When we reach the Olympian heights and stand to survey the scenes of our long struggles, we shall then not regret that we were tried, tempted, and tortured by conflicting desires, for without them we should only have become mechanically good. Even our sufferings turn to sympathy. The human infant enters directly into an evaluating transaction with his World, appreciating or rejecting his experiences as they have meaning for his own actualization, utilizing all the wisdom of his tiny but complex organism. We seem to lose this capacity of direct evaluation, and come to behave in those ways and to act in terms of those values which will bring us social approval, affection, esteem. To buy love we relinquish the valuing process. Because the center of our lives now lies in others, we are fearful and insecure, and must cling rigidly to the values we have introjected. However, if life or therapy gives us favourable conditions for continuing our psychological growth, we move on in something of a spiral, developing an approach to values which partakes of the infant’s directness and fluidity but goes far beyond him in its richness. It our transactions with experience we are again the locus or source of valuing, we prefer those experiences which in the long run are enhancing, we utilize all the richness of our cognitive learning and functioning, but at the same time we trust the wisdom of our organism. All ethical paths are twofold inasmuch as they must consist of the acquirement of virtues and the expulsion of vices. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

The less a mental conflict appears in open consciousness, the more dangerous does it become. Man has within him an organismic basis for valuing. To the extent that he can be freely in touch with his valuing process in himself, he will behave in ways which are self-enhancing. We even know some of the conditions which enable him to be in touch with his own experiencing process. In therapy, such openness to experience leads to emerging value directions which appear to be common across individuals who are thus in touch with their experiencing come to value such directions as sincerity, independence, self-direction, self-knowledge, social responsivity, social responsibility, and loving interpersonal relationships. When individuals move in the direction of psychological maturity, or more accurately, move in the direction of becoming open to their experiencing, a new kind of emergent universality of value directions becomes possible. Such a value base appears to make for the enhancement of self and others, and to promote a positive evolutionary process. The greatness of character is tested just as much by the temptations for ego display in success as it is by failure. Many moral precepts have been preached to mankind but few practical instructions in the matter of how to carry out those precepts have been given him. Is it true, as so many say, that character is stubbornly resistant to change? #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

When the acquisition of new attributes, tendencies, and traits are natural, it is the grown man’s character that is in reference here, not the phases grades and adjustments of childhood and adolescence. If the idea of reincarnation is accepted, then the personality of ever man must inevitably change with time. Those who are willing to practise such hard self-discipline form an elite among mankind. Character is as easily imperilled by the briberies of wealth and luxury as by those of poverty and lack. “If he (the infant) could understand it, he would laugh at our concern over values. How could anyone fail to know what he liked or disliked, what was good for him and what was not?’ When I read that, I remember my friend saying to me so often when I was young, “You’re lucky.” You always known what you want.” I thought a person must be crazy not to. Later in life, I was baffled and confused because I could not seem to know what I wanted. In my own terms, I had gone crazy. In trying to find my way out of this, I went two ways at once: a search inside myself for what had gone wrong, and a search outside myself for something to believe that would set me right. The outside search was a flop. I never did find anything that I could entirely go along with. The inside search was rewarding, and it was there that I found I did not need to believe anything at all. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

Everything that I needed was right inside me. Only when it helped me to get in touch with what was inside was when the outside was useful. However, when I did get in touch with my inner valuing again, it was terribly hard to trust it, because in important ways it went against what everyone says. The more I use it, the more I trust it, and when I am really close to other people, I find their built-in pathfinders (organismic valuing) agree with me. The difference between the outside and the inside view goes like this: When my son was at college, he got picked up for driving a BMW Roadster with an excess number of passengers, some of them on the running board, and was fined $285.97 dollars. This hurt. He had worked a good deal since the age of nine. At college, he had a tuition scholarship but was otherwise supporting himself by having several jobs and he was helping me too, as I was sick in bed for several years. To him, $285.97 was a days’ labour. It hurt to pay the fine, but he did not resent this. He knew what the laws were, and knew that he had broken it. He accepted his own responsibility for what happened. However, at the police station he was told that he was irresponsible. This really seared him. He was made to feel bad, and this made him very resentful. At the same time, he was confused, which is probably worse than anything else. Several years later, when he was in graduate school in another state, two policemen came to our door asking for money for the Fourth of July fireworks display. Although we did not have much money then, either, we really loved those fireworks, and he freely gave them $5500. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

