The powerful concept of innocence makes a tremendous difference to the way we read the smile of an individual, and saves the day at times when something is needed to lighten our impression of what is happening in the World. Unsolved problems, harassing cares, overwhelming impressions, continue the activity of our thought even during sleep, maintaining psychic processes in the system which we have termed the preconscious. We need not underrate the psychic intensities introduced into sleep by these residues of the day’s waking life, especially those emanating from the group of the unsolved issues. The more domineering the worry the more forced could be the connection to be established. Painful dreams may also be punishment dreams. The unconscious wish-impulses evidently strive to assert themselves even during the day, and the fact of transference, as well as the psychoses, tells us that they endeavour to force their way through the preconscious system to the consciousness and the command of motility. Thus, we must recognize and respect the guardian of our psychic health. However, it is not carelessness on the part of this guardian to diminish his vigilance at night, and to allow the suppressed impulses of the unconscious to achieve expression, thus again making possible the process of hallucinatory regression? Probably not, for when the critical guardian goes to rest—and we have proof that his slumber is not profound—he takes care to close the gate to motility. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

No matter what impulses from the usually inhibited unconscious may bustled about the stage, there is no need to interfere with them; they remain harmless, because they are not in a position to set in motion the motor apparatus which alone can operate to produce any change in the outer World. Sleep guarantees the security of the fortress which has to be guarded. The state of affairs is less harmless when a displacement of energies is produced, not by the decline at night in the energy put forth by the critical censorship, but by the pathological enfeeblement of the latter, or the pathological reinforcement of the of the unconscious excitations subdue the preconscious, and from the preconscious, they dominate our speech and action, or they enforce hallucinatory regressions, thus directing an apparatus on the distribution of our psychic energy. We call this condition psychosis. A hysterical symptom originates only where two contrary wish-fulfillments, having their source in different psychic systems, are able to meet in a single expression. There is an example of that does not prove anything, but is an illustration. The hysterical vomiting of a female patient proved, on the one hand, to be the fulfilment of an unconscious phantasy from the years of puberty—namely, the wish that she might be continually pregnant, and have a multitude of children; and this was subsequently supplemented by the wish that she might have them by as many fathers as possible. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

Against this immoderate wish to get pregnant by a harem of men arose a powerful defensive reaction. However, as by the vomiting, in her mind, the patient might have spoilt her figure and beauty, so that she would no longer find favour in any man’s eyes, the symptom was also in keeping with the punitive trend of thought, and so, being admissible on both sides, it was allowed to become a reality. This is the same way of acceding to a wish fulfilment as the queen of the Parthians was pleased to adopt in the case of the triumvir Crassus. Believing that he had undertaken his campaign out of greed for gold, she caused molten gold to be poured into the throat of the corpse. “Here thou hast what thou has longed for!” The dream can provide expression for a wish from the unconscious by means of all sorts of distortions, once the dominant system has withdrawn itself into the wish to sleep, and has realized this wish by producing the changes of cathexis (the connection of mental energy on one particular person, idea, or object) within the psychic apparatus which are within its power; thereupon holding on to the wish in questions for the whole duration of the sleep. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

Most people most of the time are all too well aware of how their senses can trick them, their emotions can get the better of them, their wishes distort, their judgments let them down. Now tis persistent wish to sleep on the part of the preconscious has a quite general facilitating effect on the formations of dreams. Let us recall the dream of the father who, by the gleam of light from the death-chamber, was led to conclude that his child’s body might have caught fire. One of the psychic forces decisive n causing the father to draw this conclusion in the dream instead of allowing himself to be awakened by the gleam of light was the wish to prolong the life of the child seen in the dream by one moment. Other wishes originating in the repressed have probably escaped us, for we are unable to analyze this dream. However, as a second source of motive-power in this dream we may add the father’s desire to sleep, for, like the life of the child, the father’s sleep is prolonged for a moment by the dream. The underlying motive is: “Let the dream go on, or I must wake up.” As in this dream, so in all others, the wish to seep lends its support to the unconscious wish. We learn from these sources how to understand and deal with the soul in special circumstances, and also how to understand similar images when they appear in dreams. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

