THE PURITY OF NUDISM

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1933, Page 14 (Supplement)

THE PURITY OF NUDISM

FRANKNESS BY PARENTS NEEPED ADDRESS BY MR. ARTHUR HIRST. London, April 13. While Mr. Arthur Hirst (formerly of New Plymouth) was studying music in Germany in pre-war days he became keenly interested in the movement then being developed known as nudism, and when he grasped its real meaning he became a disciple, until to-day he regards the subject very seriously, states the correspondent of the Otago Daily Times. He attends the nudist camp? in England in the summer-time— there are now two centres near London, for the movement is naw well estblish outside tfie country of its origin. He has addressed member? of the movement at notable gathering? in London. This week he read an able paper before an audience of men and women—all people of fine stature and intellect—wfio are interested in nudism, and who are also students of psychology. He dealt largely with the meptal development of the child mind, remarking that while a mqther instinctively strives to give her child food that is pure, she leaves the mental dietary to chance. Parents are not always truthful, but feed their children with ready-made concepts. “The habit,” said the lecturer, “of giving such has been almost universal, and for some idiotic reason those 1 lies invariably are concerned with matters of sex. On other subjects the parents can be truthful, but the mere thought z of sex can turn the model of conscious rectitude into an unmitigated liar. If any question is asked by tfie child it is silenced either by further lies or by afi sorts of vague threat?, Usually th® child takes the cue very quickly, and asks nothing—but thinks a great deal, in no end of queer ways. “I could give you .chapter and verse for thousand? of cases of mental derangement due entirely to false concepts and resultant obsession? regarding sexual matters. Some of such victims are able to Jay their own minds bare, but many, ci course, need to have the mind laid bare by hypnosis. Tfie immense work dope in tfiis field by. Professor Freud capnot be overestimated, and cannot even be assessed in our generation.

“The actual facts that have been observed by Professor Freud provide immeasurable wealth of detail for all serious psychologists of the future, quite apart from the vajue of his own deductions and theories. He may be wrong in believing that all cases of mental derangement are due to sexual causes—but there is no gainsaying the fact that when the idea of dirt and shame is removed from the word and- when the vital and perfectly pun? subject' is freed from ignorance and false concepts, the whole human race will be celansed at the very source. .. “Parents’ lies about sexual matters,” continued the lecturer, “affect the child’s mental life in general, the moral nature of the child immediately suffers, the whole moral fabric of the child's character is instantly affected. In many cases the child detects the lie instantly (children are often amazingly quick), mid in any case it is found out sooner or laten-and then comes the rift between parents and child—then the ‘shades of the charnel house begin to gather round the growing boy.’ The parent, hitherto regarded as omnipotent, and entirely trustworthy, comes under. suspicion! The little mind it turned in upon itself. 'What does it matter, after all, if one tells a lie? Daddy does it!’ ‘What doe? it matter if one deceive?? Mummy doe? it!’ A GREAT VIRTUE OF. NUDISM. “Moral courage is of all too rare occurrence. We can look in upon our naked minds, if we make the effort, and examine the truth or otherwise of our guiding principles. .It requires effort—and people who are old can hardly make it—thinkin* effort, and those who are old and tired ean be pardoned for clinging to a lie they know and refusing a truth that is strange to them! Pardoned, but pitied, for a lie is a lie,

and therefore temporal—-truth, and truth alone, is of eternal worth. But those of U? who are not old can xamine our naked minds, and one of the greatest virtues of nudism is that its practice invariably leafis to that examination of existent concepts. When one realises that one’s concepts of nudism have been wrong—a? one does, two minutes after actual experience of tfie actual life begins—one beings to look- carefully at one’s other concepts, and always .-with good result- Everyone wfio has experienced the wonder Of life in a nudist community must remember how certain concepts fell away, instantly, upon first entry—vanished utterly into thin air—and on® wonders afterwards how they could ever have existed. Chimeras, imposed upon passive and unquestioning minds in infancy, and'’sitting there like grinning devils, were consumed instantly a? they passed into the burning light of simple truth. . Every man I have questioned has told me that previous to his initiation he passed through a period of idiotic fear, far worse than that of ‘going over the top’—and five minutes after entry he could only gasp at his own infantile tremors,-and felt desirious of shaking the firmament with free jubilant laughter! “Oh, parents of children—if you devoutly love those who are born of you?

love, flesh of your flesh, spirit of your. spirit—for their sake? and for your own, . forbear to lie to them—lying is always terrible, but lying to small children is SO . t -ible to those of us who know how the mind lives.that it nwkes our hearts ache through and through.” '. , / -. The lecture was well received, ai}a s many questions were satisfactorily dealt with. Dr. Rockstro was in the chair.