Ellen G. White Writings and Current News Releases Part II

Electrical Currents

Occassionally of late in the popular journals there have appeared articles with reference to electroencephalogra­phy—the science that has to do with the electri­cal currents in the human body. The Seventh-day Adventist who picked up the Scientific American in June, 1954, doubtless read with particular interest the article by W. Grey Walter entitled "The Electrical Activity of the Brain," and probably recalled some rather familiar state­ments in the Ellen G. White books, some even of early years. But first let us note some inter­esting points made by Mr. Walter:

Twenty-five years ago Hans Berger, a German psy­chiatrist working in Jena, began to publish some strange little pictures consisting of nothing but wavy lines. They should have caused great excitement among his colleagues, because he claimed that they showed the electrical activity of the human brain. But in fact no one took them seriously. For several years no one even bothered to repeat his experi­ments.

In the quarter of a century since then the study of his little wavy lines has grown into a new de­partment of science called "electroencephalogra­phy." Today several hundred laboratories in the United States and a similar number in Europe are recording and interpreting charts of the electrical discharges of human brains. Their total annual out­put of charts would girdle the earth. Hospitals all over the world have accumulated thousands upon thousands of brainprints.—Page 54.

Then the author discusses these electrical cur­rents, which not only can be mapped, but also be measured in terms of volts:

The signals are usually classified by the frequency of the electrical pulsations in them. Berger's original oscillations, which he named alpha rhythms, are in a frequency band between 8 and 13 oscillations per second—that is, about as fast as you can move a finger. Their size, or amplitude, is around 30 mil­lionths of a volt. Neither the frequency nor the am­plitude is constant. Each individual has his own characteristic pattern of shifts in frequency and size; thus his brainprint is as distinctive as his sig­nature.—Ibid., p. 55.

Mr. Walter published his article in 1954. Going back twenty-five years to the time of the Berger experiments would put us in 1929, four­teen years after Ellen White laid down her versatile pen. Sixty years before Berger did his initial work Ellen White wrote:

Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.—Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 347.

And again in 1872, three years later, she made reference to electricity in the body as she wrote of those who do not make adequate use of their mental powers:

This class fall more readily if attacked by disease, —because the system is vitalized by the electrical force of the brain to resist disease.—Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 157.

Similar statements appeared in 1903 in her book Education, pages 197 and 209. In the early years when Ellen White thus wrote, the idea of there being electrical currents in the body was quite foreign to the thinking of physi­cians. In fact, but very little was known about electricity at the time. But now, eighty-five years from the time Ellen White wrote of "electric currents in the nervous system," we find the scientific world is taking note of the tiny pul­sating electric currents emanating from the brain, the frequency and size of which vary with the individual. That which may have seemed rather farfetched when Ellen White wrote in the early years concerning electrical currents of the brain, we see today to be substantiated by the findings of serious and studious men in the scientific field.

Prenatal Influence

On June 3, 1953, there appeared this item in the public press, "Unborn Baby May Be 'Marked' by Mother's Emotions."

New York (AP): Pregnant woman's emotions may really "mark" her unborn baby, making the child neurotic, Dr. William S. Kroger of Chicago said to­day. The infant may become predisposed to psycho­somatic ailments, the complaints born of emotional upsets rather than actual physical trouble, he said. This kind of effect is not the same as the old wives' tales that if a woman is frightened by a spider, for example, her baby will have birthmarks.

Kroger, gynecologist of the Chicago Medical School, was telling the American Medical Associa­tion Convention of some psychosomatic aspects of gynecology and obstetrics.

These words remind Seventh-day Adventists very much of a number of statements from the pen of Ellen G. White along the lines of pre­natal influence. I quote the first such declara­tion from the article she penned in 1865:

In past generations, if mothers had informed themselves in regard to the laws of their being, they would have understood that their constitutional strength, as well as the tone of their morals, and their mental faculties, would in a great measure be represented in their offspring. Their ignorance upon this subject, where so much is involved, is criminal. —How to Live, No. 2, p. 37.

What made news in the item from Dr. Kroger is the fact that for generations it has been generally accepted in scientific circles that the unborn child is not affected by the habits and mental state of the mother. This has seemed to put the utterances of Ellen White on prenatal influence at variance with the scientific world. Particularly in The Ministry of Healing, pub­lished in 1905, she emphasized this point in clear, forceful terms:

What the parents are, that, to a great extent, the children will be. The physical conditions of the par­ents, their dispositions and appetites, their mental and moral tendencies, are, to a greater or less de­gree, reproduced in their children.

