376 SISTER MARGARET ANN 



they also possess the capacity to respond to a complex of them. 

 Supporting such a multiple-factor view is the fact that the forms 

 of the rhythms and their monthly variations appear to correlate 

 to some extent with the barometric pressure, but at the same time 

 have large significant variation at some times of the day and month 

 that show little indication of any correlation with pressure.^® 



It was, in effect, the irregular, unexplainable deviations of the 

 rhythms that led the investigators, not to discard their data 

 as being impossible, but to look for a more primary, or ultimate 

 cause of the effects observed. By checking the available meteor- 

 ological data, they concluded that living organisms are very 

 sensitive to influences from outer space in the form of compo- 

 nents of cosmic radiation. These conclusions led the scientists 

 to more exciting and fruitful discoveries than had resulted 

 previously from more than twenty years of research. 



Dr. Brown's researches point, then, to outside, even extra- 

 galactic, influences in the behavior of living organisms, as noted, 

 for example, in a periodicity in terrestrial organisms related 

 to the occurrence of sun spots, with a variation in color change 

 which is affected by the intensity of cosmic radiation. 



One might ask what is so extraordinary about the perception 

 that terrestrial organisms are influenced in their behavior by a 

 heavenly body such as the sun, or even by cosmic rays ema- 

 nating from some unknown source .^^ The effect of the sun upon 

 the growth and life cycle of living things is common knowledge. 

 More than merely confirming the fact of extra-terrestrial influ- 

 ence. Dr. Brown's discoveries clearly demonstrate an order, and 

 — in view of the factors studied — an order on a cosmic scale. 

 Order is implicit in rhythm, for rhythm presupposes a com- 

 bination of variation with constancy. In other words, for 

 events to re-occur with a certain regular periodicity, there must 

 be a certain fixed pattern beyond the reach of chance which is 

 the " clock " for these events; this supplies the " programming." 



The regular periodicity observed by Dr. Brown and his 

 associates, a periodicity which, with continuing investigation, 



" Ibid., p. 253. 



