I. Capillary Dynamolysis

By Adam McLean

Sourced From: https://www.alchemywebsite.com/kolisko.html
First published in the Hermetic Journal 1980.

In the early 1920’s, Lilly Kolisko working upon a suggestion made by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, devised a method for experimentally investigating the workings of the etheric forces in material substance. She called this technique ‘Capillary Dynamolysis’ and continued to investigate and refine the method until she died in 1976. She applied it particularly to researching the etheric forces working in the domain of agriculture, testing various composting methods, and using it to investigate the disease processes in plants, animals and man, that are the result of etheric imbalance. Later in an amazing series of experiments, she was able to show directly the influence of the planets on substance, particularly revealed at critical conjunctions, oppositions and eclipses.

I believe her work to be of the greatest importance, as she has provided us with an experimental tool for investigating the etheric forces, and truly laid the foundations of a modern alchemical experimental methodology.

The technique she pioneered is beautifully simple, and is basically a qualitative repeatable scientific test, which reveals the workings of the etheric forces in substance. A measured standard quantity (10 cc) of the substance to be tested, say a plant sap, is placed in a shallow glass vessel in which is stood a vertical cylinder (about 12 inches high) of filter paper (a rectangular piece rounded and closed upon itself).

The solution is allowed to rise up the filter paper until it is all absorbed, and the filter paper is then left to dry completely. Then the formative forces working in this substance are revealed through a development process. This involves repeating the proceedure above with the dried filter paper, but this time placing in the vessel a dilute solution of one of the soluable salts of the planetary metals. 1% solutions were found to be the most successful. The choice of the developing solution depends on which aspect of the etheric forces one is studying.

Gold Chloride for the Sun
Mercuric Chloride for Mercury
Silver Nitrate for the Moon
Stannous Chloride for Jupiter
Copper Sulphate for Venus
Lead Nitrate for Saturn
Iron Sulphate for Mars

This part of the experiment should be done in good natural light, as light is essential in developing the forms. One finds revealed through these experiments, patterns of colour and form on the filter paper, which are a kind of shadow image of the etheric forces working in the substance. This is a qualitative test rather than a quantitative one. That is, unlike laboratory capillary analysis, where one measures the height the substance rises on the filter paper, here we look at the nature of the forms displayed, and consider the strength of these forms, and the ways in which they metamorphose when different test solutions are used.

Thus this test can be used to give an indication of how much life force remains in plant substances preserved using different preservation methods. I show the results obtained using fresh apple juice and fresh tomato juice, and here we see the strong forms that characterise the activity of the etheric forces revealed by the silver nitrate. By comparison the preserved juices show a definite lack of form. This test can also be used to show that homoeopathic dilutions of substances have definite formative forees working within these dilutions, which in the higher potencies have only a few molecules of the potentised substance in the measured quantity of test solution.

Lilly Kolisko extended her work to include a series of experiments relating astronomical events to observable changes in the pattern of the planetary metals when they are allowed to rise through the filter paper. For this she chose an eclipse of the Sun, and the two illustrations shown are from the sequence of experiments she undertook during the total eclipse of the Sun of l9th June 1936. Over the period of the eclipse, she performed a large number of standard capillary dynamolysis tests, starting the day before the eclipse and continuing till the day after. The experiments were performed on the hour at hourly intervals, to provide a full record of the event, but as the time of the eclipse approached on 19th June at 4.56 am, these were performed at ten minute intervals up to the period of totality, when the experiments were repeated each minute.

Thus a complete record of the period of the eclipse was made and also control experiments for the day before and the day after. One of the tests she ran at that time involved the simultaneous use of Gold Chloride and Silver Nitrate as the test solution, Gold reflecting the Sun forces and Silver the Moon. A thorough description of this experiment together with illustrations of the resulting filter paper patterns, was published in 1936. I reprodude here only two of this series, one from during the totality of the eclipse itself and the other from the same time on the day before the eclipse.We see clearly how the silver forms have risen during the eclipse event to dominate the gold colours.

