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A Fractal
Epistemology for a
Scientific Psychology
A Fractal
Epistemology for a
Scientific Psychology:

Bridging thePersonal
with the Transpersonal

Edited by

Terry Marks—Tarlow,Yakov Shapiro,

Katthe P.Wolf and Harris L. Friedman

Cambridge
Scholars
Publishing
A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology:
Bridging the Personal with the Transpersonal

Edited by Terry Marks—Tarlow, Yakov Shapiro, Katthe P. Wolf

and Harris Friedman

This book first published 20 20

C ambridge Scholars Publishing

Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, N E 6 EPA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Public ation Data

A catalogue rec ord for this book is available from the-British Library

Copyright © 2020 by Terry Marks—T arlow, Yakov Shapiro,

Katthe P. Wolf, Harris L. Friedman and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. N o part of this book may be reprod uc ed,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic , mechanical, photocopying, rec ording or otherwise, witho ut
the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10):1—5275—4023—5
ISBN (13): 978-1-52 75-4023—1
NO ONE WILL BE CONSIDERED SCIENTIFICALLY LITERATE
TOMORROW WHO IS NOT FAMILIAR WITH FRACTAL S.

—JOHN ARCHIBALD WHEELER, PHYSICIST

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Advance Praise for the Book...................................................................... X

Contributors ............................................................................................. xvi

Foreword ................................................................................................. xxi

Richard Taylor

Introduction ........................................................................................... XXiv

Towards Fractal Foundations for Transpersonal Science
Terry Marks-Tarlow,Ha1ris L. Friedman, Yakov Shapiro,
and Katthe P. Wolf

PART 1 : TRANSPERSONAL EPISTEMOLOGY

Chapter One ................................................................................................ 2

A Fractal Epistemology for Transpersonal Psychology
Terry Marks-Tarlow

Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 33

More than Merely a Model or Metaphor? The Contributions a Fractal
Epistemology Might Make to Transpersonal Psychology
Katthe P. Wolf and Harris L. Friedman

Chapter Three ........................................................................................... 65

Towards a Naturalistic Science of Transpersonal Experience:
Fractal Evolution and Nonlocal Neurodynamics
Yakov Shapiro

Chapter Four ........................................................................................... 104

Transpersonal Psychology and Fractal Evolution
I. Rowan Scott

Chapter Five ........................................................................................... 144

Fractal Epistemology and the Biology of Emotion
Katherine Peil Kauffm an
viii Table of Contents

l 86
Chapter Six ............................................................................................. 186
Epistemology of the Neurodynamics of Mind
Frederick David Abraham

Chapter Seven......................................................................................... 208

Fractals Transcendent: Bridging the Transpersonal Chasm
William Sulis

Chapter Eight .......................................................................................... 243

Chapter Eight
On the Mathematical and Transpersonal Foundations Foundations of Fractal
Geometry and Dynamics
Jonathan Root

PART 22:: FRACTAL

PART FRACTAL APPLICATIONS

Chapter Nine........................................................................................... 274

Dreams, Synchrony, and Synchronicity
Terry Marks-Tarlow

Chapter Ten ............................................................................................ 303

A Fractal Topology of Transcendent
A Experiences
Transcendent Experiences
Allan Combs
Sally Wilcox and Allan

Chapter Eleven ....................................................................................... 324

Boundaries: A Subjective Approach.
Fractal Boundaries:
Galatzer—Levy
Robert M. Galatzer-Levy

Chapter Twelve ...................................................................................... 361

How Fractals Help Us See and Understand the World
Larry S. Liebovitch
Larry

Thirteen ..................................................................................... 372

Chapter Thirteen
How the Cerebellum and Cerebral Cortex Collaborate to Compose
Fractal Patterns Underlying Transcendent Experience
Larry Vandervert

Chapter Fourteen .................................................................................... 391

Hidden in Plain Sight as the Sky Holds a Cloud: Fractals in Ancient Ancient
Chinese Philosophy
Anthony S. Wright
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology ix

Chapter Fifteen ....................................................................................... 417

All the Inbent Fractals of Connection
William J. Jackson

Chapter Sixteen ...................................................................................... 452

The Fractal Qualities of Hallucinatory Phenomena: On Form Constants
and Their Implication for the Psyche
Jesus-Mario Serna

Chapter Seventeen .................................................................................. 494

Cracked Orlando: Dramma per Musica e Fractals, Dimensions
of a Fractal Baroque Opera
Jonathan Dawe

Afterword ............................................................................................... 524

Yakov Shapiro, Terry Marks-Tarlow, Harris L. Friedman
and Katthe P. Wolf

Index ....................................................................................................... 530

 ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

“Fractals are the essence of being human, not just in the building of our
lungs, our nerves and our bloodstreams, but in our individual and collective
behaviors. This is the brave new world for fractal researchers. A Fractal
Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology belongs firmly to this exciting
world and its quest to bridge the personal with the transpersonal will
broaden the scope of fractal thinking. In m y discussions with Mandelbrot,
he was delighted to see fractals venture from their mathematical shell and
shake the world. He would have been delighted to read this book.”
—Richard Taylor, PhD, Professor of Physics, Psychology and Art,
Head, Department of Physics, University of Oregon; author of 315
publications, including 12 in Nature and 4 in Science; 52 awards for
research and teaching spanning the arts and sciences, including an
InnoCentive Prize, Cottrell Scholarship, Pollock-Krasner Residency,
Nobel Foundation Travel Award, and a British Royal Society Award.

“Intellectually engaging and provocative, A Fractal Epistemology for a

Scientific Psychology provides the reader with exciting perspectives on the
promise of fractal mathematics and geometry for illuminating mind,
behavior, and consciousness. Its potential applications to transpersonal
psychology are particularly noteworthy and are likely to serve as the basis
for new avenues of research and theory development. This book will be a
challenging but delightful read for scientists and erudite laypeople with an
interest in fractals and consciousness.”
—Doug1as A. MacDonald, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology,
University of Detroit Mercy; Associated Distinguished Professor,
California Institute of Integral Studies; Associate Editor (Research) of
Journal of Transpersonal Psychology; Senior Research Editor of
Journal ofHamanistic Psychology.

"Fractal Epistemology, as presented in this timely and inspiring collection,

is a breath of fresh air in the closed room of traditional epistemology. This
book offers a truly expansive freedom of thought that can liberate us from
the imprisoning dominance of epistemologies of patriarchy. Understanding
fractals can help us to develop an inclusive model of thought that is more
reflective of feminine, and feminist perspectives. This important book is
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology xi

vital to the expansion of our understanding of thought that sheds light on

the hidden dynamics of all the forgotten and ragged edges of thinking and
feeling that are neglected or misunderstood through more standard
psychological models. A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology
is the first academic approach I have found to provide me with truly nuanced
methods of understanding experiences of trance state awareness and
insights. These essays help to explore with subtlety the experiences of
insight in liminal and meditative practices like Yoga Nidra and allied states
of being, such as dream, recollection, and intuitive knowing invoked
through ritual trance induction in indigenous, earth wisdom practices of
ceremony and story."
—Uma Dinsm ore-Tuli PhD, Author of Yoni Shakti: A Woman ’5 Guide
to Power and Freedom through Yoga (2014) and Nidra Shakti: A De—
Colonizing Encyclopaedia of Yoga Nidra (2020), co-founder of
Intemational Yoga Nidra Network.

“After more than a century of trying to explain “what is personality?”

psychological theory and research brought us much closer to an
understanding of a psychologically healthy human being that integrates
emotion, experiences, cognition, behaviors, and traits into a more holistic
view of the person. A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology
opens a new vista that deploys the mathematical properties of fractal
geometry—non—integer dimensions, self-similarity, scalability, and self-
organization—to the understanding of how minds move and change over
time and co-evolve with a changing environment. The contributions to this
volume use fractal geometry to identify qualitative patterns and explain how
emergent dynamics lead to holistic phenomena. They also present some
intriguing speculations as to how synchronicity, telepathy, psychokinesis,
clairvoyance, and pre-cognition could be identified and understood if they
were investigated from this new vantage point.”
—Stephen Guastello, PhD, Editor-in—Chief of Nonlinear Dynamics,
Psychology, and Life Sciences, Professor of Psychology, Marquette
University.

“A rich, wide—ranging collection of creative chapters on the fundamental

roles of fractal patterns in nature and the human experience, especially in
transpersonal contexts, including psychotherapy. Destined to become a
classic in the field.”
—Allan N. Schore, PhD, Author of The Science of the Art ofPsychotherapy
and Right Brain Psychotherapy.
xii Advance Praise for the Book

“A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology is a prodigious and

much-needed exploration into not just what are quite literally the building
blocks of our world, but also into the underpinnings of our unique
experiential worlds and interpersonal relationships. Marks-Tarlow and her
combined authors, each from their own unique perspective, offer a strongly
integrative tour de force into the realms of personal, transpersonal, and
scientific phenomena while mounting a successful argument for the
integration and synthesis of historically incommensurable schools of
thought. Along with investigating vital, contemporary conceptualizations of
our fractal world, A Fractal Epistemology persuasively and artfully reunifies
the objective and the subjective, the scientific and the transpersonal,
providing essential avenues for disparate disciplines to join hands in
exploring how our world, including our emotional lives, actually lives and
breathes.”
—William .I. Cobum, PhD, PsyD, Founding Editor Emeritus of
Psychoanalysis, Seiy and Context (formerly the International Journal of
Psychoanalytic SelfPsychology)‘, author of Psychoanalytic Complexity:
Clinical Attitudes For Therapeutic Change (2014, Routledge)‘, Associate
Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues; Faculty Member and Training and
Supervising Analyst of Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los
Angeles.