There is relevance of the symbolic life of our dreams to the yearnings of the soul. Perhaps we are too down to Earth and sensible at times—to ready to dismiss a strange experience as “just one of those things” or to explain it away by some mundane hypothesis. Walter Scott, for example, recorded in his diary in 1828: “At dinner-time, I was strangely haunted by what I would call the sense of preexistence—a confused idea that nothing that passed was said for the first time, that the same topics had been discusses, and the same persons had stated the same opinions on the same subjects…I think the stomach has something to do with it.” We have to make our experiences a matter of consciousness and knowledge. The first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength. However, the truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of his heart, might, mind and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life. Being the foundation stone of our daily life, pure love is a requirement for every child of God. We must pray unto our Heavenly Father with all the energy of heart, that we may be filled with this love, which he has bestowed upon all who are blessed. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

If people have a general philosophical prejudice in favour of getting all their information from the original source or personal experience, why is it when they are asked about the source of their evidence, they refer to someone not directly involved. And in those cases, we do not have the background information that might lead us to reassess the situation and find a more normal explanation. We have no way of telling how many times this has happened before, or what was subsequently learned about it. We can never be sure whether the other person genuinely believes what he or she is saying or is merely speaking for effect. We do not know whether he or she has perhaps got their fingers crossed when speaking. In general we lack the sobering insight that might helps us, if it were our own case, to restrain belief. There is nothing like distance-generated ignorance to raise a person up. This distance effect, this honouring of strangers, is not of course in any way unique to the area of the magical or paranormal. It is characteristic of how we react to other people’s experiences across the spectrum. And in some contexts it even serves us well. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

When, for example, we look at an actor weeping with joy, or a ballet dancer standing on her points, or a politician kissing a baby, or a photographic model showing off his body, we seldom, if ever, then ask: “What are they really experiencing? What is happening in and around them?” Instead we actually take advantage of the lack of insight, occasioned and permitted by our distance from them, to invent just so much or little as we please. We need not acknowledge that the actor has no real engagement in the plot. We need not be aware of the dancer’s pain, or the politician’s duplicity, or the model’s indifference. We are free, as we would never be if we ourselves were centre stage, to ignore all qualifications, riders, and complications and to think the best. It is precisely because we do not know all there is to know about these strangers that we can readily go in for the willing suspension of disbelief that constitutes poetic faith. Then, equally, when it comes to assessing the stories we are told about the paranormal, we need not think of all the reservations we would make if it were us. We may be quite well aware that if it were in fact ourselves telling the tale, all would not necessarily be what it seems. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

We tend to listen to what other people say, and believe or accept that something is true, of course, because we like to hear these stories, especially when they supply us with the evidence of soul-power. And so—be it a report of the Virgin appearing to a child in a Yugoslavian village, or of a young woman being abducted by an unidentified flying object, or the name of the winner of the Grammys appearing in the tea-leaves, or of an experiment on psychokinesis yielding wildly significant results—we are only too ready to receive the news of a gospel. We are therefore highly impressionable, not to say vulnerable. We may become absolutely eager to give the benefit of the doubt to reports of experiences that we would never consider seriously if they were ours. And all it may take, then, to finally convince us, is that these stories should be attractively and authoritatively packaged. The vulnerability that faith demands could then be matched by an equal trust in oneself, the feeling that one can survive the pain of betrayal. To respond trustingly to the challenges of life and to the stirring of the soul’s waters is to bring faith to completion. True disciples love to forgive. They know that the Atonement of the Savior covers all spiritual taxes, fees, commissions, infrastructure fees, and charges related to sins, mistakes or wrong doings. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

We are not going to have a soulful spirituality until we begin to think in the ways of the soul. True disciples love to submit themselves to the Lord with peace in their heart. We are humble and submissive because they love him. We have faith to fully accept God’s will, not only in what he does bit also in how and when. Real blessings are not always what we want, but what the Lord wants for us. As children of God, we love the Lord more than the World and are steadfast and immovable in our faith. This allows us to stay strong and firm in a changing and confusing atmosphere. Therefore, a soul-oriented spirituality begins in a reevaluation of the qualities of soul: subtlety, complexity, maturing, as we love and keep our covenants, renewed are our hearts and very nature. May we begin now, this very day, to express love to all of God’s children, whether they be our family members, our friends, mere acquaintances, or associates. As we arise each morning, let us determine to respond with love and kindness to whatever might come our way. May our hearts be filled with the pure love of God, the true sign of every child of God. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9