The Golden Mean

The Golden Mean is a ratio which has fascinated generation after generation, and culture after culture. It can be expressed succinctly in the ratio of the number '1' to the irrational 'l. 618034. . . ', but it has meant so many things to so many people, that a basic investigation of what might is the 'Golden Mean Phenomenon' seems in order. So much has been written over the centuries on the Mean, both fanciful imaginings and recondite mathematicizations, that a review of the literature on the subject would be oversize, and probably lose the focus of the problem. This purpose of this paper is to state in the simplest form problems which relate to the Golden Mean, and pursue a variety of directions which aim to explain the origin of this remarkable ratio and its ultimate meaning in the world of mind and matter.