Aurora: The Northern Lights in Mythology, History and Science by Harald Falck-Ytter (review)

Current Literature Edited by Elizabeth Crumley I. Book Reviews Book Review Panel: Rudolf Arnheim, Vladimir Bonacic,John E. Bowlt, Donald Brook, Robert Dixon, Elmer Duncan, James A. Goldman, Vic Gray, Yusuf A. Grillo, Peter Lloyd Jones, Sharon LeBelle, Sean O’Driscoll, Sheila Pinkel, Harry Rand,Lord EricRoll,Allan Shields,VladimirTamari, David Topper,Leon Tsao, M. Tsao, Steve Wilson, Lin Xiaoping. Aurora:The NorthernLights inMythology, History and Science. Harald Falck-Ytter. Anthroposophic Press, Spring Valley, NY U.S.A., 1985. 192 pp., illus. Trade, $35.00. ISBN: 0-88010-123-7. Reviewed by David G. Stork, Department of Physics & Program in Neuroscience, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610 U.S.A. Recently, several popular and profusely illustrated books dealing with the scientific and culturalaspectsof opticalphenomena in nature have been released; these include (among others) Sunsets, Twilights, and Evening Skies by Aden and Marjorie Meinel as well as Robert Greenler’s excellent Rainbows. Halos and Glories. Superficially, Aurora resembles these books-at least in format and the inclusion of striking photographs-but it differs from them profoundly in virtually all other respects. Aurora is less a treatment of the northern lights than propaganda for the philosophic-religious doctrine of “Theosophism”,as propounded by Rudolf Steiner. The weak understanding of science and the probably wilful (or worse yet, unintended) blurring of distinctions between mythology, mysticism and science evidenced here ruin the book both as a scientific and as a cultural account. For instance, the chapter called “Science and the Aurora” is woefully weak on science, omitting such key explanations as the mechanism for the reflection of solar particles by the magnetic field lines bunched near the magnetic poles; the origin of spectral lines; and much, much more. There are outright errors, too, even concerning such elementary topics as polarized light. We’re told erroneously that “With this apparatus[a polarimeter], the property of light to reflect or bend (refraction) can be measured; this is called polarization”. Some topics are ‘explained’ in pseudoscientific terms. We are told that the semidiurnal variation in atmospheric pressure-what Falck-Ytter and Theosophists call the ‘respiration sphere’-is due to a breathing in and out of “supersensory etheric forces”. The authorseemsignorant of atmospheric tides, analogous to those in the oceans. Likewise, he gives no indications that the primarily east-west motion within the atmosphere involves Coriolus forces; here too we are told that the cause “lies in the supersensory”. Later-when the full Theosophical wind hits the page-we are told that the earth and mankind are entering a third cosmic ‘phase’, while the first was of lightning and the second of the rainbow, the current phase is of the aurora. Were this a myth, it might have a beauty all its own; actually, Falck-Ytter presents it asTheosopica1 ‘fact’. Such blurring of science and mythology is so widespread in Aurora that one could fill a review with examples. One more must suffice. In a single paragraph we are told that before the Flood the earth’s atmosphere was filled with a fog thicker than today, the earth was “a visibly living being”, and through the entwinemknt of terrestrial nature and human life, the trespasses of mankind called forth the Flood. Where do the scientific statements stopand the mythologicalones take over? The last chapter is an account of the German poet Theodor Daubler, who spent twelve years working on his 33,000verse epic, Nordlicht,or Northern Lights. His exhuberance is particularly noteworthy since “one cannot infer from any expression or account by [him] that he had even seen the aurora”. Falck-Ytter’s enthusiasm for Daubler (to whom the book is dedicated) is natural, though, since Falck-Ytter must have seen in him a kindred spirit:both writers felt qualifiedindeed , perhaps, compelled-to write about the aurora with only a modicum of rational understanding. The book is not a total loss, as certain tidbits are worth sharing. An auroral display of 1859 was so extensive that it was seen directly overhead in Puerto Rico; “Had there been observers to watch it, it could probably have been seen over the whole earth”. Other displays were so bright that people could hunt by them or read newspapers indoors solely by their...