As I see it, he was not irresponsible. He was driving the other boys only two blocks from a dorm to the athletic field, in an area where there was very little and no fast traffic. He was alert to the fact of the young men on the running board and he also knew their own alertness and ability to look after themselves. He had made himself responsible. To me, it is not responsible to drive sixty miles an hour in accord with the speed limit when stretches of the road have become unsafe for driving at that speed, or weather conditions make it hazardous. A person who does that goes exclusively by the rule, instead of including his own noticing, his own awareness, and when there is a wreck he is sure he has “done nothing wrong.” The bad road was what did it, or the weather. It seems to me that I am responsible when I am responsible to everything around me, and that the opposite is the Eichmanns who have “done nothing wrong” because they did what they were told to do. When I had been in the hospital for a month, five days after leaving it I had to go to see the doctor whose office was in a private clinic. While I was waiting to see him, I realized that I was slipping from the chair, and the only way that I could keep myself in it was to hold tightly to the arms. I was not sure how long I could hold on, and noticed that I was getting woozy in the head. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

I got myself up and to the desk, where I had to lean over the chest-high counter and hook my fingers on the opposite edge to keep myself from slipping to the floor. I told one of the nurses that I needed to lie down. She asked me, “Who is your doctor?” “Do you have an appointment?” “Wat is your clinic number?” What did any of that have to do with a sick person who needed to lie down? That must have been obvious quite apart from my telling her so. She was neither a cold person nor a wicked one, not in most respect was she stupid. She had made herself a “responsible” person who abides by the rules, and her “responsibility” was to her job as it was defined by the administration, not to the immediate need of another human being. Like Eichmann. My predicament in the clinic is so prevalent in our society that I think there cannot be anyone who has not run into something similar—perhaps hundreds of times—plus all the others that one hears about, like the child who was brought to a police stations because he had been bitten by a rattlesnake, and he was left sitting there while the cops tried to find out where his home was, so they would know which hospital to send him to. Everybody knows about things like this, but nobody does anything about it. It can really make a person scared. Habit, weakness, and desire may prevent one from following behind the philosopher as he walks his lonely road, as they may prevent him from recognizing the logic of the philosopher’s teaching. His human weaknesses need to be recognized, admitted, and looked at in the face realistically. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

To fail to see one’s weaknesses is to walk over marsh and quagmire, bog and quicksand. They need not frighten him away from the quest for they represent opportunities to grow, material to be worked upon for his ultimate benefit. The attempt to escape from such problems by first refusing to look at them, and second, by refraining from the efforts needed to deal with them, leads only to their prolongation and enlargement later on. What can be done to humanize the technological society? First of all, we must ask ourselves what it is to be human—that is, what is the human element which we have to consider as an essential factor in the functioning of the social system. This undertaking goes beyond what is called “psychology.” It should more properly be called a “science of man,” a discipline which deals with the data of history, sociology, psychology, theology, mythology, physiology, economics, and at, as far as they are relevant to the understanding of man. Man was—and still is—easily seduced into accepting a particular form of being human as his essence. To the degree to which this happens, man defines his humanity in terms of the society with which he identified himself. However, while this has been the rule, there have been exceptions. There were always men who looked beyond the dimensions of their own society—and whole they may have been called fools or criminals in their time they are the roster of great men as far as the record of human history is concerned—and visualized something which can be universally human and which is not identical with what a particular society assumes human nature to be. There were always men who were bold and imaginative enough to see beyond the frontiers of their own social existence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

