Did I really not believe in those things which I saw? Or had I simply found that cosmos to be unendurable? I did not know. I wanted to be a saint! As we grow, we learn to adapt to stress, to cope with our World and to protect the fragile parts of our psyche. The ego is the center of our conscious life and is often at odds with the show, the forbidden, unwanted, unacknowledged, unconscious aspect of the psyche. Ego-strength is, first of all, a function simply of intelligence. Since comprehension of experience depends mostly on the degree of organization in the central nervous system, the scope of the ego will vary with the quality of the brain. Scope does not depend solely upon cognition, however. Psychodynamics enter chiefly in relation to the mechanism of repression. Repression—when I do not want to face a problem situation, I may choose to deal with it through repressions—pushing it out of my mind, pretending it does not exist. Repression can help us to cope with things that otherwise would be too difficult to face. Repression operates in the service of homeostasis, and so serves an economic function that is indispensable in maintaining the organism in an integral form in its environment. However, repression may be so extensive as to become a false economy; when broad areas of experience are lost to consciousness through repression, the ego may be said to be less strong (i.e., less able to adapt) as a consequence. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

To state the mater absolutely, ego-strength requires a flexible repression mechanism, so that the person may be said to be optimally open to the experience, though capable of excluding phenomena that cannot be assimilated to the structure of the self. Physiological stability and regularity of physical functioning is the biological matrix in which the ego thrives, or attains maximum strength. Generally speaking, the ego is at its strongest in the years of physical maturity, granting good bodily health. Ego-strength is increasing as the organism grows towards maturity, levels off in the prime of life, and declines thereafter with increasing age. The crucial years in determining ego-strength are the first five years of life. Severe ego-dysfunction in those years is virtually irreversible. In the normal course of development a regular sequence of ego-crises and ego-achievement may be discerned. The first achievement of the ego in relation to experience is the attainment of a stable and facile distinction is the primary mark of functional psychosis, in which the introjection and projection no longer operate under the control of the ego. Paranoias and psychotic depressions and excitements are the diagnostic syndromes consequent upon such ego failure. A strong ego, on the other hand, consistently recognizes the independent and autonomous existence of objects other than itself, and also is able to take a reflective attitude toward its own existence and the laws of its being. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

Building upon this basic distinction of inner and outer sources of experience, the ego gradually attains mastery of bodily functions involving intake and output, which includes experiencing the erotic component is such functions. Such later character trains as the ability to get and to give good things, to hold on to what one wants and to let go when necessary, to be able to rise to the occasion, to make things go, to build and to conserve, to understand and to predicts, all have their beginnings in the early years when the most important ego-crises occur. The later achievements of the normal ego involve primarily the synthesis of these earlier acquisitions of mastery; the most important outcomes have to do with personal identity in work and in live, and finally with the individual’s participation in community experience, which would include some understanding of mortals in relation to nature, and of nature itself.  The polarity which is shown ontologically in the process of nature is also shown in the human being. The paradox of love is that it is the highest degree of awareness of the self as a person and the highest degree of absorption in the other. The fact is that love is personal. It brings a heightened consciousness of relationship. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

Love contributes to the deepening of consciousness. The care which comes out of an awareness of the other’s needs and desires and the nuances of one’s feelings. The experience of concern emerges from the fact that people are able to overcome the separateness and isolation to which we are all heir because we are individuals, can participate in a relationship that, for the moment, are no longer isolated. Love creates a new field of magnetic force, a new being. Another aspect of the deepened consciousness comes from the affirmation of the self in love a it provides a sound and meaningful avenue to the sense of personal identity. When we know we are loved, we experience vigor and vitality which comes not from triumph or proof of one’s strength but from the expansion of awareness. However, even in our increased self-awareness it is possible to experience a poignant reminder that none of us ever overcomes our loneliness completely, but through acceptance of the spirit, the soul is replenished and a sense of our own personal significance is fortified, then the psyche is about to accept these limitations laid upon us by our human finiteness. That is why there is an enrichment and fulfillment—so far as this is possible—of personality. Beginning with the expansion of awareness of our own selves and our feelings, this consists of experiencing our capacity to give pleasure to others, and thereby achieving an expansion of meaning in the relationship. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

