Archetypal Patterns, Part Two—Fractal Self-Similarity

By Roy Williams - Jan 28 , 2010

Thriller as the Soundtrack to Casablanca

Much has been written about how the 1973 album by Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, synchronizes with The Wizard of Oz (1939) as a shockingly appropriate soundtrack. The movements of the actors seem to be choreographed to the rhythm and tempo of the music. The lyrics of the songs often describe exactly what is happening on the screen.

Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz follow a similar, archetypal pattern of tension and release. Consequently, one can be overlaid above the other with surprising synchronicity.

Chaos, in science, is a higher level of order than can fit into the human brain. It is a more complex degree of organization than you and I can comprehend. Chaotic systems are not random; they are magnificent.

The formation of clouds, the shape of fire, the motion of waves, the twisting of tree branches and the birth of a snowflake are not random events, but the results of chaotic systems.

A fractal image is the map of such a system.

Mathematically created, fractals are three-dimensional. In other words, they look the same from a distance as they do under a microscope. The guiding pattern — driven by what scientists call “the strange attractor” — is endlessly repeated in an interlocking design to create — you guessed it — a larger copy of the same pattern.

And thus we begin to understand the old saying, “The reason history repeats itself is because we didn’t pay attention to it the first time.” Solomon said it famously in Ecclesiastes, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.”

Solomon, I believe, was speaking of fractal, archetypal patterns.

The fact that the guide pattern is woven through every iteration of a chaotic system is known as the Law of Self-Similarity.

I believe that every great success follows one of the many fractal, archetypal patterns and that you will find these patterns underlying every mass-appeal success in music, literature, movies, and the arts.

Or perhaps I’m being fooled by randomness. My entire theory might be nothing more than the result of an overactive, right hemisphere of the brain finding patterns where none exist. But for the purposes of your entertainment, I’ll continue.

The Wizard of Oz was made in 1939 and Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, exactly 34 years later. Last week I wondered, “What would happen if I took the movie of the year and the album of the year from the two zeniths of the most recent social cycles, 1943 and 1983 respectively, and played the album as a soundtrack for the movie? The synchronicity should be obvious because of the similarities in the guide patterns of these out-of-balance, zenith years.”

Coincidentally, the movie of the year for 1943, Casablanca, is every bit as iconic as The Wizard of Oz, and while Dark Side of the Moon remained on the charts for 10 years, Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983) quickly became the top-selling album of all time.

Funny thing, I was right about the synchronization. See for yourself. Just start the Thriller CD exactly as the Warner Brothers logo dissolves into the map of Africa.

Prepare to be amazed.

Next week I’ll tell you how archetypal patterns apply to business.