We assume that the fabrications of power all around us are genuine, and we fall victim to them. The youthful spirit of idealism, the melting pot, everyone has a chance, all people are equal—these tenets of the American ideal not only cast a dark shadow, the also make power seem undesirable to many people. It gets repressed as shadow material, and as a result many power struggles take place in secret, in an underhanded way. The word sin comes from a root meaning to miss the mark, and this despite human being’s high origin and nature, some continually miss the mark. Humans are meant to be noble, and are ordinarily less than such; meant to be generous, they seek their own. Created more than animal, humans often skin to be nothing else. Yet, never in these missings is human’s misstep required. Freedom has always been unquestioned. The first recorded act of human beings was an act of free choice. In eating Eden’s forbidden fruit, Adam and Ever were, it is true, seduced by the snake, but they had the power to refuse. The snake merely tempted them; it is clearly a story of human freedom. Inanimate objects cannot be others than they are; they do what their natures determine them to do.  Human beings once created makes or breaks themselves. They create their own destiny through their choices. “Cease to do evil, learn to do good,” reports Isaiah 1.16-17—for human beings only does this injunction hold. “I have set before you life and death…therefore choose life,” reports Deuteronomy 30.19. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

Even in the World, immense and ringed by mighty powers of nature, humans can walk with the confidence of a child in a home in which he or she is fully accepted. Our concept of God is a God that loves human beings and other creatures as his beloved children. God is the one than whom there is nothing superior. God is not defined as the most perfect being that there is, but a being than whom no more perfect is even conceivable. God gives us power, encouragement, and blessings. “I have made the Earth rich, and behold it is my foundation, wherefore, again I will stand upon it. And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of promise, a land of flowing milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord comes; and I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance, if you seek it with all your hearts. And this shall be my covenant with you, you shall have it for the land of your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children forever, while the Earth shall stand, and you shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 38.17-20. God is the most adequate conceivable object of worship; there is no possibility of another reality beyond the Lord to which he is inferior or subordinate and which would thus be an ever more worthy recipient of human’s devotion. The Lord has demonstrated throughout the generations that when the inhabitants of the Earth remember him and are obedient to his direction, he will bless them not only with spiritual blessings, but with material abundance as well. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

Thus metaphysical ultimacy and moral ultimacy coincide; one cannot ask of the most perfect conceivable being, as one can of a first cause, necessary being, unmoved mover, or designer of the World (supposing such to exist) whether people ought to worship him. The scriptures contain many evidence of the Lord’s willingness to prosper his people with the riches of the Earth when they demonstrate that they will use this abundance prudently, with humility and charity, always acknowledging the source of their blessings. Just as a triangle necessarily includes among the defining attributes of a triangle that of having its three internal angles equal to two right angles, so the idea of a supremely perfect God necessarily includes the attribute of existence. Consequently we can no more think, without contradiction, of a being than whom no more supremely perfect is even conceivable which lacks existence than of a triangle which lack three sides. When the lives of the people are in harmony with the Lord’s will, all of the essential factors that produce the blessings God deigns to give to his children seem to come into line. Love and harmony prevail. Even the weather, the climate, and the elements seem to respond. This will allow us to live in our families and as people, we will live as one, seeking each other’s good. It is by imitation, far more than by precepts, that we learn everything, and what we learn thus, we acquire not only more effectually, but more pleasantly. When people are free to do what they please, they usually imitate each other. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

The Holy Ghost brings back memories of what God has taught us. And one of the ways God teaches us is with his blessing; and so, if we choose to exercise faith, the Holy Ghost will bring God’s kindness to our remembrance. We can test that in prayer today. We can follow the command, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things,” reports Doctrines and covenants 59.7. There is a great tendency for us in our prayers and in our pleadings with the Lord to ask for additional blessings. However, sometimes we need to devote more of our prayers to expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving for blessings already received. We enjoy so much. If we exercise our faith, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, we will find that memories of other blessings will flood into our mind, which will allow us also to learn by insight. Psychologists, for a long time, have found insight puzzling, partly because they cannot identify this sort of learning and it seems almost mystical, which it might be. Insight is like a sudden flash of light flooding into a darkened room, a quick and spontaneous illumination that provides the answer to the problem we are working on. It is has been called the “Aha! Experience,” because we frequently see the answer flash and shout out our surprised joy. Insight is most useful in our struggles of life experiences, puzzles, mazes, math problems, logic problems, and other complicated bits of thinking. As we express our gratitude, our prayers may take a little longer than usual, and insight and remembrance will come. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Those of us who keep a book of remembrance are more likely to keep the Lord in commemoration in our daily lives. Insight and freedom from conflict’s grip are obtained by bringing the misleading model that distorts one’s thinking to the conscious foreground, by making quite clear in detail how our thought is governed by it, and by giving us a proper view of the nature of, for example, our knowledge of other minds. Thus, Wisdom’s first aim is to induce and sharpen philosophical perplexity by showing how it arises precisely out of the sort of position that is at first sight the most attractive to us. Journals are a way of counting our blessings and of leaving an inventory of those blessings for our posterity. As we start to write, we could ask ourselves, “How did God bless me today?” If we do that long enough and wit faith, we will find ourselves remembering blessings. And sometimes, we will have gifts brought to our mind which we failed to notice during the day, but which we will then know was a touch of God’s hand in our lives. Only then will we see psychological statements and the ways in which we know of the existence of other people’s thoughts and feelings in all their idiosyncrasies and in all their similarities to other statements and to other ways knowing things. Until this is done, we cannot be entirely freed from our tendency to see things are they are not. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

As may be deduced, Wisdom’s writings about other minds are almost as much about induction, the past, the perception, philosophy of science, and so on as they are about other minds. From the scriptures we learn that all of us existed as spirits, literally spirit children of our Father in Heaven, before we were born in the flesh. All were not of equal intelligence; some were more obedient and faithful than others, and as a result they merited special blessings and were chosen for very special missions here on Earth. From the scripture we can identify some of these chosen individuals, starting with Michael who was referred to as the Archangel, one of high rank in the spirit World. He was chosen to be Adam, the first man, to stand forever under the Father and the Son at the head of the human family.  Even the Word of Wisdom was given for a principle with a promise. Those who receive their endowments and receive this high knowledge, make covenants with God that they will observe the instruction given and carry them out in their daily lives. Blessings will follow those who accept the truth, practice it, and live the gospel as they should. We must never be careless about the sacred and eternal nature of the covenants that we enter into the temples, so we do not place our eternal future in jeopardy. We all have our free agency; but none of us have the free agency to determine the consequences of the choices that we make, because we will be held accountable and be responsible for our acts. There is no conceivable means of checking up on the conclusion of the argument from analogy. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6