Enough about the Garden of Eden. You tell yourself you have no illusions, but that is not true. Rock Music scene is a cultic activity. This one is not properly a cult, for rock music, country rock, folk rock, and soul music are real and important trends in American and European music. They began, of course, in Afro-Cuban rhythms, African jazz and blues, and country and Western ballads. More than a fad, rock music has made an indelible mark on the American musical tradition. The cult that has grown up around performers and styles represents still another attempt to transcend certain ordinary experiences and reach out for something else, something beyond. The first real stars in the young rock movement were B.B, King, Bill Haley, and Chuck Berry. Elvis Presley brought rock to the mass media and made it a fantastically profitable occupation and art form. The Beatles gave full credit to these early stars for their original inspiration, but they added some dimensions of their own which enabled the rough and wild rock “child” to grow up into a musical form of sophistication and wide appeal. Bob Dylan introduced social comment into his music, at least in the first big commercial sense. Most folk songs had some kind of message, but Dylan’s commentary told the Establishment that the younger generation was very serious about remaking and challenging the established patterns. Pacifism and brotherhood became themes. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

Rock music is a form of transcendent behavior for many people. The Flower Children soon came to recognize the impact of electronically amplified music and some of their most significant messages were promoted by performers like Donovan, The Beatles, the Iron Butterfly, Mothers of Invention, and others. Joan Baez and Judy Collins made branding-iron-hot comments about life in the technological age with their soft and plaintive folk-rock sounds. So did Peter, Paul and Mary and many others. The young people began to recognize many things about themselves with their cultic involvement in Rock Music. They found, for example, that they were a force to be reckoned with. Their sounds and their themes were picked up and imitated by older, more established performers. They found that they had economic power: they could make or break a performer by either buying or not buying his or her record, tape, CD or steaming their music. The young generation found that they were also style-setters, and that older youth and even grown-ups were eager to follow in their footsteps. Out of all this, the young have found that they actually do have some significance. As a group, they represent youth, enthusiasm, economic power, political pressure, and above all, a separate and discrete identity that does not easily shade into those of groups on either side of them. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

Now, our question runs, can the individual love child or rock cultist emerge from this group identity into a phase of knowing oneself to be fully and truly significant, apart from one’s identification and involvement with a cult or group? We do not mean isolation, alienation, or repudiation; we mean, a person must by truly a significant and actualized. One is both a solitary and social being, neither one alone, but capable of being either. Too many people are only identity. Others have only a solitary or isolated identity. Real self-actualization, and this means mental health, is to know yourself, fully and really, both alone and in interaction with others. There are so many other activities that are cultic or similar to cults. Nudism, sexual cults, political action cults, organic food cults—each is important to many people. The cult is a situation that enables the person to experience oneself in safety or to transcend oneself at times. Since self-transcendence is a universal need of all people, we have tried to describe some of these cultic activities and religion solely as means by which individuals rise above their ordinary experiences, not with the intention of promoting or demeaning any one of them. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

If we spend too much of our time and energy in actualizing ourselves, we lose sight of our relations to the larger reality, the realm of Meaning. We must not make actualization of the self our end-goal. Rather, one must seek to align oneself with the Meaning in life, seek purpose and intention, primarily through work or causes. Then self-actualization comes, not as a goal to be sought, but as a by-product of the search for Meaning. Hunting for peak experiences does not usually work. They usually just happen. We are surprised by joy. So, mortals are a pleasure-seeking or peak-experiencing being, not so much by intent as by accident. Oh, yes, we can seek pleasure, even more pleasure than Dr. Freud spoke of. We all do. However, the pleasures we seek are more momentary, more superficial: a white chocolate Twix, a warm drink of eggnog on a cold night, a hug, the sense of intimacy. Not all pleasures are quite in the same league, though. There is a hierarchy of pleasures: The cessation of pain, the moratorium of drunkenness, the relief of urination, the pleasure of a hot bath, the contentment of having done a job well, the satisfaction of success, on up through the happiness of being with loved friends, the rapture of being in love, the ecstasy of the perfect love act, on up to the final pleasure-beyond-pleasure of the mystical fusion with the Universe. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

