I have called the major crisis of adolescence the identity crisis; it occurs in that period of the life cycle when each youth must forge for oneself some central perspective and direction, some working unity, out of the effective remnants of one’s childhood and the hopes of one’s anticipated adulthood. If I engage in conversation with you, in dialogue; and if you disclose your experience of yourself and of me to me in truth—then I must be letting change happen and be disclosed to us both. If I reflect upon my experience of the dialogue, I must notice that I am different from the way I was when we began the dialogue. However, if I have (as it were) pledged myself to appear before you and to myself as this kind of human and no other, then my intentional disclosures to you will be very selective. Perhaps I will lie to you, to preserve your present concept of me, or at least my concept of your concept of me. Indeed, if my pledge of sameness is made to myself, then every time my actually changed being discloses itself to me, I will become threatened and repress it. I will pretend to myself I did not have the experience of hatred, or of anxiety, or of lust. And I will believe my own pretense to myself. Then I shall not grow. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

My concept of myself will become increasingly estranged from the ongoing change of my being. If my self-concept is too discrepant from actuality, the disclosure to me of my changed being will become more insistent. I will then have to pretend and repress much harder. If the change is too great, the experience of change will no longer me repressible. It will declare itself in my experience and perhaps in my behaviour; I may become terrified and feel I have “gone out of my mind.” Actually, I have, if by “mind” we mean “self-concept.” If still I insist on trying to appear to you as the same person I was, I may develop neurotic symptoms. Or if I am terrified enough, I may become psychotic. You can help me grow, or you can obstruct my growth. If you have a fixed idea of who I am and what my traits are, and what my possibilities of change are, then anything that comes out of me beyond your concept, you will disconfirm. In fact, you may be terrified of any surprises, any changes in my behaviour, because these changes may threaten your concept of me; my changes may, if disclosed to you, shatter your concept of me and challenge you to grow. You may be afraid to. In your fear, you may do everything in your power to get me to un-change and to reappear to you as the person you once knew. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

However, if you suspend any preconceptions you may have of me and my being, and invite me simply to be and to disclose this being to you, you create an ambience, an area of “low pressure” where I can let my being happen and be disclosed, to you and to me simultaneously—to me from the insides, and to you who receive the outside layer of my being. If your concept of my being is one that encompasses more possibilities in my behaviour than I have myself acknowledged; if your concept of my being is more inclusive and indeed more accurate than my concept of my being, and if you let me know how you think of me; if you say, “Now I like you. Now I think you are being ingratiating. Now I think you can succeed at this, if you try”; if you tell me truly how you experience me, I can compare this with my experience of myself, and with my own self-concept. You may thus insert the thin edge of doubt into the crust of my self-concept, helping to bring about its collapse, so that I might re-form it. In fact, this is what a loving friend, or a good psychotherapist, does. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

There is another way you can help me grow and that is through challenging me and encouraging me to attempt new projects. We actually construe and conceptualize the World and ourselves in the light of the projects we live for. It is our commitment to these which structures our Worlds. The beings in the World, including our own being, reveal different faces of themselves to us, depending upon the projects we are pursuing at the moment. The trees in the forest reveal their timber footage to the lumber merchant, the bugs in their trunks to the insect-collector, and their colours to the painter. My muscular strength or weakness reveals itself to me as I try to chop the forest down, and I form a concept of my muscular strength. I may never come to question or doubt this estimate I made. My self-concept gets frozen if my projects are frozen, and if I become too adept and skilled at fulfilling them. Suppose, when I find my existence dull and boring, I decide to try some new project—to write a book, climb a mountain, change jobs. I tell you of this, at first, faint resolve. I am afraid to try, because, as I presently think of myself, I do not believe I have the capacity to succeed. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

