When they come on errand, they leave behind the totality of salvation. They have to, do they not? Or every haunting would be a theophany (the winged trio is said by some to symbolize the Holy Trinity), would it not? As the symbolic figures of death and the Devil show, the anxiety of this period was not restricted to the anxiety of guilt. It was also an anxiety of death and fate. The astrological ideas of the later ancient World had been revived by the Renaissance and had influenced even those humanists who joined the Reformation. We have already referred to the Neo-Stoic courage, expressed in some Renaissance pictures, where mortals direct the vessel of one’s life although it is driven by the winds of fate. Martin Luther the anxiety of fate on another level. He experienced the connection between the anxiety of guilt and the anxiety of fate. It is uneasy conscience which produces innumerable irrational fears in daily life. The rustling of a dry leaf horrifies one who is plagued by guilt. Therefore conquest of the anxiety of guilt is also conquest of the anxiety of fate. The courage of confidence takes the anxiety of fate as well as the anxiety of guilt into itself. It says “in spite of” to both of them. This is the genuine meaning of the doctrine of providence. Providence is not a theory about some activities of God; it is the religious symbol of the courage of confidence with respect to fate and death. For the courage of confidence says “in spite of” even to death. #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

 The Apostle Paul , Martin Luther was well aware of the connection of the anxiety of guilt with the anxiety of death. In Stoicism and Neo-Stoicism the essential self is not threatened by death, because it belongs to being-itself and transcends nonbeing. Socrates, who in the power of one’s essential self conquered the anxiety of death, has become the symbol for the courage to take death upon oneself. This is the true meaning of Plato’s so-called doctrine of immortality of the soul, In discussing this doctrine we should neglect the arguments for immortality, even those in Plato’s Phaedon, and concentrate on the image of the dying Socrates. All the arguments, skeptically treated by Plato himself, are attempts to interpret the courage of Socrates, the courage to take one’s death into one’s self-affirmation. Socrates is certain that the self which the executioners will destroy is not the self which affirms itself in one’s courage to be. He does not say much about the relation of the two selves, and he could not because they are not numerically two, but one in two aspects. However, he makes it clear that the courage to die is the test of the courage to be. A self-affirmation which omits taking the affirmation of one’s death into itself tries to escape the test of courage, the facing of nonbeing in the most radical way. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

The popular belief in immortality which in the Western World has largely replaced the Christian symbol of resurrection is a mixture of courage and escape. It tries to maintain one’s self-affirmation even in the face of one’s having to die. However, it does this by continuing one’s finitude, that is one’s having to die, infinitely, so that the actual death never will occur. This, however, is an illusion and, logically speaking, a contradiction in terms. It makes endless what, by definition, must come to an end. The immortality of the soul is a poor symbol for the courage to be in the face of one’s having to die. The courage of Socrates (in Plato’s picture) was based not on a doctrine of the immortality of the soul but on the affirmation of oneself in one’s essential, indestructible being. He knows that he belongs to two orders of reality and that the one order is transtemporal. It was the courage of Socrates which more than any philosophical reflection revealed to the ancient World that everyone belongs to two orders. “Half the World is composed of people who have something to say and cannot, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it,” reports Robert Frost. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

However, there was one presupposition in the Socratic (Stoic and Neo-Stoic) courage to take death upon oneself, namely the ability of every individual to participate in both orders, the temporal and the eternal. This presupposition is not accepted by Christianity. According to Christianity we are estranged from our essential being. We are not free to realize our essential being, we are bound to contradict it. Therefore death can be accepted only through a state of confidence in which death has ceased to be the wages of sin. This, however, is the state of being accepted in spite of being unacceptable. Here is the point in which the ancient World was transformed by Christianity and in which Martin Luther’s courage to face death was rooted. It is the being accepted into communion with God that underlies this courage, not a questionable theory of immortality. The encounter with God in Martin Luther is not merely the basis for the courage to take upon oneself sin and condemnation, it is also the basis for taking upon oneself fate and death. For encountering God means encountering transcendent security and transcendent eternity. One who participates in God participates in eternity. However, in order to participate in God one must be accepted by him and one must have accepted God’s acceptance of oneself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

