[A new guest essay, "Clarence" by Cal Roeker, under the section "Essays" in the website.]
Somehow, following long lines of vaguely interconnected thoughts during endless talk at the cabin, we came across the old idea of Lamarkian evolution. For those who cannot remember their high school biology, this precursor to Darwinian evolution involves "acquired characteristics," that is, traits passed down from parents due to physical alterations acquired in a lifetime; that is, as the experiment went, if enough generations of mice had their tails cut off, eventually the offspring would have no tails. As one might recall, this experiment failed and it is something brought up in class as highly risible, even primitive, like "aether" or miniature bodies in sperm cells. I have recently read some odd things that show that Lamarkian evolution just might occur, but it is clouded in the undeniable fact of "unexpressed genes."
My awareness of this began by watching a Discovery program about cats - a most remarkable species (as they said) that exists in all places humans do, and a few that they don't - such as the Antarctic Peninsula. More remarkable still, they said that cats will change substantially under different conditions; that while in domestic situations they become small and somewhat docile, after a few generations in the wild, they grow considerably larger (50% is what I recall), fangs and claws toughen, and dispositions become anything but domestic. Then again, put them in the proximity of humans, and then back into the house, and they gradually (through offspring) return to smaller sizes with more docile dispositions.
Once aware of this, other examples leaped out, including, almost incredibly, the metamorphosis of grasshoppers. While the western grasshopper in the US is all but extinct, at one time it flourished in the dry areas resembling the grasshoppers we all know. However, under extreme drought conditions, they change - the very same generation! - into something much larger and menacing to agriculturalists - the locust. In this, they also grow larger wings and swarm, creating the terror of Biblical and Mormon times. Then there are horses - anyone who has raised them in domestic and semi-wild conditions knows that once let loose, they become "one with nature;" that is, their fur grows considerably longer in winter, and they toughen both physically and behaviorally into creatures well suited to making it on their own. Also dogs: left to breed naturally, they become a pack animal of medium size that hunts and scavenges successfully - and they become, after generations of homogenization, the all- world "yellow dog."
In the US, it was once thought that we had lost the American chestnut forever; now we know that they are coming back with a bang, having survived from the roots of the old and developed a resistance to the chestnut blight. The striking point is that the "root stock" is literally from the root and therefore genetically the same as the parent - although even if from seed, it would be difficult to generate a sub-species of resistant tree in one hundred years following Darwinian-style genetic changes. What has happened instead to the trees and to the other animals is a wakening of unexpressed genes. Hidden from view, apparently many - maybe all - species have hidden capabilities that are expressed only under certain stressful conditions.
I bet that humans have such unexpressed genes as well. While living in the deep forests of Venezuela, it was impossible not to note the unbelievable stamina and quickness of the backwoods Indians. In one group, the men were typically only about 5 ft 2 inches, but they could chop a 3 ft diameter tree down in 15 minutes, travel at running speeds for hours at a time, and respond with cat-like quickness in hunting and emergencies. Yet their genetic counterparts in the nearby towns and cities were as slow, clumsy and plodding as the rest of us. And the woman: I recall one woman in her 8th month of pregnancy who journeyed 3 days over slippery mountain trails carrying a head-basket without trouble. At one point, we had to use a slippery log to cross a ravine, and while this anthropologist shinnied across (to the amusement of all), the pregnant women just tip-toed over like nothing at all.
It may well be that this difference could be accounted for solely by upbringing - I know I changed during my fieldwork (although not enough). But what hidden genes might we posses? Experts in the field of psychic forces - many proven beyond a reasonable doubt - claim that ALL of us have some abilities in psi; and although some are more naturally outstanding in their use than others, these abilities might be made more effective through various exercises such as meditation. Yet, many people have experienced amazing, and sometimes life-saving unexplained events under extreme stress Such was the story of a an lost in the Alaskan wilderness who was told by another man by his side the right ways to go. Once back to safety, of course, he understood that there never was another man next to him. Etc.
