Summary of “The Architecture of Time”

Lecture given by:

Howard Bliman, MD

at Santa Monica-Palisades Lodge

13 December 2017

At the dawn of the last century, two Freemasons introduced us to the equivalency of time. In his theory of relativity, Albert Einstein recognized that the structure of time is not rigid; it can twist and bend. A few years earlier, Mark Twain remarked that, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Both men understood that the principle of equivalency could stretch time in special ways.

To me, this means that the Golden Rule and golden mean, taken together, represent something deeply harmonious and remarkably universal. The Golden Rule of brotherly love refers to a universal principle of mutual respect and consideration. The golden mean, also known as the divine proportion phi = 1.618…, is a uniquely irrational ratio widely found in nature.

In 1202, Leonardo de Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician, introduced Europe to a series of numbers that would lead to phi. In 2011, an Israeli chemist, Daniel Schechtman, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of phi-based quasicrystals. Schechtman used an electron microscope to make his discovery, but a Mason’s square and compass could have predicted it!

What’s so special about a square and compass? The square and compass are the only implements an architect needs to construct a golden spiral. A Fibonacci series of squares and phi rotations would allow him to recreate that beautiful sign of equivalence found in the spiral arrangement of stars in a galaxy, clouds in a hurricane, seeds in a sunflower, bubbles in a vortex, atoms in a quasicrystal, and quite possibly, the architecture of time.

About the Author:

Dr. Howard Bliman is a primary care physician in Westlake Village. He is also an internal medicine and quality improvement consultant at California State University, Northridge. He received his MD from the Keck USC School of Medicine, completed his residency at Kaiser Sunset, and became a member of the American Board of Clinical Lipidology, American Society of Hypertension, and American Society of Echocardiography. He has also published original research on vascular health.