Th decrease of instinctual determinism the higher we go in animal evolution, reaching its lowest point in man, in whom the force of instinctual determinism moves toward the zero end of the scale is a condition of human existence. The tremendous increase in size and complexity of the brain in comparison with body weight, in the second half of the Pleistocene is another condition of human existence. This enlarged neocortex is the basis for awareness, imagination, and all those facilities such as speech and symbol-making which characterize human existence. Man, lacking the instinctual equipment of the animal, is not as well equipped for flight or for attack as animals are. He does not “know” in fallibly, as the salmon knows where to return to the river in order to spawn its young and as many birds know where to go south in the winter and where to return in the summer. His decisions are not made for him by instinct. He has to make them. He is faced with alternatives and there is a risk of failure in every decision he makes. The price that man pays for consciousness is insecurity. He can stand his insecurity by being aware and accepting the human condition, and by the hope that he will not fail even though he has no guarantee of success. He has no certainty; the only certain prediction he can make is: “I shall die.” Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision-making which replace the principles of instinct. He has to have a frame of orientation which permits him to organize a consistent picture of the World as a condition for consistent actions. He has to fight not only against the dangers of dying, starving, and being hurt, but also against another danger which is specifically human: that of being insane. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

In other words, man has to protect himself not only against the danger of losing his life but also against the danger of losing his mind. The human being, born under the conditions described here, would indeed go mad if he did not find a frame of reference which permitted him to feel at home in the World in some form and to escape the experience of utter helplessness, disorientation, and uprootedness. There are many ways in which man can find a solution to the task of staying alive and of remaining sane. Some are better than others and some are worse. By “better” is meant a way conducive to greater strength, clarity, joy, independence; and by “worse” the very opposite. However, more important than finding the better solution is finding some solution which is viable. The foregoing thought raise the problem of man’s malleability. Some anthropologist and other observers of man have believed that man in infinitely malleable. At first glance, this seems to be so. Just as he can eat meat or vegetables or both, he can live as a slave and as a free man, in scarcity or abundance, in a society which values love and one which values destruction. Indeed, man can do almost anything, or, perhaps better, the social order can do almost anything to man. The “almost” is important. Even f the social order can do everything to man—starve him, torture him, imprison him, or overfeed him—this cannot be done without certain consequences which follow from the very conditions of human existence. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

Man, if utterly deprived of all stimuli and pleasure, will be incapable of performing work, certainly any skilled work. The recent experiments with sensory deprivation show that extreme forms of the absence of stimuli to which man can respond are able to produce symptoms of severe mental illness. If he is not that utterly destitute; if you make him a slave, he will tend to rebel; if life is too boring, he will tend to be violent; if you make him into a machine, he will tend to lose all creativity. Man in this respect is not different from animals or from inanimate matter. You may get certain animals into the zoo, but they will not reproduce, and others will become violent although they are not violent in freedom. A similar fact has been discovered in psychotic patients who live on farms or in nonprisonlike conditions. They showed little violence under these conditions or noncoercion; this proved that the alleged reason for their previous prisonlike treatment, that is, their violence, produced the very result which the treatment was supposed to reduce or to control. You can heat water above a certain temperature and it will become steam; or cool it below a certain temperature and it will become solid. However, you cannot make steam by lowering its temperature. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

The history of man shows precisely what you can do to man and at the same tie what you cannot do. If man were infinitely malleable, there would have been no revolutions; there would have been no change because a culture would have succeeded in making man submit to its patterns without his resistance. However, man, being only relatively malleable, has always reacted with protest against conditions which made the disequilibrium between the social order and his human needs to drastic or unbearable. The attempt to reduce this disequilibrium and the need to establish a more acceptable and desirable solution is at the vey core of the dynamism of the evolution of man in history. Man’s protest arose not only because of material suffering; specifically human needs, and are an equally strong motivation for revolution and the dynamics of change. Obviously, it is not the man who has much, but the man who is much that is the fully developed, truly human man. However, this is indeed one of the most drastic examples of man’s capacity for distortion and rationalization that Marx is attacked by the spokesmen for capitalism because of his allegedly “materialistic” aims. Not only is this not true, but what is paradoxical is that the same spokesmen for capitalism combat socialism by saying that the profit motive—on which capitalism is based—is the only potent motive for human creative activity, and that socialism could not work effectively because it excludes the profit motive as the main stimulus in the economy. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

