How low and unbecoming a thing laughter is. Some intrepid races like to mock at everything which inspires a person with a feeling of gear. Illness, death, the hangman, the gibbet, the terrors of the natural and supernatural World, become to some a subject for buffoonery in conversation and on the stage. Some ever laugh, as if in defiance, and ridicule everything. The existence of this inclination to aggression, which we can detect in ourselves and justly assume to be present in others, is the factor which disturbs our relations with our neighbour and which forces civilization into such a high expenditure of energy. In consequence of this primary mutual hostility of human beings, civilized society is perpetually threatened with disintegration. The interest of work in common would not hold it together; instinctual passions are stronger than reasonable interests. How low and unbecoming a thing laughter can be. Not to mention the disagreeable noise that it makes, and the shocking distortion of the face that it occasions. I am neither of a melancholy nor a cynical disposition, and am as willing and apt to be pleased as anybody; but I am sure that, since I have had the full use of my reason, nobody has ever heard me laugh. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

Having mentioned laughing, I must particularly warn you against it; and I could heartily wish that you may often be seen to smile, but never heard to laugh, while you live. Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners: it is the manner in which the mob express their silly joy at silly things, and they call it being merry. In my mind there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred as audible laughter. I think many of these schools and places of employment teach the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing-master. To smile on or upon someone or something meant to look upon it with favor, approval, or encouragement; this meaning is still current, though gradually passing out of use. To smile could simply mean to have or present an agreeable aspect, again, whatever that may mean. To smile could mean to answer or respond or repeat by smiling, or else to exhibit, indicate, or express by smiling. For example, if I go to the Hilton Hotel and the representative asks, “Do you need a double room?” Another way of saying yes would be to reply, “I should smile.” Or to decline something I could say, “I should worry,” meaning “I am certainly not worrying about that!” In these respects laughter is an entirely different proposition from the smile and has long been thought to have beneficial or therapeutic effects as a kind of valve to release nervous tension. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

Dr. Freud thought of the smile as a way to discharge of a sum of psychic energy. If the mind is strongly excited by pleasurable feelings, and any little unexpected event or thought occurs, then, a large amount of nervous energy, instead of being allowed to expend itself in producing an equivalent amount of the new thoughts and emotion which were nascent, is suddenly checked in its flow. The excess must discharge itself in some other direction, and there results an efflux through the motor nerves to various classes of the muscles, producing the half-convulsive actions we term laughter. Modern science has not entirely dispensed with this notion. Some acoustic studies of laughter continue to differentiate between types of laughter produced by tickling, jokes, ordinary conversation, and what is described as release of tension. During the recent crises in the Middle East an electronic letter was circulated to all BBC television presenters reminding them to look grave throughout the coverage. As one seasoned journalist remarked at the time, instructions of this nature ran the serious risk of prompting a sudden burst of manic laughter—a release of tension. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness. As a general principle, however, the idea that laughter constitutes a pressure valve bears little or no relation to the way our nervous system actually works, but there are still plenty of doctors and therapists who regard laughter as a useful remedy for depression, or even as a kind of placebo. Certainly the appreciation of humor, as distinct from laughter, is now thought to have generally beneficial effects upon the immune and central nervous systems. The right frontal lobe of the brain seems to be essential to this process. Medical scientists have observed that patients with injuries to that part of the brain are most likely to find it difficult or impossible to react to basic attempts to stimulate their sense of humor. Common sense and our own experience of laughter, together with the languor that follows a sustained burst of it, must tell us that, beyond the appreciation of humor, the physical experience of laughter constitutes at least some kind of catharsis, good or bad, mostly good. That catharsis can come as an intimate experience as a large group, most commonly nowadays as an audience in the theater, where, clearly expecting to laugh, we willingly respond to simple cues and laugh like mad, sometimes even when upon reflection we cannot recall exactly why we laughed at all. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

Children do not like it when there is talk of the inborn human inclination to badness, to aggressiveness and destructiveness, and so to cruelty as well. God has made them in the image of his own perfection; nobody wants to be reminded how hard it is to reconcile the undeniable existence of evil—despite the protestations of Christian Science—with God’s all-powerfulness or God’s all-goodness. The Devil would be the best way out as an excuse for human’s not taking responsibility for their behaviour. It is in sadism, where the death instinct twists the erotic aim in its own sense and yet at the same tie fully satisfies the erotic urge of the blindest fury of destructiveness, it is clear that we recognize that sadists have an extraordinarily high degree of narcissistic enjoy when inflicting pain on others because there is fulfilment of their wishes for omnipotence. The instinct of destruction, moderate and tamed, and, as it were, inhibited in its aim, must, when it is directed towards objects or people, provide the ego with the satisfaction of its vital needs and with control over nature. There can also be examples of groups of sadists due to the fact that they suffer from an eerily synchronized mass hysteria explained by a trigger mechanism in the brain that easily replicates a powerful behavioral prompt, making the sadist unwilling, or even powerless to stop their destructive and evil behaviour. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

Though deeply disruptive, a group of sadists may not have a pathological condition in the sense that a neurological disorder such as Tourette’s Syndrome harnesses that same trigger mechanism in the otherwise respectable little old lady and makes her mutter obscenities, or indeed shout them from the teleprompter in the newsroom. Anyone who has observed that bizarre symptom at first hand is not likely to forget it. These people are, in fact, engaged upon a terrible plot to ensnare others, and to kindle a fire and flame of lust in the hearts of those who cast their eyes upon them. They use their cosmetics and fictitious hair to hide their age and unattractiveness, and they only smile for two reasons: to show respect, in spite of their inability to understand what an individual is saying; or because they are embarrassed at not understanding or at not being able to respond helpfully as the situation required. This struggle is what all life essentially consists of, and the evolution of civilization may therefore be simply described as the struggle for life of the human species. And it is this battle of the giants that our nurse-maids try to appease with their lullaby about Heaven. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

