Paradise Lost...........And Found - Life Cycles And Muhammad Ali

The whole world knows about the recent death of boxing legend Muhammad Ali and there will be many tributes and obituaries, but since I alone can provide a unique insight into two of his most important years in career terms, this will make it different. What, however, is more remarkable is that these two key years in Life Cycles Theory are the same for everyone. You see I advocate a really simple notion of lives consisting of twelve year symbolic cycles, that begin with an important year I call a Year of Revolution. All I do in literally hundreds and hundreds of cases is see what it means to so many different people.

OK then, the first two adult Years of Revolution I usually study are the birthday to birthday ages of 24 and 36. Were important new ages/achievements correlated with this? Couldn’t be simpler and I regularly do it for celebrity deaths because it’s a blind test and I surely can’t keep coming up with results………..but I do you know. Check out recent articles on Prince, George Martin, Harper Lee, David Bowie, Robin Williams, Umberto Eco, Cilla Black, Ben E. King and many more….(hint just search their name with mine for the link).

In fact, similar to my last post where I featured the incredible 100% match of an objective list of The Top 10 Most Influential People Of The 20th Century, I am going to list a brief summary of the evidence I have found on the recently departed celebrities. This evidence is equally important, because news on celebrity deaths is something completely outside my control. If you will, I am at the mercy of a randomly generated list. Yet you will see, once again, that I am able to produce an unbelievable 100% match of these people and Life Cycles evidence. So, without further ado, let’s check it out:-

1. Prince:- At age 24 Year of Revolution he has a major breakthrough with the album 1999, which produces some of his biggest hits and catapults him into the pop music ‘big league‘. At 36, begins split with Warners' over not releasing enough of his material. Song The Most Beautiful Girl In The World begins this and cements his grand passion with Mayte Garcia. Unfortunately this also begins an era of lessened influence and personal issues, such as the loss of their child, which wrecks his marriage.

2. Umberto Eco:- At 24, he began his lecturing career and publishes his first book on St.Thomas Aquinas. At 36, he publishes The Absent Structure which marked his first entry and milestone in the field of Semiotics (ie. what he became known for). At 48, he publishes the runaway best seller The Name Of The Rose, which gets made as a successful Hollywood movie starring Sean Connery. He was very much the forerunner of Dan Brown. This is a staggering match at every major Life Cycles Year of Revolution!

3. Harper Lee:- At 24, goes to New York at Truman Capote’s urging and begins writing in her spare time. At her age 31 Year of Broken Pathways, she gets a manuscript Go Set A Watchman accepted. This will turn into To Kill A Mockingbird over the next several years. At 36, the film of To Kill A Mockingbird starring Gregory Peck is released and becomes a huge success, winning an Oscar and being called:- “one of the best films ever made.”

4. Bart Cummings (Australian legendary horse trainer and winner of 12 Melbourne Cups) :- At 36, the horse that made Bart Cumming’s name - Light Fingers - began her amazing run with 2 Group One victories. She won the Melbourne Cup in the next year, so this is not a perfect correlation, but it’s pretty close.

5. Ben E. King :- At 24, leaves the Atlantic label under which he had made all his big hits. Begins an era of decreased success. At 36, King (who was reduced to singing in bars and clubs) was re-discovered by the head of Atlantic Records and revives his career with the song Supernatural Thing. At 48, the movie Stand By Me is released and his hit song gets rediscovered all over again.

6. Christopher Lee :- At 24, begins acting career by default with the Rank organisation. At 36, the movie that makes his name - Dracula - is released and leads on to a ‘Golden Age’ as a horror actor. At 48, and tired of being typecast, he argues with the studio owner and begins doing other movies. Once again this is an incredible match like that of Umberto Eco.

7. George Martin :- At 24, he began his career with Parlophone Records working in classical music. At 31, he began to concentrate exclusively on comedy records. At 36, he reluctantly hires The Beatles after being petitioned by Brian Epstein (which comes to define his whole life). At 43, The Beatles break up, which ends the era. Again a magical mix of correlations.