Love carries us beyond what we were at any given moment; I become literally more than what I was. Another aspect of new consciousness is possessed in the curious phenomenon that being able to give to others affirmation that they are worthy of life and essential to God’s plan. Some people feel that the one who loves us, will do many things necessary to show us that this is so; the actions are not the cause, however, but part of the total field. As we all know, the love experience is filled with pitfalls and disappointments and traumatic events for most of us. We have a great propensity for regulating life in minute detail and insofar as possible deciding in advance what is right and what is wrong or what is socially acceptable. And if we are successful in doing this, usually with the assistance of a religious or social class, then we can know in almost every situation what we should do. Then we no longer have to think or feel. We can rather automatically do what we know is right; or, failing that, we suffer the appropriate guilt for the sin or social blunder that we have committed. This makes for a safe, regulated kind of life. However, it also tends to be a joyless life from which most of the spontaneity and creativity has been removed. Although it is often maintained that a sense of responsibility demands a clear-cut view of right and wrong, it is more likely that such legalistic approaches actually undermine personal responsibility. For there are always areas of life, which are not always transparent. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

When we ignore that fact that thing may not always be what they seem, arbitrarily seeing all factors in absolutes, we take ourselves off the hook of wrestling with the subtleties of the situation. We are in a position where we can uphold the right and denounce the evil. The relation between social character and social structure is never static, since both elements in this relationship are never-ending processes. A change in either factor means a change in both. Many political revolutionaries believe that one must first change the political and economic structure radically, and that then, as a second and almost necessary step, the human mind will also change: that the new society, once established, will quasiautomatically produce the new human being. They do not see that the new elite, being motivated by the same character as the old one, will tend to recreate the conditions of the old society in the new sociopolitical institutions the revolution has created; that the victory of the revolution will be its defeat as a revolution—although not as a historical phase that paved the way for the socioeconomic development that was hobbled in its fully development. On the other side are those who claim that first the nature of the human beings must change—their consciousness, their values, their character—and that only then can a truly human society be built. The history of the human race proves them wrong. Purely physical change has always remained in the private sphere and been restricted to small oases, or has been completely ineffective when preaching of spiritual values was combined with the practice of the opposite values. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

 The social character as a further and significant function beyond that of serving the needs of society for a certain type of character and satisfying the individual’s character-conditioned behavioral needs. Social character must fulfill any human being’s inherent religious needs. However, people’s religion may be conducive to the development of destructiveness or of love, of domination or of solidarity; it may further their power of reason or paralyze it. They may be aware of their system as being a religious one, different from those of the secular realm, or they may think that they have no religion, and interpret their devotion to certain allegedly secular sims, such as power, money, or success, as nothing but their concern for the practical and the expedient. The question is not one of religion or not? but of which kind of religion?—whether it is one that furthers human development, the unfolding of specifically human powers, or one that paralyzes human growth. A specific religion, provided it is effective in motivating conduct, is not a sum total of doctrines and beliefs; it is rooted in a specific character structure of the individual and, inasmuch as it is the religion of a group, in the social character. Thus, our religious attitude may be considered an aspect of our character structure, for we are what we are devoted to, and what we are devoted to is what motivates our conduct. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

Often, however, individuals are not even aware of the real objects of their personal devotion and mistake their official beliefs for their real, though secret religion. If, for instance, a mortal worships power while professing a religion of love, the religion of power is one’s secret religion, while one’s so-called official religion, for example Christianity, in only an ideology. The religious need is rooted in the basic conditions of existence of the human species. Ours is a species by itself, just as is the species chimpanzee or horse or swallow. Each species can be and is defined by its specific physiological and anatomical characteristics. As being highly evolved, humans are no longer ruled by instincts alone. It is generally accepted that as higher beings human behavior is less determined by phylogenetically programmed instincts. The process of ever-decreasing determination of behavior by instinct can be contributed to a large and more complex brain structure; especially neocortex which is three times the size of that of primates, and a truly fantastic number of interneuronal connections. Considering these data, the human species can be defined as the beings who emerged at the point of evolution where instinctive determination has reached the point of evolution where instinctive determination had reached a minimum and the development of the brain a maximum. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

