientific and laboratory conditions by Professor Dr. Ing. Franz Pöpel, a hydraulics specialist. These tests showed that, when water is allowed to flow in its naturally ordained manner, it actually generates certain energies, ultimately achieving a condition that could be termed ‘negative friction’. Checked and double-checked, this well-documented, but largely unpublicised, pioneering discovery not only vindicated Viktor Schauberger’s theories. It also over-turned the hitherto scientifically sacred ‘Second Law of Thermodynamics’ in which, without further or continuous input of energy, all (closed) systems must degenerate into a condition of total chaos or entropy. These experiments proved that this law, whilst it applies to all mechanical systems, does not apply wholly to living organisms.

As a result of these discoveries, it was arranged that Viktor Schauberger be taken to the United States in 1958, where sums amounting potentially to many millions of dollars could be made available as start-capital for a Los Alamos-like venture to develop Viktor Schauberger’s theories of Implosion. He was accompanied by his son, Walter Schauberger, a physicist and mathematician, to assist in the scientific interpretation of his father’s theories. Soon after arrival, however, various misunderstandings developed, too complex to elaborate here, whereupon Viktor Schauberger fell silent and refused to participate. After some three months of silence the project was abandoned. Viktor and Walter Schauberger were then permitted to return to Austria, where Viktor died in Linz some five days later on the 25th September 1958, a very disillusioned man.

On their return journey, Viktor asked Walter to translate his theories of Implosion into terms of physics, geometry and mathematics, in such manner that their veracity was irrefutable. Because Viktor Schauberger’s concepts broke new ground, this presented some difficulty. There was no adequate scientific terminology to describe them, nor was there any mathematical basis from which the necessary shapes could be precisely defined or constructed. With his own devices and apparatuses, Viktor Schauberger had also encountered problems of construction, which in part affected the optimum functioning of these machines, because the state and sophistication of the technology then available was inadequate and too cumbersome to build them properly and accurately.

The vital development of a new technology, harmonious and conforming to Nature’s laws, demands a radical and fundamental change in our way of thinking and to our approach to the interpretation of the established doctrines and facts of physics, chemistry, agriculture, forestry and water management. As a pointer as to how such a new technology should come about, let me quote Viktor Schauberger once more:

“How else should it be done then?”, was always the immediate question. The answer is simple: “Exactly in the opposite way that it is done today!”

Callum Coats, August 1997

NOTE: All quotations in italics were taken from Viktor Schauberger’s writings during the period 1930 – 1933.

The Nature of Water

Viktor Schauberger’s overriding passion was the quality of water and the way he perceived that it was being destroyed by contemporary mechanical means. In particular, he raged against what he saw as the devastation of the world’s once-sparkling, vibrant great rivers by insensitive hydrologists and river engineers. Driven by the increasing urgency of making these fateful errors known to the public, he wrote The Nature of Water and a number of other sections in this book between 1932 and 1933. These were originally published in a two-part book entitled Our Senseless Toil – the Cause of the World Crisis. For Viktor, the publication of this, the largest of his individual works, became imperative due to the untimely death in 1931 of Professor Philipp Forchheimer. Forchheimer was a hydrologist of world repute who sponsored the publication of a series of Viktor’s treatises on all aspects of water in Die Wasserwirtschaft, the Austrian Journal of Hydrology. Without Forchheimer’s vital and continuing support, the publication of this comprehensive exposition came to an abrupt end, as is examined at greater length in the main section entitled Temperature and the Movement of Water on p.xx – [Editor]

[From Our Senseless Toil]

The upholder of the cycles which sustain all Life is water2. In every drop of water dwells a deity whom indeed we all serve. There also dwells Life, the soul of the primal substance – water – whose boundaries and banks are the capillaries that guide it, and in which it circulates. Every pulse beat arising through the interaction of will and resistance is indicative of creative work and urges us to care for those vessels, those primary and most vital structures, in which throbs the product of a dualistic power – Life.

Every waterway is an artery of this Life, an artery that creates its own pathways and bridges as it advances, so as to diffuse its dawning life-force through the Earth and elevate itself to great heights, to become shining, beautiful and free. Standing at the highest level of evolution, and above all being blessed with mind and reason, humanity constantly does the most idiotic thing imaginable by trying to regulate these waterways by means of their banks – by influencing the flow mechanically, instead of taking into account the fact that water is itself a living entity.