If one considers that Russian communism has adopted this capitalist thinking, and that for Russian managers, workers, and less affluent, the profit motive is by far the most important incentive in the present Russian economy, then all this is even more complex. Not only in practice but often also in theoretical statements about human motivation, the Russian system and the capitalist system agree with each other, and both are equally in contradiction to Marx’s theories and aims. If man does not overcome his infantile strivings and develop a mature genital orientation, he is torn between the desires of the child within himself and the claims which he makes as a grown-up person. The neurotic symptom represents a compromise between infantile and grown-up needs, while the psychosis is that form of pathology in which the infantile desires and phantasies have flooded the grown-up ego, and thus there is no more compromise between the two Worlds. Marx, of course, never developed a systematic psychopathology, yet he speaks of one form of psychic crippledness which to him is the most fundamental expression of psychopathology and which to overcome is the goal of socialism: alienation. What does Marx mean by alienation (or “estrangement”)? The essence of this concept, which was first developed by Hegal, is that the World (nature, things, others, and he himself) have become alien to man. He does not experience himself as the subject of his own acts, as a thinking, feeling, loving person, but he experiences himself only in the things he has created, as the object of the externalized manifestations of his powers. He is in touch with himself only by surrendering himself to the products of his creation. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

Hegel, taking God as the subject of history, had seen God in man, in a state of self-alienation and in the process of history God’s return to himself. The animal instincts are valid and have their assigned place, but the cerebral ones have even more validity and a higher place, while the spiritual ones should be elevated above the other two. The mind is the real root of the tree of character which, despite its thousands of branches, leaves, and fruits, possesses but this single root. If man is to improve himself, he must improve his acts of will, his objects of desire, and his subjects of thought. This means an entire psychological re-education which will involve much work upon himself. Those who desert the quest’s moral ideals but not its mystical exercises, who seek to gain selfish victories over the rights and minds of others by the use of mental or occult power, become evil-doers and suffer an evil end. Theirs is the way of the left-hand path, of black magic, and of the sin against the Holy Ghost. Until retribution falls upon them in the end, they bring misery and misfortune to all who accept their influence. Those who struggle in the work-a-day World need to learn what their higher duty is rather than what metaphysical truth is. They need a stimulant to the practice of righteousness rather than a stimulant to the analysis of intellectual subtleties. From the point of view of philosophy, we ought not to be virtuous merely because of baits of peace and contentment and lessened suffering which dangle from virtue itself, but because they very purpose of life on Earth cannot be achieved unless we are thoroughly virtuous. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

When it comes to self-analysis one must proceed beyond insights that are within easy reach and inevitably encounter “resistances,” to expose oneself to all kinds of painful uncertainties and hurts and to take up the battle with these opposing forces. And this requires a different spirit from that which serves in occasional work. There the incentive pressure is the pressure of some gross disturbance and the wish to resolve it. Here, though the work starts under a similar pressure, the ultimate driving force is the person’s unrelenting will to come to grips with himself, a wish to grow and to leave nothing untouched that prevents growth. It is a spirit of ruthless honesty toward himself, and he can succeed in finding himself only to the extent that it prevails. There is, of course, a difference between the will to be honest and the capacity to be so. Any number of times he will be unable to measure up to this ideal. If he were always transparent to himself, there may be some consolation, however, in the fact that no analysis would be necessary. Furthermore, if he carries on with a measure of consistency, the capacity for honesty will gradually increase. Each obstacle surmounted means gaining territory within himself and therefore makes it possible to approach the next with greater inner strength. Feeling at a loss as to how to go about it, the person who is analyzing himself, however conscientious, may understate the work with a kind of artificial zest. He may resolve, for instance, to analyze all his dreams from now on. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

Dreams, according to Dr. Freud, are the royal road to the unconscious. That remains true. However, unfortunately, if there is not a full knowledge of all the territory around it, it is a road that is easily lost. For anyone to try his skill at interpreting dreams without some understanding of the factors operating within himself at the time is haphazard, hit-or-miss play. Even if the dream itself is seemingly transparent, interpretation may then degenerate into intellectual guesswork. Even a simple dream may permit of various interpretations. For instance, if a husband dreams of his wife’s death the dream my express a deep unconscious hostility. On the other hand, it may mean that he wants to separate from her and, since he feels incapable of taking this step, her death appears as the only possible solution; in this case the dream is not primarily an expression of hatred. Or, finally, it may be a death wish provoked by a merely transitory rage which had been repressed and found its expression in the dream. The problems opened up are different in the three interpretations. In the first one the question would be the reason for the hatred and for its repression. In the second it would be why the dreamer does not find a more adequate solution. In the third it would be the circumstances of the actual provocation. It is easy to confuse respectable conventionality with authentic virtue. Although philosophy wags no finger in smug portentous moralizing, it respects the validity of karmic consequences, the getting-back of what is given out, and also the need to begin curbing the ego, its desires and passions, as a preliminary to crushing it. There is solid factual ground for the excellent ethical counsel give to all humanity by Jesus as the Christ and Sokrates. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

