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Originally Posted by Gillianren
How many data points must you map before you can call something a parallel?
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I am not quite sure what you mean by a ‘data point.’ The biggest world event of a given time, when that event involves large scale physical forces such as major wars or political or ideational changes, can be compared to events of an age before. This cosmic cycle is just one big factor in historic causality, so it may on occasion be hard to detect, due either to other factors swamping it or our inability to read history well. I think your comment on the US frontier is an example of the latter. The fact that in law the frontier ended hid a real ongoing frontier in other ways. In Australia we call this the culture of silence about Aboriginal genocide – often the history books only tell a small or biased part of the story.
The mapping of the world-defining event of American victory in World War Two on to Roman victory over Carthage has the parallels that it turned the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans into ‘American Lakes’ just as the victory over Hannibal turned the Mediterranean into ‘Mare Nostrum’. Hence we have an underlying structural parallel in these two ‘data points’, together with a generally parallel emergence story, which are suggestive enough to build a picture of what the future might bring if America continues to parallel Rome just to this major event level. It suggests that claims the US is an empire are at least a century too early – that over the next 200 years we are likely to see structural forces shifting the US from its current democratic republic towards a more autocratic form of governance, but at the same time, the story of Christ suggests we can expect emergence of a messianic figure late next century who will contest this hegemony.
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How many data points must you map before you can call a hypothesis properly explored?
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As many as possible. The nature of this hypothesis is that it opens a method for comparing different times in a way that should be amenable to quantified statistical analysis. Dane Rudhyar, who I mentioned earlier, draws a speculative picture of each of the twelve sub-ages of the Age of Pisces in a very preliminary fashion. My hope is that more systematic study of these cosmic cycles of time will provide a productive schematic ordering in which events around the world can be compared to see how they align.
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Is having a lot of possible data points regarding one parallel better or worse than having multiple parallels?
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Much in depth analysis would be needed to answer this properly, but my expectation would be that the cycle of the ages will prove most visible in world-shaping events and people. Hence a world shaping moment such as the end of the Second World War can usefully be compared to its parallel. An anomaly raised by critics here is that the world shaping period 1770 to 1800 does not have clear parallel to 380-350BC, and nor does World War One. As I see it the possible explanations are that we just have not looked at the ancient times hard enough to see the parallels or that there were other causal factors in the modern revolution and WW1 which supervened the weak underlying cosmic rhythm.
The hypothesis is that now is at the same moment in a terrestrial temporal wave function as 2147 years ago, and that our planetary character (karma) is shaped by this cosmic Gaian rhythm. Hence, this moment in human evolution can be usefully compared to the year 140 BC, as 1945 may be compared to 202 BC, etc. This is a global hypothesis. The potential to measure and compare events in different contexts varies. Many stone technology communities such as Australia had no records, so even though I suggest they participate in this causal process we cannot point to them as illustrations. All big old civilisations could illustrate the theory in principle, and my focus on Rome and Greece is due to my knowledge of them and the observation that the observed parallels are suggestive.
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If you don't have the latter, how do you know that your system really works?
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Good question. The theory of cosmic ages is of course highly controversial, and this material is exploratory. My claim is that the system works by deductive logic – we are part of a cosmic system, the cosmic system has this feature, we participate in this feature. Further study may show the effect is so weak as to be homeopathic, but my hope is that the strong skeleton of time that I have suggested can be usefully fleshed out.
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Why do you expect me to believe that your system works if you can't show me how it fits into anything other than Rome and the US?
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Well, there is quite a parallel involving Greece and Europe too, for example between Alexander and Napoleon. I regard these parallels as a finely developed result of the wobbly shape of time: looking at other star systems we rely on Doppler Shift, while for our planet we can refer to Livy and Plutarch. I simply do not know enough ancient history from other regions to start to draw comparisons, although figures like Buddha, K’ung Tzu and Ashoka could usefully be studied.
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Am I just supposed to believe that you're right because, look, it mostly lines up for Rome and the US?
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No way. I am not looking for anyone to believe anything on such flimsy grounds, but I am interested in cooperative research, and in recognition that these ideas are possible even if they are not yet persuasive or compelling.
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Do you really think I'm being unreasonable when I ask you to look into other civilizations to test your hypothesis?
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The two issues here are that you are being reasonable to suggest research into wider historical correlations, but also that the theory is deductive, as I covered in my last post, and that this deductive logic has an astronomical interest aside from its potential inductive corroboration through broader study.
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And, as I asked before--twice--what number of years do you consider to be "close enough" for a cycle?
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I would like to suggest five years as a reasonable orb, enabling comparison of events separated by between 2142 and 2152 years, but that should be a matter for empirical study.