“This is exactly the book I have been waiting for! It establishes transpersonal
psychology as a full-fledged member of scientific psychology.”
—Stanley Krippner, PhD, Associated Distinguished Professor, California
Institute of Integral Studies, Co—Editor of Varieties of Anomalous
Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence.

“In an era mesm erized by binary technology, where our society is in danger
of losing its human sensitivities, the field of transpersonal psychology
attempts to embrace all that is the mystery of individuality and relatedness.
A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology promises the reader a
bridge back to our unique selves, while at the same time offering a visual
path that returns us to the inseverable bond that ties us to each other and to
our natural surroundings. This beautifully balanced compendium fills the
reader with hope to retum us to a humbling sense of that which may join us
together, rather than what separates both hearts and minds. How
extraordinary to fill pages with such a mix of both precision and poetry. If
“big bang” theory doomed us to social fragmentation, the authors’
imagination about fractals may hold the promise of a psychology that
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology xiii

returns us to a harmony of human experience. Like modern day Kabbalists,

the authors remind us of the economy of the universe of hum an experience.”
—Rabbi Peter M. Rosenzweig, PhD, Faculty, Division of Clinical
Psychology, Northwestern University; Machon Shiluv Institute for
Marital and Family Therapy, Jerusalem. Author of Married & Alone:
The Way Back; Introspection; Teshuva and Personality; What did the
Prophets Say? and numerous articles on the art and science of
psychotherapy.

“Surprise! Our lives don’t manifest in straight lines or fixed dualities but in
a dynamic matrix of intertwined possibilities and permeable boundaries,
limned by the fractal, self-similar, “fingerprints of chaos,” across evolving
infinities, present and potential. New understandings emerge for empathy,
altruism, expanded self, exceptional experience, creativity, culture, and
more. This book is a “must” as we enter a new era.”
—Ruth Richards, MD, PhD, author of Everyday Creativity and the
Healthy Mind: Dynamic New Paths for Self and Society (a 2018 Silver
Nautilus Award winner) and co-editor of the forthcoming book, Nonlinear
Psychology: Keys to Chaos and Creativity in Mind and Nature.

“This remarkable, well edited collection provides a broad, thorough study

of fractals with applications to psychology. Working to span subjective and
objective aspects of reality, important bridges are built between personal
and transpersonal. The archetypal nature of fractals shines forth throughout
the text, granting greater access to a new scientific holism, offering much
needed renewal for psychology at this time. The editors have provided a
valuable gift to interested readers.”
—Joseph Cambray, PhD, President/CEO Pacifica Graduate Institute;
Past President of International Association for Analytical Psychology;
U.S. Editor of Journal ofAnalytical Psychology, Author of Synchronicity:
Nature and Psyche in an Interconnected Universe.

“Transpersonal psychology rs at a crossroads, at the centre of which is the

meaning of a seemingly simple term, naturalism. One path holds that
nonm aterial beings and transcendent experiences cannot be squeezed into
the container of naturalism', the other expands the container, emphasizing
the mysterious and multidimensional basis of our natural order. As this book
so richly illustrates, A Fractal Epistemology. for a Scientific Psychology has
the potential to place a much-needed signpost at the crossroads. The authors
collected in this ground-breaking volume demonstrate the ways in which
transpersonal phenomena follow the logic of fractals and open an
xiv Advance Praise for the Book

epistemological approach that aligns transpersonal psychology with

naturalistic science. Essential reading for a 215t-century transpersonal
psychology ! ”
—Brian Les Lancaster, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Transpersonal
Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK; and Founding
Director and Academic Dean of the Alef Trust.

“A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology explores the role of

fractals in illuminating the knowledge of our interconnectedness with all
that is. As an indigenous Maya familiar with ancient sacred geometry such
as the Mayan calendar, I found rich possibilities explaining a very complex
subject in relationship with our psyche. I endorse the book as important
contribution to this field.”
—Yoland Trevino, International Ambassador of the Maya Confederacy,
Guatemala.

“Fractal thinking transfers perspective from one knowledge space to

another, from one scale to an entirely other one—that’s the key to finding
ways to understand people at the scale of new human interconnections.
That’s the fascinating perspective that this book outlines for our futures of
hum an change.”
—Franco Orsucci, MD, Professor, Niccolo Cusano University, London;
Visiting Professor, University College, London; Founding Editor of
Chaos & Complexity Letters, author of Neuroscience in the Age of
Complexity and Human Dynamics.

“This book is a revolutionary and evolutionary landmark in publishing! Vast

in its wide-ranging capacity to unify science and mathematics and the
personal and transpersonal dimensions of psychology with a scientific rigor
that has never been so clearly presented. The expansive and universalist
perspective this book embodies fits perfectly into the ancient Taoist
worldview and organic sensibility as well. The book is a joy to read. Using
styles ranging from scientific to transcendent, the volume perfectly
captures the voices of nearly 20 major theorists—scientists,
neuroscientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, scholars, philosophers, and
visionary thinkers—to express a common passion for never settling for
reductionist arguments and always respecting the ways in which we, as
part of the intricate web of nature, reflect and contribute to a wholistic
vision that both includes yet transcends us all. Reading A Fractal
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology xv

Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology is delving into a sumptuous feast

for the mind and senses.”
—Carl Totton, PsyD, Director of Taoist Institute, Los Angeles,
California; Host of regular podcast: What’s this Tao All About?
Psychologist in private practice and consultant; Former Professor and
Department Chair, School Psychology, Phillips Graduate Institute.

“This is a mind-expanding volume for those interested in understanding

how complex psychological phenomena can be modeled by the rich and
robust mathematics of fractals. As just one lucid example, the author
contrasts the stepwise linear logic used by the conscious mind with the
dreaming mind, illuminating its fractal nature that sees symmetrical
equivalence of wholes with their parts.”
—Shan Guisinger, PhD, clinical psychologist and evolutionary
biologist; co-editor of the forthcoming book, Nonlinear Psychology:
Keys to Chaos and Creativity in Mind and Life.

“This is a wonderful book, with contributions from an all-star cast!

Whatever you already know or don’t know about fractals, whatever your
interests in the wonders and puzzles of hum an consciousness: This volume
provides new entry points for grasping these instantly appreciated—as
well as notoriously difficult—phenomena, and then offers path after
fascinating path toward deeper knowledge.”
—David Schulberg, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of
Montana; Director of evaluation, National Native Children’s Trauma
Center; co-editor of the forthcoming book, Nonlinear Psychology: Keys
to Chaos and Creativity in Mind and Life.
 CONTRIBUTORS

Terry Marks-Tarlow, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist in private

practice in Santa Monica, California. She is also an Adjunct Professor at
Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, and Core Faculty at the Insight
Center, Los Angeles. She has authored and edited several books, including
Play & Creativity in Psychotherapy, Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy,
Awakening Clinical Intuition, and Psyche ’s Veil, all of which she illustrated
herself. Along with clinical practice, writing, and family life, she happily
immerses herself in the arts, including dance, yoga, and writing opera
librettos, one of which premiered at Lincoln Center.

Yakov Shapiro, MD, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of

Psychiatry at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry,
psychotherapy supervisor, and Director of the Integrated Psychotherapy/
Psychopharmacology Service. He specializes in the psychobiological sys-
tems approach to the treatment of trauma, mood and personality disorders,
with a special interest in a dynamical systems approach to the neurobiology
of psychotherapy and integrative health.

Katthe P. Wolf, MA, has returned to academia after a 30-year-hiatus

spent building a successful non-profit career in family support, social
justice, and child abuse prevention, currently serving as CEO of Be Strong
Families. Wolf is currently a doctoral student in Integral and Transpersonal
Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies with a research
interests in fractals, fractal epistemology and the nature of self. She recently
served as guest-editor on the special focus issue of the International Journal
of Transpersonal Studies on the potential role of fractals for modeling
transpersonal phenomena and synthesized the commentators’ perspectives
in her own: “The Nature of Nature is Fractal.”

Harris L. Friedman, PhD, is retired Research Professor of

Psychology at University of Florida, Distinguished Consulting Professor at
the California Institute of Integral Studies and Visiting Scholar (2019-2020)
at Harvard University. He also practices clinical and organizational
psychology, and has written extensively on transpersonal psychology,
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology xvii

cultural change, and research methods. He is Associate Editor of both The

Humanistic Psychologist and the Journal ofHumanistic Psychology, as well
as Senior Editor of the International Journal of T ranspersonal Studies.