I believe we should come to recognise in these capillary dynamolysis experiments of Lilly Kolisko, a kind of continuation in twentieth century terms of alchemical experimentation. We read in many alchemical texts of how experiments were repeated again and again awaiting the right cosmic moment when some definite change in the experimental substances could be seen. We can also see a parallel between the filter paper and the alchemical retort, within which the test substances interacted and the colours and forms were revealed. The alchemist created in the space of their retorts, delicately balanced equilibria of substances which were sensitive to any change in the etheric environment, or the forces working within the test substance. I think we can recognise in alchemical writings deseriptions of such equilibria, some of which involved not just solid/liquid and liquid/ liquid phases but also liquid/gaseous phases. The alchemist mused over such experiments, gazing into the retort watching for a sign, some subtle change that indicated the presence of the etheric forces. Such an alchemist would. I feel, be quite at home with Lilly Kolisko’s work.

I believe that the work of Lilly Kolisko has provided for us a foundation stone upon which future alchemical experimentation can be built. The etheric forces, of course, can never be described in quantitative terms and this has led established Science, ruled by quantity, to deny their existence, as materialistic Science has no method for investigating these forces directly. Lilly Kolisko has provided a bridge between esoteric Science and quantitative science, as using exact scientific methods, she was able to create a qualitative scientific method for observing the influence of the etheric forces in substance, through experiments which are readily repeatable. I hope that her work can be continued and extended as I can see that upon its foundations a qualitative science of the etheric forces can be built, a new alchemy and Etheric Science.

Lilly Kolisko
Agriculture of Tomorrow
Capillary Dynamolysis Gold and the Sun (eclipse of 19th June 1936)
Gold and the Sun (eclipse of 20th May 1947)
The Moon and the Growth of Plants

Eugen and Lilly Kolisko
Silver and the Human Organism
Lead and the Human Organism

II. Capillary Dynamolysis According to Lili Kolisko

Article Source: https://en.anthro.wiki/Capillary_dynamolysis

Capillary dynamolysis (German: Steigbildmethode “rising picture method”) was developed by Lili Kolisko and is one of the image forming methods by which the “vital quality” of food and other substances can be assessed. The method was further developed by Wala Heilmittel GmbH under the direction of Rudolf Hauschka.

A variant of this method, in which the solution to be examined spreads out horizontally rather than vertically, is the round filter method developed by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer.

Method (WALA)

In the first rising phase, 0.6 ml of an aqueous extract of the test sample, either pure or diluted to 50% with distilled water, is made to rise on a chromatography paper without the presence of an electric field. In the second rising phase, the silver rising phase, after an intermediate drying time of about 2 to 3 hours, 0.7 ml of 0.25% silver nitrate solution is allowed to rise so that it exceeds the so-called juice rising front by just under 1 cm. This results in a characteristic drop-like fringe on the first uniform riser front. The riser fronts of the first and second riser phase often remain recognisable as a horizontal line in the finished image. After another drying time of approx. 2 hours, the third rising phase, the iron rising phase, follows with 2 ml of 0.25% iron sulphate solution up to a total rising height of approx. twelve centimetres. The temperature is kept constant at 20°C during this time. The humidity should initially be 50 % rel. humidity and is increased during the 2nd and 3rd climbing phase.

After the subsequent drying process, a sample is found on the paper by whose morphological nature the quality of the sample can be assessed.

Literature

  • Magda Engqvist: Die Steigbildmethode. Ein Indikator für Lebensprozesse in der Pflanze., Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1977

Weblinks

III. Capillary Dynamolysis – Rising Picture Method

by FreeManCreator

Capillary dynamolysis or the rising picture method was developed by Lili Kolisko (1889-1976) upon a suggestion made by Rudolf Steiner to experimentally investigate the workings of the etheric formative forces in mineral physical substances. Through experiments she was able to prove the direct influence of planets on mineral ubstance, particularly revealed at critical conjunctions, oppositions and eclipses. Her experimental work was confirmed by Agnes Fyfe (1898-1986) and many others, see Further reading section below.