8. Cilla Black :- At 19, gets discovered by Brian Epstein and begins her career with a string of big hits. At 24, begins her own TV Show, which leads on to a very successful second career as a TV host.

9. James Clavell :- At 36, begins his career as a writer of Asian Stories with the release of his best-selling, largely autobiographical novel King Rat. In other words what he is known for (once again).

10. Robin Williams :- At 24, begins career as a stand-up comic after leaving the famous Julliard acting school. At 31, TV hit series Mork and Mindy finishes and he begins film career with The World According To Garp. At 36, his signature breakthrough movie role in Good Morning Vietnam is released leading to huge success and many awards. This is absolutely textbook Life Cycles 101.

Doing this exercise brought back quite a few memories for me, as I had forgotten some of these tribute posts. Please note this is a completely BLIND TEST of the theory, since although I may have heard of these subjects, with their disparate lives, I have no detailed knowledge of their biographies or control about who gets included. I have quite a few more of these analyses, but let’s just say the results are overwhelming in terms of matches with what I have hoped for. Life Cycles is such a thin framework, I am always left with the thought :- “Why should it work at all?” Instead of that I find it works almost perfectly in these admittedly limited in-depth studies.

Neither am I saying that all cases will yield such fantastic results and being scientifically-minded I shall examine cases where there is a ‘lack of fit’ in future years, but right now I am busy showing you and the world-at-large just what a miracle I am dealing with.

But enough of others, you really want to know about Muhammad I AM THE GREATEST Ali don’t you? I always assume that people know nothing of my work, that’s why I bother to introduce it. Well this story is in two chapters, so let’s begin.

Ali defeats Liston for the Heavyweight title in 1962

CHAPTER ONE - PARADISE LOST

There is no doubt that a young 22 year old Muhammad Ali had the world at his feet when he beat a much older Sonny Liston for the World Heavyweight Boxing title. He had climbed to the top of his own personal mountain and declared - "I am the greatest!" This must have felt like paradise on earth to him then. He had such a future in front of him, to truly make his mark with a long title reign. The last thing that would have been on his mind was the possibility of jail time, combined with losing his boxing licence in every state, along with his passport. Yet, barely nine fights later, that’s what happened when he refused to be inducted into the armed forces.

When did all this begin? This public denouncement of the Vietnam War on both religious and personal grounds at the early stages of his new era of Boxing Paradise? Ali was born Jan 17th, 1942, so he was in his age 24 Year of Revolution for the year 1966. On 29th. Mar. 1966 he got up at a Press Conference and said publicly he wouldn’t fight in Vietnam, which caused a media and public outcry. His fight with Ernie Terrell in Chicago was cancelled by the Illinois Athletic Commission. He was now on a collision course that would see him one year later, in March 1967, stripped of his title for refusing to be drafted for army service. All commentators agree that his almost four year period of inactivity :- “robbed him of some of his best years.”

Yes, there are strong grounds for saying that this whole lengthy episode could be called Paradise Lost.

Ali Refuses The Draft in 1966

CHAPTER TWO - PARADISE FOUND

There is no doubt it could also be stated that Paradise may have been reclaimed when he eventually regained the Heavyweight Boxing crown a second time by beating George Foreman in Oct. 1974. But things were much different this time around. Ali did not have an easy time of it. Joe Frazier dished out a lot of punishment when he inflicted his first-ever defeat in 1971, in what was called the match of the century. He was no longer untouchable in the ring and he resorted to a tactic of staying on the ropes to deliberately take punches, known as the ‘rope a dope’ strategy. When he fought Frazier in Manilla in 1975 he took so much punishment he called it :- “the closest thing to dying that I know”.

Now we are properly poised for events to unfold in the twilight of Ali’s career, when he was in his all-important age 36 Year of Revolution, in the year 1978. One of my premises is that ‘things usually get worse before they get better’ and I study events I call setback or frustration moments. I have also called them Trafalgar Moments, in honor of Napoleon’s ignominious loss to Nelson just before his greatest-ever victory.

