Something powerful happens when we seek to learn more about God. Spiritually we are of noble birth, the offspring of the King of Heaven. Fix that truth in your mind and hold to it. In principle almost anything imaginable—at least anything a person would let oneself imagine—should be attainable by paranormal means. How can each of us experience the power of understanding our divine identity? It begins by seeking to know God, our Father. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Each of us must open our hearts to the Holy Ghost, who bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. You are a child of God. He is the Father of your spirit. We have been blessed with clear vision and understanding of our true identity from the beginning. Each human being is a beloved spirit, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Coming to know these truths with certainty helps us overcome trials, troubles, and afflictions of every kind. Fear is the great enemy of humankind. If an individual is filled with stress, it is impossible for that individual to do one’s best. We are speaking about morbid fear, the type of fear that devitalizes us mentally, emotionally, and physically. We need not live in fear of the future. We have every reason to rejoice and little reason to fear. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

 It is these morbid fears that we wish to rid ourselves of, and not the ordinary caution that is necessary to intelligent living. For instance, a person standing on top a high cliff would naturally exercise the caution of not getting too close to the edge. However, if one has a dread of high places for fear one might fall or be seized with an irresistible impulse to leap, then one has a morbid fear of altitudes. And if we could trace this fear back to its original cause we might possibly find that sometime in a previous experience this individual in a previous experience may have had a threatening experience with heights. Perhaps this is why we have a great reason for faith. We should not be afraid what is going to happen tomorrow. But rather, we should live today in a sense of confidence and peace and joyful expectancy. When tomorrow comes, it will take care of itself. Today is the only day in which we can live for. For when tomorrow comes it will be another today, and so on through all of eternity. When we feel hurt, lost, scared, upset, sad, hungry, or hopelessly abandoned in life’s extremities, it is important to realize that God will never desert us. He never has, and he never will. God cannot leave us. It is not his character to do so. However, always, as it has from the beginning, the spirit of God inspires worthy souls.  #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

True, few if any thoughtful people can be unaware of the human potential for giving false reports: of succumbing to delusions in themselves or to design to deceive others. We accept—even expect—that respected figures in business and politics will withhold vital information or make misleading statements without turning a hair. We are not shocked to hear the definition of a diplomat as a person sent abroad to lie for his or her country.  However, coming to know our Heavenly father changes everything, especially our hearts, as his gentle spirit confirms our true identity and great worth in his sight. Unless we live without fear today we shall dread tomorrow. Those who live in the dread of tomorrow generally live in morbid thoughts of what happened in the past. Their minds are filled with things that were unpleasant in their previous experience and the unhappy events that they fear will transpire in the future. By living like that, the present day in which they live is robbed of all peace and joy, and becomes a torture chamber of eternal pain and suffering. This disposition so disturbs the mind that restful sleep is impossible. Such people seldom rise in the morning filled with buoyant hope, joyful expectation, and the natural enthusiasm and zest for living which we all need if we are going to get the most out of life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

When it comes to some people we cannot say we are surprised when we hear that lying is so habitual to them that, if they ever find themselves telling the truth, they would be obliged to tell a lie to set the record straight. We know too, probably from our own experience, some of the temptations that may lead to such semi-casual deception. The desire to please, to show off, to draw attention, to win favours. However, especially perhaps in the context of the paranormal, the desire to gain what we call witness power is one of the basic principles of social life that society accords a special place to the person who has something to say.  God walks with us along the covenant path as we seek him through prayerful pleadings, scriptural searchings, and obedient strivings. Through God, we become a valuable resource to the community. One becomes the person who was there, who has information to impart. However, it comes as something of a shock if and when we are forced to recognize that some particular person has actually been deceiving us about a matter we care about. Even if we can argue that it is been doing in a good cause, we shall be reluctant to acknowledge it. Still we must learn to forgive others. This is not always the easiest thing to do, but it can be done. If a person can be made to see that one must forgive in order to be healed of unhappiness, one generally will make an effort to do so. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

In all, while it is certainly not news in general that people cheat, it can be very bad news in particular. And if and when it becomes clear that someone has been cheating us about the reality of miraculous phenomena, we are sure to feel a deep sense of disappointment. Maybe there will be some, who, on reflection, choose to class it as a forgivable exaggeration, a white lie, even as compensation for all the materialist propaganda that we have to live with. Even so there will be no escaping that the same evidence that had first been seen as evidence for a remarkable and desirable human characteristic, paranormal soul-power, has become instead further evidence for an unremarkable and undesirable one, normal human untrustworthiness. Nonetheless, we still attempt to establish a more hopeful picture of what we are, so as to permit a more promising vision of where we are going. The true search for the soul will lead to exceeding great and precious promises. Meekness is a defining attribute of the Redeemer and is distinguished by righteous responsiveness, willing submissiveness, and strong self-restraint. The Holy Ghost will teach and enlighten us as we learn together about a vital aspect of the Savior’s divine nature that each of us should strive to. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

Meekness is an attribute developed through desire, the righteous exercise of moral agency, and striving always to retain a remission of our sins. It is also a spiritual gift for which we appropriately can seek. Meekness is strong, not weak; active, not passive; courageous, not timid; retrained, not excessive; modest, not self-aggrandizing; and gracious, not brash. A meek person is not easily provoked, pretentious, nor overbearing and readily acknowledges the accomplishments of others. We are the product of the Universe; we are the offspring of the divine spirit; we are some part of its life shaped and formed and acting as humans, as individuals, as people. And how could the great divine cause of our being seek to destroy or in any way harm that life which is the offspring of its own being? As we come unto and follow the Savior, we increasingly and incrementally are enabled to become more like him. We are empowered by the spirit with disciplined self-restraint and a settled and calm demeanor. Thus, meek is what we become as disciples of the Master and not just something we do. If we have faith we must have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. God will guide, protect, and strengthen us as we walk in the meekness of his spirit. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

Their faces are more beautiful than flowers and the Moon! Their real features look so lovely, more so than synthetic ones, as there is a curious balance which enhances, softens, defines, and accentuates the structure of their faces. The thing we wish to do is to find faith greater than our fears, whether they are fears of people, of conditions, of life or of death. Such faith is born out of a complete conviction of the eternal destiny of one’s own soul and of all other souls. We should base our remarks upon a divine truth that explains “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life,” reports Proverbs 6.23. A commandment is a lamp to shows us the right course, and indeed the law defines that course that we are to follow. Some people look upon laws in general as impediments to them—obstacles—and there are good people in every segment of life who believe that the laws of God, even the great Ten Commandments, are intended only for certain people—for those whom they describe as being extremely religious or for the less fortunate. They believe that while it is essential to observe the laws of the land, it matters little or none if one observes the laws of God. However, while he is a God of love, he is also a God of order. He does not deviate from the established principles and laws, because they are right in the first place. And he and they are the same yesterday, today, and forever. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

The laws and conditions prescribed for the welfare of humankind cannot be changed nor circumvented, because they are divine and were established before the foundation of the World was laid. They are, in fact, the only means by which we can have peace of mind here and gain eternal life hereafter. Nature made teeth for the purpose of enclosing the tongue, so never poke it out. It is important to spit out phlegm that may from time to time arrive in the mouth. Never swallow it. And never spit noisily, nor publicly, nor anywhere other than on the ground or into a handkerchief, if it can possibly be helped. Aim carefully, and try to conceal the fact that you have spat by stepping quickly on the spittle. In the 1900s a law in France and London was designed to prevent the odious habit of expectorating in public because not only was it disgusting, but what women suffer cannot be easily expressed, for however careful they are they are bound to get their skirts contaminated, due to the fact that they were in the habit of wearing dresses that trail along the ground. In fact, the modern objection to spitting, which led to laws prohibiting it in covered places of public rest, grew out of research into the spread of disease, principally tuberculosis. “For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the World,” reports The Doctrine and Covenants 132.5. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

The laws of God are not given to us to burden us nor to limit us. They are not impositions. They are the statutes through which, if observed, the purpose of life and existence is to be realized. Even those who are called to go through trials, sorrow, tribulation, and adversity are promised that if they are faithful in tribulation and adversity that “the reward of the same is greater in the Kingdom of Heaven,” reports The Doctrine and Covenants 58.2. It is also thought to be entirely consistent with the demands of decorum for boys to conduct an entertaining after-dinner conversation such as might be expected to generate laughter—laughter being good for the digestion, and the hiatus at the end of a hearty meal being good for very little else. However, funny stories should never be vulgar, irreverent, impure, nor cruel nor imply that the teller takes pleasure in anyone else’s misfortune; instead, they should be uplifting and informative. Never laugh at your own jokes, at death, nor at the Church. Never laugh so hard that you lose your breath, nor make rude gestures, for, reports Ecclesiasticus, “the fool raises one’s voice in laughter, but the wise individual scarcely laughs at oneself.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

While there are pupils who are scruffy, bad-tempered, and disobedient, there is hope that children will somehow absorb high ideals and respond appropriately to noble sentiments, and that they may be prevailed upon not to behave like deranged beings. The expectations of decorum—not just in a seventeenth century French school but in any other context—may aim at a higher standard of behavior than is achievable by anyone other than the small minority who define it for the rest of us, at the same time preserving for itself some latitude. However, these lessons, as well as the example of people we admire, inevitably take root. And having taken root, they equip us with the capacity to wear our smile like a mask. Blessed is one that keeps God’s commandments, whether in life or in death; and one that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the Kingdom of Heaven. You cannot behold with your natural eyes for the present time the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore, the day comes when you shall be crowned with much glory, the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand. We cannot fail to realize that fear and the inferiority complex are always a turning of thought back on itself. This is why it has so often been called a form of selfishness, but it is more than this. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

