Those Biorythms and Blues

Does the date of your birth really matter?

Why did Ali lose his title? Simple. He was in a down phase in his emotional and physical cycles, only hours away from a physically critical day. A "triple low" day produced the abnormal heart rhythm that led to Elvis Presley's death last Aug. 16. And Sadat's peace initiative could not have come while Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin was in office because the Egyptian President's chart shows zero emotional compatibility with Rabin.

All 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-c-. 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 computer ($3,000). One company, Kosmos International of Atlanta, supplies charts for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League and sells 10,000 electronic biorhythm calculators a month, including a "love machine" for women who want to check their compatibility with boyfriends.

It is all a bit too 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."

The 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 of each cycle, when a person is changing phases. Things are very likely to go wrong on a "double critical" day, when two cycles are at midpoint. A "triple critical," which practitioners say occurs about once a year, holds terror for all believers.

Scientists do not know whether to 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.

The researchers investigated the claim of biorhythm supporters that a disproportionate number of accidents and disasters--perhaps 40% to 80%--occur on "critical" days that represent only 20% of a person's life. In fact, says the Hopkins team, of 205 serious or fatal highway accidents in Maryland in which the driver was legally culpable, only 20% occurred on critical days--just the proportion the scientists expected. Says Andrew Ahlgren, a University of Minnesota researcher who studies body rhythms: "I'm surprised the Hopkins team would even bother. Biorhythm theory is a silly numerological scheme that contradicts everything we know about biological rhythms with their dozens of variables and differences from person to person."

The biorhythm craze grew from the mystic speculations of Wilhelm Fliess, a colorful Berlin doctor who was Sigmund Freud's closest friend for more than a decade. A nose and throat specialist, Fliess is best known for his belief that the nose is responsible for many neurotic and sexual ailments, which are curable by applying cocaine to what he called the "genital spots" of the nasal membrane. Fliess published books and essays of impenetrable mathematics, all revolving around his mystic numbers, 23 (representing the masculine or physical principle) and 28 (representing the feminine, emotional principle and presumably based on the 28-day menstrual cycle). For a time, Freud was so impressed that he was sure he would die at the age of 51, the sum of the two numbers. A young patient of Freud's, Hermann Swoboda, developed the first biorhythm calculator, based on Fliess's belief in 23-and 28-day cycles. Later Fliessians added a 33-day cycle representing human mental life.

Such shaky origins apparently do not bother true believers. Actress Julie Newmar is convinced. Jackie Gleason checks his charts before an important engagement, and Gil Brandt, vice president of the Super Bowl-champion Dallas Cowboys, is also convinced that biorhythm "has a lot of validity." There are a growing number of adherents on N.F.L. teams. Minnesota Vikings Player Jim Marshall was intrigued when someone pointed out that his classic wrong-way run for a touchdown in 1964 came on a triple-low day.

Yellow Cab of Denver hands out free charts to interested employees and gives drivers a day off during triple-criticals. An Exxon chemical plant at Baytown, Texas, sends out safety reminders to its 900 employees on triple-critical days. Says a spokesman: "Frankly, I don't know if there's any truth to the biorhythm theory, but we think the program will promote safety awareness." Biorhythm proponents say that hundreds of companies use the charts, but an investigation by National Safety News found that the claim "appears to be widely exaggerated."

The same proponents are pushing airlines to use biorhythm, on the grounds that many air crashes occur because of heavy pressure on crew members on their critical days. Indeed, United Airlines tried biorhythm for a year at a San Francisco maintenance facility, but then dropped it. Bernard Gittelson, a former p.r. man who is now the head of Biorhythm Computers Inc., believes the airlines will soon convert to the cause. Says he: "We are only five years from advertising tag lines like 'Our pilots never fly on critical days.' "

What else may biorhythm be applied to? Opportunities are limitless, says Pete Callinicos, a captain in the Denver fire department who runs a biorhythm business on the side. Callinicos says the theory can put compatible policemen in squad cars, determine the patterns of arsonists and maybe even prevent birth defects. Another advantage to biorhythm is that it provides extra income for a swelling number of entrepreneurs. With an investment of about $4,000, says Thommen, anybody can rent a bit of computer time and sell 30-c- charts for $10. In the rush for profits, laments Thommen, some of the new biorhythm salesmen are turning out sloppy charts, a day or two off. Says he: "Every Tom, Dick and Harry is going into this. Many people have no conscience." -

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