Preface:

Grand Solar Minima, the “bad-weather- periods” are times of peace, reason and socio- political developments in favor of human rights. Inversely, almost all wars and genocides take place in Grand Solar Maximum, which are associated with favorable and stable climate as well as population increase. This was demonstrated empirically in the previous book Solar History. And there is more good news for humanity, even though in the summer of 2020, it is not apparent that deep solar minima are times of peace and rationality. The present book will first explain how such changes in human behavior can be brought about by changes in solar and geomagnetic activity and their co-effects. We will piece together the mechanisms by which geomagnetic field fluctuations, cosmic ray particles and atmospheric electromagnetic fields interact with the human brain and hormonals cycles to produce – in a predictable way – the observed societal and behavioral outcomes, such as wars and psychoses in Grand Solar Maximum. This is neither astrology nor esoteric knowledge. We are dealing with measurable changes in consciousness and brain function, which lead to what can best be described as a process of actual ‘awakening’ as well as increased peacefulness and altruistic sociability in Grand Solar Minimum. Further, we find that not only the course of human history and evolution is intrinsically linked to solar cycles, but the geographical differences in these energetic conditions helped to shape cultural diversity and different peoples across the globe. As the centers of civilizational development moved from the orient to East Asia and Europe, a radical ‘war on crime’ – manifesting in harsh punishment of violent crime – contributed to peacefulness, self-control and enforcement of human rights in the last millennium. This took place during an unusual cluster of several Grand Solar Minima, coinciding with the mediaeval Little Ice Age. As a side effect of heightened altruistic sociability and trust, this also fostered the rise of a ‘servile people’ – overly trusting in authorities – particularly in western and northern cultures – plus the rise of maladaptive individuals who are inclined to harm their group’s interests since about 150 years. In the midst of the 2020 Covid-19 government measures, we notice extreme lethargy of the general population particularly in the West, which chimes in with the expected symptoms of current dwindling solar and geomagnetic activity. Political violence under the cover of race riots is committed by a radical minority of largely non-black middle-class individuals promoted and protected by collectivist far-left elites, consistent with self-destructive tendencies, depression and mental illness in solar minima. The main impetus that makes this chaos possible in the first place is the passivity of the silent majority and political corruption. This book provides a comprehensive model on why everything we see unfold on the world stage is accelerating right now. Find out how all of this is most likely to culminate – at this turning point of history – into a positive evolutionary leap.

Introduction

There is a well-established connection between the sun and violent crime. ^[i]  And there is much more to it. 

Violent crime is corelated with solar activity, with geomagnetic activity, and geological changes which cause climatic differences.  Aggressive behavior is further associated with seasonal temperature within countries, with UV irradiation, and it is connected to adaption to these local conditions and temperature distribution over the planet.

In my previous book Solar History, I demonstrated empirically that Grand Solar Minima, the ‘Bad-Weather-Periods’ are times of increased peacefulness, reason and invention.  Now, in the first part of the present book, we will find out how all of this can be brought about.  Most of us would instinctively assume that sunnier and warmer weather or climate makes populations happy, docile and peaceful. But why is the opposite the case? 

Moderate sunlight exposure has many benefits for physical and psychological health, is associated with low Multiple Sclerosis risk, ^[ii] and can reduce bipolar depression and improve skin health. ^[iii]

Indeed, as we will see in Part I and II, what affects people psychological state first and foremost is not the direct exposure to sunlight, nor the lack or overabundance thereof, but the secondary effects of changes in solar activity, mainly the effects of geomagnetic activity (geomagnetic storm activity), higher secondary cosmic ray flux in solar minimum as well as changing natural occurring Extremely Low Frequencies (ELF) in the form of the Schumann Resonance. 

Grand Solar Minima are the periods of climate disruption and crop failure, it would be expected that these are the periods when wars over resources break out, but the opposite is the case. We will also find out why generally lower population numbers over the longer time-spans of Grand Solar Minima are not due to human suffering, violence and wars over resources as all of the above are reduced.

When  

The question of ‘when?’ was largely answered in the previous book Solar History (the reading of which is not necessary (but recommended, of course) to follow the present argument. 

There were 4.6 times as many deaths from wars and genocide in Grand Solar Maximum than there were in Grand Solar Minimum of the last millennium. 

The correlation coefficient of anthropogenic death rates per decade and solar maximum status of the same year r = 0.9 (very strong correlation). Inversely, innovation, peace and social/ political progress prospered in Grand Solar Minimum, the ‘bad-weather-periods’, these developments would be roughly concurrent with an increase of what Helmuth Nyborg termed ‘altruistic sociability’.

In Solar History, we used anthropogenic death rates as the main proxy for high human excitability and aggression in grand maxima as opposed to low anthropogenic deaths as an overall measure of low aggression and excitability in grand minima, for the reason that anthropogenic deaths for this timespan can be quantified rather accurately as opposed to the positive social and political outcomes.

How?

After we have established – empirically for the last millennium – the positive correlation of mass excitability /violence and solar activity, we investigate the mechanism, by which human history is connected to the solar output, the significance of the connection of geography, ecotypes, and civilization formation.