J. Rowan Scott, MD, is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the

University of Alberta, Canada. He has an interest in Complex Systems as
well as fundamental questions regarding the reductive scientific paradigm.
These interests inform his research and writing on the subject of
consciousness. He teaches a seminar on consciousness as well as family
therapy in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta. He has
a private practice in general Psychiatry and analytically informed
psychotherapy.

Katherine Peil Kauffman, MA, is an affiliate of Northeastern

University and the Harvard Divinity School. As Founding Director of non-
profit EFS International, whose mission is to foster global emotional
wisdom, she is especially interested in an evolutionary perspective on how
the new biology of ”emotion" can shed light on various mind-body
conundrums.

Frederick David Abraham, PhD, was a cognitive neuroscientist at

UCLA’s Brain Research Institute. Abraham is a pioneer in the application
of chaos and dynamical systems to the field of psychology who co-authored
A Visual Introduction to Dynamical Systems Theory for Psychology (Ariel
Press, 1990), as well as co—edited Chaos Theory in Psychology (Praeger,
1995).

William Sulis, MD (Psychiatry), PhD (Math), PhD

(Physics), is Associate Clinical Professor in the department of psychiatry
of McMaster University, where he is also director of the Collective
Intelligence Lab and co-director of psychological services. He researches
collective dynamics, synchronization in complex systems, cellular
autom ata, random graphical dynamical systems, and mathematical psycho-
logy among other diverse topics.

Jonathan Root, PhD, received his doctorate in mathematics from

Boston University in 2016 under the supervision of Mark Kon. He taught
English in rural China during the 2016-2017 school year and is an instructor
at the Hunan Institute of Science and Technology.
xviii Contributors

Sally Wilcox, PhD, studied at the California Institute or Integral Studies

(CIIS) in San Francisco and completed her PhD in 2012. Her dissertation
topic was A Fractal Topology of the Transcendent Experience with Allan
Combs as Chair of her committee. Wilcox lives in British Columbia,
Canada and continues researching fractal nonlinear dynamics as they relate
to various states of consciousness.

Allan Combs, PhD, is a transpersonal psychologist, consciousness

researcher, neuropsychologist, systems theorist, and President of The
Society for Consciousness Studies. He holds appointments at The California
Institute of Integral Studies (CHS), where he is Director of the Center for
Consciousness Studies; the Saybrook Graduate School; and the Graduate
Institute of Connecticut, where he is the Director of the MA program in
Conscious Evolution. Professor Combs is author of over 200 articles,
chapters, and books on consciousness and the brain, including,
Consciousness Explained Better: Towards an Integral Understanding of
MultifacetedNature of Consciousness, and the award—winning, Radiance of
Being: Understanding the Grand Integral Vision. Professor Combs is also
co-founder of The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life
Sciences; Co-Editor of the Journal of Conscious Evolution, and Editor of
CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research. for the 21 st Century.

Robert Galatzer—Levy, MD, is a psychoanalyst of children,

adolescents and adults who teaches at the University of Chicago and the
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. Besides his psychiatric background he did
graduate work in mathematics at N.Y.U. Courant Institute of Mathematical
Sciences. In addition to clinical psychoanalysis his interests include
nonlinear dynamic systems theory, complexity, forensic psychiatry, and life
course development.

Larry S. Liebovitch, PhD, is Professor of Physics and Psychology at

Queens College of the City University of New York and serves as Adjunct
Senior Research Scientist for AC4. At Florida Atlantic University, he served
as the interim director of the Center for Complex Systems and Brain
Sciences and has used nonlinear methods to analyze and understand
molecular, cellular, psychological, and social systems, including as author
of Fractals and Chaos: Simplifiedfor the Life Sciences (Oxford University
Press, 1998) and coauthor of Fractal Analysis in the Social Sciences,
Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, Volume 165 (SAGE
Publications, 2010).
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology xix

Larry Vandervert, PhD, is a retired college professor who has

published and edited works in the neurosciences, creativity, innovation,
child prodigy giftedness, and science in general. His major research interest
is in how, through practice, and in collaboration with the cerebral cortex,
the cognitive functions of the brain’s cerebellum constantly optimize both
mental and behavioral performance. In his publications he has applied the
findings of recent brain-imaging studies of the cerebellum to creativity
(2003, 2007, 2015), the evolution of language (2011), of culture (2016), of
child prodigies (2016), of play (2017), and the cerebellum’s prominent role
in the rise of Homo sapiens (2018). The cerebellum’s prominent role in
creativity will appear in Encyclopedia of Creativity (3rd ed). Dr.
Vandervert is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association since
1992, and now writes under the egis of American Nonlinear Systems. He
presently lives in Spokane, WA, USA.

Anthony S. Wright, PhD, completed his doctorate at Califomia

Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco on ”Principle and Pattern: Zhu
Xi and Complexity Theory—Completing Wisdom through Fathoming
Organic Pattern," which sought parallels in fractal organic patterns in
Chinese philosophy and complexity science. Previously a Lecturer in the
Philosophy Department at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park,
California, he is currently an Assistant Professor in the English Taught
Program in Intemational Business, in the College of Management at Shih
Chien University in Taipei, Taiwan. His fields of interest continue to be
parallels of Chinese Philosophy and natural organic patterns found in
complexity science. He has been a piano technician since 1970 and
presently lives in Taipei, Taiwan.

William J. Jackson, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus who taught courses

in comparative religion and Asian traditions in the Department of Religious
Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. He earned
his doctorate in the Study of Comparative Religion at the Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University. He is the author of books and
articles about archetypes in the lives and works of South Indian singer-
saints, and books such as Heaven ’s Fractal Net: Retrieving Lost Visions in
the Humanities (Indiana University Press, 2004); The Wisdom of Generosity
(Baylor University Press, 2008); andAmerican Tricksters: The Shadow Side
of a Culture ’s Psyche (Cascade Books, 2014). Jackson expands upon the
relevance of fractal geometry to transpersonal psychology by illuminating
spiritual archetypes, inspiring wonder and awe, as well as providing a Visual
xx Contributors

lexicon for paradoxical concepts, such as existence as multiple, yet “all one”
simultaneously.

Jesus—Mario Sema, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, PhD candi-

date in Research in Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology (Paris Diderot),
and Research and Teaching assistant at the Institute of Psychology,
Université Sorbonne Paris-Cite (Descartes), laboratory of Clinical Psychol-
ogy, Psychopathology, Psychoanalysis (PCPP). His ongoing research at the
Center for Research in Psychoanalysis, Medicine and Society (CRPMS) on
fractals and the psyche focuses on the self-similar aspects of repetition. A
certified attendee of the Santa Fe Institute's CSSS program, he collaborates
with several interdisciplinary complex systems research teams around the
world.

Jonathan Dawe is a composer based inNew York City. His music often
involves a synthesis of compositional workings based upon fractal geometry
applied to fragments and sounds of Baroque music. He is also a member of
the Doctoral, Graduate Studies, and Music Theory and Analysis at The
Iuilliard School.
 FOREWORD

THE PROFOUND NATURE OF FRACTALS

RICHARD TAYLOR

What do we see in the wispy edges of clouds, in the intricate branches

of trees, and in the jagged peaks of a snowy mountain range? For many
years, it was assumed that these images were a haphazard mess devoid of
any pattern. However, the past fifty years have seen a remarkable revolution
in the way we study nature’s scenery, which has brought scientific inquiry
and artistic views of nature closer together. At the heart of this revolution
lies the discovery of intricate patterns called fractals. Dramatically referred
to by many as the fingerprint of life, fractals have been shown to be the basic
building block of many of nature’s patterns, ranging from clouds, trees, and
mountains through to our brains, blood vessels, and lungs.

No one should be surprised that nature uses fractals so prevalently. The

fractal geometry of nature is profound, both in the simplicity of its
construction and in the favorable properties that emerge. Fractals repeat
patterns at increasingly fine magnifications. Yet, with this simple act, they
build a rich and intricate shape possessing a level of complexity that
Euclidean shapes such as triangles, squares and circles cannot match.

Mathematicians have studied the exotic consequences of this complexity

since the 1860s. However, a century passed before Benoit Mandelbrot
realized that nature was using this same pattern repetition to build the world
within and around us. Upon his discovery, he struggled to find an umbrella
term to unite the earlier mathematical work with that of nature. Marveling
at the jaggedness of fractal lighting, he focused on its fractured character
and, on a whim, morphed the Latin translationfractus into the now familiar
term fractal.

Armed With this quirky name, a new era of understanding nature was
welcomed in. Many subsequent studies were fueled by bio-inspiration—the
xxii Foreword

principle of learning from nature’s repetition and applying it to artificial

systems. For example, we now have fractal storm barriers based on
coastlines, fractal solar panels based on trees, even my own fractal
electronics based on neurons. Clearly, the future shines brightly for
scientific applications of this building block of nature.

