Biorhythms

1977

Entry posted by Guest August 30, 2005

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Do you remember Biorhythms back in the 70s or early 80s?

I remember eating at a place called Ollie's in Clifton Heights, PA on Baltimore Pike. They had a Biorhythm machine. You put in your birthday and the day for which you wanted your Biorhythm reading. It would spit out a little card with graphs on it detailing how your life would be on that day. (It would also beep while doing so, for that "I'm computing" effect.)

Rubbish, of course, but it was fun with a group of other kids high on caffeine, sugar and the right level of silliness.

The RCA Studio II has a way to bring all that fun home.

From the manual:

"All living things are affected to some extent by various biological cycles. The theory of biorhythm states that there are three predominant cycles that can influence human behavior:

*Physical cycle, 23 days. Affects physical strength, health, energy, vigor, stamina, etc.

*Emotional cycle, 28 days. Affects moods, feelings, sentiments, etc.

*Intellectual cycle, 33 days. Affects intelligence, attentiveness, concentration, judgement, etc.

In theory, all three cycles start at the day of birth and continue on throughout your lifetime."

The cycles do a sine-curve thing by moving between high and low points through the length of the cycle. The key to it being "tricky", of course, is that each of the cycles lasts a different length. For instance, it is rare for you to have a day where all three cycles are "up" or where all three are "down". When all are up, you should be having a "good" day.

It isn't actually the triple-"down" days you have to worry about. It's the days where the any of the three cycles are at a "critical" point, the point from being "positive" (above the middle point) to being "negative" (below the middle point). Knowing when these days occur will allow you to be more "on your guard" against doing something with a physical, emotional or intellectual risk that you might not be able to handle.

A neat feature about RCA's Biorythm, is that you can put in the birthdate/deathdate from a range between the year 1 A.D. and the year 9,999 A.D. You can do the Biorhythm for anyone born or to be born during that period... so we can give this cart credit for one thing: it will be another 8,000 years before it is obsolete! Even after 8,000 years, you would still be able to use it for people who lived during the first ten millennium. Heh.

For all its multi-generational usefulness, it ain't a game. Also, regardless of sugar and caffeine levels, it ain't a lot of fun anymore. Skepticism has sucked out any of my ability to enjoy this sort of thing.

Next entry: Blackjack. Yeah, I know we just did a Blackjack, but this one is even less exciting, so be sure to watch!

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