So what was Ali’s Trafalgar Moment? Well, just as he had a whirlwind victory over an ‘older bull’ named Liston many years ago, he now had a close and hard-fought, split decision loss to a new ‘young bull’ named Leon Spinks, who only had seven professional fights to his name. This was in Feb. 1978 and at the early part of his age 36 year. It was to be his Trafalgar Moment, his ‘moment of frustration’. It was considered one of the greatest upsets in boxing history.

Ali was under-prepared for the Feb. fight. He was seriously out of shape, and knew that if he wanted to get his title back he better do some strenuous training. So he punished himself for this date with destiny, rising at four in the morning to run miles down lonely roads in combat boots in the mist of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. He was preparing all along for what he felt would be a 15-round fight, realizing his punching power had deserted him, realizing, too, Spinks was not going to cave in lightly.

Ali was always good for a pithy quote, but for him this fight was just going to be pure slog to get the job done. Here’s how he summed it up:- “I killed myself to get ready for Spinks. I suffered and sacrificed more than I ever did.” He was about to face his moment of destiny on 15th Sept. 1978 in the New Orleans Superdome in front of 63,500 people, the largest-ever for an indoor boxing match and an estimated US. TV audience of 90 million, as well as being seen in 80 nations. He was a 2 ½ /1 favourite. The dice were loaded. Was it about to be Paradise Regained or retreat to the shadows?

This time around things were very different from the beginning of the fight. Ali was fully fit and properly trained and he had his winning tactics of jabbing and grabbing perfected. This reduced Spinks’ offence and though, as expected, he went the full fifteen rounds, the match was scored 12-3 in Ali’s favour. Yes, this was his night, his time to bask in the warm glow of becoming the first boxer ever to hold the World Heavyweight Title on three separate occasions (although there was some dispute as to whether it was fully sanctioned, as the WBC - one of the main Boxing authorities - didn‘t accept it). None-the-less he had done what no others had ever done and had set the yardstick for anyone else who followed on and wanted to declare themselves ‘the greatest of all time’. All commentators at the time agreed this would be the perfect moment in which to announce his retirement. To go out on a high note and enjoy a nominal period as the three-time champion.

Ali Beats Spinks in 1978 to become the only 3 Time Champion

If ever it was a case of Paradise Found this would have to be it. Even Spinks conceded :- “I congratulated Ali. He is still my idol.” Ali himself said :- “This will be my last fight. I will go down as the first man to win the title three times.” However after announcing his retirement he found he had to make a comeback soon after, motivated by a need for money and ended his career with an ignominious loss to Larry Holmes in 1980. So, real life is not a Hollywood script, but this ultimately messy finish cannot rob him of his true moment of glory two years before.

People today, don’t remember this awful final fight, they remember his glorious reign as the only three-time title holder in the history of his division. They also remember that his career was affected by his decision to refuse the draft and by his controversial outspokenness. But mostly, they remember him as one of the true sporting icons of the 20th. century. A name that transcended the sport of boxing and came to be synonymous with fighting on your own terms, whether that fight is in the ring, or in a civil rights meeting, or finally the carrying on of your public life while suffering the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease.

I hope you enjoyed this more extensive tribute article. You can see the importance in Ali’s life for the major direction-setting events that took place in his two important adult Years of Revolution (ie. 24/36). This indeed would form a number 11 example to the 10 listed so far. In the side column you’ll also see a couple more I have done and the simple fact is :- “in every single instance I have studied of celebrity deaths, Life Cycles evidence is present.”

Now can you see for yourselves, that if someone else, who wants to see my theory easily debunked, goes out and finds even a similar amount of non-correlating evidence, it can’t take away from this fantastic result. I would say :- “So what, you believe you’ve reduced the instance of Life Cycles examples to 50% (and I’m not saying this is easy to do). This is still so far in excess of a rational explanation, that it is completely off the radar.” Anyway, as always, stay tuned because I have so much more to tell you. We haven’t gotten past the first few articles in Pandora’s Box. Till the next time :- “May the cycles always bring you good fortune.”