If you encourage me to try and encourage me and support me when the going gets rough, so that I stick with the project with more and more singlemindedness, I discover in myself transcendent powers I never experienced before and never imagined I had. Triumphant starts with try. I do not and cannot transcend my possibilities; I do not know what these are and will not know until I stop living. I only transcend my concept of what my possibilities might be. You can help me transcend my concept of what my possibilities might be. You can help me transcend my self-concept by challenging and supporting me in new projects that I undertake. Even the decision to attempt something new results in a new experience of myself and the World, before I actually get going. If I decide to start a new book, I begin to experience friends as interferences in this project; movies and television, formerly very inviting, become dull and boring. The whole World and my experience of myself change with the change in projects. If you help me give up old projects that are no longer satisfying, delightful, or fulfilling and encourage me to dare new ones, you are helping me to grow. If I am willing, God will lead me to places I have never dreamed I could go—as lofty as my dreams might already be. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

God’s thoughts and His ways are much higher than ours. It is a divine goal. Lofty thoughts are what makes life so attractive, and it is at the heart what makes the restored gospel so attractive and inspiring. Deep in our souls is an echo—a memory—that tells us why we came to Earth. We accepted our Father in Heaven’s plan first and foremost because we wanted to become like Him. We knew that it was a staggering goal that would never be easy to achieve. However, we simply could not be satisfied with anything less. Our souls were created to grow, and we were stirred then and now to make the journey. Teaching, learning, and living the gospel are key principles at the heart of growing toward our divine potential and becoming like our Heavenly Parents. Sometimes we call this process eternal progression. Sometimes we simply name it repentance. However, whatever we call it, it involves learning. Learning in the sense of growth and change, of insight leading to improvement, of knowing the truth, which in turn leads us closer to the God of all truth. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

The Holy Ghost gives conviction to the earnest seeker of truth, it fosters faith, which promotes repentance and obedience to God’s commandments. These essential ingredients of conversion turn us from the ways of the World to the ways of the Lord, which brings a mighty change of heart. This kind of learning is about changing ourselves, about being different (better) because we know more of what God knows. You can help yourself grow if you will engage in aimless contemplation and prayer. All these truths God is trying to teach us each day are only so many seeds sown in rocky soil or among the thorns to be burned up or chocked out unless we take Alma’s counsel to nourish them by experimenting in the word. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves,” reports James 1.22. To contemplate the World before you, in its visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactual dimensions means simply to let the World present itself to you. You are not searching for anything when you contemplate. Rather, you are letting the World disclose itself to you as it is in itself. You can only do this when you suspend your work, your striving, your goals and projects. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

When you suspend your projects in this way, you open the “doors of perception,” and let the word of God, birds, trees, other people, in fact everything disclose itself to you. All these brings always were, but you did not notice so long as you were involved in some task or mission. Such contemplation yields a different experience of the World, which must change your concepts of the World, and thus fosters growth. Maslow has described such contemplation as “B-cognition,” and has pointed out that it has dangers as well as delights. The dangers, of course, are that one might simply revel in the sheer beauty of evil rather than do something about it. However, it cannot be gainsaid that contemplation of the World in this aimless way enriches experience. So many today need to be blasted from their delusions by an understanding of the great doctrine of the Church. There is no text that will ignite one’s soul more than Hebrews 12.22-24, which describes the seven stupendous meetings which the Christian experiences in the Church: “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the Heavenly Jerusalem, the city of living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of Angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in Heaven. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

“You have come to God, the judge of all humans, to the spirits of righteous humans made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” We come to the city of God—“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the Heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God.” Mount Zion was the location of the Jebusite stronghold which David captured and made the religious center of his kingdom by bring to it the golden Ark of God’s presence. When Solomon built the Temple and installed the Ark, Zion/Jerusalem became synonymous with the Earthly dwelling-place of God. In Christ we have come to its Heavenly counterpart, the spiritual Jerusalem from above. In one sense it is still to come, but at the same time we have already arrived there in spirit. Christians are now citizen the Heavenly City and enjoy it privileges. As the Church we meet Angels—“You have come to thousands upon thousands of Angels in joyful assembly.” Moses tells us that “myriads of holy ones” attend the giving of the Law (Deuteronomy 33.2), and from Daniel we hear that “Thousands upon thousands attended him [the Ancient of Days—God]; ten thousand times thousands stood before him,” reports Daniel 7.10. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