The nobler the aims, the higher the mental and spiritual endowments, and the better developed the physical powers of the parents, the better will be the life equipment they give their children. . . .

Especially does responsibility rest upon the mother. She, by whose lifeblood the child is nour­ished and its physical frame built up, imparts to it also mental and spiritual influences that tend to the shaping of mind and character..

The effect of prenatal influences is by many parents looked upon as a matter of little moment; but heaven does not so regard it... .

But if the mother unswervingly adheres to right principles, if she is temperate and self-denying, if she is kind, gentle, and unselfish, she may give her child these same precious traits of character.—Pages 371-373.

From these more general aspects Ellen White then turns to the question of diet, and she says:

Many advisers urge that every wish of the mother should be gratified; that if she desires any article of food, however harmful, she should freely indulge her appetite. Such advice is false and mischievous. The mother's physical needs should in no wise be neglected. . . But at this time above all others she should avoid, in diet and in every other line, what­ever would lessen physical or mental strength.—Page 373.

From diet Ellen White then turns to the attitudes of the mother and the importance of the husband and father's showing love and affection.

The mother should cultivate a cheerful, con­tented, happy disposition. Every effort in this direc­tion will be abundantly repaid in both the physical well-being and the moral character of her children. A cheerful spirit will promote the happiness of her family, and in a very great degree improve her own health.

Let the husband aid his wife by his sympathy and unfailing affection.—Page 374.

These statements from The Ministry of Heal­ing, which were out of line with the thinking in scientific circles for many years but were corroborated by the Kroger statement, were brought even more directly into focus by the appearance in February, 1954, of an article in the Ladies Home Journal, carrying the bold headline, "There Is Pre-Natal Influence." Beneath the heading a note of explanation appears as follows:

For years scientists have believed that your un­born baby lives an insulated existence, protected from all external influence, but this is not true. It is exciting news that you can control the development of your unborn child.

This article was not written by some novice, or someone who was endeavoring to make a sensational appearance in the public press, but by Dr. Ashley Montagu, a careful authority. A paragraph prefacing the article, appearing in italics, is devoted to the various high positions held by this doctor, who is known to be a world-renowned anthropologist, social biologist, lec­turer, and author. The article is a long one, and I can make only a few references to it. It is interesting to observe, however, that this physi­cian—in what is considered a startling discovery —delineates the same points that Ellen White emphasized so many years ago. He writes:

There is now sufficient evidence from many sources to indicate that the unborn child can be variously affected by physical changes in the mother, and that although a woman cannot "mark" her baby by seeing something unpleasant before he is horn, nor make him a poet by reading Keats and Shelley during her pregnancy, there are ways in which she definitely can influence his behavior pattern. It is largely up to her, and to those sur­rounding her during her pregnancy, whether the in­fant will be born a happy, healthy, sweet-tempered individual, or an ill-adjusted neurotic.

He then continues, in an attempt to assure his readers:

If this sounds far-fetched or whimsical, be assured that it is as strictly scientific as anything else that has been written here. The woman who is troubled during her pregnancy, who is permitted to worry unduly, who is not secure and at peace in the love of her husband and family, may be in such a state of emotional stress that her nutritional economy be­comes disturbed.

After giving documentary illustration of this point, Dr. Montagu states:

Here, as in all other areas of human existence, love is the best insurance for healthy growth. If the mother is loved enough, her well-being probably will be assured, and the well-being of the mother means the well-being of the child she nourishes.

Then Dr. Montagu turns to the question of diet. Of this he boldly says:

Certainly the matter of a pregnant woman's diet cannot be too strongly stressed. It is obvious that the fetus can be influenced by the food its mother consumes.

Then he deals with the gratification of the mother's wishes in food lines:

Another commonly repeated "old wives' tale" is that a pregnant woman's peculiar cravings for cer­tain foods were bad for her unborn baby. The scien­tist once pooh-poohed such nonsense, but here again the old wives seem to have been right, and the scien­tists inadequately informed.

