Page 168 - C:\Users\STEVEB~1\AppData\Local\Temp\msoF8C5.tmp
P. 168
ϭϲϴ
3$57 - /(&785( - 7+( 32:(5 2) (1(5*<
The phenomenon of entrainment was discovered quite accidentally
by Christiaan Huygens, a notable physicist, in the seventeenth
century.
Huygens was the inventor of the pendulum clock, and coined the
term entrainment after he noticed, in 1666 that all the pendulums
were swinging in unison, which baffled him, since he had not set them
to do so. He then deliberately set the pendulums swinging at different
rhythms, only to find that they soon again began to swing in perfect
synchronisation, led by the pendulum with the strongest rhythm.
The accepted explanation for this is that small amounts of energy are
transferred between the two systems when they are out of sync, in
such a way as to produce negative feedback. As they become more in sync, the amounts of
energy gradually reduce to zero. In the realm of physics, entrainment appears to be related to
resonance.
There is an example of this in music, called the principle of sympathetic resonance. If you have
two pianos in a large room and you strike the note C on one piano and then walk across the
room to the other piano, you will find that the string of C on the other piano is vibrating at the
same rate of vibration as the C string on me first piano. By the same principle, you will tend to
meet and become involved with people and situations that are vibrating in harmony with your
own dominant thoughts and emotions.
Another example from human biology is the tendency of the menstrual cycles of women living
together to coincide. In this case it is possibly pheromones that are transferred rather than
energy.
To prove the truth of “what you give is what you get,” try the following experiment that Peter
Tomkins describes in The Secret Life of Plants.
Plant three identical seedlings in three different pots, with an identical amount and type of
potting soil in each pot. Place the pots side by side, so the three plants receive the same light.
Feed and water all three plants with identical amounts. The only variance in their treatment is
that you talk to each plant differently.
To the first plant say only appreciative things, such as “What a wonderful little seedling you are.
Look at how delicate your new leaves are, how strongly your little roots hold to the earth.”
To the second say nothing.
To the third, say only mean and unappreciative things, such as “What a pathetic excuse for a
seedling you are. You’re disgusting. You’re not worth the earth I planted you in.”
Sounds crazy, but over time, the appreciated plant will grow healthy and strong, the neutral
plant will grow fairly well, and the unappreciated plant will be stunted and fair poorly.
Like truly does attract like.