Even more exciting, fractals have the potential to build bridges from the
sciences to the arts. Surely, artists and scientists have a shared interest in
understanding fractals? For me, the most staggering factor in the story of
fractals is that artists have been creating fractal patterns in their artworks
long before these recent scientific breakthroughs. Examples include
Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of turbulent rivers, Jackson Pollock’s epic
organic paintings, and M. C. Escher” s mind—bending prints.

Pollock’s fractals have evenbeen shown to reduce people’s stress—levels,

perhaps explaining that magic feeling of awe that many people experience
when facing one of his creations (Taylor, 2006). This deep resonance
between the observer and their fractal world is not a new discovery.
Experiments from the 1980s show that hospital patients recover far more
quickly from major surgery when given a room with a view overlooking
nature (Ulrich, 1984).

This effect is called fractal fluency—our eyes have become fluent in the
visual language of nature’s fractals. In a sense, we are “hardwired” to
appreciate fractals. One theory for fractal fluency pictures fractals as being
embedded deep in our psyche, perhaps forming the basic structure of the
Jungian collective unconscious. Another theory builds on the fact that our
eyes trace out fractal motions when searching for visual information.

Sim ilar to the eye hunting through im ages, many animals undergo fractal
searches through their terrains when foraging for food. Ongoing research
looks to see if people’s daily journeys similarly follow fractal patterns. This
prevalence of fractal searches triggers a flood of more profound questions
related to our human behavior. In terms of creativity, perhaps our minds
exploit fractal searches when exploring the landscapes of our imaginations?
If so, perhaps our minds use fractals to drive many emotional, cognitive,
and spiritual aspects of our lives?

Such hum an questions might surprise those who associate fractals with
their mathematical origins. However, as Galileo is often quoted, “the book
of nature is written in the language of mathematics.” In fact, a number of
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology XX‘iii

defining studies on the road to Mandelbrot’s discovery foreshadowed the

potential of fractals for exploring questions of humanity. Mandelbrot’s work
evolved from Lewis Richardson’s 19505 work attempting to develop
models of why nations go to war. Even earlier, Ralph Elliott’s research from
the 1930s pictured the stock market as following fractal up and downs, a
phenomenon latter proposed to indicate that society exhibits a collective
fractal mood.

In the future, we might well conclude that fractals are the essence of
being human, not just in the building of our lungs, our nerves and our
bloodstreams, but in our individual and collective behaviors. This is the
brave new world for fractal researchers. “A Fractal Epistemology for a
Scientific Psychology” belongs firmly to this exciting world and its quest to
bridge the personal with the transpersonal will broaden the scope of fractal
thinking. In my discussions with Mandelbrot, he was delighted to see
fractals venture from their mathematical shell and shake the world. He
would have been delighted to read this book.

References

Taylor, RP. (2006). Reduction of physiological stress using fractal art and
architecture. Leonardo, 39, 245-251.
Ulrich, RS. (1984). View through a window may influence recovery from
surgery. Science, 224(4647), 420-421.
 INTRODUCTION

TOWARDS FRACTAL FOUNDATIONS

FOR TRANSPERSONAL SCIENCE

TERRY MARKS-TARLOW
HARRIS L. FRIEDMAN
YAKOV SHAPIRO
KATTHE P. WOLF

This volume represents an expansion of a special issue of the International

Journal of Transpersonal Studies that proposed establishing a rigorous
epistemological foundation for transpersonal science based on the
applications of fractal geometry (Marks-Tarlow & Friedman, in—press). We
want to extend a heartfelt thanks to the broad range of colleagues who felt
inspired to participate in this project. That such an esteemed group of
physicists, biologists, mathematicians, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts,
religious scholars, and neuroscientists were moved enough to weigh in on
the subject indicates the wide-ranging potential of applying fractal
mathematics across the spectrum of physical and social sciences. Whether
as physical objects, spatial or temporal patterns, or mathematical attractors
underlying the processes of emergence and self-organization, fractal
dynamics are ubiquitous in nature. Fractals’ presence on all sizes and scales
of spatial, temporal and psychological complexity is precisely what elevates
its epistemological candidacy.

Traditionally, the subject of transpersonal psychology has been

primarily confined to humanist and postmodern thinkers, who often dismiss
mathematics and the hard sciences as crude reductionist tools that do not
apply in the transpersonal domain. A similar attitude is evident among many
psychoanalytic thinkers who eschew the recent developments in
neuroscience and neural network dynamics in favor of subjective and
intersubjective exploration. However, just as unconstrained reductionist
attitudes have served to marginalize consciousness and transpersonal
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology XXV

studies, they can also impede psychological and social theorists. Whether
one focuses on objective reality at the expense of subjective experience or
privileges psychological reality at the expense of its physical foundations—
both approaches ignore systemic connections at different levels of
complexity, while perpetuating the reductionist paradigm. Fractal properties
of self-similarity, scale invariance, and trans-dimensionality offer a unique
potential to build a conceptual bridge between materialist and psychological
perspectives, helping us to expand the reductionist paradigm towards a
rigorously scientific systemic-holistic perspective that has the potential to
re—unify brain/mind, objective/subjective, and personal/transpersonal do—
mains (Shapiro & Scott, 2018).

In putting forth a fractal epistemology, we do not wish to make a “one

size fits all” claim. We are not asserting that fractal geometry is the only
branch of mathematics worthy of providing metaphors and models for
transpersonal phenomena. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung came to view
numbers as the basic quality of existence. In crafting an archetypal theory,
his theory of number doubled over as a theory of mind. Jung (1955/1973)
attributed to number the power to bring inherent order into the chaos of
appearances, referring to material existence less as objectively unfolding
andmore as subjectively perceived by an observer. For Jung, numbers serve
as the most fundamental foundation of perceived reality, the place where
observers and observed merge at the level of symbol, synchronicity, and
meaning. In building a bridge between mind and matter, Jung and his
dedicated follower, Marie-Louise von Franz (von Franz & Verlag, 1986),
were interested primarily in the concept of numbers as founts of
inexhaustible metaphor for conscious experience. Whether in dream, myth-
ology or art, the number one tends to symbolize undifferentiated unity; two
signifies the first distinction or duality; three indicates dynamic change and
movement away from the static opposition, while four suggests stable
manifestation. Jung viewed number as the realm where mind and matter
meet, sometimes referred to as the psychoid level of existence and at other
times the Units Mundus.

Similarly, Spencer-Brown (1969) referred to mathematics as the cradle

of creation, both abstractly in the domain of mind and concretely in the
domain of matter. Within this psychophysical cradle of creation, the realm
of mathematical abstraction is said to be discovered in so far as it is rule-
bound and capable of uncovering quantitative facts about the workings of
the external world. At the same time, it is also invented as an abstraction,
indicating something qualitative about the subjective realm of mind and
meaning. A seminal paper by Robin Robertson (1989), Jungian psychologist
xxvi Introduction

and mathematician, expanded the concept of number as an archetype of

order and traces a history of the qualitative development of human
consciousness based on the evolution of quantitative, mathematical
discovery. Robertson traced four major stages of human collective
awareness. The first stage began with counting numbers, where products of
mind and products of matter are symbolically merged. The second stage
involved the purely abstract discovery of zero, an absence that becomes a
presence, allowing for the modern numbering system and negative numbers
necessary for the debt/credit system of economic exchange. The third stage
involved the discovery of infinity, which allowed for calculus through the
discovery/invention of limits and enabled measurement of complex and
moving objects that served as the foundation for the modern
scientific/technological society. Robertson’s fourth stage began with the
recursive mathematics of Godel, who proved that no system of logic can be
simultaneously consistent and complete. Godel’s method models recursive
loops of consciousness necessary for self-reflection, as well as the nascent
study of self—awareness, which uses the mind recursively to study the mind.

To provide a geometrical illustration, consider the Mobius band (see

Figure v-l), which is made by cutting out a long strip of paper, giving it a
half twist and then taping or gluing the ends together. The result is the
topological oddity of a 2-dimensional object that occupies 3-dimensional
space with only one side and one edge. The Mobius band functions like an
Uroboros, or snake eating its own tail, prototypical symbol of self-creation,
based on the workings of recursive feedback loops, where each cycle ending
becomes a new cycle beginning (Marks-Tarlow, 2008', Robertson & Combs,
2002).
 A Fractal Epistemology for a Scientific Psychology xxvii

Figure v-l. Mobius Band. (From Marks-Tarlow, 2008)

A 3-dimensional equivalent is the Klein bottle (see Figure v-2), which

starts with moving a Mobius band up one dimension by enclosing all the
edges and stretching out its other aspects. What was the half twist at lower
dimensions becomes a self-intersecting feature in higher dimensions. From
our limited human perspective that is restricted to 3-dimensional space, the
Klein bottle appears to contain both an inside and an outside. Yet, it is
actually the 3-dimensional shadow of a 4-dimensional object, which, much
like the psyche, has porous boundaries that interpenetrate its insides with its
outsides.
xxviii Introduction

w
' ‘ITMarks-Tar l 090?