This combination of minimal instinctive determination and maximal brain development has never occurred before in any living beings that we know of besides mortals. Lacking the full capacity to act by the command of instincts while possessing the capacity for self-awareness, reason, and imagination—new qualities that go beyond the capacity for instrumental thinking of even the cleverest primates—the human species needed a frame of orientation and an object of devotion in order to survive. Without a map of our natural and social World—a picture of the World and of one’s place in it that is structured and has inner cohesion—human beings would be confused and unable to act purposeful and consistently, for there would be no way of orienting oneself, of finding a fixed point that permits one to organize all the impressions that impinge upon each individual. Our World makes sense to us, and we feel certain about our ideas, through the consensus with those around us. Even if the map is wrong, it fulfills its psychological function. However, the map has never been entirely wrong—nor has it ever been entirely right. It has always been enough of an approximation to the explanation of phenomena to serve the purpose of living. Only to the degree that the practice of life is freed from its contradictions and its irrationality can the map correspond to reality. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

The impressive fact is that no culture has been found in which such a frame of orientation does not exist. Neither has any individual. Often individuals may disclaim having any such overall picture and believe that they respond to the various phenomena and incidents of life from case to case, as their judgment guides them. However, it can be easily demonstrated that they simply take their own philosophy for granted because to them it is only common sense, and they are unaware that all their concepts rest upon a commonly accepted frame of reference. When such persons are confronted with a fundamentally different total view of life, they judge it as crazy or irrational or juvenile, while they consider themselves as being only logical. The deep need for a frame of reference is particularly evident in youth. At a certain age, many youngsters will often make up their own frame of orientation in an ingenious way, using the few data available to them. However, a map is not enough as a guide for action; we also need a goal that tells us where to go. Animals have no such problems. Their instincts provide them with a map as well as with goals. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

However, lacking instinctive determination and having a brain that permits us to think of many directions in which we can go, we need an object of total devotion, a focal point for all our strivings and the basis for all our effective—not only our proclaimed—values. We need such an object of devotion in order to integrate our energies in one direction, to transcend our isolated existence, with all its doubts and insecurities, and to answer our need for a meaning to life. Socioeconomic structure, character structure, and religious structure are inseparable from each other. If the religious system does not correspond to the prevalent social character, if it conflicts with the social practice of life, it is only an ideology. We have to look behind it for the real religious structures, even though we may not be conscious of it as such—unless the human energies inherent in the religious structure of character act as dynamite and tend to undermine the given socioeconomic conditions. However, as there are always individual expectations to dominant social character, there are also individual exceptions to the dominant religious character. They are often the leaders of religious revolutions and the founders of new religions. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

The religious orientation, as the experiential core of all high religions, has been mostly perverted in the development of these religions. The way individuals consciously conceive of their personal orientation does not matter; they may be religious without considering themselves to be so—or they may be nonreligious, although considering themselves Christian. We have no word to denote the experiential content of religion, aside from its conceptual and institutional aspect. Hence, we can never be sure what denotes religious in the experiential, subjective orientation, regardless of the conceptual structure in which the person’s religiosity is expressed. Rationalization is one of the more popular concepts of psychology and has found its way into everyday language. If I want very much to buy a very expensive stereo but cannot afford it, I might immediately begin listing all the stereo’s weaknesses and the reasons why it is just as well that I cannot buy it. And I may be told by a friend, “Stop rationalizing about the situation!” As long as we do our part, the Lord will bless us with prosperity and with the wisdom to keep our mind focused on what matters most in life. “However, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” reports Matthew 6.33. Those who seek riches to build up their own egos will find their treasure to be slippery and easily lost in unwise ways. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

God is not telling us that we should not be prosperous or the prosperity is a sin. On the contrary, he has always blessed his obedient children. However, God is telling us that we should seek prosperity only after we seek, find, and serve him. Then, because our hearts are right, because we love God first and foremost, we will choose to invest the riches we obtain in building his kingdom. If one choses to seek riches for the sake of riches, one will fall short. One will never be satisfied. One will be empty, never finding true happiness and lasting joy. The trial of your faith in the next few years will likely not be that you lack the material things of this World. Rather it will be in choosing what to do wit the temporal blessings one receives. To the extent that an adult person has achieved some freedom and identity as a self, one has a base from which to acquire wisdom in the past traditions of one’s society and to take it one’s own. However, if this freedom is missing, traditions block rather than enrich. They may become an internalized set of traffic rules, but they will have little or no fructifying influence on one’s inward development as a person. Whatever view we hold, it must be shown why every person has a wish to make some other kind of otherness one’s own: Perhaps, in fact, we are never alone. God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest souls, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13