can’t help trying to describe (even if they prefer to think in terms of computerized rather than living speech). And just as words and gestures carry many meanings, even opposite meanings, depending on their context, so it is with all the structures and processes of our cells, including our genes. The language of the organism is turning out to be vastly more complex, expressive, and nuanced than our old, mechanistic heritage ever led us to expect. Every organism’s mastery of its own developmental processes could hardly be more obvious in its relevance to evolution. We routinely observe how a complex, multicellular animal creates radically different phenotypes1 within its own body. These cellular phenotypes are directionally achieved along differentiating cell lineages—and, at a more complex level, we can say something similar about tissue and organ phenotypes. Further, all these divergent types are stably and integrally bound together into the coherent life of one particular creature. And, finally, this creature as a whole proceeds through continual transformation from the earliest embryo onward—all while managing to preserve the unique qualitative substance and character of its kind as it persists and adapts through all the vicissitudes of its existence. The entire drama of the germline2 has been rapidly revealing itself in recent years as a remarkable focus of the organism’s creative “attention.” Are we to believe, then, that this is the one cell lineage in which the organism’s normal, future-oriented activity goes silent? Or that, with all the organism’s expertise at producing, adapting, and stably maintaining diverse phenotypes even without changes in DNA sequence, it “refuses” to employ this expertise when it comes to the preparation of inheritances? Or that the power with which the organism conforms all its cells, tissues, and organs to a unified and integral whole adapted as far as possible to current conditions is a power lost to it in the management of its own germline? It’s time we let organisms speak for themselves. That is the opportunity and responsibility of the new science of biology. Stephen L. Talbott (stevet@netfuture.org) is Senior Researcher, The Nature Institute (natureinstitute.org) where his main project is Biology Worthy of Life (bwo.life) and he is completing a book Evolution As It Was Meant To Be (bwo.life/bk).
1 The observable characteristics in an individual resulting from the expression of genes; the clinical presentation of an individual with a particular genotype. [NCI Dictionary of Genetic Terms] 2 The germline is the egg and sperm cells that join to form an embryo. Germline DNA is the source of DNA for all other cells in the body.
Soul Size Soul-Size: The Eternal Psychosomatic Dilemma, by James Dyson, MD; Portalbooks (2022), 208 pages.
review by Fred Dennehy There is a tendency to imagine evil appearing on a grand scale, replete with fire, thunder and assorted prodigies of the senses. It may be, though, that where Ahriman is concerned, it is more likely to leak through between texts or in the empty spaces where questions should be asked. Ahriman numbs us before he crushes us. Because we are all long-term inheritors of a worldview in which meaning is felt to be conditioned by the jouncing and lurching of particles or waves, and purpose is seen as a metonym for chance, we should not be surprised to find adversity nearby, in the most domestic of coverings. The question, as always, is what to do about it, and this book speaks to that question. Although Dr. James Dyson is identified as its author, Soul-Size is not a focused study by him or even a summary of any of his conceptual structures. Rather, it is a vivid mosaic of his thinking and his doing. It is about service, “where the inner path and social responsibility become inseparable from one another.” (p. 10). It is “a stimulus that demonstrates how [Dr. Dyson} thinks, combines, and transforms, thereby bridging anthroposophy not only to Psychosynthesis but also to more mainstream psychologies” (Introduction, xii). It is about being in the space which is leading into the future as that future emerges, the space that is finding its way, for the self and the world together, to a restoration of the meaning and purpose that has been sucked out of our reality. Dr. Dyson has studied, taught, and practiced medicine and psychotherapy extensively. He holds a Master’s degree in Psychosynthesis Psychology and he is certified professionally by the Medical Section of the School of Spiritual Science. He worked for thirty years at the Park Attwood Clinic in Worcestershire, England, which he cofounded, practicing complementary and anthroposophical medicine. He also co-founded the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology in North America (“AAP”), where he teaches today. Soul-Size was edited by three colleagues associated with AAP, Christine Houston, Zheni Nasi, and David Tresemer. They have put together selections from Dr. Dyson’s Master’s thesis on Psychosynthesis, talks given summer-fall issue 2022
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