David said, “The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands,” reports Psalm 68.17. In the Church we come to these dizzying thousands of Angels, all of whom are in joyful celebration. They are everywhere—mighty flaming spirits, “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation,” reports Hebrews 1.14, passing in and out of our lives, moving around us and over us, just as they did to Jacob of old. Instead of gazing upon the World and letting it disclose itself to you through your eyes, ears, nose, and hands, you can pray upon your own experience of your bodily being. Perhaps close your eyes, or seek a tranquil setting with no sudden distractions. Let your experience happen without direction. Engage in free reverie. You may find yourself now recalling something of the past, now vividly imagining—in playful ways—all kinds of possibilities. You may find yourself experiencing anger for somebody, love for somebody else, you may find you have aches and pains you had not noticed before. Some of your self-experiencing may be frightening. It may help you to pray if, instead of close your eyes, you gaze with or without fixed focus at a mandala, or a flower. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

If you gaze long enough, your experiencing my turn on fully and freely. Instead of being frozen into some one mode of experiencing—say, perceiving, or imagining, or remembering—which may be customary for you, you may find that you become “unglued” and then integrated. You experience perceptions fused with memories fused with imagination fused with conceptualizing fused with fantasy fused with emotion. This richness may truly shatter your self-concept, so that when you “pull yourself together,” you are truly a different person from the person you thought you were. As I said before, your being and mine are always in progress of change, in consequence of the way we live, the passage of time, and sheer past experience. However, living as we do mostly at a conceptual level and for definite projects—dealing, not with concrete things, but with concepts of things and people and of ourselves—we reflect quietly upon our awareness of ourselves, we suspend the concepts, and we et our being disclose itself to us. And thus we grow. As we learn the truth and chose to act on it, our testimonies grow. “If any human will do one’s will, one shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself,” reports John 7.17. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

We come to fellow believers—to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in Heaven. Jesus was the firstborn par excellence, and by virtue of our union with Him we are firstborn. All the rights of inheritance go to the first born—to us, “co-heirs with Christ,” reports Romans 8.17. In the Church we do more than come int each other’s presence—we share membership together. We come to God—You have come to God, the judge of all humans. We come in awe because He is the Judge—but we do not come in craven dread, because His Son has borne the judgment for us. This is our highest delight—to gather before our God! We come to the Heavenly Church Triumph—to the spirit of righteous humans made perfect. Though they are in Heaven, we share a solidarity with those who have gone before. The same spiritual life course through us as through them. We share the same secrets and joys as Abraham and Moses and David and Paul. Growing entails going out of our minds and into our raw experience. Our experience is always of the disclosure of the World and of our own embodied being. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

When we function smoothly, habitually, and effectively in the World, our concepts are confirmed; and we do not receive new disclosure. When we meet impasses and failure in the pursuit of our projects, then our habits, concepts (a habit can be seen as the “outside” of a concept), and expectations are challenged, or upended. Failure of our projects gives us a whiff of the stink of chaos, and this can be terrifying. Our concepts get crack in them when we fail. Through these cracks, the encapsulated experience “contained” by the concept might leak or explode; or though the crack there may occur an implosion of more being. When there are no concepts, there is nothing—no-thing we can grapple with, get leverage on, in order to get on with the projects of living. There is the threat of pure chaos and situationlessness. If we experience the pure nothingness, we become panicked, and seek quickly to shore up the collapsing World, to daub clay into the cracks in our concepts. If we do this, we do not grow. If we let the concepts explode or implode and do not re-form them veridically, we appear mad, and are mad. If we re-form them, to incorporate new experience, we grow. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

As we make the truth part of us by striving to live it consistently even in the face of challenges, it changes us and we become more like the Father of truth. Though Earthly families are far from perfect, they give God’s children the best change to be welcomed to the World with the only love on Earth that comes close to what we felt in Heaven—parental love. Families are also the best way to preserve and pass on moral virtues and true principles that are most likely to lead us back to God’s presence. One again, we must consider projects, this time in relation to integration, a vital and crucial phase of growth. When our projects are obstructed, because our concepts are out of phase with being, the concepts must explode, or become fractioned, differentiated into parts. We experience chaos. Our commitment to the old projects, or recommitment to new projects, serves as the field of force which organizes the fractionated experience of being into meaningful wholes, concepts, gestalten. Growth is our experience of our concepts and perfect being detotalized and then retotalized into newly meaningful unities. We have come to Jesus—to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