The assumption behind this absurd practice is that the riverbank shapes the watercourse, whereas the riverbank is actually the secondary effect and water the primary. To regulate water by means of the riverbank is truly to fight cause with effect. It should be as inconceivable to a thinking engineer to reinforce the crumbling bank of a watercourse with rammed piles and brush-wood bales, or to smear over cracks with cement, as it would be for a doctor to patch up ruptured capillaries with needle and thread. Astonishingly, though, it still happens! The condition of all our waterways demonstrates just where these measures have led.

In not one single case has the desired object been attained – namely the achievement of a normal channel-profile. On the contrary, all such river regulation has provoked further damage which far outweighs any local or short-term advantages. Large rivers such as the Danube, Rhine, Tagliamento, Etsch, Garonne and Mississippi bear witness to the failure of such complicated and costly river regulations. Quite apart from the tremendous damage caused in the lower reaches by their strictly mechanical regulation, these rivers are stripped of their most valuable assets, their great physical qualities.

The present dirty grey, muddy brew known as the Blue Danube, upon whose bed river-gold once gleamed, and the Rhine, the symbol of German identity, where Rhinegold flashed in bygone days, are tragic testimonials to these perverse practices. The mythical ‘Gold of the Nibelungs’ originated in the golden glow given off by pebbles as they rubbed against each other while rolling along the riverbed at night – for when there is a decrease in water temperature, the tractive force3 increases, causing the stones to move. If two pebbles are rubbed together under water, a golden glow appears.4 This yellowish-red fiery glow used to be mistaken for the flashing of gold, thought to be lying on the bottom of the river. Today this ‘river-gold’ lies heaped up in huge mounds of gravel, shifted hither and thither by the force of the sluggish and murky water-masses5 flowing above them. They no longer imbue the water with energy and soul, as once they did. Instead they assist in ousting the soul-less body – water – from its badly-regulated course.

Our clear, cold mountain streams have become wild torrents. Full of the vigour of youth, these lively streams used to be surrounded by burgeoning vegetation and consorted with every blade of grass as long as man did not interfere. Today they can no longer be confined even with metre-thick concrete walls. Wherever we look we see the dreadful disintegration of the very bridges of Life, the capillaries and the bodies they have created, caused by mindless mechanical human acts. These actions have robbed the Earth’s blood – water – of its soul. It is therefore inevitable that the larger and more expensive these regulatory structures become, the greater will be the ensuing damage. In the lower reaches of the Danube almost a million hectares of valuable farmland have been lost due to the regulation of the upper reaches. Similar conditions apply to all other rivers.

Fig 1: The confluence of the Tepl and the hot-spring at Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic). The inflow of warm water provokes the formation of transverse blocking currents in the water masses. (Negative temperature gradient, i.e. the temperature of the water masses deviates from the anomaly point of +4°C [+39.2°F].) Note the barren river bank, destruction of the riverbed and bank. Water-masses which flow under a negative temperature gradient destroy the channel.

Even today the river engineer fails to understand the true nature and purpose of water. The harder he tries to conduct it by the shortest and straightest route to the sea, the more it will tend to form bends, the longer will be its path and the worse its quality. The flow of water down a natural gradient obeys a sublime, inner Law whose power our hydraulic experts are quite unable to comprehend. In the absence of this inner conformity with law, all flowing water ought to accelerate faster and faster until it ultimately transfers to a vaporous state. Science maintains that water is braked by internal and external friction, though it is well known that friction is associated with the generation of heat. However, it can be shown that the temperature of fast-flowing water decreases, which leads to an increase in tractive force and internal friction. This simple observation invalidates certain essential propositions in the complex of current hydro-mechanical theories.

Where then is the real secret of steadiness in the flow of draining water-masses? The force that brakes the flow of water down a gradient is a resistance which acts against the force of gravity, a circulation of energy operating in the opposite direction to the current. This is also true of all metabolic processes and gives water its character and thus its soul. Contemporary systems of river regulation inhibit this vital function. The logical outcome of this is the loss of water’s inner braking power. The water becomes soulless, without character and therefore aggressive.

Fig. 2: The confluence of the Tepl and the Eger. The Tepl, previously warmed by an affluent hot-spring, cools off in the lower reaches. (Positive temperature gradient, i.e. the temperature of the water masses approaches the anomaly point of +4°C [+39.2°F].) Note the fertile river bank, the narrowing of the channel cross-section and the straight flow of water. Water masses which flow under a positive temperature gradient build up the riverbank

The Cancerous Decay of Organisms

[From Our Senseless Toil]