Figure 11-2. Klein Bottle. (From Marks-Tarlow, 2008)

Both the Mobius band and the Klein bottle relate to fractals, in that they
share the quality of being interdimensional. It is precisely this quality of
betweenness that is so relevant to transpersonalists who love to explore
interdimensional phenomena, such as mind travel through physical space or
the mind’s capacity to influence matter. The psychologist Steven Rosen
(1994) has written a fascinating book, Science, Paradox and the Moebius
Principle: The Evolution of a “Transcultural ” Approach to Wholeness,
which launches off these topological oddities to explore boundary crossings
and paradoxes, such as “the two as one” within a philosophical position he
dubs “nondualist dualism.” Complementary positions are those of Roger
Sperry’s (1977) monistic interactionism and David Bohm’s active informa-
tion (1980/1997), which postulated a common informational substrate to all
reality that differentiates into physical (brain) and mental (mind) domains
in the ongoing fractal unfolding of evolutionary emergence.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The peculiar habits of the Hepialidae are not likely to bring the
Insects to the net of the ordinary collector, and we believe they never
fly to light, hence it is probable that we are acquainted with only a
small portion of the existing species; their distribution is very wide,
but Australia seems to be their metropolis, and in New Zealand
twelve species are known. The genera as at present accepted are
remarkable for their wide distribution. Leto is said to occur in South
Africa and in the Fiji Islands; but we must repeat that the study of
these interesting Insects is in a very primitive state, and our present
knowledge of their distribution may be somewhat misleading.

The habits of the European Hepialus in courtship have been

observed to a considerable extent and are of great interest, an
astonishing variety and a profound distinction in the methods by
which the sexes are brought together having been revealed.

H. humuli, our Ghost-moth, is the most peculiar. Its habits were

detected by Dr. Chapman.[285] The male is an Insect of exceptional
colour, being white above, in consequence of a dense formation of
imperfect scales; the female is of the brownish tints usual in Swift-
moths. In the month of June the male selects a spot where he is
conspicuous, and hovers persistently there for a period of about
twenty minutes in the twilight; his colour has a silvery-white,
glistening appearance, so that the Insect is really conspicuous
notwithstanding the advanced hour. Females may be detected
hovering in a somewhat similar manner, but are not conspicuous like
the male, their colour being obscure; while so hovering they are
ovipositing, dropping the eggs amongst the grass. Females that
have not been fertilised move very differently and dash about in an
erratic manner till they see a male; they apparently have no better
means of informing the hovering male of their presence than by
buzzing near, or colliding with him. Immediately this is done, the
male abandons his hovering, and coupling occurs. There can be little
doubt that the colour of the male attracts the female; but there is a
variety, hethlandica, of the former sex coloured much like the female,
and in some localities varieties of this sort are very prevalent, though
in others the species is quite constant. This variation in the colour of
the males is very great in Shetland,[286] some being quite like the
females. In H. hectus the two sexes are inconspicuously and
similarly coloured. The male hovers in the afternoon or evening in a
protected spot, and while doing so diffuses an agreeable odour—
said by Barrett to be like pine-apple—and this brings the female to
him, much in the same manner as the colour of H. humuli brings its
female. The hind legs of the male are swollen, being filled with
glands for secreting the odorous matter.[287] This structure has led to
the suggestion of the generic name Phymatopus for the Insect.
Turning to other species of the genus, we find that the normal
relative rôles of the sexes are exhibited, but with considerable
diversity in the species. In H. lupulinus the males fly about with
rapidity, while the female sits on a stem and vibrates her wings; she
thus attracts the males, but they do not perceive her unless
happening to come within three or four feet, when they become
aware of her proximity, search for and find her. It is doubtful whether
the attraction is in this case the result of an odour; it would appear
more probable that it may be sound, or that the vibration of the wings
may be felt by the male.

In H. sylvinus, H. velleda and H. pyrenaicus less abnormal modes of

attracting the males occur, the individuals of this latter sex
assembling in great numbers at a spot where there is a female. In
the first of the three species mentioned the female sits in the twilight
on the stem of some plant and vibrates the wings with rapidity; she
does not fly; indeed, according to Mr. Robson, she does not till after
fertilisation move from the spot where she emerged. In H. pyrenaicus
the female is quite apterous, but is very attractive to the males,
which as we have said, assemble in large numbers near her. Thus
within the limits of these few allied forms we find radically different
relations of the sexes.

1. The male attracts the female—(A) by sight (H. humuli); (B) by

odour (H. hectus).
 2. The female attracts the male—(A) by vibration of wings (H.
lupulinus and H. sylvinus); (B) without vibration, but by some
means acting at a distance (H. velleda, H. pyrenaicus).

Little or nothing is known as to the habits of the great majority of the

more remarkable forms of the family. The gigantic Australian forms
are believed to be scarcely ever seen on the wing.

The Hepialidae differ from other Lepidoptera by very important

anatomical characters. The absence of most of the mouth-parts is a
character common to them and several other divisions of
Lepidoptera; but the labial palpi are peculiarly formed in this family,
being short and the greater portion of their length consisting of an
undivided base, which probably represents some part of the labium
that is membranous in normal Lepidoptera. The thoracic segments
are remarkably simple, the three differing less from one another than
usual, and both meso- and meta-notum being much less infolded
and co-ordinated. The wings are remarkable for the similarity of the
nervuration of the front and hind wings, and by the cell being divided
by longitudinal nervules so as to form three or four cells. On the
inner margin of the front wing there is near the base an incision
marking off a small prominent lobe, the jugum of Prof. Comstock.
Brandt mentions the following anatomical peculiarities,[288] viz. the
anterior part of the alimentary canal is comparatively simple; the
respiratory system is in some points like that of the larva; the heart is
composed of eight chambers; the appendicular glands of the female
genitalia are wanting. The testes remain separate organs throughout
life. The chain of nerve ganglia consists of the supra- and infra-
oesophageal, three thoracic, and five abdominal, ganglia, while other
Lepidoptera have four abdominal.

Fam. 24. Callidulidae.—A small family of light-bodied diurnal moths

having a great resemblance to butterflies. In some the frenulum is
present in a very rudimentary condition, and in others it is apparently
absent. Cleosiris and Pterodecta are very like butterflies of the
Lycaenid genus Thecla. Although fifty species and seven or eight
genera are known, we are quite ignorant of the metamorphoses.
Most of the species are found in the islands of the Malay
Archipelago, but there are a few in East India.

Fam. 25. Drepanidae (or Drepanulidae). (Hook-tips).—The larger

moths of this family are of moderate size; many of the species have
the apex of the front wing pointed or even hooked; some have very
much the appearance of Geometrid moths; they resemble very
different members of that family. Oreta hyalodisca is remarkable on
account of the very large, transparent patch on each front wing,
though the other species of the genus have nothing of the sort. In the
genus Deroca we find Insects with the scales imperfect, they being
few and small and approximating in form to hairs; in D. hyalina
scales are nearly entirely absent. In other genera, e.g. Peridrepana,
Streptoperas, there is only a very inferior state of scale-formation.
The few larvae that are known are peculiar; they are nearly bare of
hair, without the pair of terminal claspers, while the body is
terminated by a long tubular process. They form a slight cocoon
among leaves.

The members of the family were formerly much misunderstood, and

were assigned to various positions in the Order. There are now
about 30 genera, and 150 species known, the geographical
distribution of the family being very wide. In Britain we have half a
dozen species. Cilix glaucata (better known as C. spinula) is said "to
undoubtedly imitate" the excrement of birds. No doubt the Insect
resembles that substance so as to be readily mistaken for it. This
Insect has a very wide distribution in North America, Europe and
East India, and is said to vary so much in the structure of its organs
as to justify us in saying that the one species belongs to two or three
genera.

Fig. 199—Mature larva of Apoda testudo, on beech-leaf. Britain.

Fam. 26. Limacodidae (or Eucleidae).—These are somewhat small
moths, of stout formation, sometimes very short in the body, and with
rather small wing-area. The family includes however at present many
Insects of diverse appearance; there are numerous forms in which
apple-green is a prominent colour; some bear a certain resemblance
to the Swifts, others to Noctuids; some, Rosema and Staetherinia,
are of extraordinary shapes; certain very small forms, Gavara,
Ceratonema, resemble Tortricids or Tineids; a few even remind one
of Insects of other Orders; so that the group is a mimetic one.
Nagoda nigricans (Ceylon) has the male somewhat like a Psychid,
while the female has a different system of coloration and wing-form.
In Scopelodes the palpi are in both sexes remarkable; elongated,
stiff, directed upwards and brush-like at the tip. Altogether there are
about 100 genera and 400 species known; the distribution of the
family is very wide in both hemispheres, but these Insects do not
occur in insular faunas. In Britain we have two genera, Heterogenea
and Apoda (better known as Limacodes[289]), each with a single
species.