Today this method (and/or the derived round-filter chromatography), is applied to study the formative forces in the domain of agriculture, for example for testing composting methods, investigate disease processes in plants, etc.

Capillary dynamolysis or the rising picture method belongs to the category of picture or image forming methods, together

See more on: Scientific research into the etheric formative forces

Aspects

  • the name rising image or picture method comes from the original in german: ‘Steigbildmethode’
  • method was further developed by Wala Heilmittel GmbH under the direction of Rudolf Hauschka, hence the so-called ‘WALA method’ developed in the 1950s
  • pioneering research:
    • Lilly Kolisko introduced capillary dynamolysis to Britain when she moved there with her husband Dr Eugen Kolisko in 1936. She discovered a correlation between certain planetary events such as eclipses with certain phenomena of capillary dynamolysis. Kolisko’s technique used solutions in which particular metallic salts had been dissolved, to then record the pattern that these solutions made when they crystallized onto filter paper. The hypothesis was that the etheric formative forces from the planets (incl. Moon and Sun) would affect the metal and thus modify the resulting patterns, and the experiments successfully confirmed this. Further experiments showed that during eclipses when eg Saturn was eclipsed by the Sun or the Moon, this crystallization of lead salts was either delayed or completely obstructed.
    • Agnes Fyfe (1898-1986) from 1949 onwards continued the work on capillary dynamolysis, working at the Hiscia Institute (and/or Society of Cancer Research). In daily experiments over 25 years she showed correlations between planetary rhythms and changes in capillary dynamolysis pictures with plant extracts (see Further reading section below). In 1967, she showed that the precipitation of carefully prepared iron-silver solutions was delayed during the half hour following exact conjunctions between Mars (ruler of iron) and the Moon (ruler of silver).
    • others:
      • Theodore Schwenk found that the crystallization pattern of a solution was markedly influenced by the Mars-Saturn conjunction of 1949, an experiment that was replicated by Karl Voss in 1964 (see publication in Pelikan 1973)
      • Karl Voss in 1965 (as summarised by Brigadier R. Firebrace ‘Confirmation of the Kolisko Experiments’)
      • Nick Kollerstrom (starting in 1972, published in 1976, ’77 and ’82 in The Astrological Journal, reprinted in the 1984 Astrochemistry) also re-did experiments involving conjunctions and other aspects between Mars and Saturn, the Moon and Saturn, and the Moon and Mars. See extensive online info at www.sciencegroup.org.uk/kolisko/
      • as well as oa Andre Faussurier, Geoffrey Dean, Michael Drummond and more, see Further reading section below
  • A modern practical introductory reading about this experimental work is the small booklet by (a friend of Agnes Fyfe) Janet Barker: ‘The Handbook of rising pictures’ (2009)

Schema FMC00.527 shows the influence of the etheric formative forces of the planetary spheres corresponding to the various esoteric planets in our solar system. Above: pictures by Janet Barker of red rose petals using Agnes Fyfe’s method (from The Handbook of rising pictures). Below (because these are not widely spread and have never been published together): the series of booklets by Agnes Fyfe and below by Lily Kolisko in their original German and English versions, published by both ladies between 1927 and 1984.