And we may probably add more precisely, a struggle for life in the shape it was bound to assume after a certain event which still remains to be discovered. If all people are made in the image and likeness of the Divine Being, then surely one person should not be afraid of another. And if life itself is a unity of good, then why should we be afraid of life? Experience has proved to us that some people are afraid of life; they are afraid of each other, and seldom do we find anything which even resembles a kingly attitude. Moreover, in those rather rare instances where we do find a kingly attitude it is too often attended with arrogance. It is of the utmost importance to solve this perplexing problem which every priest, physician, metaphysician, and psychologist meets in their daily contact with people. Under analysis it has been found that an inferiority complex is based on the fear of life. The basic fear is an inability to properly adjust to everyday living. An oversensitive person is always handicapped and too often assumes an attitude of arrogance or blustering bravado to cover up his or her inward hurt. Generally speaking, one will not admit that such a hurt is there. And even though he or she trains one’s will and studies every psychological method known with which to combat life, unless the individual has overcome the fundamental fears of life, one has only covered them that much deeper by his or her mental maneuvering. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

Anyone who is familiar with mental reactions knows that a person who goes blustering around saying he or she has no fear, asserting loudly that one is just as good as anyone, and who always demands the attention of others, is sick inwardly. Those types of individuals are attempting to cover up some part of themselves, although that is impossible. Though we crowd all of our emotions back into the unconscious, they always come up in another form. It is impossible to bury a living spring. We can merely change its course. It is just as impossible to destroy that dynamic urge which some call the libido, some the will to power, and others—more rightly perhaps—designate as the life force seeking self-expression. If we would heal the inferiority complex we must arrive at conclusions more basic than merely teaching our student or patient to shout that he or she is self-sufficient.  For the louder he or she screams the more frightened that individual becomes, until finally his or her screams are a shriek and that individual’s attitude toward life becomes hysterical. Inferiority complexes often arise from youthful frustration and early childhood repressions, or from emotional reactions which have shocked the finer sensibilities when one first comes in contact with the hard realities of life. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

Sadists have a tendency to cause pain to an object of their focus, usually another person, so they can act out the pain they went through as a child. They will usually attach themselves to someone who reminds them of an authority figure in their youth and try to hurt that person for not protecting them. Sadists also find victims to inflict their pain and suffering on. The concept of sadism fluctuates in everyday speech from a mere active or impetuous attitude towards the sexual object to an absolute attachment of the gratification to the subjection and maltreatment of the object. Therefore, it becomes necessary to uncover the psychic stream of previous experiences and unconscious memories in the sadist. In this process of uncovering, this analysis of the soul or psyche, if the incident which started the stream of consciousness in the wrong direction (which turned back upon itself) is brought to the surface and self-seen, it is generally dissipated. With the help of religion, there are innumerable persons who have been what we call twice born. Through religious convictions their whole lives have been instantly transformed and the entire psychic stream of previous experiences reversed. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

Fear has been overcome through faith and through spiritual conviction, and morbid neuroses have given way before some spiritual force which we cannot completely analyze but which no person who has investigated the facts would think of denying. All religions have helped people because it makes them understand that there is one common denominator running through each, and that is faith in something grater than the isolated self. Equally, all psychological processes which have been beneficial in removing fear and the inferiority complex have been able to do so because of the giving back of the self to the self-followed by the re-education of the self and the readjustment of the self to life, in confidence, in faith, and in self-assurance. It is now widely recognized by the medical community that the course of many kinds of illnesses, of the body, as well as the mind, can be influenced by the patient’s hopes and expectations and thus by the suggestions given to one by an authority figure whom one trusts. Not only can the patient’s own mental state, guided by another, profoundly affect the way he or she perceives his or her symptoms, but is can also help mobilize one’s immunological defences to help achieve a more lasting recovery. It is unfortunately true that only certain sorts of illness benefit, and that in any case the effects are not always permanent—so that the pain or stiffness or the depression tends to return. However, at least in the short term, the cure can be dramatic. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

To say that these cures have a normal explanation, however, is not to deny that they may often rely on the idea of a paranormal explanation. In fact, it is often quite clear that they do rely on it. It is for most people, including the healer, extremely hard to imagine how the voice or the touch of another person could possibly bring about a cure unless this other person were to have paranormal powers. It follows that the more the patient believes in these powers, the more he or she will be inclined to take the suggestions seriously—and the better they will work. Equally, the more the healer oneself believes in one’s powers, the more one can make one’s suggestions sound convincing—and again the better they will work. However, it is important that you deal with people who have the education and experience to treat your condition because with medical malpractice a person could actually make your health worse and this could leave them liable for civil and criminal penalties. So, if you are suffering, it is not only important to seek spiritual healing, but also see a doctor to make sure there are no complications in your treatment and that your health improves, not gets worse. Also, success in bring about a cure feeds back to the healer, boosting his or her image in the eyes of the World and in themselves, so they want their patients to get better. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

And thereafter nothing succeeds like more success. The process must of course be launched in some way. There has to be some degree of faith present initially, or otherwise the process cannot be expected to get going. However, all that this requires is that there should already be some small reason—however unsubstantiated—why people should consider the healer a special person. Given their reputations, some doctors are potential miracle workers by facts that have been established in their careers and have run ahead of them wherever they go. They discover that they have surprisingly well-developed capacities for healing, and as word spreads, they still are getting better at it. As a supplement, having religious faith is a certain superiority over the psychological, for it naturally follows that is a person can be brought to have faith in God, that faith in God will be greater than any faith one could have in an individual or group of individuals. “I can do all things through God who strengthens me,” reports Philippians 4.13. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12