Lyall Watson (12 April 1939 – 25 June 2008) was a South African botanist, zoologist, biologist, anthropologist, ethologist, and author of many books, among the most popular of which is the best seller Supernature. Lyall Watson tried to make sense of natural and supernatural phenomena in biological terms. He is credited with coining the "Hundredth Monkey" phenomenon in his 1979 book, Lifetide.
SOURCE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyall_Watson
From the dust cover: In his free-thinking style, Lyall Watson gives a fascinating survey of the geography, biology physics, sociology, physiology, psychology, history and philosophy of the wind. He shows how winds bring the world to life, providing the circulatory and nervous systems of the planet, sharing out energy and information, distributing warmth and awareness, bringing rain, making soil and air-conditioning the globe. And goes on from there to discuss the way in which wind disperses plants, animals and human communities. ... There are excellent chapters on wind sensitivity, including the creation of a new Beaufort Scale of wind forces, and a look at how the Föhn, mistral sirocco, Santa Ana and other ‘ill winds’ of the world alter human physiology and psychology to an extent that can lead to disease, suicide and even murder.
www.vulture.com/2017/05/samurai-jack-was-tvs-most-poignant-depiction-of-loneliness.html
The historical section recalls how the winds of trade have influenced human migrations and shaped imperial destinies – and how the dramatic winds of war determined the outcome of the conflict between the Greeks and Persians, the Mongol invasion of Japan and the fate of the Spanish Armada.
Windseeds
page 145
In this section, Watson talks about species as tunes made up of just four basic notes, or nucleotides. “Variety is produced by combining these notes, three at a time, into chords. ... Each of these complex musical phrases is known as a gene, and it is an arrangement of such phrases that forms a particular tune, or species.” He then goes on to examine how viruses have the ability to change their tune as they travel, so that the flu you catch in Ireland is different from the flu you catch in Asia.
Viruses also have the ability to survive radiation from the sun. “viruses possess efficient ultraviolet repair mechanisms because they need them, because they have been recently and strongly exposed to the ravages of ultraviolet light. And there is nowhere that this could happen to them except above the ozone layer, at an altitude of at least thirty kilometres. Somewhere up there, it seems there is a breeding ground.”
He mentions how Carl Sagan calculated that “all viruses, some bacteria and many spores could be blown along by solar wind quite effectively. At peak velocity they would travel as fast as spacecraft, moving from Earth orbit to Mars in a few weeks, to Jupiter in a matter of months, and as far as Neptune and Pluto in no more that three or four years.”
https://visual-science.com/projects/influenza/illustration
Bacteriophage
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2335596/Photographs-reveal-alien-planet-No--breathtaking-animated-simulations-world-HUMAN-BODY.html
The Swastika is a symbol of wind.
In Uganda, the sacred hill of Kahola is said to be the home of the winds.
Wind is said to be male, with the ability to impregnate. "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" and Genesis began. Tiamat was born when her mother's belly filled with raging winds. So was Hiawatha. Brahma, the creator, soars through the air on the back of Hamsa, a magnificent gander, which is a free wanderer, like the wind.
Wind brings change, birth, delusion, agues, plagues, death, philosophy, poetry, art and music. Voices are modulated by breath, carrying lullabies, love songs, whispers and curses.
Long ago I learned how to listen to the singing wind,
and how to forget and how to hear the deep whine...
Who can ever forget listening to the wind go by,
counting its money and throwing it away?
Carl Sandburg.
Lyall Watson deserves to be rediscovered.