The Sleepwalkers (9 page)

The
essence
and
power
of
that
vision
lies
in
its
all-embracing,
unifying
character;
it
unites
religion
and
science,
mathematics
and
music,
medicine
and
cosmology,
body,
mind
and
spirit
in
an
inspired
and
luminous
synthesis.
In
the
Pythagorean
philosophy
all
component
parts
interlock;
it
presents
a
homogeneous
surface,
like
a
sphere,
so
that
it
is
difficult
to
decide
from
which
side
to
cut
into
it.
But
the
simplest
approach
is
through
music.
The
Pythagorean
discovery
that
the
pitch
of
a
note
depends
on
the
length
of
the
string
which
produces
it,
and
that
concordant
intervals
in
the
scale
are
produced
by
simple
numerical
ratios
(2
:
1
octave,
3
:
2
fifth,
4
:
3
fourth,
etc.),
was
epoch-making:
it
was
the
first
successful
reduction
of
quality
to
quantity,
the
first
step
towards
the
mathematization
of
human
experience
–
and
therefore
the
beginning
of
Science.

But
here
an
important
distinction
must
be
made.
The
twentieth-century
European
regards
with
justified
misgivings
the
"reduction"
of
the
world
around
him,
of
his
experiences
and
emotions,
into
a
set
of
abstract
formulae,
deprived
of
colour,
warmth,
meaning
and
value.
To
the
Pythagoreans,
on
the
contrary,
the
mathematization
of
experience
meant
not
an
impoverishment,
but
an
enrichment.
Numbers
were
sacred
to
them
as
the
purest
of
ideas,
dis-embodied
and
ethereal;
hence
the
marriage
of
music
to
numbers
could
only
ennoble
it.
The
religious
and
emotional
ekstasis
derived
from
music
was
canalized
by
the
adept
into
intellectual
ekstasis
,
the
contemplation
of
the
divine
dance
of
numbers.
The
gross
strings
of
the
lyre
are
recognized
to
be
of
subordinate
importance;
they
can
be
made
of
different
materials,
in
various
thicknesses
and
lengths,
so
long
as
the
proportions
are
preserved:
what
produces
the
music
are
the
ratios,
the
numbers,
the
pattern
of
the
scale.
Numbers
are
eternal
while
everything
else
is
perishable;
they
are
of
the
nature
not
of
matter,
but
of
mind;
they
permit
mental
operations
of
the
most
surprising
and
delightful
kind
without
reference
to
the
coarse
external
world
of
the
senses
–
which
is
how
the
divine
mind
must
be
supposed
to
operate.
The
ecstatic
contemplation
of
geometrical
forms
and
mathematical
laws
is
therefore
the
most
effective
means
of
purging
the
soul
of
earthly
passion,
and
the
principal
link
between
man
and
divinity.

The
Ionian
philosophers
had
been
materialists
in
the
sense
that
the
chief
accent
of
their
inquiry
was
on
the
stuff
from
which
the
universe
was
made;
the
Pythagoreans'
chief
accent
was
on
form,
proportion
and
pattern;
on
the
eidos
and
schema
,
on
the
relation,
not
on
the
relata.
Pythagoras
is
to
Thales
what
Gestalt
philosophy
is
to
the
materialism
of
the
nineteenth
century.
The
pendulum
has
been
set
swinging;
its
ticking
will
be
heard
through
the
entire
course
of
history,
as
the
blob
alternates
between
the
extreme
positions
of
"all
is
body",
"all
is
mind";
as
the
emphasis
shifts
from
"substance"
to
"form",
from
"structure"
to
"function",
from
"atoms"
to
"patterns",
from
"corpuscles"
to
"waves",
and
back
again.

The
line
connecting
music
with
numbers
became
the
axis
of
the
Pythagorean
system.
This
axis
was
then
extended
in
both
directions:
towards
the
stars
on
one
side,
the
body
and
soul
of
man
on
the
other.
The
bearings,
on
which
the
axis
and
the
whole
system
turned,
were
the
basic
concepts
of
armonia
:
harmony,
and
katharsis
:
purge,
purification.

The
Pythagoreans
were,
among
other
things,
healers;
we
are
told
that
"they
used
medicine
to
purge
the
body,
and
music
to
purge
the
soul".
²
One
of
the
oldest
forms,
indeed,
of
psychotherapy
consists
in
inducing
the
patient,
by
wild
pipe
music
or
drums,
to
dance
himself
into
a
frenzy
followed
by
exhaustion
and
a
trance-like,
curative
sleep
–
the
ancestral
version
of
shock
treatment
and
abreaction
therapy.
But
such
violent
measures
were
only
needed
where
the
patient's
soul-strings
were
out
of
tune
–
overstrung
or
limp.
This
is
to
be
taken
literally,
for
the
Pythagoreans
regarded
the
body
as
a
kind
of
musical
instrument
where
each
string
must
have
the
right
tension
and
the
correct
balance
between
opposites
such
as
"high"
and
"low",
"hot"
and
"cold",
"wet"
and
"dry".
The
metaphors
borrowed
from
music
which
we
still
apply
in
medicine
–
"tone",
"tonic",
"well-tempered",
"temperance",
are
also
part
of
our
Pythagorean
heritage.