We all have some needs to go beyond our own existences, beyond and above our own experiences. We are not simply ordinariness-bound. The sense of significance is more than feeling that comes from knowing who you are, knowing that who you are is OK, knowing that others know you and appreciate you. It comes from some more grand experiences as well. A significant human being is one who can identify one’s own humanness with that of all other people. More than this, one identifies with Humanity, the same Humanity that ties all people together. And, one does even more than that. Once he or she experiences one’s identification with Humanity, one finds how much this means identification with all nature and, finally, with all of life. The search for personal significance is a search that involves growing as you go: the more you find, the more there is to find. The search begins at the small end of a cornucopia—the horn of plenty. We enter it small, because that is how must of us feel: the small opening fits our self-concept at the time. However, as we go through the cornucopia-shared search, we find that the horn is increasingly larger—and that is a good thing, for we are getting larger right along with it. At the end are the fruits of the search, the plenty which comes of knowing ourselves fully and being full selves. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

There are many paths, many cornucopias: religion, a variety of cultic activities, medications and play, physical intimacy and work, prayer and practice: the styles and activities are infinite in number. To live life fully and most significantly means to experience as many things as possible. It means continually enlarging our scope of self-awareness by enlarging our perspective. “All you need is love” declares the Beatles, and though it is oversimplified, it is a great all-encompassing idea. Many of the goals and aspirations sought for by people in the religious and cultic activities mentioned are attained through the full experience of love. It should be repeated and impressed upon you that love is an experience that enables a person to transcend oneself without really losing oneself. Loving another is perhaps the only way both to find oneself and rise above oneself to experience the Larger realities of life. We do have myths. We had a goddess. However, not is not the time for all those things. You need not believe all I have seen. What I do have to give you is a vision. I think a vision is stronger than an illusion. And the vision is that we can exist as powerful beings without hurting anyone who is good and kind. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

Love is not only a many-splendored thing; it is a confusing and frustrating human experience as well. First of all, love is not merely an emotion, although many emotions are involved in the love experience. Love is a happening, something that is often not planned or expected or even intended. It involves levels of consciousness, self-development, emotional freedom, personal and social responsibility, tolerance, physical awareness and acceptance, knowledge, and much, much caring. To care of another person, in the most significant sense, is to help the individual grow and actualize oneself. Caring for someone means that you desire to see that person and expand and become all that he or she is capable of becoming. In order to do this, one must first of all care for oneself. One must be on the road to actualization of one’s own potential before one can be fully capable of interest in the needs, goals, or well-being of another person. Just as one cannot give what one has not got, neither can one take someone to a place one has not yet been. The idea that self-love must precede love of others is important to an understanding of what it means to love. Self-love does not mean selfish narcissism. Self and narcissism are not the same things. The ego is the center of the consciousness; the self is the center of the entire being. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

If you can realistically and wholly love your self (including your ego, but not merely in a narcissistic way), you then have enough self-regard to reach out, to experiment, to risk getting involved with others and caring about them. Narcissism is a superficial feeling of liking for the ego or for the roles we play or for a particular aspect of the ego, such as a skill, your appearance, or possessions. Narcissism, like masturbation, is an important part of self-development, but it can become a problem, for you and others, if you do not move beyond it. Narcissism shows itself as conceit, boastfulness, possessiveness, or emphasis on one or two parts of your selfhood, on materialism, or on success or achievement. It can help you firm up your ego identity, but then it should be left behind. The values and pressures of American society often make it difficult for many individuals to move beyond narcissism. Our societal priorities, such as getting ahead at any cost and paying excessive attention to how you look, how you come across socially, or being a winner, encourage narcissism. However, if you are aware of the other aspect of self-love—love of self, not ego—and its importance in the achievement of mature love, you can overcome these pressures. Characteristics that make up mature love are true, caring, knowledge, respect, and responsibility. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

If we place a little more patience in the process and a greater amount of faith in the Lord, our challenges will find their way toward successful conclusions. Trust is the foundation upon which love must be built: no trust = no love. To trust means to believe. Trust has the same meaning as the theological concept of faith. It is derived from a Greek word meaning literally to put yourself in the hands of the object of your faith. To allow someone to get close to you, you must have faith in that person’s motives and in your own. You must trust that neither of your will try to hurt the other, that you will both be working toward a mutually beneficial relationship. Trusting others requires that you first must trust in yourself. You must believe in your own potential. You must be confident enough in your own identity that you can risk sharing yourself with another person. “If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord thy God with supplication, that your souls may be joyful,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 136.29. Trust is always a risky business. Almost everyone ha trusted the wrong person and been hurt. Some people have been so badly hurt that they believer they can never trust again. Other, however, keeping the risk of pain in mind, know that most trust is warranted. We have to trust someone or else live in alienation and fear. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