It is through Jesus that the promises come to us. He is the source and dispenser of all for which we hope. Jesus is in us, and we are in Him. We come to forgiveness because of sprinkled blood—and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Abel’s warm blood cried condemnation and judgment from the ground, but Christ’s blood shouts that we are forgiven and have peace with God. Hallelujah! I know I am ready to grow when I experience surprise—a dissonance between my beliefs and concepts and expectations of the World and my perception of the World. I am also ready to grow when I experience boredom, despair, depression, anxiety, or guilt. These emotions inform me that my goals and projects have lost meaning for me; that my being has gotten too big, too out of phase with my concepts of my being. I have a choice at these moments, if indeed I can experience them. I may have become so unaccustomed to and maladapt at reflection and prayer that I simply do not notice these all-is-not-well signals. And I continue to pursue my projects and to believe my beliefs as if experience were conforming them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

However, if I do not acknowledge the signals, my choice is either to pray, suspend my concept and preconception of self, and let my changed being disclose itself to me, even when it hurts (it frequently does); or to decide to affirm the project of being the same (an impossible project, but one that many people try to live). If I decide to try to be the same, then I will repress my experience of change, of all-is-not-well signals. I have resolved, really, to stop perceiving myself. The invitation to suspend preconceptions and concepts, to let being disclose itself, is actually an invitation to go out of one’s mind. To be out of one’s mind can be terrifying; because when projects are suspended, and experiencing is just happening, myself and the World are experienced as infinite possibility: anything might be possible. Yet, if a person can endure this voyage within one’s own experience—one’s Odyssey within—one can emerge from it with a new concept of one’s being and with new projects; the new concept of being will include more of one’s being in it. However, this new integration will last only so long, and then the entire process must be repeated again. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

A sentient life is an endless series of getting out of one’s mind and concepts, only to reenter and to depart again. The Scriptures tell us that in the Church “you have come” (right now!) to these seven sublime realities: to the city of God, to myriads of Angels, to fellow believers, to God, to the Church of Triumphant, to Jesus, and to forgiveness. If this does not create a wellspring of thanksgiving in your hearts and a longing for fellowship in the visible Church, nothing will! When many of us fall into despondency which may last for several says, we desperately seek a word from God to meet our need. Often times, we will find one night that the World was good to us; maybe we have had but few better; we long for the company of some of God’s people, that we may impart into them what God has shown us. Christ is a precious Christ to our souls on a night like such; we can scarce lie in our bed for joy, and peace, and triumph through Christ. Saviour, if of Zion’s city, I through grace a member am, please let the World deride or pity, I will glory in Thy name. “And it came to pass that Jesus commanded his disciples that they should bring forth some bread and wine unto him. And while they were gone for bread and wine, he commanded the multitude that they should sit themselves down upon the Earth. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

“And when the disciples had come with bread and wine, Jesus took of the bread and brake and blessed it; and he gave unto the disciples and commanded that they should eat. And when they had eaten and were filled, he commanded that they should give unto the multitude. And when the multitude had eaten and were filled, he said unto the disciples: Behold there shall one be ordained among you, and to him will I give power that he shall break bread and bless it and give it unto the people of my church, unto all those who shall believe and be baptized in my name. And this shall ye always observe to do, even as I have done, even as I have broken bread and blessed it and given it unto you. And this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you. And it came to pass that when he said these words, he commanded his disciples that they should take of the wine of the cup and drink of it, and that they should also give unto the multitude that they might drink of it. And it came to pass that they did so, and did drink of it and were filled; and they gave unto the multitude, and they did drink, and they were filled. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

