The Changing Lights / Stacey Kent
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“Insofar as cycles are meaningful, all science that has been developed in the absence of cyclic knowledge is inadequate and partial. Thus, if cyclic forces are real, any theory of economics, or sociology, or history, or medicine, or climatology that ignores non-chance rhythms is manifestly incomplete, as medicine was before the discovery of germs.” Edward R. Dewey (1967)
I’ve always been interested in the invisible forces of life that seem to control so much. At least in my life. Whether luck, serendipity, synchronicity or those invisible environments Marshall McLuhan called mediums. This interest led me to eventually study symbols and symbolism and media theory.
I came to realize that one of the greatest invisible forces in the world is cycles or intervals of time when a sequence of recurring events or phenomena is completed. Of course the world is full of all types of cycles such as daily, monthly, seasonal cycles to life cycles geologic cycles, historic, economic and sociology cycles … to name just a few.
Ben
In the mid-80s, I became good friends with a very wealthy Japanese man named Dr. Ben Ichinose. Ben was interested in many of these invisible forces that control life and we hit it off. I was between jobs and Ben told me he was creating a group of foundations and asked me to come to work running one of these foundations. I agreed started work around the mid-80s.
The Ichinose foundations were housed in an office building just south of the San Francisco Airport in San Mateo. There were maybe five offices for people running the various foundations as well as a receptionist and executive assistant and meeting room. The manager of the foundations was a person who had been California Senator SI Hayakawa’s Chief Senate aid.
Ben was a close friend of Senator Hayakawa. Ben had assembled a fascinating group of scholars to work at the foundations. One was a MacArthur Scholar. Another was Richard Mogey, the owner of one of the largest metaphysical bookstores in the Bay Area. Another was Steve Bush, a person with a math degree from UC San Diego.
As work for the the foundations proceeded in the mid-80s, there were a number of conferences sponsored by the foundations which brought together leading people in various esoteric fields. It was obvious that Ben was becoming more and more interested in pursuing the study of cycles and Richard Mogey and Steve Bush were put in charge of this work.
Ben’s Home in Hillsborough
Mac computers were moved into the basement of Ben’s home in the wealthy suburb of Hillsborough right across the street from Katherine Crosby’s home, wife of Bing Crosby. A type of cycles lab was set up in the basement of Ben’s home. It was an interesting lab because it was set up among one of the greatest collections of wine in the world. At the time, Ben was known for having the largest wine collection in California. (Article from Christies on Ben’s wine collection.) So, among the greatest wines in the world, Richard and Steve set out doing research in cycles using early Mac computers to predict the stock market changes based on cycles.
Part of Ben’s Massive Wine Cellar
Cycles research was founded by Edward Dewey (1895-1978) a government economist. He first became interested in cycles while Chief Economic Analyst of the Department of Commerce in 1930 or 1931 because President Hoover wanted to know the cause of the Great Depression. Dewey reported that each economist to whom he spoke gave him a different answer and he lost faith in the current economic methods. Dewey devoted his life to the study of cycles, claiming that “everything that has been studied has been found to have cycles present.” He carried out extensive studies of cyclicity in economics, geology, biology, sociology and other disciplines. In 1940, Edward R. Dewey learned of a 1931 Canadian conference on biological cycles held at Matamek. Under the guidance of Dewey and the conference leader, Copley Amory, the conference’s Permanent Committee was reorganized into the Foundation for the Study of Cycles (FSC) in 1941, and its scope was enlarged to encompass all disciplines.
Over the years, Steve and I became good friends and Richard Mogey became President of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles in 1990. Richard tirelessly carried on the true tradition of Edward Dewey in determining accurate cycles periods and phases and curating valuable data. He answered cycles skeptics with accurate data, impeccable results, and considerable grace. Moreover, he was a great help to countless other cycles researchers over the years, many of whom cite Richard’s influence over their own work.
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Listen to an excellent introduction to the study of cycles by Ray Tomes, a current board member of FSC as well as the the greatest cycle researcher in the world today. The presentation is by the Foundation for the Study of Cycles hosted by its’ current president Richard Smith.
Today, in the loud, flashiness of our divided culture, I believe in the invisible things that control life and destiny more than ever. In all the noise and brightness, these things – like cycles – are harder to see. But they are present offering messages to us more than ever. It is not for them to become more vocal or visual but it is for us to become less so. Only then can we see them and learn from them.
I’m reminded of a quote from the psychiatrist Wilfred Bion here.
“Instead of trying to bring a brilliant, intelligent, knowledgeable light to bear on obscure problems, I suggest we bring to bear a diminution of light – a penetrating beam of darkness: a reciprocal of the searchlight. Thus a very faint light would become visible in maximum conditions of darkness.” Wilfred Bion, Brazilian Lectures.
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Part I
Part II
Part III
Cycles: The Science of Prediction / Dewey’s First Book on Cycles