Let us rejoice in the blessings of peace, hope, and direction, blessings that so many of our Father’s children do not enjoy. Trusting in the Lord with all our hearts will allow us not to lean unto our own understanding. In all our ways, we must acknowledge God, and he shall direct our paths. God lives and loves each of us. I know our Father in Heaven has a perfect plan for us. As we follow this plan and the example of our Savior, we can find peace in this developing World, our hearts can be filled with hope, and we will receive the direction we need. Caring is the next building block of mature love. Caring is an active concern for the life and growth of those whom we love. This means we cannot simply talk about how much we care for something or someone, but we must also act upon it. Caring for others begins with self-caring. Somehow the World is hungry for goodness and recognizes it when it sees it. There is something in all of us that hungers after the good and true. Goodness is the attribute most needed and longed for not only in our individual lives but also in families, communities, states, and nations. If we are to effectively foster and utilize the great goodness of the people around us, we must strengthen both our families and our communities. The family is without question the God-given primary vehicle for the development and expression of personal goodness. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

However, we also live in communities. People are by nature social beings whose lives and feelings are eternally connected and intertwined with those of others. Almost invariably, individuals reach their fully potential only in association and in community with others. Intimate knowledge of another persona is another factor necessary for love. Knowledge as it is meant here is much more than just familiarity with facts about a person. True knowledge of another person is very much like intuition. It is an emotional as much as mental experience. Regardless of the amount of time we spend with another person, picking that person’s brains and observing every facet of that person’s behavior, we may still have little true knowledge of that person. Why is this so? First of all, to know another person we must first know ourselves. When we have a deep, honest awareness of our own identity, we can begin to understand what goes in others. In addition, knowing another requires an openness and a willingness to be known ourselves. This requires trust. It means removing some of the defensive barriers we erect around us. It means taking off the false faces and masks that we wear as we play our many roles in life. This calls for authenticity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

Honestly expressing ourselves to others is exceedingly risky, but if we sense they are a good person, the risk-talking may pay off in the closeness we feel as we gain true knowledge of another. Respect is another building block of love. Respect is a word that has been used and misused so often, it is a wonder it has any real meaning left to it. The root of the word comes from the Latin respicere—re- means back again, and spicere means to look. There is in the word, then, the connotation of taking another look, of seeing a person as if for the first time. As a child, some people think their fathers are the dumbest men alive. When they grow up, they are amazed at how much their fathers have learned! Obviously, this is talking about that fact that one’s own maturation has given one a new perspective on their father. One may suddenly see their father anew—whether the older man actually had learned anything new or not. When we respect people, we appreciate their uniqueness and hold them and all that they are in high regard. This does not mean that we like everything that they do, but that we accept them in their entirety, apart from riles, prejudices, circumstances, and relationships. We esteem their integrity, their wholeness, as human beings. To respect others, we must first have self-respect. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

Responsibility is the final element necessary for love, and it should actually be spelled “response-ability,” to emphasize the meaning, the ability to responds. To have response-ability for another means to trust, care for, know, and respect someone so fully that we are aware of the person’s needs. Being aware, we try to meet as many of those needs as we responsibly can, without robbing that person of his or her own self-respect and responsibility. We are responsible to people, ore than we are responsible for them. Self-responsibility must precede responsibility for others. This means using one’s own resources to meet one’s own needs. It is not always easy to be responsible, but unless you are, real loving of yourself and other cannot take place. “With their wicked words they will try to hold you down. No this is not our fate, the lives in which they are bound and there is something more we know, it had to be found. I know the World will not wait, the tide is turning around, and there is not enough time. In the fallout of the wasted, in the half light I stand before you in the last dance of an old life. Now the cool wind’s blowing and we cannot stay, but it is alright. When the night is gone, I will still be here,” reports Emma Hewitt (Not Enough Time). #RandolphHarris 13 of 13