Fig. 200—Larva of Apoda testudo just hatched. A, Dorsal view of larva;

B, C, D, a spine in different states of evagination. All magnified.
(After Chapman.)

The early stages of these Insects are of great interest. The eggs, so
far as known, are peculiar flat oval scales, of irregular outline and
transparent; we have figured an example in Vol. V. Fig. 83. The eggs
of the same moth are said to vary much in size, though the larvae
that emerge from them differ little from one another in this respect.
The latter are peculiar, inasmuch as they have no abdominal feet,
and the thoracic legs are but small; hence the caterpillars move in an
imperceptible gliding manner that has suggested for some of them
the name of slug-worms. The metamorphoses of a few are known.
They may be arranged in two groups; one in which the larva is
spinose or armed with a series of projections and appendages
persisting throughout life; while in the members of the second group
the spines have only a temporary existence. At the moment the
young larva of Apoda testudo emerges from the egg it has no
conspicuous spines or processes, and is an extremely soft,
colourless creature,[290] but it almost immediately displays a
remarkable system of complex spines. These really exist in the larva
when it is hatched, and are thrust out from pits, as explained by Dr.
Chapman. In the succeeding stages, the spines become modified in
form, and the colour of the body and the nature of the integument
are much changed, so that in the adult larva (Fig. 199) the spines
have subsided into the condition of mere prominences, different in
colour from the rest of the surface. These larvae appear to be
destitute of a head, but there really exists a large one which is
retracted, except during feeding, into the body; the five pairs of
abdominal feet of the larvae of allied families are replaced by sucker-
like structures on the first eight abdominal segments. The spinneret
of the mouth is not a pointed tubular organ, but is fish-tailed in
shape, and hence disposes the silky matter, that aids the larva in
moving on the leaves, in the form of a ribbon instead of that of a
thread. It has been stated that these peculiar larvae "imitate" the
coloured galls frequently found on the leaves of trees. The North
American forms of this family have very varied and most
extraordinary larvae.[291] In the pretty and conspicuous larva of
Empretia stimulea, the tubercles or processes of the body are, in the
later stages, armed with hairs, that contain a poisonous or irritating
fluid, said to be secreted by glands at the bases of the processes.
These hairs are readily detached and enter the skin of persons
handling the caterpillars. The larva of the North American Hag-moth,
Phobetron pithecium, is a curious object, bearing long, fleshy
appendages covered with down. Hubbard makes the following
statement as to the instincts of this larva:[292]—"The hag-moth larvae
do not seek to hide away their cocoons, but attach them to leaves
and twigs fully exposed to view, with, however, such artful
management as to surroundings and harmonising colours that they
are of all the group the most difficult to discover. A device to which
this Insect frequently resorts exhibits the extreme of instinctive
sagacity. If the caterpillar cannot find at hand a suitable place in
which to weave its cocoon, it frequently makes for itself more
satisfactory surroundings by killing the leaves, upon which, after they
have become dry and brown in colour, it places its cocoon. Several
of these caterpillars unite together, and selecting a long and vigorous
immature shoot or leader of the orange tree, they kill it by cutting into
its base until it wilts and bends over. The leaves of a young shoot in
drying turn a light tan-color, which harmonises most perfectly with
the hairy locks of the caterpillar covering the cocoon. The latter is,
consequently, not easily detected, even when placed upon the
exposed and upturned surface of the leaf."

The cocoons of Limacodidae are unusually elaborate, the larva

forming a perfect lid in order to permit itself to escape when a moth.
Chapman states that the larva lies unchanged in the cocoon all
winter, moulting to a pupa in the spring, and that the pupa escapes
from the cocoon previous to the emergence of the moth.[293] Both
Chapman and Packard look on the family as really nearer to
Microlepidoptera than to Bombyces; Meyrick (calling it
Heterogeneidae) places it at the end of his series Psychina next
Zygaenidae.

We may allude here to the little moths, described by Westwood

under the name of Epipyrops,[294] that have the extraordinary habit
of living on the bodies of live Homopterous Insects of the family
Fulgoridae in India. What their nutriment may be is not known. The
larva exudes a white flocculent matter, which becomes a
considerable mass, in the midst of which the caterpillar changes to a
pupa. Westwood placed the Insect in Arctiidae; Sir George Hampson
suggests it may be a Limacodid, and this appears probable.
Fam. 27. Megalopygidae (or Lagoidae).—The American genera,
Megalopyge and Lagoa, are treated by Berg and by Packard[295] as
a distinct family intermediate between Saturniidae and Limacodidae.
The larva is said by the latter authority to have seven pairs of
abdominal feet instead of five pairs—the usual number in
Lepidoptera. When young the caterpillars of Lagoa opercularis are
white and resemble a flock of cotton wool. When full grown the larva
presents the singular appearance of a lock of hair, moving in a
gliding, slug-like manner. Under the long silky hair there are short,
stiff, poison-hairs. The larva forms a cocoon, fitted with a hinged
trap-door for the escape of the future moth. This curious larva is
destroyed by both Dipterous and Hymenopterous parasites.

Fam. 28. Thyrididae.—A small family of Pyraloid moths, exhibiting

considerable variety of form and colour, frequently with hyaline
patches on the wings. They are mostly small Insects, and contain no
very striking forms. Some of them look like Geometrids of various
groups. The family is widely distributed in the tropical zone, and
includes 25 genera, of which Rhodoneura, with upwards of 100
species, is the chief one. The larvae are said to be similar to those of
Pyralidae. This family is considered by Hampson and Meyrick to be
ancestral to butterflies.[296]

Fig. 201.—Lappet-moth, Gastropacha quercifolia, ♀. Britain.

Fam. 29. Lasiocampidae (Eggers, Lappet-moths). Usually large

Insects densely covered with scales, without frenulum, but with the
costal area of the hind wing largely developed, and the male
antennae beautifully pectinate, Lasiocampids are easily recognised.
They are well known in Britain, though we have but few species. The
flight of some of the species is powerful, but ill-directed, and the
males especially, dash about as if their flight were quite undirected;
as indeed it probably is. The difference in the flight of the two sexes
is great in some species. In the genus Suana and its allies we meet
with moths in which the difference in size of the two sexes is
extreme; the males may be but 1½ inches across the wings, while
the very heavy females may have three times as great an expanse.
Kirby separates these Insects to form the family Pinaridae; it
includes the Madagascar silkworm, Borocera madagascariensis. The
African genus Hilbrides is remarkable for the wings being destitute of
scales, and consequently transparent, and for being of very slender
form like a butterfly. The eggs of Lasiocampidae are smooth, in
certain cases spotted in an irregular manner like birds' eggs.
Sometimes the parent covers them with hair. The larvae are clothed
with a soft, woolly hair, as well as with a shorter and stiffer kind,
neither beautifully arranged nor highly coloured, and thus differing
from the caterpillars of Lymantriidae; this hair in some cases has
very irritating properties. Cocoons of a close and compact nature are
formed, and hairs from the body are frequently mixed with the
cocoon. In some species the walls of the cocoons have a firm
appearance, looking very like egg-shell—a fact which is supposed to
have given rise to the name of Eggers. Professors Poulton and
Meldola have informed us that this appearance is produced by
spreading calcium oxalate on a slight framework of silk, the
substance in question being a product of the Malpighian tubes.[297]
In various families of Lepidoptera it happens that occasionally the
pupa exists longer than usual before the appearance of the perfect
Insect, and in certain members of this family—notoriously in
Poecilocampa populi, the December moth—this interval may be
prolonged for several years. There is not at present any explanation
of this fact. It may be of interest to mention the following case:—
From a batch of about 100 eggs deposited by one moth, in the year
1891 (the Puss-Moth of the family Notodontidae), some sixty or
seventy cocoons were obtained, the feeding up of all the larvae
having been effected within fourteen days of one another; fourteen of
the Insects emerged as moths in 1892; about the same number in
1893; in 1894, twenty-five; and in 1895, eleven emerged.
Lasiocampidae is a large family, consisting of some 100 genera and
500 or more species, and is widely distributed. It is unfortunately
styled Bombycidae by some naturalists.

Fam. 30. Endromidae.—The "Kentish glory," Endromis versicolor,

forms this family; it is a large and strong moth, and flies wildly in the
daytime in birch-woods. The larva has but few hairs, and is said
when young to assume a peculiar position, similar to that of saw-fly
larvae, by bending the head and thorax backwards over the rest of
the body.

Fam. 31. Pterothysanidae.—Consists of the curious East Indian

genus Pterothysanus, in which the inner margins of the hind wings
are fringed with long hairs. They are moths of slender build, with
large wing-expanse, black and white in colour, like Geometrids.
There is no frenulum. Metamorphoses unknown.

