Meaning
In biorhythm the intellectual cycle is the 33-day wave, the longest of the classical three. The popular books tied its upper half to curiosity, alertness and a good memory and its lower half to a quieter stretch for the mind. That is the theory's description.
The intellectual curve starts on the midline on the day of birth, reaches its top during cycle day 9, crosses the midline during cycle day 17, reaches its bottom during cycle day 25 and returns to the midline as the next cycle begins. Its critical days are cycle days 1 and 17, the days that contain the crossings. Of the three classical cycles it moves most slowly, so its halves are the longest: sixteen or seventeen days each.
A cycle without a source
The first two cycles can be read in Fliess's own books. The third cannot. Fliess and Swoboda worked with 23 and 28 days only, and the 33-day cycle enters the story later, credited to a teacher at Innsbruck called Teltscher. The popular books say that in the 1920s he found it in his students' exam results. No publication by him has been found: George Thommen, who did most to spread the cycle in America, wrote in 1973 that his own search abroad found no document, and a 1978 thesis records that the study was believed destroyed in the war. Even his first name is given as "Alfred" in some accounts and "Friedrich" in others, and the number of students changes from book to book.
One lead is still open. The Austrian National Library's newspaper index names Teltscher beside "Periodenlehre", the theory of periods, in a Vienna paper of 22 June 1930; the page has not yet been read. Until something of his is found, we credit the cycle the way our chart does: usually credited to Teltscher, undocumented.
The cycle reached English readers in Hans Wernli's Biorhythm (1961) and Thommen's Is This Your Day? (1964). Casio's calculator patent of the 1970s calls it "intellect".
What the studies found
The cycle's own story invites a test with exams, and it got one: among the nine studies William Sims Bainbridge reported in 1978 were the exam scores of two classes of students. Terence Hines reviewed 134 studies of the theory in 1998. What they found is set out on the biorhythm page, under Evidence and criticism.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Who proposed it
- Credited to Teltscher in the popular books; no publication by him has been found disputed
- The story of the exam results
- Students' exam results said to show the cycle; the number of students varies between tellers disputed
- The label "intellectual"
- Standard in the American books by the 1960s and 1970s; who used it first is not traced sourced
- Casio's name
- Intellect, in the patent of the Biolator calculator sourced
- Critical days on our chart
- Cycle days 1 and 17, the days containing the midline crossings sourced
- Colour
- Green on the old popular charts; a convention of the charts, not of the theory sourced
How the schools read it
- Fliess and Swoboda (1897 to 1909)
- Not part of their theory: both worked with 23 and 28 days only.
- The Swiss and German writers (1930s to 1950s)
- Took up a three-cycle theory; what they wrote about the third cycle is known to us only through later books.
- The American books (1961 onwards)
- A sine wave named intellectual, its upper half tied to curiosity, memory and focus; the Teltscher story told as history.
- Casio (1975 to 1978)
- "Intellect", with critical days on cycle days 1 and 17.
- The critics (1978 to 1998)
- Tested the cycle against exam scores among other records; the story behind the cycle has no document.
- EsoTerrier
- Credited as "usually credited to Teltscher, undocumented"; the curve drawn from the birth date, with its critical days on cycle days 1 and 17.
Claims about it
-
Alfred Teltscher, an engineering teacher at Innsbruck, found the 33-day cycle in the exam results of thousands of students in the 1920s.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: No publication by him has been found. Thommen wrote in 1973 that his own search found none, and a 1978 thesis says the study was believed destroyed in the war.
-
The intellectual cycle governs how well people think, so exams, study and important choices should be timed by it.
falseWhat the record shows: Bainbridge's 1978 studies included two classes' exam scores, and they did not follow the curve.