Martin Luther has experiences which he describes as attack of utter despair (Anfechtung), as the frightful threat of a complete meaninglessness. He felt these moments as satanic attacks in which everything was menaced: his Christian faith, the confidence in his work, the Reformation, the forgiveness of sins. Everything broke down in the extreme moments of this despair, nothing was left of the courage to be. Martin Luther in these moments and in the descriptions he gives of them, anticipated the descriptions of them by modern Existentialism. However, for him this was not the last word. The last word was the first commandment, the statement that God is God. It reminded him of the unconditional element in human experience of which one can be aware even in the abyss of meaninglessness. And this awareness saved him. It should not be forgotten that the great adversary of Martin Luther, Thomas Munzer, the Anabaptist and religious socialist, describes similar experiences. He speaks of the ultimate situation in which everything finite reveals its finitude, in which the finite has come to its end, in which anxiety grips the heart and all previous meanings fall apart, and in which just for this reason the Divine Spirit can make itself felt and can turn the whole situation into a courage to be whose expression is revolutionary action. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

While Martin Luther represents ecclesiastical Protestantism, Thomas Munzer represents evangelical radicalism. Both men have shaped history, and actually Thomas Munzer’s views had even more influence in American than Martin Luther’s. Both mortals experienced the anxiety of meaninglessness and described it in terms which had been created by Christian mystics. However, in doing so they transcended the courage of confidence which is based on a personal encounter with God. They had to receive elements from the courage to be which is based on mystical union. This leads to the question: whether the two types of the courage to accept acceptance can be united in view of the all-pervasive presence of the anxiety of doubt and meaninglessness in our own period. Certainly one of the most fascinating cults is Spiritualism. For so many years psychologist have shied away from this area because it seemed do much a part of the World of magic and fantasy.  However, this area is now called parapsychology, and is getting a lot of attention. As an example, the American Association for the Advancement of Science has given birth to a department dealing with psychic research. This is status of some sort, for it means that foundations and governmental agencies can now support this kind of research. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

We include under the general term “spiritualism” any form of experience or involvement with seemingly non-material phenomena, even those that seem to be non- or extra-sensory in the ways we perceive them. In this category are spirit- and ghost-communications, exorcisms, mediumship, and hauntings. The British Society for Psychic Research has been in existence for over one hundred and fifty years and has had a fairly high degree of respect. A. Conan Doyle, the physician and novelist who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, was one of its better-known members. The American Society for Psychic Research has been in existence for nearly one hundred years. Ghosts and spirits are part of the mythological and folklore of every culture. People who have had some kind of contact with ghost- or spirit-believers that they are sincere and devoted. Of course, every cult and every group has its share of eccentrics, kooks, exploiters, and hallucinators. However, brushing these aside, what of those who in dead earnest believe in and participate in such activities? We find that they are people who do not believe in death of the body as the end of existence. They are often religious people who believe in the immortality of the human soul, but, religious or not, they believe that life continues beyond the grave. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

Ghosts are usually through to be unhappy or dissatisfied spirits. Either they left work unfinished, desired vengeance, or had to keep a particular house company even after their bodies left it. Many ghosts or spirits are attached to particular buildings or pieces of land. England has long been a country famous for its haunted houses and castles and its ancestral spirits returning to clank a chain or drive away unwelcome residents. Sometimes the spirit stays around because it was badly buried; that is, the burial did not suit the spirit. In modern, computerized America, many people wholeheartedly believe in spirits and spend much of their time and energy trying to contact them at seances, like Sarah Winchester, or in the company of professional mediums. Some people believe that writers like Anne Rice must have some contact with the spiritual World in order to be able to write such detailed Vampire and Ghost novels. Others are not ghost-hunters or spiritualists, but they have experienced situations which make it very difficult for them to disclaim the reality of spirits. In recent years, newspaper and movies and magazine accounts have told of the encounters Sarah Winchester had with house-guests of the non-material variety. Joe Hyams and his wife, actress Elke Sommer had haunting experiences. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