Fam. 32. Lymantriidae.—(Better known as Liparidae). These are

mostly small or moderate-sized moths, without brilliant colours;
white, black, grey and brown being predominant; with highly-
developed, pectinated antennae in the male. The larva is very hairy,
and usually bears tufts or brushes of shorter hairs, together with
others much longer and softer, these being sometimes also
amalgamated to form pencils; the coloration of these larvae is in
many cases very conspicuous, the tufts and pencils being of vivid
and strongly contrasted colours. Some of these hairy larvae are
poisonous. A cocoon, in which much hair is mixed, is formed. The
pupae are remarkable, inasmuch as they too are frequently hairy, a
very unusual condition in Lepidoptera. The Lymantriidae is one of
the largest families of the old group Bombyces; it includes some 180
genera and 800 species, and is largely represented in Australia.
Dasychira rossii is found in the Arctic regions. In Britain we have
eight genera represented by eleven species; the Gold-tails, Brown-
tails and Vapourer-moths being our commonest Bombyces, and the
latter being specially fond of the London squares and gardens,
where its beautiful larva may be observed on the leaves of roses.
Most of the Lymantriidae are nocturnal, but the male Vapourer-moth
flies in the daytime. In this family there are various species whose
females have the wings small and unfit for flight, the Insects being
very sluggish, and their bodies very heavy. This is the state of the
female of the Vapourer-moth. The males in these cases are
generally remarkably active, and very rapid on the wing.

Some of these moths increase in numbers to an enormous extent,

and commit great ravages. Psilura monacha—the Nun, "die Nonne"
of the Germans,[298]—is one of the principal troubles of the
conservators of forests in Germany, and great sums of money are
expended in combating it; all sorts of means for repressing it,
including its infection by fungi, have been tried in vain. The
caterpillars are, however, very subject to a fungoid disease,
communicated by natural means. It is believed, too, that its
continuance in any locality is checked after a time by a change in the
ratio of the two sexes. It is not a prolific moth, for it lays only about
100 eggs, but it has been shown that after making allowance for the
numerous individuals destroyed by various enemies, the produce of
one moth amounts in five generations to between four and five
million individuals. The larva feeds on Coniferae, and on many leafy
trees and shrubs. The young larva is provided with two sets of setae,
one set consisting of very long hairs, the other of setae radiating
from warts; each one of this second set of spines has a small
bladder in the middle, and it has been suggested that these assist in
the dissemination of the young caterpillars by atmospheric means.
[299] These aerostatic setae exist only in the young larva. The
markings of the moth are very variable; melanism is very common
both in the larva and imago; it has been shown conclusively that
these variations are not connected, as black larvae do not give a
larger proportion of black moths than light-coloured caterpillars do. In
England this moth is never injurious. A closely allied form, Ocneria
dispar, was introduced by an accident into North America from
Europe about thirty years ago; for twenty years after its introduction it
did no harm, and attracted but little attention; it has, however, now
increased so much in certain districts that large sums of money have
been expended in attempting its extirpation.
Dasychira pudibunda has occasionally increased locally to an
enormous extent, but in the limited forests of Alsace the evil was
cured by the fact that the caterpillars, having eaten up all the foliage,
then died of starvation.[300] Teara melanosticta is said to produce
columns of processionary caterpillars in Australia.

Fam. 33. Hypsidae (or Aganaidae).—A family of comparatively

small extent, confined to the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the
Eastern hemisphere. The colours are frequently buff and grey, with
white streaks on the outer parts of the wings. We have nothing very
like them in the European fauna, our species of Spilosoma are
perhaps the nearest approach. In Euplocia the male has a pouch
that can be unfolded in front of the costa at the base of the anterior
wing; it is filled with very long, peculiar, hair-like scales growing from
the costal margin; both sexes have on each side of the second
abdominal segment a small, projecting structure that may be a
sense-organ. The female is more gaily coloured than the male.

Fam. 34. Arctiidae.—With the addition recently made to it of the

formerly separate family Lithosiidae, Arctiidae has become the most
extensive family of the old Bombycid series of moths, comprising
something like 500 genera and 3000 species. Hampson recognises
four sub-families—Arctiinae, Lithosiinae, Nolinae, Nycteolinae,—to
which may be added others from America—Pericopinae, Dioptinae,
Ctenuchinae; these sub-families being treated as families by various
authors. The sub-family Arctiinae includes our Tiger- and Ermine-
moths, and a great many exotic forms of very diverse colours and
patterns; the species of this division are, on the whole, probably
more variable in colour and markings than in any other group of
Lepidoptera. There are many cases of great difference of the sexes;
in the South American genus Ambryllis the male is remarkable for its
hyaline wings with a few spots; while the female is densely scaled,
and very variegate in colour. There are some cases (the South
European genus Ocnogyna) where the female is wingless and
moves but little, while the male flies with great rapidity. Epicausis
smithi, from Madagascar, one of the most remarkable of moths, is
placed in this division of Arctiidae; it is of a tawny colour, variegate
with black; the abdomen of this latter colour is terminated by a large
tuft of long scarlet hairs; the Insect has somewhat the appearance of
a Hummingbird-hawkmoth. Ecpantheria is an extensive genus of
tropical American moths (having one or two species in North
America), of black and white or grey colours, with very complex
markings; the male in some species has a part of the hind wing
produced as a tail, or lobe, of a different colour.

The sub-family Pericopinae are almost peculiar to South America

(two species of Gnophaela exist in North America); some of this sub-
family bear a great resemblance to Heliconiid butterflies.

The Dioptinae are likewise American moths of diurnal habits, and

many of them bear a striking resemblance to the Ithomiid butterflies
they associate with when alive.

The sub-family Lithosiinae is of great extent; our native "Footmen"

give a very good idea of it; the moths are generally of light structure,
with long, narrow front wings; a simple system of yellow and black
colour is of frequent occurrence. Many of this group feed in the larval
state on lichens. Hampson includes in this group the Nyctemeridae
—light-bodied diurnal moths, almost exclusively of black and white
colours, of Geometrid form, frequently treated as a distinct family.

The sub-family Nolinae is a small group of rather insignificant

Insects, in appearance like Pyralids or Geometrids; four or five
species are native in Britain. Packard maintains the family Nolidae
as distinct.[301]

The sub-family Nycteolinae consists of a few small moths the

position of which has always been uncertain; Nycteola (better known
as Sarrothripus), Halias, and Earias are all British genera that have
been placed amongst Tortrices, to which they bear a considerable
resemblance. Sarrothripus is at present placed by Hampson in
Noctuidae, by others in Lithosiidae, by Meyrick in Arctiidae. The sub-
family forms the family Cymbidae of Kirby;[302] it includes at present
only about 70 species, all belonging to the Eastern hemisphere. Two
types of larvae are known in it: one bare, living exposed on leaves;
the other, Earias, hairy, living among rolled-up leaves. Halias
prasinana is known from the testimony of numerous auditors to
produce a sound when on the wing, but the modus operandi has not
been satisfactorily ascertained. Sound-production seems to be of
more frequent occurrence in Arctiidae than it is in any other family of
Lepidoptera; Dionychopus niveus produces a sound by, it is
believed, friction of the wings. In the case of the genera Setina and
Chelonia the process is said to be peculiar to the male sex:
Laboulbène believes it to proceed from drum-like vesicles situate
one on each side of the base of the metathorax.[303]

Fam. 35. Agaristidae.—An interesting assemblage of moths, many

of them diurnal and of vivid colours, others crepuscular. There is
considerable variety of appearance in the family, although it is but a
small one, and many of its members remind one of other and widely
separated families of Lepidoptera. The style and colour of the
Japanese Eusemia villicoides are remarkably like our Arctia villica. In
some forms the antennae are somewhat thickened towards the tip
and hooked, like those of the Skipper butterflies. The family consists
at present of about 250 species, but we doubt its being a sufficiently
natural one. It is very widely distributed, with the exception that it is
quite absent from Europe and the neighbourhood of the
Mediterranean Sea. In North America it is well represented. The
larvae, so far as known, are not very remarkable; they have some
lateral tufts of hair, as well as longer hairs scattered over the body.

The male of the Indian Aegocera tripartita has been noticed to

produce a clicking sound when flying, and Sir G. Hampson has
shown[304] that there is a peculiar structure on the anterior wing; he
considers that this is rubbed against some spines on the front feet,
and that the sound is produced by the friction. Though this structure
is wanting in the acknowledged congeners of A. tripartita, yet it
occurs in a very similar form in the genus Hecatesia, already noticed
under Castniidae.