It is a self-centeredness rather than selfishness in the ordinary sense of the term. We have all known many unselfish persons who have made a complete sacrifice of themselves to good causes but who have felt martyred in so doing, persons who have devoted their entire lives to others but who have been very conscious of doing so. This self-centeredness often accompanies the inferiority complex and it too must be healed. It is healed by realizing that there is but one God who we all must answer to. Now if one is inclined to question the wisdom of observing the law—whether it be the laws of human, the laws of nature, or the laws of God—one should consider all vindictiveness, hate, and animosity disappear, and one will find oneself merging with the spiritual atmosphere of others. One learns to respect and admire others, and expects that others will respect and admire one. One overcomes one’s fears of life by understanding life, not by fighting it. One overcomes one’s fears of people by coming to understand rather than shun them. This type of understanding is beyond the ordinary concept of tolerance. One does not learn to tolerate people; we learn to understand them. There is a vast difference. We see through the weakness and frailty and inconsistency of human life, even its fears and morbidities. We no longer cringe. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

With calm placidity we face our inevitable exit from this World, knowing that as glorious as this life has been, we are certain to go to a better. If we would eliminate fear and morbidity this is what we must realize. Human experience has never found a better way. Indeed, it is the only way which is certain to produce the desired result. That which breaks a law, and abides not by law, but seeks to become a law unto itself, and wills not to abide in sin, and altogether abides in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Observance of law brings harmony, peace, order; while without observance of law there is found confusion, and sorrow, remorse, failure—whether it be the laws of God or the laws of  human, or whether it be nations or whether it be individuals, it is the same. People ask, “If the Lord loves us, why does he then give so many commandments, some of them restrictive in their nature?” Well, the answer is he gives us commandments because he loves us. God wished to save us from sorrow and remorse and failure, and the worst of all, regret, and from losing our blessings.  Laughter is evidently infectious, but it can also be stimulated in other ways. Laughing gas, nitrous oxide, N2O, was discovered at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the chemist Thomas Beddoes of Bristol, in partnership with the engineer James Watt and his apprentice Humphry Davy. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

The original idea was that this gas, a weak anesthetic, might benefit sufferers of consumption, which it did not. Soon, however, its amusing side-effects, lightheadedness and stupor, led to its consumption as a form of a carnival entertainment.  By the 1830s laughing gas parties had become popular in the United States of America. Today the practice is illegal in many places, including California, where, according to penal code, “Any person who posses nitrous oxide or any substance containing nitrous oxide, with the intent to breathe, inhale, or ingest for the purpose of causing a condition of intoxication, elation, euphoria, dizziness, stupefaction, or dulling of the sense or for the purpose of, in any manner, changing, distorting, or disturbing the audio, visual, or mental processes, or who knowingly and with the intent to do so is under the influence of nitrous oxide or any material containing nitrous oxide is guilty of a misdemeanor.” That is because abuse of nitrous oxide can produce a form of oxygen starvation called hypoxia, brain damage, a serious vitamin B12 deficiency that can lead to nerve damage, significant morbidity or even death can result from this phenomenon. It can also damage DNA and produce haematological, immune, neurological issues and reproductive system can be affected, regardless of if the exposure to the gas is either acute or long term. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Nitrous oxide can also lower and alter white blood cell production and function and many anesthesiologists feel that the use of nitrous oxide should be restricted during the first two trimesters of pregnancy because of its effects on DNA production and the experimental and epidemiological evidence that nitrous oxide causes undesirable reproductive outcomes. It can even cause frost bite. And because nitrous oxide affects white blood cell production and function, it has been recommended that nitrous oxide not be administered to immunosuppressed patients or to patients requiring multiple general anesthetics. Many anesthesiologists believe that the potential dangers of nitrous oxide are so great that it should no longer be used at all for routine clinical anesthesia. In the same way, wise parents often find it best to deny a child his or her wishes or to instruct the child at act in a certain way, even though it is contrary to what the child desires, this is done because of the parental love and is done for the interest of the child’s welfare. If the child responds as he or she should, it results in lasting benefits and satisfaction for both. You know the laws and God is the author. These eternal principles are from our Father in Heaven because he desires to save humankind, and to love, honor, empower, give us glory, and even exaltation. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

How low and unbecoming a thing laughter is. Some intrepid races like to mock at everything which inspires a person with a feeling of gear. Illness, death, the hangman, the gibbet, the terrors of the natural and supernatural World, become to some a subject for buffoonery in conversation and on the stage. Some ever laugh, as if in defiance, and ridicule everything. The existence of this inclination to aggression, which we can detect in ourselves and justly assume to be present in others, is the factor which disturbs our relations with our neighbour and which forces civilization into such a high expenditure of energy. In consequence of this primary mutual hostility of human beings, civilized society is perpetually threatened with disintegration. The interest of work in common would not hold it together; instinctual passions are stronger than reasonable interests. How low and unbecoming a thing laughter can be. Not to mention the disagreeable noise that it makes, and the shocking distortion of the face that it occasions. I am neither of a melancholy nor a cynical disposition, and am as willing and apt to be pleased as anybody; but I am sure that, since I have had the full use of my reason, nobody has ever heard me laugh. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

Having mentioned laughing, I must particularly warn you against it; and I could heartily wish that you may often be seen to smile, but never heard to laugh, while you live. Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners: it is the manner in which the mob express their silly joy at silly things, and they call it being merry. In my mind there is nothing so illiberal and so ill-bred as audible laughter. I think many of these schools and places of employment teach the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing-master. To smile on or upon someone or something meant to look upon it with favor, approval, or encouragement; this meaning is still current, though gradually passing out of use. To smile could simply mean to have or present an agreeable aspect, again, whatever that may mean. To smile could mean to answer or respond or repeat by smiling, or else to exhibit, indicate, or express by smiling. For example, if I go to the Hilton Hotel and the representative asks, “Do you need a double room?” Another way of saying yes would be to reply, “I should smile.” Or to decline something I could say, “I should worry,” meaning “I am certainly not worrying about that!” In these respects laughter is an entirely different proposition from the smile and has long been thought to have beneficial or therapeutic effects as a kind of valve to release nervous tension. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

Dr. Freud thought of the smile as a way to discharge of a sum of psychic energy. If the mind is strongly excited by pleasurable feelings, and any little unexpected event or thought occurs, then, a large amount of nervous energy, instead of being allowed to expend itself in producing an equivalent amount of the new thoughts and emotion which were nascent, is suddenly checked in its flow. The excess must discharge itself in some other direction, and there results an efflux through the motor nerves to various classes of the muscles, producing the half-convulsive actions we term laughter. Modern science has not entirely dispensed with this notion. Some acoustic studies of laughter continue to differentiate between types of laughter produced by tickling, jokes, ordinary conversation, and what is described as release of tension. During the recent crises in the Middle East an electronic letter was circulated to all BBC television presenters reminding them to look grave throughout the coverage. As one seasoned journalist remarked at the time, instructions of this nature ran the serious risk of prompting a sudden burst of manic laughter—a release of tension. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness. As a general principle, however, the idea that laughter constitutes a pressure valve bears little or no relation to the way our nervous system actually works, but there are still plenty of doctors and therapists who regard laughter as a useful remedy for depression, or even as a kind of placebo. Certainly the appreciation of humor, as distinct from laughter, is now thought to have generally beneficial effects upon the immune and central nervous systems. The right frontal lobe of the brain seems to be essential to this process. Medical scientists have observed that patients with injuries to that part of the brain are most likely to find it difficult or impossible to react to basic attempts to stimulate their sense of humor. Common sense and our own experience of laughter, together with the languor that follows a sustained burst of it, must tell us that, beyond the appreciation of humor, the physical experience of laughter constitutes at least some kind of catharsis, good or bad, mostly good. That catharsis can come as an intimate experience as a large group, most commonly nowadays as an audience in the theater, where, clearly expecting to laugh, we willingly respond to simple cues and laugh like mad, sometimes even when upon reflection we cannot recall exactly why we laughed at all. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

Children do not like it when there is talk of the inborn human inclination to badness, to aggressiveness and destructiveness, and so to cruelty as well. God has made them in the image of his own perfection; nobody wants to be reminded how hard it is to reconcile the undeniable existence of evil—despite the protestations of Christian Science—with God’s all-powerfulness or God’s all-goodness. The Devil would be the best way out as an excuse for human’s not taking responsibility for their behaviour. It is in sadism, where the death instinct twists the erotic aim in its own sense and yet at the same tie fully satisfies the erotic urge of the blindest fury of destructiveness, it is clear that we recognize that sadists have an extraordinarily high degree of narcissistic enjoy when inflicting pain on others because there is fulfilment of their wishes for omnipotence. The instinct of destruction, moderate and tamed, and, as it were, inhibited in its aim, must, when it is directed towards objects or people, provide the ego with the satisfaction of its vital needs and with control over nature. There can also be examples of groups of sadists due to the fact that they suffer from an eerily synchronized mass hysteria explained by a trigger mechanism in the brain that easily replicates a powerful behavioral prompt, making the sadist unwilling, or even powerless to stop their destructive and evil behaviour. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

Though deeply disruptive, a group of sadists may not have a pathological condition in the sense that a neurological disorder such as Tourette’s Syndrome harnesses that same trigger mechanism in the otherwise respectable little old lady and makes her mutter obscenities, or indeed shout them from the teleprompter in the newsroom. Anyone who has observed that bizarre symptom at first hand is not likely to forget it. These people are, in fact, engaged upon a terrible plot to ensnare others, and to kindle a fire and flame of lust in the hearts of those who cast their eyes upon them. They use their cosmetics and fictitious hair to hide their age and unattractiveness, and they only smile for two reasons: to show respect, in spite of their inability to understand what an individual is saying; or because they are embarrassed at not understanding or at not being able to respond helpfully as the situation required. This struggle is what all life essentially consists of, and the evolution of civilization may therefore be simply described as the struggle for life of the human species. And it is this battle of the giants that our nurse-maids try to appease with their lullaby about Heaven. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

And we may probably add more precisely, a struggle for life in the shape it was bound to assume after a certain event which still remains to be discovered. If all people are made in the image and likeness of the Divine Being, then surely one person should not be afraid of another. And if life itself is a unity of good, then why should we be afraid of life? Experience has proved to us that some people are afraid of life; they are afraid of each other, and seldom do we find anything which even resembles a kingly attitude. Moreover, in those rather rare instances where we do find a kingly attitude it is too often attended with arrogance. It is of the utmost importance to solve this perplexing problem which every priest, physician, metaphysician, and psychologist meets in their daily contact with people. Under analysis it has been found that an inferiority complex is based on the fear of life. The basic fear is an inability to properly adjust to everyday living. An oversensitive person is always handicapped and too often assumes an attitude of arrogance or blustering bravado to cover up his or her inward hurt. Generally speaking, one will not admit that such a hurt is there. And even though he or she trains one’s will and studies every psychological method known with which to combat life, unless the individual has overcome the fundamental fears of life, one has only covered them that much deeper by his or her mental maneuvering. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

Anyone who is familiar with mental reactions knows that a person who goes blustering around saying he or she has no fear, asserting loudly that one is just as good as anyone, and who always demands the attention of others, is sick inwardly. Those types of individuals are attempting to cover up some part of themselves, although that is impossible. Though we crowd all of our emotions back into the unconscious, they always come up in another form. It is impossible to bury a living spring. We can merely change its course. It is just as impossible to destroy that dynamic urge which some call the libido, some the will to power, and others—more rightly perhaps—designate as the life force seeking self-expression. If we would heal the inferiority complex we must arrive at conclusions more basic than merely teaching our student or patient to shout that he or she is self-sufficient.  For the louder he or she screams the more frightened that individual becomes, until finally his or her screams are a shriek and that individual’s attitude toward life becomes hysterical. Inferiority complexes often arise from youthful frustration and early childhood repressions, or from emotional reactions which have shocked the finer sensibilities when one first comes in contact with the hard realities of life. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

Sadists have a tendency to cause pain to an object of their focus, usually another person, so they can act out the pain they went through as a child. They will usually attach themselves to someone who reminds them of an authority figure in their youth and try to hurt that person for not protecting them. Sadists also find victims to inflict their pain and suffering on. The concept of sadism fluctuates in everyday speech from a mere active or impetuous attitude towards the sexual object to an absolute attachment of the gratification to the subjection and maltreatment of the object. Therefore, it becomes necessary to uncover the psychic stream of previous experiences and unconscious memories in the sadist. In this process of uncovering, this analysis of the soul or psyche, if the incident which started the stream of consciousness in the wrong direction (which turned back upon itself) is brought to the surface and self-seen, it is generally dissipated. With the help of religion, there are innumerable persons who have been what we call twice born. Through religious convictions their whole lives have been instantly transformed and the entire psychic stream of previous experiences reversed. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

Fear has been overcome through faith and through spiritual conviction, and morbid neuroses have given way before some spiritual force which we cannot completely analyze but which no person who has investigated the facts would think of denying. All religions have helped people because it makes them understand that there is one common denominator running through each, and that is faith in something grater than the isolated self. Equally, all psychological processes which have been beneficial in removing fear and the inferiority complex have been able to do so because of the giving back of the self to the self-followed by the re-education of the self and the readjustment of the self to life, in confidence, in faith, and in self-assurance. It is now widely recognized by the medical community that the course of many kinds of illnesses, of the body, as well as the mind, can be influenced by the patient’s hopes and expectations and thus by the suggestions given to one by an authority figure whom one trusts. Not only can the patient’s own mental state, guided by another, profoundly affect the way he or she perceives his or her symptoms, but is can also help mobilize one’s immunological defences to help achieve a more lasting recovery. It is unfortunately true that only certain sorts of illness benefit, and that in any case the effects are not always permanent—so that the pain or stiffness or the depression tends to return. However, at least in the short term, the cure can be dramatic. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

To say that these cures have a normal explanation, however, is not to deny that they may often rely on the idea of a paranormal explanation. In fact, it is often quite clear that they do rely on it. It is for most people, including the healer, extremely hard to imagine how the voice or the touch of another person could possibly bring about a cure unless this other person were to have paranormal powers. It follows that the more the patient believes in these powers, the more he or she will be inclined to take the suggestions seriously—and the better they will work. Equally, the more the healer oneself believes in one’s powers, the more one can make one’s suggestions sound convincing—and again the better they will work. However, it is important that you deal with people who have the education and experience to treat your condition because with medical malpractice a person could actually make your health worse and this could leave them liable for civil and criminal penalties. So, if you are suffering, it is not only important to seek spiritual healing, but also see a doctor to make sure there are no complications in your treatment and that your health improves, not gets worse. Also, success in bring about a cure feeds back to the healer, boosting his or her image in the eyes of the World and in themselves, so they want their patients to get better. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

And thereafter nothing succeeds like more success. The process must of course be launched in some way. There has to be some degree of faith present initially, or otherwise the process cannot be expected to get going. However, all that this requires is that there should already be some small reason—however unsubstantiated—why people should consider the healer a special person. Given their reputations, some doctors are potential miracle workers by facts that have been established in their careers and have run ahead of them wherever they go. They discover that they have surprisingly well-developed capacities for healing, and as word spreads, they still are getting better at it. As a supplement, having religious faith is a certain superiority over the psychological, for it naturally follows that is a person can be brought to have faith in God, that faith in God will be greater than any faith one could have in an individual or group of individuals. “I can do all things through God who strengthens me,” reports Philippians 4.13. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12

There are people whose smiles are quite startlingly attractive in the sense that it augments the natural beauty of their face. That kind of smile is effortless and untactical, it is obviously quite different from the cold maneuverings that take place in the realm of the stock in trade of the material World. Change comes by substituting good habits for less desirable ones. We mold our character and future by good thoughts and acts. The future we seek is a life motivated by good thoughts, expressed in good works, and sustained by an inner peace and determination of righteous doing. The destiny we desire is an inheritance in the celestial mansions prepared by our Savior for the faithful children of God. We are not born into this World with fixed habits. To some extent the shared energy of disinhibition is a warm oasis in the dark, drab wasteland of daily routine and, laughing, we will the warmth to continue—loudly, publicly, in restaurants, theaters, and town squares. It leads to a good deal of energetic movement, sweaty brows, music, and vigorous socializing. Good habits are not acquired simply by making good resolves, though the thought must precede the action so we do not slip on a banana skin. Extreme merriment can all too easily conceal improper or indecent jokes under a veil of seemliness and dignity, the better to corrupt the young and innocent. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12

Good habits are developed in the workshop of our daily lives. It is not in the great moments of test and trial that character is built. That is only when it is displayed. The habits that direct our lives and form our character are often fashioned in the often uneventful, commonplace routine of life. They are acquired in practice. The smile is more than a chemical reaction, a series of muscular contractions, or a mechanism. It is a highly sophisticated concept, an expression of the emotions, a mode of communication, a beacon of desire, a ritual—an occasion, in other words, of intense psychological, anthropological, and social interest, the product of acute observation, cognition, and interpretation. In the West, the smile is also embedded in the Romantic tradition of poetry. There, it is constantly deployed as an expression of love and celebrated for its capacity to radiate beauty from the face of the wearer. The poets thus endowed it with the power to attract and fascinate, to stimulate pleasantness. Indeed, most adults have some idea of what it means when the smile is shining through your very heart. The game of love is perhaps the most obvious context in which the smile receives the tribute of art, poetry, and music. That is probably why a genuine smile has so much power. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12

We do not always know what lies ahead, but there is strength and safety in righteous conduct. In the conduct of our lives we learn that good character building habits mean everything. It is by such behavior that we harvest the real substance and value of life. The way we live outweighs any words we may profess to follow. The image a person has of oneself is bound to have a crucial influence on one’s psychological development. Not only will it shape one’s choices as to what one attempts to make of one’s own life, but—because of that—it will frequently be self-confirming. “Train up a child in the way he or she should go: and when he or she is old, that child will not depart from it,” reports Proverbs 22.6. Admittedly, it is the privilege of many a human infant to be, for a time at least, the apple of his or her parents’ eyes. So that the fantasy of being a uniquely favoured human being is not uncommon among little children. For a good many it is a fantasy that, unless the World has been peculiarly unkind to them, is based in the reality of their family relationships. The child lives in a situation of utter dependence; and when his or her needs are met it must seem to that child that he or she has magical powers, real omnipotence. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12

If a child experiences pain, hunger or discomfort, all that baby has to do it to scream and he or she is relieved and lulled by gentle, loving sounds. The child is a magician and a telepath who has only to mumble and to imagine and the World turns to one’s desires. Although most children must, of course, soon discover that their powers are not all that they imagined, for many the idea will linger. It is probably quite usual for young people to continue to speculate about their having powers that no one else possesses. And it is certainly a common dream of adolescents that they have been personally cut out to save the World. The Lord has given parents time to teach and train their children to form good habits and develop noble characters. The persons who knows oneself to have been selected from all the other children in the family to go to an Ivy League college will allow oneself to grow into the part. Children of Hollywood parents who have the opportunity and privilege to achieve fame and fortune on stage will sometimes be dramatically successful (provided they are not, by having too much of it, dramatically hurt). This kind of moulding of a person’s character to match an imposed standard can be effective even when the pressures are relatively conservative. Still, no one can survive entirely on prophecy and promise. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12

In this mortal life we have two choices: the good, which is the desire of our Heavenly Father; or the evil, which is the adversary’s plan and constant persuasion. Our great challenge is to learn how to control ourselves. We must learn for ourselves and act for ourselves, being careful not to follow those who are not divinely led. We have a responsibility to seek—privately as well as publicly—confirmation of the reputation that is building up around us. The human will is naturally inclined toward the right. We are spirit children of God and have born within us the power to overcome all evil practices. Almost every child probably seeks in small ways to test one’s fantasies, and conducts minor experiments to see just how far their powers extend. ‘If I stare at that woman across the street, will she look round?’ (yes, every so often she will.) ‘If I pray for my parents to stop squabbling, will they let up?’ (Yes, it usually works.) ‘If I wear this ring wherever I go, will it keep the wolves away?’ (Yes, almost always.) An ancient proverb states that good habits result from resisting temptation. Such resistance often takes the form of a persevering struggle. When bad habits become a part of our lives and we desire to overcome them, we must seek spiritual help. We all know what fear can do; how it can shrivel up hope and dampen the ardor of living, and how finally it can close up the avenues of self-expression. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12

Fear, when carried to an extreme, leaves one a wreck, physically and mentally. And we have observed what faith can do. We have seen people so filled with fear that nothing in life seemed worthwhile to them, and we have seen them learn to have faith in life, and have watched the transformation that has taken place in their lives. The psychologist might say that such a person has a phobia—an inferiority complex—which means that the individual feels unable to cope with life. Or the psychiatrist might say that the individual is neurotic. However, we look at the individual and say, “Here is a spiritually complete person who is doing nothing that one has not been trained to do. This individual has had the intelligence and the emotional capacity to learn these lessons of fear, and to learn them well.” If it is possible for us to learn to be afraid, we can reverse the process and learn to have faith. In the study of mental suggestion it has been discovered that if a mother fears that her child’s food will not digest, it will affect the child’s digestive processes. If she is afraid that the child will not sleep well at night, the child’s sleep will be disturbed. If the mother is surrounded with thoughts of irritation and emotions of anger, they will register in the child. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12

Times without number the child has listened to such warning as “Keep away from that dog, he may bite!” or “Do not go too close to the edge, you may fall!” or “Be sure to wash your hands, there are germs on them.” The signposts on the road to fear are too numerous to mention, but each leaves its imprint upon the growing mind and plastic memory of the child. It is little wonder that he or she arrives at maturity in a state of perpetual fear. One has learned it in one’s home, school, news, and community. It is unfortunate that the idea of a future state of punishment should have been so emphasized in our lives. For out of it have come the most morbid fears the human mind as ever entertained. How can we believe that good people, people of love as well as wisdom, would seek to destroy us for no reason? This does not mean that we are not responsible for out acts. We cannot escape the logical result of our thoughts and acts. The punishment for any act flows out of the act itself. It religion, we find masterful principles of justice, but not retribution. The moment we forgive we are forgiven. God is the eternal forgiver. There is no condemnation, no judgment. Suppose a room has been in the darkness for years and we bring in a light. What becomes of the darkness? It is just not there. It would make no difference how long the room may have been dark; when the light appears, the darkness disappears. We have a gracious, kind, and loving Father in Heaven who stands ready to help us. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12

There is no moral or spiritual code that grants permissiveness of conduct nor condones selection of evil nor bad habits as a way to joyful living. Perhaps our ideas of being good and doing good have been based on the expectation of reward or the fear of punishment instead of common sense. Goodness should be natural and spontaneous. Goodness is normal; evil is abnormal. We should live by faith and not by fears. However, because we have had so many fears and because we have built up such an unconscious sense of guilt, we seek a release from the emotional tensions of this guilt feelings by projecting the thought that we need to be punished for our mistake. Self-mastery, self-control, and self-discipline are required strengths that enable us to set aside temptations to do wrong. It is a wonderful feeling to conquer wrong practices and to be free and unencumbered from their detrimental effects, both physically and spiritually. When we have conquered our bad habits and replaced them with good ones, living as we should, obedient and faithful, then we are on our way to the presence of God. We should become so involved in acquiring good quality traits and participating in character building activities that there is no time to engage in anything worthless or harmful. Our habits should be those that make us susceptible to faith and testimony. The Bible teaches that all unkind and negative reactions must be purged from the mind. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12

If our minds are filled with hatred towards others, we really hate ourselves. If we lack confidence in life, it is because we first lack confidence in the self. And if we are afraid of God and the future, it is because we are not acquainted with love and confidence. Unfortunate as it may be, there is no question but that one of the great fundamental fears of the whole human race is the belief in hell and in future punishment. And probably more sorrow, human suffering, and morbidity have come from this one belief than all others combined. It is time for us to clarify the situation and realize that God of love cannot hate, the God of life cannot destroy, the God of good cannot desire evil, and that is why we have to be careful about what we do and focus on. One of the best habits to be cultivated is that of reading the scriptures to become knowledgeable of our responsibilities. By learning God’s commandments and keeping them, we develop the ways of righteousness that are an expression of our faith. With good habits we prepare ourselves for excellence. Dear God in Heaven, God of the brightest days, send our troubles all to flight, burn them in thy sacred fires and replace then with our heart’s desires! Keep us whole, and let thy wisdom fill our souls. May the circle never be broken, may the Earth always be whole, may the rattle never be shaken, may God live in our souls. Blessed be the God within, for he brings courage and freedom, love and life, intelligence and understanding. May our purposes be blessed. At the gate of dawn we stand, God, on either hand, guard us with your power, guide us through the crossroads hour. From the beauty of the night and glory of the light. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12

It is on this basis that we should create a great hope and faith. We should be willing to admit that we are punished by our mistakes, and in common sense recognize that while we continue our mistakes we must of necessity continue to suffer; but always with the certainty in mind that when light comes darkness disappears, when forgiveness comes to our own mind we are forgiven, when we are willing to give we shall receive, when we learn how to enter into Heaven we shall leave everything unlike Heaven behind. We need to ask ourselves, “Are my usual thoughts and present actions worthy of eternal life? Am I setting my sights on eternal goals and working to obtain them?” Anything short of our best is not good enough, especially in the service of the Lord. The divine peace is not disturbed by any hymn of hate, nor is the majesty and might of the eternal presence disturbed by our thoughts of discord. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; it is here and now. It is not something to wait for, something that is going to happen by and by. It is at hand. The question is, are we seeing it? Are we actually beholding? Think things over again until you finally realize that God is love, God is life, God is peace, God is joy, God is givingness, God is forgivingness. The Lord has counseled us to repent and adhere to strict moral principles and honesty of purpose. We are instructed to make our home an adobe of righteousness. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12

There is a law of life which reacts to a person in the way one uses it, and while refuses to use it, one cannot be forgiven while one refuses to forgive one cannot be forgiven while one refuses to see in every person one meets the divine image one hopes is within oneself, we cannot find God at the center of our beings. There can be a perfect balance between our thoughts and our acts and what is going to happen to us. And it is upon this that we should base all our beliefs and acts. How wonderful is this idea of being enfolded in the everlasting arms of peace and love on the very day that we forsake our distrust, our hate, our fears, and doubts. And how simple should be our salvation. All that it means is turning from wrong to right, from darkness to light, from fear to faith, from hate to love, from Hell to Heaven. How satisfying to know that no one can hinder us but ourselves, and except for the hep of the great and the good God, no one can help us but ourselves. Honor encompasses duty, responsibility, and respect for the eternal values. It also suggests a firm holding to codes of right behaviour and the guidance of a high sense of self-control. Let us dare to be different from the ways of the World when its ways are not the ways of God. We must be dependable, honest, moral, and display every other good attribute that will lead us to integrity of character. We begin, then, with our thoughts and end with our destiny. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12

Our destiny is determined by our character, and our character is the sum and expression of our habits. Character is won by hard work. Someday, as surely as we live, this is the God that will be presented to humanity—one Universal Divine Presence forevermore blessings his creation; one infinite ocean of love in which all are immersed; or Father which are in Heaven, the one and only God, who is not a God of wrath nor rettribution but a God of peace and joy and wholeness. The day will come when the other God will be forgotten, and humanity will learn to live as though this Earth were the Kingdom of Heaven, with God himself the host. Yes, the character required to attain eternal life must be formed in this life with hood habits supplying the building material. When the qualities that are desirable in individuals become Universal in the people of a nation, that nation also will have good character. Goodness either in a person or in a nation is not simply the absence of wrongdoing. It is a love of and practice of all things that are true, honest, lovely, and of good report. Let us set high goals for ourselves and work to achieve those goals by making God the center of our lives. God is all truth, justice, and peace. Let us remember that God’s laws are eternal.”God divides wicked from righteous,” reports 1 Nephi 15.30. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12

The way we read another person’s smile, and the emotions which it may be said to indicate, depends upon the mental faculties and instincts upon which we rely for guidance. That mental equipment is obviously unique to each individual, and therefore serves some people better than others. Naturally, it can improve or deteriorate with age, so that the naïve observation of youth may, with luck, give way to the wisdom of years. It may also vary in quality and reliability depending upon circumstances too various even to imagine. And sometimes we exhibit our full measure of humanity simply by getting it wrong. We are easily capable of misreading another person’s smile, misinterpreting or misunderstanding it, and the consequences of that can be tragic or merely comical. Everybody has a blind spot, and there is nothing quite so reassuring as the discovery that somebody else’s is more ridiculous than your own. It would be interesting if some day we should read a headline in the daily newspaper which said, A germ of fear is not operating in a certain locality, or infecting a whole community. And it would be interesting if the same article were to tell us that a group of people were working to counteract this fear germ by broadcasting faith. And then after a while we would pick up another newspaper which had a headline reading, We are now inoculated with faith, and the fear germ has disappeared. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

In most encounters we can determine the kind of experience we are going to have by how we respond. The quickest and most effective method to get rid of fear is to get quiet and lift up the whole though in confidence and faith to something bigger than we are. It is like going from a cold, dark room into the sunshine and just sitting there, letting the rays of the Sun penetrate the whole being with warmth and colour until the darkness and the dampness are gone. So it is with the life of prayer and faith, of affirmative meditation and of communion with that divine spirit which is closer to us than our very breath. The raw materials of creation are all around us. Sculptors of life we are, with our uncarved souls before us. Everyone of us is carving a soul. Let us determine now to make those souls pure and chaste. Create homes filled with love and serenity. Relieve suffering. Create enduring testimonies of eternal truths in ourselves and others. Do we recognize in our own lives the opportunities for creation that there are? Do we prize the gifts, talent, and choice spirits that God has given us? Do we share the creations of our hearts, minds, and hands with others? Let us not forget if fear is contagious, faith is doubly so. How wonderful it is to realize that we can so influence our environment that everyone who steps into it will be benefited. If this is what we are doing, the very stars in their courses will conspire to assist us. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

The miracles recorded in the Bible have done more than anything else to set the stage for all subsequent paranormal phenomena in Western culture, outside as well as inside a specifically religious context. There are over two hundred instances of paranormal powers recorded in the Gospels that in many quarters still stand as the primary exemplar of what a human who is more than a human-machine might do. Miracles provide the type for the new phenomena that people imagine and hope that they might find in life. Faith is the absolute trust that there is wisdom and power beyond what we can measure, know or control, and that the mysterious nature of the Universe will work in our favor as we learn to welcome it. For many, this means that we have faith that God will intervene or take over our situations for the better. The World is not corrupt and things will work out for the best. Faith is linked to extraordinary things and outright miracles from God. The power of our mind can make objects at a distance (including human bodies) undergo physical changes in the direction we desire. We can, through faith, intervene in the normal chains of causation and form and transform matter. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

And we may be certain of something else—there is at the center of our beings a strong fortress of faith, placed there by a power greater than we are, by an intelligence that knows everything, and forevermore held in place by a divine presence which is the God in us. It is to this indwelling God that we must turn. So how would it be if we worked out a method for doing this? First of all, if we are filled with fears we cannot harbour them as a great secret in our life, but in prayer look at God as a close friend or confidant to whom we may unburden our whole soul. This will release the tension which our fears have built up in our bodies. Prayer can be a conversational talk with God, as if he is a calm, confident person, who can point out the reason why we need not entertain these fears, and that is a great relief. We are circled eternally in God’s arms of love. The next thing we have to do is build our faith, and realize that we would not be here were there not a power greater than we are that put us here. We must learn to have confidence in this power. As we confess our fears to ourselves before this power, and reach a little higher in faith than where we were in fears, we will discover a miracle is taking place—fears will begin to recede, until finally they appear as a speck on the horizon of our mind, and then they seem to walk over that horizon and disappear entirely, like darkness running away from the light. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

Casting out doubt and fear and stress is not as difficult as it sounds. We all need to resurrect the innocence within us, which has unfortunately has been so buried in our unhappy experiences that we have almost forgotten that the purity of heart and spirit was ever there. However, we have not quite forgotten, have we? We all need to resurrect the confidence in life which we have in our youth. To recapture this dream of youth is the wisest and the most intelligent thing any person can do. Fear has brought confusion. Faith will give birth to confidence. Stress has brought days filled with conflict and nights full of dread. Faith aloe can heal this confusions and drive from our minds all thoughts of fear, and dissipate all stress. Love alone can bring harmony into out lives. God is at work in modern times, and we must never give up hope and faith. Lay all fear aside, and have confidence and complete faith in the one perfect divine presence. God is not limited in any degree nor any respect. He is totally sovereign. We must know that the light of truth shines upon our paths, as divine love guides us into the secret place of the Most High, where we dwell under the light of the Almighty. There is nothing to be afraid of in God’s World. Fear cannot operate in us, nor can it go forth from us. The spirit will speak to us. We must be patient, ask in faith, and we will receive guidance in our creative efforts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

We cannot be paralyzed from fear of making mistakes. At the very center of our being there is complete confidence, complete faith. There is a consciousness of the protection of divine love, the guidance of divine wisdom, and the strength of divine power. In every language, the spirit of God—the Holy Ghost—guides, or can guide, everyone as it has from the beginning, the spirit of God inspires worthy souls. And so we turn in thought to the whole World and know that the words of God is bringing light and life and a feeling of strength and confidence to everyone. Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they know that love and intelligent guidance is directing their thoughts and actions to all the nations of Earth and awakening them in the realization that there is good enough to go around; that there is a divine government under which they all may be protected from the fear of each other. We need not live in fear of the future. We have every reason to rejoice and little reason to fear. If we follow the promptings of the spirit, we will be safe, whatever the future holds we will be shown what to do. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

The voice of the spirit is a still, powerful voice—a voice that is felt rather than heard. It is part of the creative imagination of the human race and assures us that there is a feeling and a presence at the center of everything waiting to make itself known. It is not unusual for one to have received the gift and not really know it. We must turn to the great God, who knows all things and who can do all things and allow him to lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom and lift us up. It is awakened with prayer and cultivated by obedience to the laws and ordinances of Gospel. Each of us has agency to learn that the tempter—the adversary—uses those same channels of the mind and heart to inspire us to evil, to laziness, to contention, even to acts of darkness. He can take over our thoughts and lead us to mischief. However, we can learn to sort out the promptings from the temptations and follow the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The gift of the Holy Ghost, a sacred spiritual power, can be a constant companion to every soul who will receive it. God has set up the Universe in a hierarchy of laws, and the law of faith is actually a higher law than the laws of nature. That is where it miracles come in. Because when faith is used, the law of faith goes into practice, and the law of faith can actually do more than the laws of physics. God wants our faith to supersede the law of nature. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

God is in the mountain-moving business. Do not doubt nor underestimate what he wants to do in your life. Christian apologists were, early on, only too well aware of how our Savior demonstrations must look to outsiders. “Have faith in God! If you have faith in God and do not doubt, you can tell this mountain to get up and jump into the sea, and it will. Everything you ask for in prayer will be yours, if you only have faith,” reports Mark 11.22-24.  We must open our eyes that we may see. There is another way down this road, we are getting closer to the place where we belong. Under the stars, familiar, now we are here, we can be who we are. In the darkness I found you, all that matters is how you want to live your life. Every turn, taking it slowly with you, and I am going to be there by your side. You are a believer of everyone. Darling, you are one in a million, and you have go to know it was in you all along. The most satisfying experience is to see what the gospel does for people. It gives them a new outlook on life. It gives them a perspective that they have never felt before. It raises their sights to things noble and divine. Something happens to them that is miraculous to behold. They look to God and come alive. God, may you open our hearts wide to receive the love of God. As we receive God’s love as Universal supply, all our affairs are healed. We realize and accept the healing power of the Universe as love, and allow the healing power that is love to penetrate our lives. We feel God’s love in our affairs, and know all is well. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

It is possible for us to catch fear from others much as we would catch a cold, for we are all unconscious mental, emotional, and spiritual broadcasting stations. This takes us back to a thought in the Bible which says that a person’s enemies shall be those of one’s own household, for our real enemies are our fears and phobias, our doubts and uncertainties, our stressors and our inner conflicts. Nervous, fretful, and agitated children, who have nightmares and who cannot retain their food, are affected by the inner agitation of their parents’ thoughts and feelings. The whole World is filled with the thoughts of the people who live in it, and perhaps we are all more or less subject to the passing emotions of the race mind. Psychiatrist will admit that fear can render a person completely unconscious as far as one’s brain is concerned. Fear can paralyze the memory, and, if a person is afraid he or she will forget something, one is likely to do so. We know that in cases of amnesia people are so frightened by some unconscious thought that they even forget their own names and who they are and where they came from. Fear produces a mysterious chemical which is released into the blood, but this chemical disappears when the stress is over. We all have our stress and fears. And we all wish to get over them. The healing of fear and stress is not to be found in any drug or physical manipulation. The cure is to be found only within our own minds. Where fear is the infirmary, we have to be our own doctors. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

It may be true, as we have seen already, that paranormal phenomena are likely to be troublesome and odd, and that the soul may not play by the rules we would expect. However, oddness in itself is not the issue here. Mere irregularity as such would certainly not constitute evidence of unwarranted design. What would do so would be regularities of the wrong kind. The new question will therefore have to be, not just, does the soul behave in unexpected ways, but does it behave consistently in inappropriate ways? Are there unfitting limitations on what the soul (or its sub-agents) can do? Without knowing in advance what we shall find, it would seem prudent to focus attention on two areas, which in practice often overlap. There might turn out to be surprising limitations on the physical props and manifestations that the soul makes use of. For example, it would seem reasonable to ask why, if it were indeed the cause, psychic power should be capable of transforming a wooden staff into a serpent but not into, say, a diamond sword, why it should be capable of turning water into wine but not into honey, why of producing thought images on photographic plates but not on other people’s retinas, why of divining water in a natural landscape but not an artificial one, why of reading the faces of playing cards in a laboratory but not in a poker game, etcetera, etcetera. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

The apparent arbitrariness of such constraints should be enough to alert us to the likelihood that something other than paranormal forces is involved. However, it would of course be particularly puzzling if the patterns should turn out to be such as to suggest that the soul can do by paranormal means only what, in other circumstances, a human conjuror can do by normal means. Nothing in our starting concept of the soul would have led us to expect that kind of design. There might equally turn out to be surprising limitations on the psychological or social conditions under which paranormal phenomena typically occur, and on the psychological content of people’s paranormally generated experiences. It would seem reasonable to ask why, if it is so, people should be more likely to witness paranormal events when the viewing conditions are relatively poor, why they should be more likely to do so in company than when alone, why those who already believe in the powers of the soul should be more susceptible than sceptics, etcetera. And, more particularly, why messages from the dead should be so surprisingly vague, why poltergeists are particularly active around teenage children, why a statue of the Virgin Mary rocks her head at night but not during daylight, etcetera, etcetera. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

Again, the arbitrariness of such constraints should alert us. However, all the more so if it should turn out that paranormal experiences typically occur under conditions that are known to be conductive, in other circumstances, to common-or-garden psychological dysfunction, illusion or mendacity. Noting we know about the soul would have led us to expect that either. Nothing we know about the soul would lead us to expect it? If these patterns of constraints do occur, the riposte from believers might still be that the soul, trickster that it is, is in fact being doubly tricky by arranging things precisely so as to mimic events that are sometimes brought about by normal means. They might even want to argue that the soul is presenting people with a kind of challenge—deliberately arousing their suspicions in order to test their willingness to suspend disbelief. There is an idea that when God created the Word six thousand years ago, he mischievously planted the evidence of evolution in the Earth, as to tempt people to doubt the Bible story of divine creation and hence prove their religious fibre. Only those whose faith was strong enough to enable them to resist the Darwinian heresy, however well it was apparently supported by the fact, would be saved (thus providing, as it were, a kind of natural selection for Christian sheep over Darwinian goats). #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

Such a way of arguing would, admittedly, effectively disarm the Argument from Unwarranted Design. For there is no denying that, by building into the theory of the soul the very pattern of limitations that seems to pose the problem, believers could make the problem go away. If it could be argued, say, that it is of the essence of the soul to imitate a human conjuror, then we would never expect the soul to do things that a conjuror could not. Fair would be foul and foul fair, and all skeptical objections would be beside the point. While the phenomena in question do indeed have their origins in conceptually simple design processes, what has happened is that some sort of filter has got interposed between the underlying process and its particular expression. Take, for instance, what might be done with our own earlier examples. Perhaps the man who sends After Eights on Thursdays is genuinely in love but happens to live somewhere where no other chocolates are available and United States Postal Service only collects on Wednesdays? Perhaps the cockatiel is a true English speaker who happens to have grossly aphasic? Perhaps the Lord Lestat de Lioncourt claimant is the real Lord Lestat with a highly selective memory block? Likewise, perhaps the soul really is out to make monkeys of potential sceptics? The pursuit of truth involves dealing with a great deal of filth and foolishness because here nature takes the field, and nature is an equivocal element: impure, obscene, spiteful, demonic. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

Certain paranormal manifestations sound bogus, they look bogus. And yet, paradoxically, this is a powerful argument in favour of their being genuine. The soul seldom if ever behaves in ways that are unequivocally paranormal because if people were to be confronted with indubitable evidence they would find it too disturbing. It is possible that the Creator has eternally intended this department of nature to remain baffling, to prompt our curiosities and hopes and suspicious all in equal measure. It may be the case that we cannot absolutely discount this kind of sophistry. God is subtle but he is not malicious. The Bible reports that perfect love casts out fear, and where love is, fear cannot remain. We can apply this principle of faith and confidence to ourselves as individuals, to our families as the first unit we deal with, and to all the people we contact in the everyday walks of life. Did you ever notice the effect of just being with a person who is clam and poised and unafraid? How different you feel, how buoyed up and confident you become! Why should not each one of us become a broadcasting station of faith? The World is too largely governed by fear. We are afraid of this and that and something else; we are afraid of what has happened and what is happening and what we think is going to happen.  #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

If fear is contagious and does in some mysterious way secrete a germ which acts negatively in the physical body, it is not too much to say that is also secretes some kind of mental germ in the whole race mind which affects everyone with a sense of confusion and uncertainty and stress. There is no doubt that this is true, and we should do something about it. Not that we have to become heroic figures who consider themselves the liberators of humanity, for we are probably not in a position to do this. What I mean is that each one of us should analyze our own thinking to determine what is wrong and replace every fear with faith and confidence. However, where are we gong to get this faith and confidence? Certainly not out of the weakness of our previous experience, and perhaps not out of the thoughts that we had in the past—those thoughts that were so filled with stress. It seems to me that we will have to begin all over again. And we must find some reason for having a faith that is stronger than all our fears. So far the Word has never found this reason outside what we call a religious or spiritual idea of having faith in God. There is nothing for God to be afraid of. And if we can, and do, tune in to the thoughts of others, and if they affect us, as they most certainly do, why should be not learn to tune in to the mind of God, which is free from fear and doubt? #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

This is what is meant by prayer. For in the act of prayer we commune with the invisible spirit; we draw its strength, its peace, and its serenity into our own souls. And as a result of this we become strong and self-reliant, because we have built up a confidence in life, a faith and conviction which wards off all fear. Just as a germ of physical infirmary is less liable to infect a strong body, so the germ of mental fear is resisted by a whole and happy mind. Good comes from God. If we keep our focus on the Lord, we are promised a blessing beyond comparison. God’s plan of salvation and happiness will help us overcome every challenge in life. All around us we see a growing desire for spiritual direction the World over. The smile has always been associated with restraint, with the limitations upon behavior that are imposed upon men and women by the rational forces of civilization, as much as it has been taken as a sign of spontaneity, or a mirror in which one may see reflected the personal happiness, delight, or good humor of the wearer. The act of smiling itself is inevitably social and communicative, part of the complex nonverbal language with which our bodies are equipped. A decorous smile, a smile of restraint, is therefore an important ingredient of good manners, just as the lewd grin has to do with the bad. It can be kind of mask. The adversary lulls people into security and cheats their soul. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

You will remember that in the Garden of Eden, God created man and woman a them in the garden, which was an Earthly paradise. The River of Life flowed through the garden, watering it, and it contained every kind of fruit and plant necessary to human’s physical well-being. Adam and Eve were told to enjoy this garden, to live in it and be happy. However, they were warned that, while they could eat of all the fruits that grew in the garden, there was one tree from which they should not eat. This was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. At once we see the meaning of this. We can eat from the tree which bears fruit of love, and the more we eat from it the better off we shall be. However, if we begin to mix love with hate we come into confusion. The fruit does not digest because hate is contrary to the nature of love. It is natural that we should ask: Why did a God who is all wise, all-powerful, and loving and compassionate create a tree that could bear the fruit of hate? Because human beings have a self-choice or they would not be a person, and having choice implies there must be with which one is endowed makes it possible for one to use that freedom, at least temporarily, in a way that will restrict the individual; otherwise one would not be free. Therefore, human beings are given the right to choose, but with the right to choose must come the liability as well as the reward of one’s choice. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

The great principles of nature exist to be used, and the laws of nature become our helpers when we use them rightly. However, these same laws, wrongly used, impose suffering upon us. We can use our minds to be happy or unhappy; we can think peace or confusion; we can be loving and kind, or disagreeable, because we are free. If we were so crated that we did not have this freedom, we should be eternally bound. Life would have no meaning. Everywhere we look in our own lives and the lives of others we see the use and abuse of this power. The power that can be used so destructively could be converted into an instrument that would help to bring freedom to everyone on Earth. The clue to whether we are dealing with the paranormal or the normal might lie not so much with what the soul does achieve as with what it does not achieve. We ought to examine the soul’s preferred style of working and the peculiar patterns it slips into. Suppose you have a theory that the reason someone says he is Lord Lucan, who mysteriously disappeared in 1974, is that he is Lord Lucan. However, in practice the only part of Lucan’s life he seems to be familiar with is the part serialized in the newspaper, and he gives a start whenever someone says, ‘Come off it, Jones.’ Whatever this is, it is not what you would expect of normal ‘human identity.’ #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

Or, to take a rather more puzzling example, suppose you have a theory that you are being shown an accurate drawing of a solid triangular object. However, when you ask to be shown other views of it, you are told this is the only angel from which the object likes to be photographed and that it goes to pieces if anyone doubts its word. Whatever this is, it is not what you would expect from an ordinary ‘solid object.’ Well, this is the meaning of the serpent and the savior and that great symbol which runs throughout the Bible, depicting the right and the wrong way to use the power which is within us, the power that is greater than we are. However, again, we must stop and ask ourselves a very important question, one we find to be in almost everyone’s mind: Is evil, then, equal to good? The answer is No, for we have already found out that, while we can love to any extent without being hurt, hate finally destroys itself and destroys us with it. Yet, love harms no one. Good protects itself because God is good. We are given the freedom to misuse the power of life, but only to a certain point. This is why the symbol goes on to show that, when Adam and Eve finally decided to eat from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and after they had done so, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden and compelled to earn their living by the sweat of their brow. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

Sceptics have often got themselves into unnecessary difficulties by unwisely promising to explain how everything that has ever occurred in the paranormal realm is in reality achievable by normal means. Even supposing they are right about the underlying normality, such a promise must be wildly over-confident. With many of the cases on record there is in practice no prospect of knowing what really happened—perhaps because there is insufficient information about the circumstances at this distance in time and space, or because the investigation has been or is being blocked by interested parties, or simply because no one is clever enough to work it out. The sceptic’s position will be all the stronger if and when he or she can suggest how a particular effect was achieved, and stronger still if he or she can duplicate the phenomenon oneself. However, this challenge is not one that he or she should feel obliged to meet. Someday it is bound to happen that one will meet their match. And the danger is that when this happens, when one cannot say what normal explanation would make sense, this failure may be taken by the other side as absolute evidence in favour of the phenomenon being paranormal by default. “May God raise you from death by power of Resurrection and from everlasting death by power of Atonement,” reports 2 Nephi 10.25. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

We are all Adam and Eve, and when our intellects become coerced or misdirected they still find a subconscious reaction. When the subconscious reaction becomes powerful enough, it controls the intellect because of the unconscious thought patterns that are laid down in the mind. Finally, when these thought patterns become dominant, they control even the intellect. This is what produces most insanity and the psychosomatic relationships between the body and the mind. Our present knowledge of the mind tells us exactly how these Laws of Mind work, and we now know that our mental and emotional reactions to life decide what is going to happen to us. Because human’s misuse of power within them, they are led on the pathway which produces bondage and weakness. And so we come to the other side of this great story, which explains that God is within all of us and we all have the power to do what is right. “Atonement prepared that salvation might come to those who trust in the Lord,” reports Mosiah 4.6-8. If we want salvation, we are told to obey God. Of course, we all wish salvation. We all want to be happy; we should like to be well. We have never yet met anyone who did not wish to be successful. We want people to like us. We greatly desire to love and be loved. And above everything else, we want and need an inward sense of security and peace of mind. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

It is true that we all long for the Kingdom of God on Earth, whether or not we know it. And the great struggle of humanity is toward freedom, emancipation from want and fear and infirmary, and from everything that can hurt. We all long to return to our lost paradise. “People assemble in sanctuary to worship,” reports Alma 15.17. Humans are put on this Earth to enjoy life and we are given the freedom to decide how we are to live; always there is placed before us the possibility of two things: to be, or not to be. All real power must rest on the side of good, and finally evil will be vanquished by good. This is the whole meaning of the story of the savior, the lifting up of the life principle on the Tree of Life—the coming to realize that we are one with God forever. God’s countenance smiles upon disciples. When in social situations we meet people for the first time, we notice if they do smile or not, and may form the impression that they are unfriendly or cold. In some cases we will recognize that a painfully shy person finds this situation unbearably difficult, and does not smile for that reason. However, if the person we have just met does smile, we tend to accept it as an expression of good manners and refrain from reading that smile in any particular way. This may or may not make the difference to whether we like this person, find him or her attractive, or else conclude that we have little in common. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

A true person is strong enough to withstand the wiles of the adversary and humble enough to submit oneself to the redemptive powers of the Savior. A true person does not need the adversary to lead him or her down the easy path with the everlasting chains of destruction. Professional encounters can be complicated. When we front up to a job interview, we will perform the rituals of greeting and smile gamely. In that situation experienced employers may make allowances for the many stressors that our smile fails to conceal and, provided they are fair, will allow themselves to take notice only if our nerves continue to jangle long after removing the tension from the initial encounter. Others will adopt harsher tactics, which may better suit an industry where the people or businesses involved all want success and do not care if they harm each other in getting it in which the smile is a rarer commodity. That can also be a trend in some communities where a smile is considered a sign of weakness. Not everyone smiles and there are reasons why. Some people do not and cannot be seen as being nice, as it is not part of their repertoire. As other people are expected to smile and be polite. Likewise, circumstances will nudge the polite smile in one direction or another in business meetings depending on whether or not negotiations are going our way. If the other side obviously has us in a dire predicament, nobody will be surprised if at the end of the meeting we do not beam with unalloyed pleasure. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Wisdom, understanding, humbleness of heart are signs of maturity. However, the process of maturing is not as simple as acquiring wisdom. To mature is to retain or regain some innocent qualities we need to have to develop other qualities which youth may not have. Every spirit of human beings was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed humans from the fall, humans become again, in their infant state, innocent before God. Yes, the challenge to each one of us in these days of deceit and discord is to be innocent, to be guileless. We live in a wonderful World where people have largely turned away from righteousness and are self-seeking, gratifying their pride and vain ambition. We have the challenge to humble ourselves before God and to become patient, full of love, and willing to submit to all things which the Lord sees fit to inflict upon us. God intends good to come to everyone. What are we going to do with this greatest of all truths—the relationship that we as individuals have to the Divine Spirit which is already perfect, and which desires only our good? We have come to the crossroads of time, and the decision is ours. However, like everything else, this decision has to start with the individual life. If we are weary of our troubles there is something we can do about it. We can begin to exalt the life principle within us. Life should be beautifully simple. And then it will be simply beautiful. Learn to live. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

Given what we know about the World we live in, the balance of probability is always going to be against evidence for the paranormal being what it seems to be. Nonetheless, cogent as it is, there are goo reasons for not taking this argument to be the knock-down argument. We must recognize that an argument based on probabilities can never be more than that—a probabilistic argument. While it can provide a rule of thumb that tells us how the plausibility of one explanation compares with another, it surely cannot provide a rule of thumb that tells us how the plausibility of one explanation compares with another, it surely cannot provide an absolute guarantee of where the truth lies. However, even if we have reason to believe that people testify to paranormal phenomenon constantly, we should still have to allow that the reported event might on this occasion have been genuine. There have been notorious examples of people wrongly refusing to accept the facts of meteorites, the facts of continental drift, the facts of evolution, the facts of child abuse, and so on. In every case people presumed they knew enough about the World and about human fallibility to be safe in concluding that these facts could not be genuine and they were wrong. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

It may be instructive if we put our own presumptions to the test right now, using a relatively neutral example of an unlikely fact. There is numerological evidence that Shakespeare’s birth was anticipated in the Bible. However, the idea of there really being such evidence is antecedently absurd. Yet, I am not tricking you, and, whatever it is, it is not a subterfuge. William Shakespeare was born on 23 April 1564 and died on 23 April 1616. Two 23s make 46. There are 46 letters in the words ‘Twenty third of April in fifteen hundred and sixty-four’. Moreover Shakespeare was 46 years old when the King James Version of the English Bible was completed in 1619. With all these 46s, the number 46 is presumably a pointer. Which book of the Bible should we turn to? If we examine possible anagrams of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, we find the letters spell out a clear message: HERE WAS I, LIKE A PSALM. We should turn then to the Book of Psalms—and, in particular, to Psalm 46. Now, if we count to the 46^th word from the beginning of the of the 46^th Psalm we find the word is ‘shake’, and if we count back to the 46^th word from the end we find the word is ‘spear.’ However, there are other theories, some people believe that William Shakespeare was the scribe for the Bible. Whatever the case may be, this does surely illustrate how unwise it may be to rush to judgment about the truth of antecedently improbably facts. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

With all the being said, it does not mean that one would be wrong to be suspicious of any such improbably fact. People have been known to tell lies even in books. However, to be suspicious is one thing, to close one’s mind to the very possibility of such a highly improbable fact being true at all is another. Perhaps someone someday will mount an argument to show that certain sorts of paranormal phenomena such as life after death or telepathy or psychokinesis are not merely contrary to the laws of Worldly physics as we know them but contrary to some truly incontrovertible higher-level laws of mind. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however, improbable, must be the truth. In assessing any particular piece of evidence we must consider what else the paranormal explanation of this evidence would lead us to expect. Assuming the phenomenon in question is the soul’s work on this one occasion, we ought to ask how and where else we might expect the soul to show its hand. And if, in this wider context, we find that the patterns of phenomena we actually observe are really not at all what we might reasonably have predicted, we must of course ask why. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

Especially we must ask why the paranormal phenomena are manifest only in certain curiously mundane situations and only take certain curiously mundane forms. For I take it that, however unpredictable the soul may be, nothing in paranormal lore or paranormal logic suggests that the soul will do only such things as absolutely demonstrate Earthy limitations on its powers. “Because of unbelief, people could not understand work of God,” reports Mosiah 26.3. Our faith has been greatly strained, as we have learned of the profligate stealing in some communities, where millions of dollars are taken by shoplifters from our merchants and citizens. In the end, the public must eventually pay. Why would any man, woman, or child steal from the friendly merchants and one’s folks and neighbors? This is unbelievable. And great losses are sustained with the incredible amount of vandalism. We can hardly understand the makeup of any person who would destroy for the mere satisfaction of doing it. Certainly we could have more pride in ourselves than to wreak havoc on property. It is possible that some of us have that little respect for ourselves. We hope that we will all live frugally, and within our means, and that we will pay our debts faithfully and honestly. It was the Lord who gave us the injunction: “Thou shalt not steal,” reports Ex. 20.15. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

Choose the right when a choice is placed before you. In the right the Holy Spirit guides; and its light is forever shining over you when in the right your heart confides. A spirit of determination to do the right thing can come in earliest youth. We hope that people who are true at all times in whatsoever thing one is entrusted. We plead for greater consistency between our beliefs and actions. Recent research suggests that American men whose bodies secrete high levels of testosterone are likely to smile much less than other people. However, according to Dr. Ariel Heryanto of the University of Melbourne in Australia, smiling does not necessarily imply delight, amusement, or friendliness. Some people are born to smile, sometimes they also smile through tears. By smiling a lot, the police are trying to appear humane before the eyes of the World; by smiling back people are doing their best to cooperate of behave for obvious reason. They smile because they cannot help it, that is the way they were brought up since childhood. From a smile, people tend to form the impression of warmth and friendliness, of hospitality, gentleness, and generosity, largely because this is how we have come to interpret the open smile in America. In other countries, the smile is a kind of default position or mask of courtesy worn by convention in the interest of good manners. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

We are taught that the spirit of God should permeate all we do, whether at work, at school, or at home. When we see someone smiling in the street we think of that individual as smiling to oneself, meaning that there is some hidden object of one’s present thought and feeling. At the same time, smilers may not even be aware that they are displaying a smile; or they may have developed it with subtle forethought, aiming to tease or mislead. Either way, knowing or oblivious, the smile is a powerful form of communication. In places where the death penalty still exists, new judges are sometimes advised never to allow themselves to be photographed smiling because inevitably that will be the photograph chosen to illustrate a newspaper article in which it is reported that this judge has passed the sentence of death. Honesty is very important part of character. We have all seen people who think they are not accountable to the human laws or the laws of God. They seem to feel that rules of human conduct do not apply to them. A popular philosophy is “What can I get away with?” The difference between a moral person and a person of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked. #RandolphHaris 6 of 8

Our honor should make us honest in all we do. The hidden smile might also find a place here. You do not need to see someone’s face to know that they are smiling. Blind people are keenly aware of the change in timbre that may be detected in the voice of a smiling interlocutor. Many of us can tell when a person at the other end of the telephone is distracted by something funny but gamely tried to continue an otherwise serious concertation. Smiling changes the sound of the voice no less then the shape of the mouth. If people remain pure and chaste, completely devoted to each other during the storms of life, their love for one another will deepen into something of supernal fulfillment. The smile of a subject is a direct avenue of meaningful communication, vividly reserved for you and me. There is no doubt that this sensation, this knowledge, has a profound impact on the viewer. It may be a blinding glimpse of the obvious, but it is worth noting in conclusion that the exchange of a smile—be it sincere or forced or spontaneous—makes us feel good. A smile may stimulate us in certain superficial ways, elicitin a ready smile in response, for example, but it also penetrates the deep recesses of our subconscious mind. From this union of affection, springs all the other relationships, social joys and affections diffused through every branch of human existence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

We believe in being benevolent and in doing good works. If we think of the spontaneous smile of a little child as essentially truthful, we can be equally certain that, at times, the smile of the adult is a kind of mask. There are any number of situations in which we exchange smiles purely out of politeness, thus conforming to unwritten rules of good behavior, whatever they may be. Such smiles are not necessarily insincere. We offer them in good faith. The impulse is so strong that we may even respond to it invisibly when we answer the telephone. Yet we also distinguish between the smile by which we conclude a transaction at the bank—in all likelihood concealing the certain knowledge that that transaction benefits the bank far more than us—and the smile with which we greet a friend, husband, wife, or intimate partner. Officials always seem to be greatly impressed. We are taught to be the very angels of God to the people we meet and speak to. We are expected to have good grooming, and for our personal habits reflect cleanliness and dignity and pride in the principles of the gospel we are taught. We are asked for the good of the kingdom and all those who have done and yet do take pride in us. Hope, perseverance, and steadfastness call forth the blessings of Heaven. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

Life can find its way to the depths of our hearts, leaving us with the most indescribable sense of beauty and feeling.  Solitude is marvelous, it can also be so beautiful and pure, provided that one can talk to somebody about it afterwards. Scientists who took up the cause of searching for the soul, were at first at least, keen to discover evidence of regular behaviour. Supernormal is a term that is applied to phenomena which are beyond what usually happens. Supernormal phenomenon are events that exhibit the action of laws, higher, in a psychical aspect, than are discerned in action in everyday life. Paranormal is a term applied to observed phenomena or powers which are presumed to operate according to natural laws beyond or outside those that are considered normal or known. These laws may indeed be higher or beyond what is already known, but assumption is nonetheless that the phenomena are in their own way lawful. Miracles are so called because they happen seldom and for that reason create wonder. If they should happen constantly according to certain laws impressed upon the nature of things, they would no longer be wonders or miracles but might be considered in philosophy as part of the phenomena of nature notwithstanding that the cause of their causes might be unknown to us. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

There is nothing that God has established in a constant course of nature, and which therefore is done every day, but would seem a miracle, and exercise our admiration, if it were done but once. Miracles must be contrascientific and therefore necessarily beyond the scope of science—either because they are actually unlawful or because whatever laws they do obey make a mockery of the existing laws. Where there is yet no strong conception of a natural order, there is little room for the idea of a genuinely miraculous event as distinct from the phenomenon of a prodigy, of a wonder, or of a divine sign. However, once such a conception of a natural order has taken really firm root, there is a great reluctance to allow that miracles have in fact occurred or even to admit as legitimate a concept of the miraculous. The Bible does contain miracles, but conventional interpreters of the Bible read far more miracles into it than it contains, because they constantly read poetic Hebrew idioms literally. However, miracles do happen every day, just not always to the same person. For instance, when a person is extremely ill and is not likely to make it, but then in so short a time, the individual has a recovery. Supposed that in some particular case the evidence for a miracle appears extremely strong, it is because “The Lord has wrought many miracles among humans,” reports 1 Nephi 17.51. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

It is remarkable that, at least after 1893, American President Grover Cleveland was able to smile at all. In that year, at the age of fifty-six, in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis relating to the federal reserves of gold and silver, President Cleveland discovered a growth on the left side of his upper jaw. A specimen of rough tissue in the roof of the mouth was taken and sent (anonymously) for pathological analysis. It was malignant. Upon further investigation, the cancer proved to have invaded the upper jawbone and spread from the bicuspid teeth (between the canine or eye tooth and the molars) to within a fraction of an inch of his soft palate. Cleveland was advised to have an operation immediately, in complete secrecy, on board a yacht steaming along the East River in New York. Seated in a chair propped against the mast, with a few close colleagues present, including Secretary of War Daniel Scott Lamont, the president was successfully anesthetized. The surgical team began by extracting the bicuspid teeth. Incisions were then made in the roof of the mouth to make way for the excision of the entire left upper jaw from between the first bicuspid tooth and the last molar. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

During the surgery, a large cheek retractor was used. The orbital plate—the floor of the bony enclosure that surrounds the eyeball—was left intact, and only a small portion of the soft palate was removed. Miraculously, there was no hemorrhaging, and only one blood vessel was tied, and the wound was tightly packed with gauze. After two days’ voyage up Long Island Sound to Cape Cod, the president was up and about and was able to disembark unassisted. Within three weeks he was back in Washington, equipped with an excellent prothesis of vulcanized rubber, which filled the gap left by his excised jawbone. It was made by a New York dentist, Dr. Kasson C. Gibson. The president could speak normally. He lived on, with no recurrence of the cancer, for fifteen years. “God has provided means that humans, through faith, might work mighty miracles,” reports Mosiah 8.18. There is an intelligence hidden at the center of everything, and we are brilliant, and our luminosity responds to God. And we also know that while hate, animosity, and confusion can produce discord, love can heal it. God intends us to be well, happy, and successful. This brings us back to the need we all have for faith, miracles, calm assurance, and an inward sense of well-being. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

Surely God who has the intelligence to create has both the will and the ability to sustain. An important less we learn is to bless everything, to be grateful for everything, to gladly acknowledge the divine presence—not as something far away but as something close and intimate. Not only is there an intelligence directing the activities of our physical bodies, but this same brilliance is also directing everything we do. How many of us have confidence enough in God to sleep in peace, wake in joy, and look forward to the coming day with gladness? We have to honor the supremacy of God and cannot deny ourselves the privilege of working with the power that put us here. We cannot unify and cooperate with something we do not believe in. So, the starting point, the very beginning of the reeducation of our minds, must be a deep conviction, a firm faith. Each day we should think how wonderful it is to be cooperating with God. Surely this is the greatest drama of all. We do not stroll across the stage of human experience as separated and isolated characters, but rather as actors in the great play of life, the drama of human existence. We must not forget the director of the play, the one who knows how to make each separate line and act become part of the whole piece, until something complete is produced. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

God is the great producer and director even though he is invisible. We also do not see the law of gravitational force which holds everything in place, and we do not see the divine intelligence that causes the rose to bloom or a cockatiel to come out of an egg. In a theater, when a person plays a part that convinces us, one must oneself believe in the part being played. If you were to see a play and the people who read the lines did not believe in them, it would not be enjoyable. If our words are of the intellect only, and not spoken from the heart, the audience will not respond. This is the way with life. And this is why we must have the ability to believe, to feel, to accept, and to act as though the great giver of life were still giving; as though the great creator were still creating in us and through us. Always sense the presence of the divine—and then let the play go on. It is possible to find beauty and the profound sound of completeness and perfection. As we incline our hearts to our Heavenly Father, we hear a symphony of sweet music sung by Heavenly voices proclaiming the gospel of peace. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6