Word: biorhythms
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...these deductions are based on the theory of biorhythm, the fast-growing pseudoscience that is more fun than astrology and not as messy as reading chicken entrails. Biorhythm is now a multimillion-dollar-a-year business, serving more than a million believers in the U.S. The word is spread in books, newsletters, a syndicated column and shopping-mall computers that churn out daily charts for 50?. There is a biorhythm service predicting the results of professional football games ($99 a season), and several dozen companies supply computerized charts and such biorhythm hardware as calculator watches ($169) and a Biocom desk...
...much for George Thommen, 82, a Swiss-born industrial consultant who pioneered the American biorhythm movement by importing the ideas of a small Germanic number-juggling cult after World War II. "I thought of it as a hobby, like a sailboat," says Thommen, author of the first American biorhythm book, Is This Your Day? "In one way I'm happy that it's taken hold-I'm for helping humanity. In another way I think the commercialization is a dirty trick...
...appeal of biorhythm, like that of astrology, comes from the belief that one can chart the ups and downs of friends and celebrities simply by knowing their birthdays. According to the theory, there are three fixed cycles, each starting at the moment of birth: a 23-day physical cycle, a 28-day emotional cycle and a 33-day mental cycle. Every human is likely to perform well in the up phases of cycles, and poorly in the down or recharging phases. But the most vulnerable day, known as the critical, zero or switch-point day, comes in the midpoint...
...snicker or be outraged, and most have been hesitant to dignify the theory by formally investigating it. Last month a team of intrepid researchers at Johns Hopkins University ventured into the area. Writing in the Archives of General Psychiatry, Psychologist John Shaffer and Psychiatrist Chester Schmidt reported that despite biorhythm's "wistful appeal," the theory just doesn't work...
...armchairm quarterback (or manager) the year's most interesting gift idea is a biorhythm prediction kit for professional football (or baseball). The charts and tables allow you to plot the biorhythms of the pros, to predict which team will triumph on which particular day. When you reach an advanced stage of the art, the ads say, you can even predict the score. Or at least how well Roger Staubach is getting along with his wife...