Evening star., 1934-11-22
NATURE DEMANDS
RISING HUMANITY
DR.. White Discusses EVoIu-
ton at Joint Meeting of
Scientists.
Continued From First Page.)

Continued From First Page)
and functions of the mind itself, the
vistas Of which are just beginning to
be illumined a little by the light OF
science. The old concept, he pointed
out, was that man was possessed OF a
mind and body, separate but somehow
intricately related. This is giving way,
he said, to the idea of man as mind
body-an organism as a whole ana
what has been called mind merely
the small segment of conscious aware
ness" with which one thinks and ap-
praises the world. 1t is merely pin
point of light in the great totality OF
the psychic side of this mind-body,
1t is in exploration of the great dark
nesses surrounding this pin-point and
reacting upon it that the task and
adventure of the future lies.
Dr. White advanced a new concept
OF mind itself in his tracing OF the
progress of evolution due, he said, to
some impulse, not understood, in all
living creatures toward progress and
DEVELOPMENT. Evolution, he pointed
out, is a succession of upward steps
resulting from necessary adjustments
| to changing environments. During the
greater part of the history of living
organisms these adjustments have been
anatomical and physiological-as when
sea-living creatures have to develop
air. breathing organs in order to survive
when a sea dried up. Such process
must have taken thousands of genera
tions. Many races have perished in
this process. but the predecessors OF
man, and even man himself, have been
able to make the physical changes in
the past-however great the suffering
! caused the generations making them.
Less Refractory Side.
Now, DR.. White said. there Is ac-
| cumulating evidence that the mind
side is less refractory than the body
side of the organism as whole. Dur
ing the days of the human race the
| pattern of thinking has changed much
more radically and easily than the
| physical pattern. The major adjust
ments now called for are psychological
of men and women to themselves
| and to each other rather than to the
physical world without them. If they
have made the harder adjustments In
the past, he said, 1t seems obvious that
they can make the easier ones of the
more plastic mind.
The mind is especially plastic and
adjustable in the young. Once youth
| is past it becomes almost as refractory
as the body itself, and hence the hope
of the world lies in its youth. The
nature of the adjustments remains
to be determined, but, DR.. White said
it will at least involve an understand
ing of the self and all the great un-
known in which consciousness Is a
pin-point. The exploration calls for
bold explorers and pioneers, he said
| for the things encountered in that
unknown land "are often too terrible
to be acknowledged, much less studied
and understood" There are to be
| found all the demons of incest, murder
and cannibaliSm of mans past which
he shuts out by living in hypocritical
atmosphere of Self-adulation most OF
the time"
| DR.. White described his own theory
of the development of mind as follows
I'm the lower forms of life repro.
duction took place at a tremendous
rate, and these organisms could afford
| to make great numbers of mistakes
in dealing with the forces of the
environment, because myriadS of them
could be destroyed and the species
still persist. But as life attained to
more and more complicated structures
in response to its adjustment to the
various forces with which II had to
contend, these adjustments became in
creasingly accurate and at the same
time reproduction fell off accordingly
Finally our capacity for adjustment
has reached such a point that re-
production has only to develop single
individuals where before it developed
millions This increased accuracy OF
adjustment Is in itself almost the
same thing as conscious awareness
because it involves not only clearer
and more clean-cut perceptions OF
the situation to which it is necessary
to adjust, but 1t also involves the
delaying of immediate response, bring
ing into the picture the results o1
past experience to still further illu-
mine the choice, and finally reaching
conclusion which can be carried into
action sometimes over years of time
All this involves an intensity Of fixa-
ton upon the specific problem which
is in itself an outstanding charac-
teristic Of that very clarity of vision
which is part and parcel Of con.
Scious aWareneSs."
Pressure and Response.
$50 far as I know" continued DR.
White, there is no indication of any
limitation to this modifiable and ad-
Unstable capacity of the human being
There is, on the contrary, all along
the way, historical evidence that hi
has always seen society as an over
whelmingly complicated affair and
felt that the time was coming when
he could no longer keep up with the
procession. This is his natural re-
sponse to the pressure that is put
upon him to go forward on the path
of progress. AS he grows older this
pressure is felt more and more and
|