And so it is along these lines that I go back to my reading of "The Dawning of the Akashic Age." I must say that I am so far disappointed with the book - I have found little new or transforming in it so far - except the concept that the coming near-collapse of world civilization will necessitate a new way of doing things. Might it not also provide the stress on a planetary scale to significantly, and permanently, change human consciousness? And are "unexpressed genes" truly vestigial remnants of past stress waiting for their time again, or are they expressions of Intelligent Design, built in for the future rather than remnants of the past? FK
Somehow, following long lines of vaguely interconnected thoughts during endless talk at the cabin, we came across the old idea of Lamarkian evolution. For those who cannot remember their high school biology, this precursor to Darwinian evolution involves "acquired characteristics," that is, traits passed down from parents due to physical alterations acquired in a lifetime; that is, as the experiment went, if enough generations of mice had their tails cut off, eventually the offspring would have no tails. As one might recall, this experiment failed and it is something brought up in class as highly risible, even primitive, like "aether" or miniature bodies in sperm cells. I have recently read some odd things that show that Lamarkian evolution just might occur, but it is clouded in the undeniable fact of "unexpressed genes."
My awareness of this began by watching a Discovery program about cats - a most remarkable species (as they said) that exists in all places humans do, and a few that they don't - such as the Antarctic Peninsula. More remarkable still, they said that cats will change substantially under different conditions; that while in domestic situations they become small and somewhat docile, after a few generations in the wild, they grow considerably larger (50% is what I recall), fangs and claws toughen, and dispositions become anything but domestic. Then again, put them in the proximity of humans, and then back into the house, and they gradually (through offspring) return to smaller sizes with more docile dispositions.
Once aware of this, other examples leaped out, including, almost incredibly, the metamorphosis of grasshoppers. While the western grasshopper in the US is all but extinct, at one time it flourished in the dry areas resembling the grasshoppers we all know. However, under extreme drought conditions, they change - the very same generation! - into something much larger and menacing to agriculturalists - the locust. In this, they also grow larger wings and swarm, creating the terror of Biblical and Mormon times. Then there are horses - anyone who has raised them in domestic and semi-wild conditions knows that once let loose, they become "one with nature;" that is, their fur grows considerably longer in winter, and they toughen both physically and behaviorally into creatures well suited to making it on their own. Also dogs: left to breed naturally, they become a pack animal of medium size that hunts and scavenges successfully - and they become, after generations of homogenization, the all- world "yellow dog."
In the US, it was once thought that we had lost the American chestnut forever; now we know that they are coming back with a bang, having survived from the roots of the old and developed a resistance to the chestnut blight. The striking point is that the "root stock" is literally from the root and therefore genetically the same as the parent - although even if from seed, it would be difficult to generate a sub-species of resistant tree in one hundred years following Darwinian-style genetic changes. What has happened instead to the trees and to the other animals is a wakening of unexpressed genes. Hidden from view, apparently many - maybe all - species have hidden capabilities that are expressed only under certain stressful conditions.
I bet that humans have such unexpressed genes as well. While living in the deep forests of Venezuela, it was impossible not to note the unbelievable stamina and quickness of the backwoods Indians. In one group, the men were typically only about 5 ft 2 inches, but they could chop a 3 ft diameter tree down in 15 minutes, travel at running speeds for hours at a time, and respond with cat-like quickness in hunting and emergencies. Yet their genetic counterparts in the nearby towns and cities were as slow, clumsy and plodding as the rest of us. And the woman: I recall one woman in her 8th month of pregnancy who journeyed 3 days over slippery mountain trails carrying a head-basket without trouble. At one point, we had to use a slippery log to cross a ravine, and while this anthropologist shinnied across (to the amusement of all), the pregnant women just tip-toed over like nothing at all.
It may well be that this difference could be accounted for solely by upbringing - I know I changed during my fieldwork (although not enough). But what hidden genes might we posses? Experts in the field of psychic forces - many proven beyond a reasonable doubt - claim that ALL of us have some abilities in psi; and although some are more naturally outstanding in their use than others, these abilities might be made more effective through various exercises such as meditation. Yet, many people have experienced amazing, and sometimes life-saving unexplained events under extreme stress Such was the story of a an lost in the Alaskan wilderness who was told by another man by his side the right ways to go. Once back to safety, of course, he understood that there never was another man next to him. Etc.
And so it is along these lines that I go back to my reading of "The Dawning of the Akashic Age." I must say that I am so far disappointed with the book - I have found little new or transforming in it so far - except the concept that the coming near-collapse of world civilization will necessitate a new way of doing things. Might it not also provide the stress on a planetary scale to significantly, and permanently, change human consciousness? And are "unexpressed genes" truly vestigial remnants of past stress waiting for their time again, or are they expressions of Intelligent Design, built in for the future rather than remnants of the past? FK
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