Many of the stupid, overworded objections to the so-called impracticability of ethical idealism will be disarmed and disproved. He will ruefully wake up to the fact that the mentality which begins by imagining rigid restrictions on what can be done to construct a better life ends by imposing them. Leaving out the essential parts of a story is called beating around the bush. You want to bend the truth in such a way that it hides the significant parts of the story. When it comes to telling the truth or lying, lying—or even omitting key details—just prolongs the inevitable. All of our virtues come from the divine source. They are incomplete and imperfect copies of the abstract and original archetypes, the idea of the spirit behind each particular virtue. This is one reason why the path of being, thinking, and practising the Good, as far as he is able, becomes, for the unbelieving man, as much and as valuable a spiritual path as any offered by religion. Ethical practice is the best ethical precept. Merly telling man to be kind and not cruel is utterly futile. They must be given adequate reasons to justify this precept. Only as men become convinced that their further fortune and happiness or distress and trouble are closely connected with their obedience to these higher laws—and particularly the universal laws—will they discover that not only is virtue its own reward but also adds to peace of mind. He will find that there is no other way, and will do better to come to it in the beginning than in the end. He must learn to cooperate with the World-Idea, the planetary will, or suffer from its whips. The choice is between animal-human and spiritual-human. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

There is a young man who comes from a very white-collar background. He descended from two generations of private-college professors. It was always the expectation in his family that he would go to college for four years and wind up becoming a doctor or a lawyer. He was always book smart and read a great deal, but was not physically inclined. Not really into sports or anything like that. He family moved out of the Midwest when he was very young. He was never involved in any kind of violence because his personal philosophy was opposed to it. In college, he majored in public health and then went on to work for the public health department. He has a passion for emergency medical care, and was in the middle of classes for getting his certificate as an emergency medical technician. And though that perhaps public ambulance work was what he wanted to get into. Eventually he became very interested in the fire department and would often visit and get to know the crew. He got to hang out at the station and would take his books down there when the dorms became too noisy. After reading all of the magazine, at the age of twenty-one, he applied to three different departments and was called by one of them. When he told his parents that he was dropping out of college to become a firefighter, they were shocked. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

His parents expected him to finish college and take on an office job. His mother feared his life would be in mortal danger. She began looking at the daily fire reports in the local paper, and she realized that for every working fire there were several hundred false alarms, little calls and trash fires. His dad had his reservations, but he found out that the son of on of his schoolteacher had gotten a degree from a prestigious college in California and had then joined the Sacramento Fire Department. He had a degree in biology, but he was in the fire department and was making good money, and really enjoyed what he was doing. In the end, his parents accepted the life choices he made and were satisfied. Sometimes he works twenty-four-hour days, on the old eighty-four-hour system. This firefighter never got injured badly. However, he did get cuts and burns, but nothing too serious. However, he is still very young. Many people are inspired to become firefighters for many different reasons. Please make sure to donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to ensure they have all the resources they need to protect the community. You definitely want someone who has the energy and determination to save you when your life is one the line. Before judging your fellowman, put yourself in his place. The spirit of God takes delight in him who has won the favour of his fellowmen. Say little and do much, and receive everyone with a cheerful countenance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, one Nation, under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. Do not separate yourself from the community; in a place where there are no men, stive to be a man. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18

The Winchester Mystery House

Happy Easter! Lord GOD, who hast formed man out of nothing to Thine own image and likeness, and me also, unworthy sinner as I am, deign, I pray Thee, to bless and sanctify this water, that it may be healthful to my body and soul, that all delusion may depart from me. O Lord God, Almighty and Ineffable, who didst lead forth Thy people from the land of the Garden of Eden didst cause them to pass dry-sod over the Pacific Ocean! Grant that I may be cleansed by this water from all my sins, and may appear innocent before Thee. Amen.

Come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase.  https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/