Here is a short overview of contributing factors to high excitability in solar maximum – both Schwabe maximum and Grand Solar Maximum – independent of geographical location.

Generally, in solar minimum, we are exposed to increases in space energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation and cosmic rays, or rather their disintegration products: muons and other subatomic particles. We don’t have direct measurements of geomagnetic storm activity, rates of air ionisation and so on from past centuries, but these parameters are correlated with sunspot numbers and values of cosmogenic isotope ratios and can in part be reconstructed. Geomagnetic activity has been reconstructed back to the 1840s. The AE- index reconstruction by Lockwood at al even reaches back to 1610. ^[iv]

In general, weak and moderate geomagnetic storms exert a stimulating influence while strong disturbances of geomagnetic conditions activate inhibiting processes. ^[v]

Geomagnetic storm conditions – as occur more frequently in solar Maximum and Grand Solar Maximum – are associated with violent crime, psychiatric emergencies, reduced self-control and suicide. 

At first, we are going to look at some known parameters of space weather in the context of short-term changes in solar activity and then we’ll see how some of the effects to human behavior can be extrapolated in the context of Grand Solar cycles.

The first two parts are rather technical and admittedly drier and less fun to read than Part III. If you want to proceed to the juicier reading, one option would be to skip to the summaries at the end of each part I and II, and focus on Part III, which is also most relevant for our current political and economic situation and the imminent future of humanity at this turning-point event.

Where?

Grand Solar Minima are associated with lower total solar irradiance and more cloud cover. Thus, during a Grand Minimum, the conditions of climate and the energetic state of the atmosphere at a particular location shift towards the conditions that would be present in a more northerly altitude during average solar activity conditions. 

As an example, compare a location A at 20° North to location B at 50° North. Location A has on average less cosmic ray flux, a weaker geo-magnetic field, higher (first mode) Schumann Resonance intensity, higher UV radiation but less UV variability, and more lightening than location B. In Grand Minimum, these parameters are enhanced in location A and the conditions in location B shift to become more similar to those at location A. These parameters can all influence human behavior in favor of sustainable cultural and technological advancements. 

Now, since the fluctuations within the grand solar cycles and the corresponding human violence occur in non-periodical cycles of only 200-400 years, they are obviously not directly connected to long-term genetic adaptations and morphological markers such as brain size or grey matter/ white matter ratio. Using this example, brain size can indeed evolve relatively quickly, cranium height increased by 15 % only from the 1300s to today, ^[vi] but needless to say, these differences don’t fluctuate up and down with the grand solar cycles.  

Part III will lay out how the development of complex societies and advanced altruistic sociability has also led to a decline in self-preservation and the emergence of self-destructive traits in a proportion of the population.

Why just now?

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” 

The quote is from a post-apocalyptic novel by the author G. Michael Hopf. ^[vii] Solar History demonstrates empirically how these cycles of civilization followed the rhythm of the grand solar cycles in at least the past 1000 years. Several civilizations have declined in undergoing a process of ‘Oikophobia’ which has been defined as “the fear or hatred of home or one’s own society or civilization.” ^[viii] In Part III, we are going to build a case why this has developed mostly in Western cultures, in ancient Greece, in Rome, in the French and British empires, and now in the United States and Europe. In the Roman Empire, the decline took centuries to complete. Today, just as solar activity is rapidly moving toward Grand Solar Minimum conditions after a very long Grand Solar Maximum, the process has an unprecedented component to accelerate it, with a unique potential for a sustainable evolutionary leap in terms of human rights, reason, and peacefulness. 

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^[i] Coccia M. 2017: A Theory of general causes of violent crime: Homicides, income inequality and deficiencies of the heat hypothesis and of the model of CLASH; Aggression and Violent Behavior · October 2017; 

^[ii] Dalmay F. et al, 2010: Multiple sclerosis and solar exposure before the age of 15 years: case—control study in Cuba, Martinique and Sicily; Multiple Sclerosis Journal;  Vol 16, Issue 8, 2010

^[iii] Effect Of Sunlight On Human Behavior; Published on January 22nd, 2016 | by PETER Aarestad Time

^[iv] Lockwood, Mike, et al  2018: Space climate and space weather over the past 400 years: 2. Proxy indicators of geomagnetic storm and substorm occurrence; J. Space Weather Space Clim. 2018, 8, A12

^[v] Babayev E.S. et al 2005: Geomagnetic Storms and their Influence on the Human Brain Functional State; Revista CENIC Ciencias Biológicas, Vol. 36, No. Especial, 2005

^[vi] W. P. Rock et al., “A Cephalometric Comparison of Skulls from the Fourteenth, Sixteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” British Dental Journal 200 (2006): 33–37.

^[vii] Hopf G. M 2016: Those Who Remain: A Postapocalyptic Novel (The New World Series Book 7) Kindle Edition; 

^[viii] Scruton, Roger 2014: Oikophobia – England and the Need for Nations Kindle Edition;