MEMORIES OF A MILLION YEARS.
Yes, this is all true —things impressed upon the mind stuff a million years ago arc still with us to trouble and worry many men and women. Every intelligent person knows that we have reached our present physical condition and shapa through a long process of evolution from the fourfooted stage of existence. It is stated by scientists that wo have over eighty rudimentary organs in our body which were of use to us at one time, but about as much use to us now-as a cart whip is to an automobile. We cannot cast off these useless remnants —not in many generations. It is necessary to get these facts clearly in the mind SO' that more important facts regarding tlio remnants left in man's memory may be appreciated, then wo shall cease to worry about most of them. These are fears, superntitutions, and peculiar psychic disturbances which make lifo scarcely worth living for certain persons. Many of these troubles have been treated as diseaoes of the mind and nervous system, when really they are nothing but remnants or normal acts and feelings produced under a totally different .mode of existence.
.Take, for instance, the fear of snakes. This is a fearful state of anxiety and 'horror in some persons. I have known it to cause a state of hysteria lasting for some time. Monkeys to-day show tho same fear, but reasonably so, for serpents seek them for food. Now, when our. ancestors, were living among trees f and their foliage, they had to keep a vigilant outlook.for even in the trees, For these slimy t foes could climb after their prey. They also would lie in wait along the gnarled branches and suddenly shoot out their sinuous necks and heads aad graft the unwary. This actual fear of snakes is one of the memories left us as a reminder of our pasi existence. There are people who cannot stay in open spaces without fearing uncomfortable, and a few really unable to do so at all on account of a fear which they cannot explain. This state of the mind we call agoraphobia, and to overcome it one has only to know it's origin. In fact, most all of these unaccountable fears can be conquered by a knowledge of their cause and origin. Drugs and other medical treatment in ordinary cases do harm—just face the facts and laugh at your old ape grandmother when you picture her running and shrieking from branch to branch to escape the snake, or perhaps rushing to the covering of tho forest from an open field where she was searching for ground nuts. The father away from the shelter of dark woods the greater was tho danger to our ancestors, so that, in open places, they wero always timid and fearful. They could not escape their enemies, sabre-toothed tigers and other beasts by running upright: their agility was at its height when climbing and swinging from tree to tree. So, you see, that this fear ; gf open places comes directly down and is no* [thing to worry, about. .
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King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 713, 17 October 1914, Page 3
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518MEMORIES OF A MILLION YEARS. King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 713, 17 October 1914, Page 3
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