“And when the disciples had done this, Jesus said unto them: Blessed are ye for this thing which ye has done, for this is fulfilling my commandments, and this doth witness unto the Father that ye are willing to do that which I have commanded you. And this shall ye always do to those who repent and are baptized in my name; and ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you, that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me, ye shall have my spirit to be with you. And I give unto you a commandment that ye shall do these things. And if ye shall do these things, blessed are ye, for ye are built on my rock. However, whoso among you shall do more or less than these are not built upon my rock, but are built upon a sandy foundation; and when the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon them, they shall fall, and the gates of hell are ready open to receive them. Therefore blessed are ye if ye shall keep my commandments, which the Father hath commanded me that I should give unto you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always, lest ye be tempted by the devil, and ye be led away captive by him. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

“And as I have prayed among you even so shall ye pray in my church, among my people who do repent and are baptized in my name. Behold I am the light; I have set an example for you. And it came to pass that when Jesus has spoken these words  unto his disciples, he turned again unto the multitude and said unto them: Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; and whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you. Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed. And behold, ye shall meet together oft; and ye shall not forbid any human from coming unto you when ye shall meet together, but suffer them that they may come unto you and forbid them not; but ye shall pray for them, and shall not cast them out; and if it so be that they come unto you oft ye shall pray for them unto the Father, in my name. Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the World. Before I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

“Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed. And ye see that I have commanded that none of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see; even so shall ye do unto the World; and whosoever breaketh this commandment suffereth himself to be led into temptation. And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he turned his eyes again upon the disciples whom he had chosen, and said unto them: Behold verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you another commandment, and then I must go unto my Father that I may fulfil other commandments which he hath given me. And now behold, this is the commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall not suffer any one knowingly to partake of my flesh and blood unworthily, when ye shall minister it; for whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul; therefore if ye know that a human is unworthy to eat and drink of my flesh and blood ye shall forbid one. Nevertheless, ye shall not cast one out from among you, but ye shall minister unto one and shall pray for one unto the Father, in my name; and if it so be that one repenteth and is baptized in my name, then shall ye receive one, and shall minister unto one of my flesh and blood. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

“However, if one repent no one shall not be numbered among my people, that one may not destroy my people, for behold I know my sheep, and they are numbered. Nevertheless, ye shall not cast one out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them. Therefore, keep these sayings which I have commanded you that ye come not under condemnation; for wo unto one who the Father condemneth. And I give you these commandments because of the disputations which have been among you. And blessed are ye if ye have no disputations among you. And now I go unto the Father, because it is expedient that I should go unto the Father for your sakes. And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of these sayings, he touched with his hand the disciples whom he had chosen, one by one, even until one had touched them all, and spake unto them as he touched them. And the multitude heard not the words which he spake, therefore they did not bear record. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

“However, the disciples bare record that he gave them power to give the Holy Ghost. And I will show unto you hereafter that this record is true. And it came to pass that when Jesus had touched them all, there came a cloud and overshadowed the multitude that they could not see Jesus. And while they were overshadowed he departed from them, and ascended into Heaven. And the disciples saw and did bear record that he ascended again into Heaven,” 3 Nephi 19.1-39. Though you are high above, your heat still reached me, testing my endurance as I work under its glare. Please do not give me more testing than I can handle, and please do not insult me by making life a cake walk. May His great name be blessed for ever and ever. Exalted and honored be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, whose glory transcends, yea, is beyond all praises, hymns and blessings that humans can render unto Him; and say ye, Amen. May the prayers and supplications of the whole house of Israel be accepted unto their Father in Heaven; and say ye, Amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life for us and all of Israel; and say ye, Amen. May He who establisheth peace in the Heavens, grant peace unto us all and unto all Israel; and say ye, Amen. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

Winchester Mystery House

The all new Victorian Candlelight Tour will feature some of our most chilling ghost stories told as you explore the most active parts of the Mansion, including the basement, which has been off limits for quite some time now. It is a rare chance to glimpse one of the World’s most alleged haunted mansions at night…all alone on a safe, self-guided adventure! Tour capacity is LIMITED and these dates will sell out quick – get your tickets while they are available! 🎄🔔

A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻
🗝 winchestermysteryhouse.com