In the Soviet Union, astrology, like any other parascience, was softly banned. The authorities could not root out the private practice, but the censorship strictly monitored that nothing astrological, including the famous quatrains of Nostradamus, got into the press. Nevertheless, there was one talented researcher among Soviet scientists who was able to put astrology on a scientific basis.
"The sun worshiper" Chizhevsky
Alexander Leonidovich Chizhevsky is considered one of the great Russian cosmists who formed a new philosophy based on the idea of the unity of human, earthly and cosmic processes. In addition, he was engaged in what he himself called modern astrology.
Alexander Chizhevsky was born in 1897. Astronomy occupied a special place among his childhood hobbies. At the beginning of the 20th century, the name of the popular astronomer Camille Flammarion gained wide popularity.
The future scientist read his books, and at the age of ten he wrote "Popular cosmography according to Klein, Flammarion and others." Naturally, at the same time, Chizhevsky was fond of astronomical observations - telescopes appeared in the house.
Having become a volunteer at the Moscow Archaeological Institute in 1915, Alexander learned to draw sketches of the sun's surface. “Why I turned to the Sun is difficult to say now,” he wrote later, “but it is only true that my student studies did not yet provide food for the mind, especially the cramming of historical and archaeological disciplines.”
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The institute's program included the study of ancient annals, annals, chronicles, and Alexander delved into these sources, increasingly discovering a correlation between "explosive" events on the Earth and the Sun. Continuing to study as an archeologist, Chizhevsky entered the Moscow Commercial Institute as a real student, where the teaching of mathematical statistics and natural sciences was well organized, which later greatly helped him in developing an original theory.
Chizhevsky read about the influence of our luminary on the nature of the planet in old monographs that have preserved information about extraordinary phenomena on the Sun that provoke natural disasters on Earth.
Apparently, it was then that his cosmist beliefs matured, and since, according to the concept of the unity of the cosmic and biological, the Sun should influence not only the biosphere as a whole, but also individual organisms, Chizhevsky began to conduct careful observations of his physical condition, daily fixing certain deviations.
In the future, he invited some of his friends to do the same using the questionnaire compiled by him. When, a few months later, Chizhevsky compared this with astronomical data on solar activity (Wolf numbers), he was struck by the coincidence of the peaks of the curves.
The scientist presented the results of his observations in the report "Periodic influence of the Sun on the biosphere of the Earth", read in Kaluga in October 1915.
History prediction
Alexander Chizhevsky defending his doctoral dissertation, 1918
However, there was not enough data for broader generalizations, and Chizhevsky took up the statistics available to him for mass phenomena of the most diverse nature. By the beginning of the revolutionary 1917, he had accumulated a solid supply of information. And again he came to the conclusion that changes in solar activity are followed by disturbances in wildlife.
For example, the appearance of massive epidemics directly depends on solar flares. At the same time, Chizhevsky himself considered himself a direct successor to the work of astrologers: “Apparently, the idea of the connection between man and the forces of external nature arose at the dawn of human existence. On the basis of this idea, the oldest of the sciences, astrology, was born and flourished."
In the 1920s, the dominant feature of Chizhevsky's scientific research was again solar-terrestrial connections in their entirety. The scientist considered suggestion as the mechanism of transmission of cosmic influence into the sphere of social psychology.
In the book "Physical factors of the historical process", which later brought him a lot of trouble, Alexander Leonidovich came to the conclusion that "the phenomena of suggestion - single and mass - can be explained by electromagnetic excitation of the centers of one individual by the corresponding centers of another."
Following this, the scientist raised a delicate question: “History is replete with eloquent facts of mass suggestion. In fact, not a single historical event took place with the participation of the masses, where it would be impossible to note the suggestions suppressing the will of the few. " Chizhevsky suggested that "the power of suggestion - the influence of individuals on the masses - will increase with the intensification of the sunspot-forming activity of the Sun."
The theory of "the dependence of the behavior of the masses on cosmic influence" was considered by Chizhevsky not as a philosophical abstraction, but as a guide to action: "The state power must know about the state of the Sun at any given moment. Before making this or that decision, the government needs to inquire about the state of the luminary: is it bright, is its face clean or darkened by spots? The sun is a great military-political indicator: its readings are unmistakable and universal. Therefore, the state power should be equal to its arrows: diplomacy - on a monthly basis, strategy - on a daily basis”.
Heliobiology as a science
Chizhevsky's ideas met with sharp opposition. In 1935, the newspaper Pravda published an article "An Enemy Disguised as a Scientist," in which Chizhevsky was accused of "counter-revolutionary activities." Then his work saved him: he was a unique specialist in ionic aeration and was engaged in the design of air ionizers for the Moscow Palace of Soviets. And yet, in January 1942, Chizhevsky was arrested and sentenced to eight years for anti-Soviet activities. He had to wait until 1962 for rehabilitation, and then only partially.
Today, Chizhevsky's theory formed the basis of the scientific discipline "heliobiology". Of course, she is spared the taint of astrology and does not pretend to predict political perturbations by the number of spots on the Sun. However, studies by Western scientists have confirmed an unequivocal connection between physiological processes in the organisms of terrestrial beings and the Sun.
It has been shown that changes in solar activity affect the growth rate of annual tree rings, grain yield, reproduction and migration of insects, fish and other animals, the occurrence and exacerbation of a number of diseases.
Sunny weather
Modern astrophysicists figuratively say that we all live in the atmosphere of the Sun and our life depends on the "weather" changes in it. And this is really so - the heliosphere stretches for 10 billion kilometers, and inside it are the orbits of all the planets of our solar system. Accordingly, the whole environment depends on how active our luminary is.
Geomagnetic storms caused by periodic solar flares have the greatest impact on humans. At the same time, they act indirectly. Geomagnetic rhythms that have developed over millions of years have started our biological clock just as illumination and temperature have formed a diurnal rhythm, and solar disturbances cause disruptions, causing a stress reaction, especially in a state of chronic illness.
The most vulnerable in this case are considered: the circulatory system, cardiovascular system, autonomic nervous system and lungs. Accordingly, the main risk groups have been identified: patients with pathology of the cardiovascular system (especially those who have suffered myocardial infarction), healthy people who work with overvoltage (pilots, astronauts, dispatchers of power plants, airports and similar facilities), children in the period of maturation.
All of them need special attention and prevention. The respective services use 27-day, 7-day, 2-day and 1-hour forecasts based on continuous observations of solar phenomena and local measurements near the Earth.
Although enough data has been accumulated, there is still no model that would describe the processes of solar-terrestrial connections with maximum accuracy. Therefore, the forecasts of heliobiologists can be trusted, but taking into account that we are always talking only about the probability of an event, and not about itself.
In any case, on the days of the active Sun, everyone should be more careful - both ordinary people and politicians. And remember that our distant ancestors worshiped the Sun as an omnipotent deity for a reason.
Anton PERVUSHIN
