People, being only human, are quite capable of being alarmed by the very thing that promises them freedom—and like caged birds may sometimes show considerable ambivalence about what lies beyond the open door. Nonetheless, with their heads in the air, even if with their hearts sometimes in their boots, many have sought such evidence as they can find that there are more things in Heaven and Earth—but especially more things on Earth—than dreamt of in common sense philosophy. Countless people may say words that sound like—and surely were meant to be—an indictment of Christianity. Even with that being the case, people still keep their faith in miracles as the testament to the fact that Christianity is doing its proper job. We continue to doctor our faith as a hope of transcending physical reality, and as we do so we have the opportunity to discover palpable evidence that there is more to life than common sense suggests. Miracles are more important than some may thing. Even for someone who calls to deride all paranormal phenomena as nonsense, when they are drowning, these same individuals often pray that a legion of angels will carry them safely to shore. And when some are in a gloomy mood, they cannot but hope for divine interference with Universal law might lift their spirts. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Substance takes form through faith, and is projected upon the screen of human experience through the mold of mental equivalents. Miracles are as important as we think. They become even more important when the miraculous events that common sense has already told us are unlikely to happen are declared by a newly authoritative science to be unable to happen. The search for extraordinary facts becomes a crusade to retake the present on behalf of the future. And yet exactly what kind of extraordinary facts might be the solution? What people wanted—and still want—is, above all, to get their souls back from science. For it was and still is their possession of a soul that most people have relied on as their ticket to a better World. The immediate task therefore has to be to seek out whatever facts could be counted as firm evidence in favour of the soul’s existence. We should throw away all doubt, fear, and despair, and enter joyously into our inheritance. However, the very law which we are using should teach us that we shall arrive at the consummation of our desire only by starting from where we are. We are told to despise not the day of small beginnings. Each one must start with the mental equivalent one has today, and by enlarging upon it increase one’s capacity to receive. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Everybody believes—or at any rate hopes—that they themselves do possess a soul. Nonetheless, when it comes to looking for evidence, the problem is that the soul is not an entity that many people would know how to define in practical or instrumental terms. Perhaps most would, if asked, claim to know what a soul is even without being able to say what it is. Just like people hear words all their lives and understand how they are applied in a sentence, but might not actually know the definition. Maybe belief in the soul has always been one of those beliefs which does not lend itself to a final, clear interpretation. Sacred things are to be treated with ore care, given greater deference, and regarded with deeper reverence. Part of the interest of religious beliefs for those who hold them comes precisely from this element of mystery, their very mysteriousness makes them addictive. The essence of the soul is power. Our lives are all changed by encounters with the divine. These experiences strengthen us to remain faithful to the Lord and his work throughout our lives despite overwhelming opposition and subsequent difficult trials. Our strength to endure faithfully depends upon recognizing, remembering, and holding sacred that which we receive from above. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

In this connection we must remember that the Law of Cause and Effect, the Universal Subjectivity, has no intention or purpose of its own relative to any individual. It is natural to the power and economy of God’s operations that he should implant the idea of himself in the soul at its creation as the mark of the creator on his work. “Ask the Father to consecrate thy performance for welfare of thy soul,” reports 2 Nephi 32.9. As we seek answers from God, we feel the still, powerful voice whisper to our spirits. These feelings—these impressions—are so natural and so subtle that we may overlook them or attribute them to reason or intuition. These individualized messages testify to God’s personal love and concern for each of his children and their personal mortal mission. If we can become more in our inner consciousness we shall have more in our external environment. We should expect so much good that we should conceive it as being more than we even have time to enjoy. We should feel the presence of this good and appreciate its meaning and give thanks for its manifestation. There should be the combination of gratitude, expectancy, and joy. There should be enthusiastic recognition that we are in partnership with the divine and that God cannot fail. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

When it comes to actual and specific practice we should definitely know that the particular thing we desire, we already have. In this way we form a mold in our thought, and a definite one around which the creative energy of mind may play. This is our bowl of acceptance, catching, as it were, from the horn of plenty that which we are able to receive. We cannot experience more than we can accept, but we can expect more than we have been experiencing. If we are willing to start from where we are today, creating a little bigger, broader, and better mental equivalent than we had yesterday, we shall progressively advance. The addition of a soul to a machine could contribute anything to the machine’s practical capabilities. A mechanism as a watch would, once granted a soul, no longer be quite the watch it was before. A watch with a soul might at least have reason to feel less lonely and more cared for. Some are convinced that ordinary computers should in principle be capable of thinking very much like human beings, perhaps even conscious. Yet, human beings, unlike any conceivable computer, have an additional capacity that goes beyond mere thinking. It is paranormal powers we seek: powers that exceed the usual limits, powers that demonstrate beyond dispute that, while human beings are evidently in the World of physical machines, we are not entirely of that World. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

Hope of salvation and fear of damnation are clearly self-interested motives. To tell us that we ought to do good rather than harm to our fellow beings or that we ought to obey the rules of our society because we shall be rewarded for obedience or punished for disobedience hereafter is to appeal to our regard for our own interests. The Middle Ages are often referred to as the Age of Faith, and there is no doubt that the people mind entertained a literal and lively belief in Heaven and Hell. (Whether this is also true of the learned in an age in which any overt denial would have courted the risk of punishment by death it is difficult to say.) Yet the Age of Faith was not notable for its high standard of mortality. A lively belief in eternal torment as the punishment for sin existed alongside a cheerful disregard, in practice, of those moral rules for which eternal torment was held to be the punishment. The paradox is lessened by the fact that when morality is connected with religious faith, the penalties can be evaded. “Open your hearts and minds that mysteries may be unfolded to your view,” reports Mosiah 2.9. That which is sacred to God becomes sacred to us only through the exercise of agency. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

God sends light and knowledge from Heaven. He invited us to receive and treat it as sacred. People tell their children and teachers tell their pupils that morality is to be practiced because it earns an individual a good reputation. One of the laws of radiation says that the absorbing power of a substance is equal to its emitting power, which means that the ones that absorb the most must be the ones which emit the most. That is why we are taught to treat others like we would want to be treated. To refuse to give is to refuse to live to the fullest extent. To refuse to give love is to refuse to receive love. That which we refuse to give out not only closes the door on the giving but on the receiving as well. Each one of us is a point in the Infinite Mind, a center in the Consciousness of God or the Living Spirit. How many of us claim our divine inheritance? How many of us realize that the will or nature of God was written before the foundations of this physical Universe were laid, and that in this will each one of us was endowed with the faculty of true perception, bequeathed a life of perfection and guaranteed immunity from all evil? For surely the will of God could be no less than this. That which is of God is light; and one that receives light, and continues in God, receives more light; ad that light grows brighter and brighter until the perfect day. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7