Fam. 36. Geometridae (Carpets, Pugs, etc.)—This very extensive

family consists of fragile moths, only a small number being
moderately stout forms; they have a large wing-area; the antennae
are frequently highly developed in the males, but on this point there
is much diversity. Either the frenulum or the proboscis is absent in a
few cases. The caterpillars are elongate and slender, with only one
pair of abdominal feet—placed on the ninth segment—in addition to
the anal pair, or claspers. They progress by moving these two pairs
of feet up to the thoracic legs, so that the body is thrown into a large
loop, and they are hence called Loopers or Geometers. The family is
universally distributed, and occurs even in remote islands and high
latitudes; in Britain we have about 270 species. The family was
formerly considered to be closely connected with Noctuidae, but at
present the opinion that it has more intimate relations with the
families we have previously considered is prevalent. Packard
considers it near to Lithosiidae, while Meyrick merely places the six
families, of which he treats it as composed, in his series
Notodontina. Hampson adopts Meyrick's six families as subfamilies,
but gives them different names, being in this respect more
conservative than Meyrick, whose recent revision of the European
forms resulted in drastic changes in nomenclature.[305] This
classification is based almost exclusively on wing-nervuration. The
number of larval legs and the consequent mode of walking is one of
the most constant characters of the group; the few exceptions that
have been detected are therefore of interest. Anisopteryx aescularia
has a pair of undeveloped feet on the eighth segment, and,
according to Meyrick, its allies "sometimes show rudiments of the
other two pairs." The larva of Himera pennaria is said to have in
early life a pair of imperfect feet on the eighth segment, which
disappear as the larva approaches maturity.
 Fig. 202—Larva of Amphidasis betularia, reposing on a rose-twig. × 1.
Cambridge.

The position of the abdominal feet and claspers throws the holding
power of the larva to the posterior part of the body, instead of to the
middle, as in other caterpillars. This, combined with the elongate
form, causes these larvae when reposing to assume attitudes more
or less different from those of other larvae; holding on by the
claspers, some of these Insects allow all the anterior parts of the
body to project in a twig-like manner. The front parts are not,
however, really free in such cases, but are supported by a thread of
silk extending from the mouth to some point near-by. Another plan
adopted is to prop the front part of the body against a twig placed at
right angles to the supporting leaf, so that the caterpillar is in a
diagonal line between the two (Fig. 202). Other Geometers assume
peculiar coiled or spiral attitudes during a whole or a portion of their
lives; some doing this on a supporting object—leaf or twig—while
others hang down (Ephyra pendularia). Certain of the larvae of
Geometridae vary in colour, from shades of brown to green; there is
much diversity in this variation. In some species it is simple variation;
in others it is dimorphism, i.e. the larvae are either brown or green. In
other cases the larvae are at first variable, subsequently dimorphic.
In Amphidasis betularia it would appear that when the larva is
hatched the dimorphism is potential, and that the future colour,
whether green or brown, is settled by some determining condition
during the first period of larval life and cannot be subsequently
modified.[306] According to Poulton, the dark tint is due in A.
betularia to colouring matter in the skin or immediately below it, and
the green tint to a layer of fat between the hypodermis and the
superficial muscles; this layer being always green, but more brightly
green in the larvae that are of this colour externally. Much discussion
has occurred about these larval attitudes and colours, and it seems
probable that Professor Poulton has overrated the value of
protection from birds, mammals and entomologists; the chief
destroying agents being other than these, and not liable to be thus
deceived, even if the vertebrates are. In some cases such
resemblance as undoubtedly exists is not made the best use of. The
larva shown in figure 202 bore a wonderful resemblance, when
examined, to the rose-twigs it lived on, but the effect of this as a
concealing agent was entirely destroyed by the attitude; for this,
being on different lines to those of the plant, attracted the eye at
once. This larva, and we may add numerous other larvae, could
have been perfectly concealed by adopting a different attitude, but
never did so; the position represented being constantly maintained
except while feeding.

In some species of this family the adult females are without wings, or
have them so small that they can be of no use for flight. This curious
condition occurs in various and widely-separated groups of the
Geometridae; and it would be naturally supposed to have a great
effect on the economy of the species exhibiting it, but this is not the
case. Some of the flightless females affect the highest trees and, it is
believed, ascend to their very summits to oviposit. It has been
suggested that they are carried up by the winged males, but this is
probably only an exceptional occurrence; while, as they are known to
be capable of ascending with rapidity by means of crawling and
running, it may be taken for granted that this is the usual method
with them. Some of these wingless females have been found in
numbers on gas-lamps, and are believed to have been attracted by
the light, as is the case with very many of the winged forms.[307]
Neither is the geographical distribution limited by this inferior
condition of the most important of the organs of locomotion, for
Cheimatobia brumata (the Winter-moth) one of the species with
flightless female, is a common and widely distributed Insect in
Europe and North America.
Although the classification of this family is based almost entirely on
wing-nervuration, yet there are some divisions of the Geometridae in
which this character is remarkably variable, certain individuals
frequently exhibiting considerable abnormality.[308] Amphidasis
betularia is believed to have changed its variation considerably in the
course of the last fifty years. Previous to that time a black variety of
the species was unknown, but it has now become common; and it is
believed that other species of Geometridae are in process of
exhibiting a similar phenomenon.[309]

Fam. 37. Noctuidae (Owlet-Moths, Eulen of the Germans).—This

very extensive assemblage consists of moths rarely seen in the day-
time, of generally sombre colours, with antennae destitute of
remarkable developments in the male (except in a small number of
forms); proboscis and frenulum both present; a complex sense-
organ on each side of the body at the junction of the metathorax and
abdomen. The number of species already known can scarcely be
less than 8000; owing to their large numbers and the great general
resemblance of the forms, their classification is a matter of
considerable difficulty. Although the peculiar structure at the base of
the thorax was long since pointed out, it has never received any
thorough investigation. Few other remarkable structures have yet
been discovered: the most interesting is perhaps the peculiarity in
the hind wings of the males of certain Ommatophorinae recently
pointed out by Sir G. F. Hampson[310]: in the genera Patula and
Argiva the form of the hind wings is normal in the females, but in the
male the anterior one-half of each of these wings is aborted, and the
position of the nervures changed; this condition is connected with the
development of a glandular patch or fold on the wing, and is
remarkable as profoundly affecting a structure which is otherwise so
constant that the classification of the family is largely based on it.

Fig. 203—Brephos notha. Larva, newly hatched. Britain.

The larvae are as a rule destitute of the remarkable adornments of
hairs and armatures of spines that are so common in many of the
families we have previously considered; they are fond of concealing
themselves during the day and coming out at night to feed; many of
them pass most of their time at, or beneath, the surface of the
ground, finding nourishment in roots or the lower parts of the stems
of plants; this is notably the case in the genus Agrotis, which is
perhaps the most widely distributed of all the genera of moths. Such
caterpillars are known as Cut-worms in North America.[311] The great
resemblance, inter se, of certain of these Cut-worms, much
astonished the American naturalist Harris, who found that larvae
almost perfectly similar produced very different moths. The majority
of Noctuid larvae have the usual number of legs, viz., three pairs of
thoracic legs, four pairs of abdominal feet and the terminal claspers.
In some divisions of the family there is a departure from this
arrangement, and the abdominal feet are reduced to three, or even
to two, pairs. One or two larvae are known—e.g. Euclidia mi—in
which the claspers have not the usual function, but are free terminal
appendages. When the abdominal legs are reduced in number
(Plusia, e.g.) the larvae are said to be Half-loopers, or Semi-loopers,
as they assume to some extent the peculiar mode of progression of
the Geometrid larvae, which are known as Loopers. In the case of
certain larvae, e.g. Triphaena, that have the normal number of feet, it
has been observed that when first hatched, the one or two anterior
pairs of the abdominal set are ill developed, and the larvae do not
use them for walking. This is the case with the young larva of our
British Brephos notha (Fig. 203). Subsequently, however, this larva
undergoes a considerable change, and appears in the form shown in
Fig. 204. This interesting larva joins together two or three leaves of
aspen and lives between them, an unusual habit for Noctuid larvae.
When about to pupate it bores into bark or soft wood to change to a
pupa, Fig. 205; the specimen represented closed the hole of entry by
placing two separate doors of silk across the burrow, as shown at d.
The anal armature of this pupa is terminated by a curious transverse
process. The systematic position of this interesting Insect is very
uncertain: Meyrick and others associate it with the Geometridae.
 Fig. 204—Brephos notha. Adult larva.

Fig. 205 —Brephos notha. A, Pupa, ventral aspect; B, extremity of

body, magnified; C, the pupa in wood; d, diaphragms constructed
by the larva.

The larva of Leucania unipunctata is the notorious Army-worm that

commits great ravages on grass and corn in North America. This
species sometimes increases in numbers to a considerable extent
without being observed, owing to the retiring habits of the larvae;
when, however, the increase of numbers has been so great that food
becomes scarce, or for some other cause—for the scarcity of food is
supposed not to be the only reason—the larvae become gregarious,
and migrate in enormous swarms: whence its popular name. The
Cotton-worm, Aletia xylinae is even more notorious on account of its
ravages. Riley states[312] that in bad years the mischief it commits
on the cotton crop causes a loss of £6,000,000, and that for a period
of fourteen successive years the annual loss averaged about
£3,000,000. This caterpillar strips the cotton plants of all but their
branches. It is assisted in its work by another highly destructive
Noctuid caterpillar, the Boll-worm, or larva of Heliothis armigera,
which bores into the buds and pods. This latter Insect attacks a great
variety of plants, and has a very wide distribution, being found even
in England, where happily it is always a rare Insect.

In Britain, as well as in parts of Northern Europe, a Noctuid moth,

Charaeas graminis, occasionally increases to an enormous extent: