There is a huge social pressure not to complain about what is generally seen as a benefit of privilege. Social dominance theory suggests that a group’s status in the social hierarchy is determined by the groups access to power. There is abundant evidence that social dominance is a characteristic of both human and animal groups. Picture this scene: An African plain lies in the distance. It is peaceful, and a herd of kudu is grazing in the twilight. Suddenly, a young buck enters the herd, challenging the leader. A fight ensues. Nearby a lioness is stalking a few stragglers from the herd intent on killing one to provide food for herself and her cubs. And picture this scene: It is morning rush hour in Manhattan. Nothing is peaceful in the blare of horns, roar of traffic and shouts of frustration. A city bus, by virtue of its size, manages to cut in front of an ordinarily aggressive taxi driver, who yells in impotent rage at the indifferent bus driver. Above the city in a luxury penthouse, several children are playing on a terrace in a sandbox. One of them has just wrested a particularly prized toy from another child. Loud screaming ensures. The babysitter, observing the incident, returns the toy to the crying toddler, who whimpers in satisfaction. It seems that the World is filled with struggle and that “might makes right.” It seems that the bigger, the stronger, the more powerful rule. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

Even the forces of nature—hurricanes, tornadoes, oppressive heat, drought—are humbling experiences to humans who seem helpless against such power. Nations with great military arsenals seem impervious to threats from countries with less military might. Wealthy individuals control and direct. Impoverished individuals accept and endure. Big adults make the rules. Little children obey them. It is a World of the strong and the weak—the people with the most authority, power, or influence in a group or organization, and the loser or predicted loser in a struggle or contest. Experience has shown, however, that in the face of the destructive forces of nature, humans prepare, adapt, and survive. Nations with great military arsenals have fallen to weaker nations whom they have oppressed. Wealthy individuals are often controlled and directed by the responsibilities their positions impose. Impoverished individuals are able to transform their conditions. And, every day, little children subvert the rules their parents make. One of the characteristics of humans is that they can adapt to their environment, a trait that partially accounts for the survival and development of our species. Socialization, or the formation of groups of individuals who agree to work together to promote the safety and prosperity of each member, attests to human initiative and adaptability. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

On a global level, nations of individuals agree to common goals among themselves and negotiate agreements with other nations of individuals. On the World scene, however, the dance continues between those with the power and those without the power, the strong and the weak—macro-manipulation interspersed here and there, now and then, with impulses of a higher nature, which is called civilization. Wherever two individuals are in interaction, the same dance is performed. The person with the power is righteous and authoritarian; he or she knows best. He is sometimes right, but always righteous. The person with the authority is a bully, and works with “You should,” and “You should not.” The person in control manipulates with demands and threats of catastrophe, such as, “If you do not, then—you will not be loved, you will not get to Heaven, you will die,” and so on. The person who does not have authority or is projected to be the loser manipulates with being defensive, apologetic, wheedling, playing the role of the person who complains a lot, especially for little reason and such. The marginalized individual has no power. The one who lacks authority is the Mickey Mouse. The person with the authority is Superman. And the people who lack authority work like this: “Manana.” “I try my best.” “Look, I try again and again; if I fail, I cannot help it.” “If I forgot your birthday, I cannot help it.” “I have such good intentions.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

So, you see the person who lacks authority is cunning, and usually gets the better of the person with power because the marginalized individual is not as primitive as the person with authority. So, the person with authority and the marginalized person strives for control. The person is fragmented into controller and controlled. This inner conflict, the struggle between the person in power and the person who lacks authority, is never complete, because the person who has all of the power as well as the marginalized person fight for their lives. Understanding these elements of human interaction, the person in a position of great authority and the marginalized, and the techniques each uses in trying to survive and prevail provides a model of our own inner World. The person with authority in us accounts for our perfectionism, our expectations of ourselves and others that can never be satisfied. And the marginalized person in us accounts for our rationalizations and our abdication of responsibility. A lot of manipulations sometimes goes on in marriages, which leads to conflict. Nina has been married for fourteen years. She has no children. She and her husband are very close—they work together. However, Nina has had three extramarital affairs—you might even call them foreign affairs, because one was in India, one in France and one in Italy. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

These extramarital affairs were very interesting to her and each one was marvelous. She loved all of the men and affair went on for about two years each. Nina has never had an affair in New York because she believes that she would be fouling her own nest. She claims that her husband is very much in love with her and that she could not marry anyone else and be as happy as she is with him. Nina got married at the age of twenty-five. However, she had a lot of experience with premarital pleasures of the flesh. She once dated a doctor and lived with him, but was heartbroken to find out his was a player and had women all over town. Nina did not consider herself promiscuous and usually dated a series of men, over long periods of time. This is most likely due to the fact that one of her first relationships with not monogamous. She claims that although she was initially bitter, her affairs make her feel free and happy. She is so confident in her marriage that she has even brought some of the guys she has affairs with around her husband. Her husband has been totally committed to their marriage. Nina is an interesting example of the individual—male or female—who breaks certain basic socially accepted rules and substitutes an almost rigid set of substitute rules. In this case, infidelity is not only justified but validated by living according to very special standards. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

When these arrangements are successful, they seem to create a kind of “extended family,” in which the third partner involved with the pleasures of the flesh is somehow brought in touch with the existing marriage. To some extent, of course, this might be described as a self-imposed compartmentalization. Thus, extramarital pleasures of the is made “right” by the imposition of intricate rationales on the lives of all concerned, with great emphasis based on ostensible kindness, devotion, responsibility and so forth. Nina’s emphasis on the fact that she still “loves” the men with whom she had her affairs, even though she no longer has pleasures of the flesh with them, is just one example of the kind of cliched requirements that such people use to maintain their meticulous sense of themselves as decent human beings—or, as she puts it, a person who does not want to be guilty of “fouling the nest.” Most often these individuals are genuinely talented people with a considerable capacity for creative work and they characteristically make use of whatever circumstances are at hand to enhance their total way of life, including pleasures of the flesh. If he were indeed having any, Nina, in this case, remains true to such a philosophy as is evidenced by the fact that she would not want to know about her husband’s extramarital affairs. Again, she makes clear that this kind of gamboling with pleasures of the flesh should be as pristine as possible. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

If not dictated, all this is based on the idea that the experience of pleasures of the flesh can be dominated by the intellect. Of course, this completely ignores one of the most important aspects of human sexuality—namely, its ability to invoke in human beings far deeper passions than they themselves might ever have dreamed they possessed. If, in order to have affairs of this civilized kind, men and women are willing to regulate their emotional responsiveness, they may succeed in doing so, paying a price that they themselves may not be aware of: a lost capacity for powerful emotions, emotions which will not listen to reason and might therefore upset the marital applecart. We understand now why some people respond with only lukewarm interest in seeing the damaging effects which their claims have upon their actual lives. Although, in many cases, people do not dispute the damage, the present is negligible in view of the prospect of the glorious future. Sometimes people are like individuals who believe that they have a warranted claim to an inheritance; instead of making constructive effort in living, they put all their energies into a more effective assertion of their claims. In the meantime, their actual life loses interest for the individual; one becomes impoverished; one neglects all that could make life worth living. And so, the hope for the future possibilities becomes more and more the only thing one lives for. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

The neurotic actually is worse off than the hypothetical person claiming an inheritance. For one has the underlying feeling that one would lose one’s title for future fulfillment if the individual became interested in oneself and one’s growth. This is logical on the basis of one’s premises—for, in that case, the actualization of one’s self would indeed become meaningless. As long as one is possessed by the lure of that goal, the alternative way is absolutely deterring. It would mean seeing oneself as a mortal like everybody else, harassed by difficulties; it would mean assuming responsibility for oneself and recognizing that it is up to one to outgrow one’s difficulties and to develop whatever potentialities one has. It is deterring because it would make the individual feel as though one was losing everything. One can consider this alternative road—which is the way to health—only to the extent that one becomes strong enough to dispense with the solution one finds in self-idealization. We do not fully understand the tenacity of the claims so long as we regard them merely as a “naïve” expression of what the neurotic, with one’s glorified image of oneself, feels is coming to one; or as an understandable desire to have one’s many compulsive needs fulfilled by others. The tenacity with which the neurotic adheres to any attitude is a sure indication that the attitude fulfills functions which seem indispensable in the framework of one’s neurosis. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

We have seen that claims seem to solve many problems for this person. Their over-all function is to perpetuate one’s illusions about oneself, and to shift responsibility for oneself on other people, on circumstances, or on fate. It is unfair that one had any difficulties in first place, and one is entitled to life’s being so arranged that they should not trouble one. For example, one is asked for a loan or for a contribution. One becomes upset and, in one’s mind, heaps abuse on the person asking one. Actually, the individual is indignant because of one’s claim not to be bothered. What makes one’s claim so necessary? The request actually confronts one with a conflict within oneself, which is roughly that between one’s need to comply and one’s need to frustrate others. However, so long as one is too scared or too unwilling to face this conflict—for whatever reason—one must hold on to one’s claim. One puts it in terms of not wanting to be bothered, but more precisely it is the claim that the World should behave in such a way as not to mobilize (and make one aware of) one’s conflicts. Claims prevent some people from squaring themselves with difficulties, and they thereby perpetuation an individual’s neurosis. I have a letter from a young woman saying, “I must lead two lives, one to get on in the World of every day and the other one to be really me, to be with the comfortable one, like, you, well I cannot name them now, but with these people I could be in the really good World for me. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

“But I must learn to live also in this safe conformed World because I have to work and bring up a child and be married to a man I confuse. I mut try to confuse him less. I am too odd, too exhausting for others. But when I am with you or the mountains—then I am really happy and feel really good.” Odd. Non-conventional. Unpredictable. However, the creative is unpredictable. Perhaps even God is a little surprised. Some kinds of therapy seek to make man more predictable. Behaviourism and B.F. Skinner do this too. Certainly, this can be done. Parents and society have been doing it for centuries, with enough success to encourage further moves in this direction—and with sufficient failure to permit some changes to take place. Modern techniques to make it possible to improve the score for those who wish to control others. There is no question that this can be done, but as one young man says, “A bullet in the head will make a man quite predictable too.” The question is: Do I want this—not just for others, but for myself? I do not. Unlike scientific goals, the goals of a humanistic psychotherapy are neither predictability or control. In fact, the more successful psychotherapy is, the less predictable the individual becomes, because one’s rigidity is reduced and one’s spontaneity and creativity are increased. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

“Unpredictable” scares some people. They think of rape, arson, armed robbery and murder. However, the people who make these pursuits their profession are very rigid and predictable. The repetition of their acts in the same pattern is very helpful to those who seek to capture them. They do the same thing in the same way, repeatedly. They can be counted on. To learn that Reality is beyond the intellect’s capacity to know it is to learn something about it. To learn what it is not may seem useless to some people but that does prepare the mind, as well as the way, for beneficial knowledge of it through insight. A reality which is not conceivable by human thought because it transcends thought itself, therefore it is also not describable. However, what thought can do is to establish what IT is not, and even more important that IT is. It is by its pondering over these very contradictions, paradoxes, and puzzles of an intellectually scientific view of the World that the intellect itself is unconsciously led first to engender and ultimately to accept a mystically intuitive view of the World. Why must we always try to arrive at formal conclusions? Why not let ideas work of themselves in the subconscious? Truth itself is beyond thought and speech, but the way to it embraces it. Reality itself is beyond touch and ideation but the way to it can be pointed out. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

You must eliminate from the definitions of both truth and reality everything which might mislead you to regard concepts as the final goal. Just as a man may use one thorn to pick another from his flesh and then throw both away, so you must use right concepts to remove erroneous ones. Finally, you must discard them all. Because critical, rational thinking has to be transcended during certain phases of this quest, we should not overvalue it. However, let us not therefore fall into the opposite error and undervalue it. Even if it could no nothing more than keep us from stumbling, it would be worthwhile. However, it can do much more than that. When intuition quietly confirms what intellect argues, when it gives a deeper sanction to reasoned conclusions, we come closer to the truth of the matter. The intellect has its own limitations but it can lead a man—if properly guided by correct thinking or by hearing and reflecting upon words of those who have already written them—to the very verge of the limitations where a single leap into passivity will dispel darkness and bring light. The ways of filling in short periods of social time withdrawal, rituals, pastimes, activities, games, and intimacy. Each of these has a beginning and an ending called a switch point. Over a longer period, the script also has its switch points, which usually mean that the players switch from one role to another in the drama triangle. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

With a careful and scholarly analysis of time patterns in the theater which also applies to the dramaturgy of real-life scripts, the two most important types are called “set time” and “event time.” Set times runs by a clock or calendar. The action begins and ends at a certain moment, or a certain time is given for its performance, as with a football game. For script analysis, we can call this clock time (CT). In event time, the activity is to be completed, like a baseball game, no matter how long or short a time it takes by the clock. We will call this goal time (GT). There are also combinations of these. A boxing match can terminate either when all rounds are completed, which takes a set time or clock time, or when there is a knockout, which is event time or goal time. These ideas are useful to the script analysts, particularly in dealing with “Can” and “Cannot” scripts. A child doing his homework can be given five different instruction. “You need plenty of sleep, so you can stop at nine o’clock.” This is called Clock Time Can. “You need plenty of sleep, so you cannot work after nine o’clock.” This is called Clock Time Cannot. “Your homework is important, so you can stay up and finish it.” This is Goal Time Can. “Your homework is important, so you cannot go to bed until you finish it.” This is Goal Time Cannot. The two Cans may relieve him, and the two Cannots may irritate him, but none of them box him in. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

“You have to finish your homework by nine o’clock so you can get to sleep.” Here Clock Time and Goal Time are combined, which is called a “Hurryup.” It is evident that each of these instructions can have a different effect on his homework and on his sleep habits. From a Martian point of view, the effects on the child’s script may be quite different from what the parents say they meant. For instance, Clock Time Cannot may end up with insomnia, and Goal Time Cannot may throw in the sponge someday. This list is important because it helps to explain how people choose to fill in their time while following their script injunctions. “You can live until you’re forty” (CT Can) is usually busy trying to get done what he wants to do; “You can live until your wife dies” (GT Can) is likely to spend more time worrying about how to postpone the event and keep his wife alive. “You cannot do it until you meet the right men” (GT Cannot) may spend a lot of time looking for men, where “You cannot do it until you are twenty-one” (CT Cannot) has time for other things. It also explains why some people are run by the clock while others are goal oriented. Abstract thinking shifts the mind’s attention to quite a different level. Such thoughts do not have an outer appearance. They take no shape. They are to be comprehended—know by being understood. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

Aging is naturally a retrospective time, a time when examine and reassess past life both for our own purposes and because younger people think we have some wisdom to offer. The appearance of wrinkles in the facial skin and on the neck is an inevitable part of aging. Yet many, women especially, become panic-stricken at the first appearance of a wrinkle. This panic derives from a dread of being old and from the cultural overemphasis on the importance of appearance as a basis for security and self-esteem. The person who panics at wrinkles and goes to any length to regain, at age forty, the complexion of a sixteen-year-old, is an unhealthy person. Such an individual might well seek to find more stable sources of self-esteem than facial appearance. Furthermore, people have all kinds of problems in connection with their sexual organs. If they have what seem to be small genital organs, some men feel they are inferior. There are cases on record where an entire neurotic personality structure began from the belief that the sex organs were smaller than those of other men. There is no connection between “manliness” and the size of the genitalia. Many people in our society are prudish about, almost ashamed of, the reproductive and eliminative functions of their bodies. They become panic-stricken at the prospect of being seen nude. If it requires that the genitalia be exposed, some may actually avoid a medical examination. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

Indeed, their concept of their own genitalia and those of the opposite gender may be autistic. These unreal concepts may involve notions that the female organs are dangerous and castrating or that penises are destructive weapons. Some women may acquire attitudes of resentment and shame over their menstrual functions and needlessly isolate themselves through the duration for their periods—as is done in some primitive societies. In response to the cultural ideal of a muscular male, many sedentarily occupied men undergo strenuous weight-lifting and body-building courses to become visibly muscular. There is nothing inherently healthy or unhealthy in such efforts. If they result in an improvement of appearance, vigour, and health without loss of other values, they are healthy. If they are expressions of unnecessary compensation or overcompensation for other kinds of deficiencies and inferiorities, they are unhealthy. Freedom is defined as the amount of mobility-velocity-altitude, and communication-scope attained by the individual. It is fashionable for intellectuals to complain about humanity’s destructive and pessimistic trend. While, in all charity we can understand the hive meaning of this pessimism, it is the task of Evolutionary Agents to counter it by repeatedly showing that the genetic plan is working out perfectly. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

The human cards are in no position to interfere with the DNA deal. Remember that for the last 5,000 years—a mere micro0flick in genetic time—the species haves been in a continual frenzy of mutation and migration. A species, or an individual without genetic consciousness, caught in the midst of all-out-high-velocity changes, buffeted, overwhelmed by no-let-up metamorphosis, pushed into rapid migration, is understandably confused and a bit fatigued. The will of the people is, in fact, coercive; its power has no limits. However, the punishment it inflicts on those who refuse to obey it is nothing more than a means of “compelling them to be free.” The deification is completed when Rousseau separating the sovereign from his very origins, reaches a point of distinguishing between the general will and the will of all. This can be logically deduced from Rousseau’s premises. If a man is natural good, if nature as expressed in him is identified with reason, he will express himself freely and naturally. He can no longer, therefore, go back on his decision, which henceforth hovers over him. The will of the people is primarily the expression of universal reason, which is categorical. The new God is born. That is why the words that are to be found most often in The Social Contract are the words absolute, sacred, inviolable. The body politic thus, defined, whose laws are sacred commandments, is only a by-product of the mystic body of temporal Christianity. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

The Social Contract, moreover, terminates with a description of a civil religion and makes of Rousseau a harbinger of contemporary forms of society which exclude not only opposition but even neutrality. Rousseau is, in fact, the first man in modern times to institute the profession of civil faith. He is also the first to justify the death penalty in a civil society and the absolute submission of the subject to the authority of the sovereign. “It is in order not to become victim of an assassin that we consent to die if we become assassins.” A strange justification, but one which firmly establishes the fact that you must know how to die if the sovereign commands, and must, if necessary, concede that he is right and you are wrong. This mystic idea explains Saint-Just’s silence from the time of his arrest until he goes to the scaffold. Suitably developed, it equally well explains the enthusiasm of the defendants in Moscow trials. We are witnessing the dawn of a new religion with its martyrs, its ascetics, and its saints. To be able to estimate the influence achieved by this gospel, one must have some ides of the inspired tones of the proclamations of 1789. Fauchet, confronted with the skeletons discovered in the Bastille, exclaims: “The day of revelation is upon us…The very bones have risen at the sound of the voice of French freedom; they bear witness against the centuries of oppression and death, and prophesy the regeneration of human nature and of the life of nations.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

Then he predicts: “We have reached the heart of time. The tyrants are ready to fall.” It is the moment of astonished generous faith when a remarkably enlightened mob overthrows the scaffold and the wheel at Versailles. Scaffolds seemed to be the very altars of religion and injustice. The new faith could not tolerate them. However, if it becomes dogmatic, a moment comes when faith erects its own altars and demands unconditional adoration. Then scaffolds reappear and despite the altars, the freedom, the oaths, and the feasts of Reason, The Masses of the new faith must now be celebrated with blood. In any case, in order that 1789 shall mark the beginning of the reign of “holy humanity” and of “Our Lord the human race,” the fallen sovereign must first of all disappear. The murder of the King-priest will sanction the new age—which endures to this day. If you know the precise sources of man’s inspiration, you will be able to measure more correctly the truth of his proclamations. However, you cannot discover them for his own statement, for he may be mistaken or unaware. To get at them, you must add critical analysis to sympathetic self-identification with him. When you approach a volume containing the true LIGHT, it was better that you put aside the old and established canons of criticism which elsewhere serve you so well, but here are about as useful as a candle on a stormy night. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

At a time when society, at every level, and in every community face the possibility of a crisis event, the Sacramento Fire Department makes sure they are equipped with leaders who have the skills and knowledge to keep our communities safe. In daily peacetime or training and operations, the primary responsibility of the Sacramento Fire Department is to help the organization function effectively. The Sacramento Fire Department must accomplish their mission despite any surrounding chaos. This all begins with a well-thought-out-out plan and thorough preparation. Planning reduces confusion, builds the teams confidence in themselves and in the organization, and allows the flexibility to adjust to changing situations. Good planning boosts shared understanding and ensures that a mission is accomplished with a minimum of wasted effort and fewer, if any, casualties in emergency situations. The Sacramento Fire Department prepares by making sure that they have detailed coordination with other organizations involved or affected by the operation or project. Rehearsals are critical elements of preparation. It allows the Sacramento Fire Department in a mission to develop a mental picture of responsibilities and what should happen. It helps the team synchronize operations at times and places critical to successful mission accomplishment. Rehearsing key emergency situations allows the Sacramento Fire Department to see how things are supposed to work and builds confidence in the plan. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

Successful execution of a plan is based on all the work that has gone before. Executing for success requires situational understanding, supervising task completion, assessing progress, and implementing required execution or adjustment decisions. Executing in fighting fires means putting a plan into action by applying emergency techniques and power to accomplish the mission. It also means that the Sacramento Fire Department is using situational understanding to assess progress and make execution and adjustment decisions. When in an emergency situation, the Sacramento Fire Department strives to integrate and synchronize all elements of their team. The goal is to assign specific tasks or objectives to the most capable organization and empower firefighters to execute and exercise initiative within the given intent. Achieving consists results hinges on doing all the right things that come under other leadership competencies—having a clear vision, taking care of people, setting the right example, building up the organization, encouraging leader growth, and so on. The Sacramento Fire Department achieves consistent performance by monitoring collective performance, reinforcing good performance, and implementing systems to improve performance. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

“Lately we ‘ve had a rash of arson fires. We have an industrial area, but basically it’s a residential area. We’ve been lucky, we haven’t had too many hazmat incidents or other kind of catastrophes. Right now we’re going through a pretty tough time. Sometimes a run of bad things happen, but then there’s always that one time where you get a lot of self-satisfaction and gratitude, and it makes up for everything that was bad earlier. I’ve had a thought of quitting. Sometimes it can be frustrating. But then you get something that makes you feel great. Even something small, like helping people in a power failure. It doesn’t matter how big or small. If it brings happiness to somebody, then that’s good enough for me. I have the responsibility to make sure my men come home safely after every fire. Safety is the number one priority for myself and the men. To me, every fire I go to is a tight situation. We’ve had major structural calls comes in as a Dumpster fire. I never take anything lightly when we go out the door, I like to get on the scene and make sure what we got.” Communication can only come into actual being where the collective verbal symbolism is understood in a similar manner by all who use it. If such common understanding is absent or only partial, then the representational value of the symbolism breaks down. Many people know the meaning of a word without really understanding the meaning. The ignorance was shown up by Sokrates in the simple but celebrated case of an onion. They manage to pack the smallest quantity of thought into the largest quantity of words. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

 If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. To help our firefighters, pleasure donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to ensure they have all the resources they require. 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. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

The Winchester Mystery House

Never has there been a building so talked about. You will find The Winchester Mystery House in what was once the countryside known as “Winchester Valley,” where it has left past guests feeling a little spooked passing through certain rooms. It is well known for its reputation of being the world’s most haunted location.

The Winchester Estate dates back to the late 19th century, and it has a history that is packed full of legends and stories of spirits. The guided post-sunset walk takes visitors through the history of the mansion, while also offering a chance to spot some of the more well-known Winchester ghosts. There are stories of a little girl playing in the hallways and tugging at bedcovers at night and a woman in white who crosses the courtyard and passes through the walls.

The carpenters who worked day and night for 36 years to build the mansion that was once nine stories high, containing as many as 600 rooms, knew the area was dense in spiritual energy. The mansion is situated over the crossing of two Ley Lines. In these areas, the veneer between the physical and spirit realms is thinner and much more permeable. This permeability and natural energy allow entities to manifest much more readily than in a normal location. Any thought or action in these areas, whether positive or negative has a much stronger and more focused effect. In the case of The Winchester Mansion decades of compounded suffering, negativity and strong emotional experiences have left a marked effect on the atmosphere in and around the mansion.

Some tour guides have heard chanting coming from outside the mansion and have heard their names being called. Others have reported seeing a woman hovering in the mansion. Although her journals are sometimes vague, Mrs. Winchester experienced bizarre poltergeist activity during construction. She mentions to a friend the incredible amount of poltergeist activity that occurred during the time spent building the front of the mansion.

Mr. Hasen, one of Mrs. Winchester’s foremen, had written about his tools getting moved to the far corners of the room when his back was turned. Although they were paid three times the going rate and lived in Victorian cottages once on the estate, carpenters employed by Mrs. Winchester left suddenly and did not come back, never giving a reason to their departure. On September 5, 1922, construction efforts were suddenly stopped when the ladders several carpenters were working from were pushed away from the wall, forcing them to jump several stories. Moments later, it was discovered that Mrs. Winchester had passed away in her sleep.

The mansion that has survived such a long history, is a marvel to see in person. Today, it stands four stories high, and has an estimated 160 rooms, of which 110 are open for tour. There has been some restoration over the years and ongoing maintenance. Come inside the mansion to see the priceless architecture and learn of its history. The guided tours are exquisitely led by a well prepared and enthusiastic team, who make sure that you and all guests are entertained by the great stories. Take advantage of this fascinating experience. After tour, there will be time enjoy the mansion’s splendor at your own pace. You might even discover secret passages.

Please 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. Even if you do not believe ghost stories, you might still get goosebumps passing through the most infamous basement.  Enjoy panoramic views and discover quirky features such as secret staircases, doors that open to nowhere, stairs to the ceiling, hidden trapdoors, and other unusual features.

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/