Although Joe Hyams is a staunch disbeliever, he and his wife had to move from their Hollywood home because of the ruckus and tension caused by spirits. Their house has been fully examined by the Southern California Society for Psychical Research and given full scientific credence by the examiners. After three years of intensive study, this group of seventeen experts concluded that the house is truly occupied by ghosts or spirits, identity unknown. Thousands, possibly millions, of sincere and honest people have had some such experience, or are believers in spiritualism. It is a religion for many cultures in the so-called primitive World, a grown-up version of the animism that found life or essence residing in every rock, tree, gopher, and coconut. Truly, we must acknowledge that one mortal’s fancies may be another mortal’s faith. However, even acknowledging that reality is a subjective thing, is there any objective evidence that could make these things truth? The parapsychologist says yes. J.B. and Laura Rhine, Murphy, R. Johnson, and Sudre tell us that there is more than ample evidence to convince them of the objective truth of psychic phenomena, especially extrasensory perception (ESP). In the Rhines’ Parapsychology Laboratory at staid Old Duke University, they have performed countless and thousands of documented and validated experiments, using every conceivable method known. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

Law are believed to play an important role in explanation as well as predication. One consequence which has often been thought to follow from the existence of precognition is that, sensationally, the future must somehow be already here—or at any rate there. This is usually derived from a conception of precognition as a mode of perception, of extrasensory perception (ESP). ESP includes many types of psychic phenomena. Clairvoyance is the name given to the experiences reported by many people of seeing something not present. For example, a person may be able to report exactly what is going on in a particular room which is miles away. (Often the clairvoyant is person who know that room, its occupants, or the probable occurrences in the room to a greater or lesser degree.) Precognition is the name given to the ability reported by some people to foretell a future event or occurrence. The vision may take place in a dream, or it may be the result of a premonition or hunch. Usually this ability to see into the future is based on guesswork that is pieced together from previously known or unconsciously retained bits of information. Sometimes the wishes or fears of the precogniator actually happen precisely because they are predicted: a self-fulfilling prophecy. Occasionally prophecies come true because they are staged and set up so that they do occur, thus validating the words of the precognitor—in this case usually a professional or stage psychic. #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

Telepathy is the name given to the phenomena of thought-transference, or mind-reading. Often this occurs between two people who know each other very well and can anticipate each other’s thoughts or wishes, although occasionally a person who is highly sensitive to others or highly skilled in reading gestures may have astonished success with mind reading. Of course, some telepathy is fraudulent. Stage psychics can do and do plant stooges in the audience and exchange information with them by use of prearranged signals. Telekinesis or psychokinesis is the fourth category of ESP. It involves mental influence on physical objects. Some people claim to be able to send a typewriter flying across a room, move a chair by concentrating on it, or tell dice exactly how to turn up. Although we have no authenticated cases of furniture flying, the phenomenon could be attributed to individual hallucinations or group hypnosis. And dice, of course, if not loaded, are subject to the principles of mathematical probability. ESP may be a fact of objective reality. We do not know yet, and possibly so many people accept untested evidence out of a need to believe in spirits or ESP because they have failed to find satisfactions or excitement in their own physical lives. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

Other reasons people need to believe in the supernatural is fear of death may make them yearn for life beyond. Some people need extra stimulation, and certainly few things are as stimulating as ghost stories or psychic phenomena. We do not close our minds to the possibilities of these things, but we certainly wish to press for the alternative of realizing the fullness of personal experience. Life is so much more interesting and exciting than most people find it. Another cultic activity that has involved countless numbers of people is witchcraft. Throughout mortal’s history there has been a belief in special powers of certain people, witches and warlocks, to work wondrous deeds. Witches are now portrayed in movies and cartoons and storybooks as beautiful, enchanting women, wearing pretty gowns or regular clothes. Some of them have cats—their familiars—usually accompanying them. We find, however, that millions of people in this country, in Europe, and especially in England believe in the existence of men and women who practice good magic, beneficial cures and charms. Grouped in covens, usually made up of twelve witches and a leader—another witch, a devil, or a spirit—they often do quite ordinary work to support themselves, but spend their off hours practicing their spells and charms. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

Good witches are wise or knowledgeable in the arts of healing and divination of water. The belief in bad witches is often tied into satanic cults which worship the devil. Cults of Satan-worship are frequently combined with nudism and sexual orgies, which represent other cultic activities. A cult has existed seemingly forever around the study of Heavenly bodies. Astrology, of course, was a science long before astronomy came into being. Ancient mortals looked to the stars and planets and thought they contained answers to life’s questions. Out of the careful plotting and mapping of the celestial bodies grew the systematic and mathematical science of astronomy. However, a large and persistent group of people were not content just to know about these bodies. They certainly could not care less about their chemical or geological composition. They had little or no interest in their size, orbital patterns, rotations, or revolutions, nor was there much concern about traveling back and forth between Earth and any of them. No, their main interest is and has always been: what do these consistent and eternal watchers have to say about my life and behavior? #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

Astrologers and their devotees firmly believe that there is something in the patterns of celestial movement that is directly related to the life of the person born in a particular “house” and under a particular sign of the zodiac. Astrology, witchcraft, and tarot cards are very big with the love generation, and there are many reasons why. First, the flower children are interested in anything mystical and esoteric. Secondly, they are disenchanted with the materialistic orientation of the Establishment and they seek better, more humanistic answers in the stars and the Universe around them. Third, they often get caught up in the past. Astrology and witchcraft are ancient and have never actually been destroyed by science or technology, thus they must have some eternal or transcendent quality. Seeking evidence of eternity is very important to those who believe that science and technology can snuff out physical life in a mere instant—which seems to be an increasing possibility! Also, because astrology and witchcraft bug the Establishment, are so nonrational, so unscientific, so other-Worldly, they are good weapons for the young to use on their elders, if weapons are needed. Well-known people are caught up in a serious relationship with astrology. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

They often admit that they do not make a decisive move without consulting their horoscope or calling their astrologer: “Do I buy stock in Cloudera (CLDR)?” “The fed just raised interest rates, is it a good time to buy a home?” “Should I marry her? She’s a Taurus and I am a Libra.” What is the appeal? For most of us astrology is a passing interest, a charming involvement in something far-out, entertaining, esoteric, or romantic. In college, my professor was always in a bad mood, so I used to consult my horoscope to know what to expect for that day. Thankfully, I eventually graduated. Our lives often run into dry periods, dull stretches, or challenges, and we are looking for a way out, a way to know what to expect, a way to know when good times are coming. So, we look for something to grab our interest. A few people find their lives to be totally devoid of interest or charm. For them, the World of esoterica is a fascinating and stimulating retreat. However, I have learned that when Mars in in retrograde, it is good not to make any big decisions and keep some money tucked away. Many people, without any interest in psychedelic or mind-changing drugs, enjoy the vividness and stimulation of Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance music and art. The light shows, posters, incense, underground papers, and head-comics all provide detours or enchanting colorations to your workaday existences. #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

The mass media and the advertising agencies are fully aware of the charm and fascination of these esoteric experiences and they exploit them fully. Insofar as they provide a different or novel experience for people, they are perfectly fine. Fantasy and imagination are enjoyable retreats and add immeasurably to our lives, so long as we know them for what they are. We all enjoy change and novelty; we all need something to occasionally lift us out of the ordinary. “Baby you were the perfect dream for everyone. I though it would be oh so very good to meet you. Was I mistaken? Was I the mistake? I never gave myself like that to anyone. Fool, it is over now. Foolish, I know you. All of this time you were stuck within this place, in a lonely twisted World, and I cannot believe you were so out of your mind and it was more than I could take. I could never be your girl. Still I cannot believe you were so foolish, boy. Baby’s got a new place to hide from everyone. You know that I cannot reach you where you go. And I gave all I had, but I cannot bring you back. So I will let this go tonight. Still, I cannot believe you were so foolish, boy,” reports Emma Hewitt (Foolish Boy). Adolescents explore and experiment to see “what I am made of” and “what I can do.” It is generally when identity is more firmed up that individuals are able to go outside of themselves for attachment to others. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

Many activities during adolescence, and many social activities during this period tend to encourage curiosity, and desire for bonds. Sometimes some fleeting moments are mistaken for love during this stage. It may well be that a mature love relationship can be formed during adolescence; however, it is usually not until people are at least in their twenties that they form truly mature, intimate love relationships. Lasting growth-promoting love during adolescence is the exception, not the rule. The feelings experienced during adolescence—attraction, crushes, and infatuations—although perhaps not mature love, are nonetheless valuable. They are beneficial and of themselves, and they are also important as stepping stones toward later mature relationships. In caring for another person, we trust that individual to make mistakes and to learn from them. Trusting the other is to let go; it included an element of risk and a leap into the unknow, both of which take courage. We must protect our youth and allow them to develop and grow so they can figure out who they are and what they like. If it is unnatural, you just do not do it. That is all, and all family life should be kept clean and worthy and on a very high plane. There are some people who has said that behind the bedroom doors or in their truck anything goes. That is not true and the Lord will not condone it. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17