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Lilly Kolisko
    • Workings of the Stars in Earthly Substance (in DE ‘Sternenwirken in Erdenstoffen’)
      • Sternenwirken in Erdenstoffen Vol 1 (1927)
      • Vol 2: Die Sonnenfinsternis vom 29. Juni 1927 (1927)
      • Vol 3: Das Silber und der Mond (1929), in EN as ‘The Moon and the Growth of Plants’
      • Vol 4: – Der Jupiter und das Zinn (1932)
      • Metalle und Planeten. (in three parts 1934-35)
      • Die totale Sonnenfinsternis vom 19. Juni 1936 (1936)
      • Gold and the Sun. The total Eclipse of the Sun 20. May 1947 (1947)
      • Spirit in matter (1948)
        • silver and gold, describing day-night differences
      • Saturn und Blei (1952)
        • describes a large number of silver, iron and lead experiments from 1926 to 1951, using both rising picture and crystallization methods. Also describes Mars-conjunct-Saturn experiments and a series of adjacent conjunctions and oppositions of tMoon and Saturn.
      • Die totale Sonnenfinsternis vom 15. Februar 1961 (1961), published in EN 1978 as ‘The Sun Eclipse’ (by Andrew Clunies-Ross)
  • Eugen and Lilly Kolisko
    • Silver and the Human Organism
    • Lead and the Human Organism
  • Agnes Fyfe (1898-1986)
    • Über die Variabilität von Silber-Eisen-Steigbildern (1967, article)
    • Capillary Dynamic Studies (in DE Kapillardynamische Untersuchungsergebnisse)
      • Vol 1 – Die Signatur des Mondes im Pflanzenreich (1967) – also as ‘Moon and plant’ (1967, 1975))
      • Vol 2 – Die Signatur Merkurs im Pflanzenreich – also as ‘The Signature of the Planet Mercury in Plants’ (Britisch Homeopathic Journal 1973/74)
      • Vol 3 – Die Signatur der Venus im Pflanzenbereich
      • Die Signatur des Uranus im Pflanzenreich (1984)
    • Scientific hypotheses and etheric forces (1981)
  • H. Krüger
    • ‘Zum Historischen der Kristallisations- und der kapillardynamischen Methoden. Nach einem Referat auf der Tagung «Bildschaffende Methoden» der Naturwissenschaftlichen Sektion am Goetheanum’ (manuscript)
    • Über Qualität und bildschaffende Untersuchungsmethoden (1971)
  • Magda Engqvist: ‘Die Steigbildmethode. Ein Indikator für Lebensprozesse in der Pflanze’ (1977)
  • Adam McLean: Capillary Dynamolysis (article in Hermetic Journal 1980, see online version here)
  • William Steffen
    • The physico-chemical basis of capillary dynamolysis (1983)
    • Untersuchungen zu den physikalisch-chemischen Grundlagen der Steigbildmethode (1983, article)
    • Paul Balthasar: Bemerkungen zu William Steffen: Untersuchungen zu den experimentellen und physikalisch-chemischen Grundlagen der Steigbildmethode (1986, comments to article)
  • Václav Záveský : Was kann die Steigbildmethode nach L. Kolisko zu einer phänomenologischen Betrachtung der Pflanzenstofflichkeit beitragen? ( (1987, article)
  • Haijo Knijpenga: ‘Die Steigbildmethode als erkenntnistheoretisch Herausforderung’ (1987, article)
  • Ruth Mandera: ‘Zur Metamorphose von Pflanzenorganen, Substanzqualitäten und bildtypen im Steigbild’ (1995 in Tycho de Brahe Jahrbuch für Goetheanismus)
  • Michael Theroux: ‘Lunar influence on the electrochemical production of colloidal silver’ (1997)
  • L. Rist: ‘Die Sonnenfinsternis vom 11. August 1999 im Rundfilterchromatogramm nach Pfeiffer und im Steigbild nach Wala (2000)
  • Ursula Balzer-Graf: The Renaissance of Farming: A Vision for Organic Farming in the 21st Century (2000)
  • Václav Záveský: ‘Steigbilder mit Metallsalzlösungen nach Lili Kolisko – Ein Erfahrungsbericht mit Untersuchung der experimentellen Bedingungen’ (2002 – article)
  • Aneta Zalecka: ‘Entwicklung und Validierung der Steigbildmethode zur Differenzierung von ausgewählten Lebensmitteln aus verschiedenen Anbausystemen und Verarbeitungsprozessen’ (2007, thesis)
  • Janet Barker: ‘The Handbook of rising pictures’ (2009)
  • Florin Enache, Sorin Matei, Gabi Mirela Matei, Jerca Ionut-Ovidiu: Preliminary results on using capillary dynamolysis in assessing the effect of structured water on cucumber plants (2019 – paper)