There is evidence now that many cases of food allergy in infants and children can be traced to the eating habits of the mother during pregnancy. Dr. Bret Ratner, of New York, and many other investi­gators, have abundantly proved this.

In summing up his findings over a period of many years, Dr. Montagu states:

Prospective mothers, then, can assist in the healthy development of their babies by avoiding excessive indulgence in any one food. A severe allergy can un­pleasantly affect an individual's entire physical and emotional life. . . . The mental and physical health of the child begins with the health of the fetus. Its care begins with the care of the fetus. In this respect, nothing is more important than the health and well­being of the mother who nourishes it.

A child must be loved, even before it is born, by a mother who is loved. That, really, is all there is to it, and what could be simpler.To us these words sound very much like the words which we quoted from The Ministry of Healing, penned half a century before this scientific discovery. Again the researches of care­ful scientific men and women of today furnish evidence corroborating the counsels of the Lord's special messenger.

Eggs

Another point on which there was scientific corroboration many years after the Ellen G. White declarations on a point touching diet from a scientific standpoint, is found in the matter of eggs as remedial agencies. In 1901 one of our physicians overseas was suffering from pernicious anemia, which had been brought on by an inadequate diet. There had been a premature discarding of the use of dairy prod­ucts on the part of this physician. He lived in a land where it was difficult to supply the body with the elements it needed without the use of some dairy products, especially in a diet free from flesh foods. Ellen White, in writing him, gave counsel that resulted in the saving of his life. She said:Your devotion to true principles is leading you to submit yourself to a diet which is giving you an ex­perience that will not recommend health reform. . . . It is essential for you to make changes, and at once. Put into your diet something you have left out. It is your duty to do this. Get eggs of healthy fowls. Use these eggs cooked or raw. Drop them uncooked into the best unfermented wine you can find. This will supply that which is necessary to your system. Do not for a moment suppose that it will not be right to do this. . . . Eggs contain prop­erties which are remedial agencies in counteracting poisons.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 204.The doctor, who was then in his prime, fol­lowed this counsel. He used eggs in grape juice, and it saved his life, and as this article is written the dear old doctor is still living, although retired, a witness to true health re­form. The statement made by Ellen White in this communication was repeated by her in her general statement on the subject of health re­form, which she presented at the General Con­ference of 1909. At that time she said:We should not consider it a violation of principle to use eggs from hens that are well cared for and suitably fed. Eggs contain properties that are re­medial agencies in counteracting certain poisons.—Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 162.

Seventh-day Adventists read and re-read this statement, and while it was accepted as being in the body of the E. G. White teachings on health, it had no particular significance. It was not until some thirty years later that MeHanby showed through his experimental work that in diets consisting largely of cereals there was a deficiency of vitamin A, or carotin, which caused demyelinization of the nerve fibers (loss of nerve-fiber insulation). The yolk of the egg contains vitamin A, and thus the testimony concerning the properties of eggs that counter­act certain poisons, written before vitamins were known, was substantiated scientifically by care­ful research. And Dr. G. K. Abbott, who dis­cusses this matter at length in an article that was published in The Testimony of Jesus (1934 ed.), by F. M. Wilcox, points out further that it was also discovered that certain cereals not only lacked certain vitamins, but contained "some definite anti-calcifying substance." This situa­tion becomes acute in a diet deficient in vita­min D. Dr. Abbott quotes from the Journal of the American Medical Association:"Mellanby, himself, was the first to show that the anticalcifying effect of cereals or cereal extracts may be completely nullified by supplementing the diet with adequate amounts of vitamin D in the form of cod-liver oil, egg yolk, or irradiated fats, or by ir­radiating the animal, or even the cereal itself."Thus Ellen White, writing in a letter to one of our physicians in 1901, stated two facts—that eggs contain remedial properties, and that they counteract certain poisons. Thirty years later careful scientific research furnishes evidence for these statements based upon revelation.Surely we can say that Ellen White wrote well in advance of medical science. And does not the review of these facts confirm in our hearts confidence in the message from the pro­phetic pen, whether it deals with theology, or church administration, or Christian living, or preparation to meet the Lord, or declarations along scientific lines?But of all the scientific subjects dealt with by Ellen G. White statements, that which is brought into focus just at the moment by articles in the public press is hypnotism. This will be discussed in our concluding article.(Concluded next month)