People, being only human, are quite capable of being alarmed by the very thing that promises them freedom—and like caged birds may sometimes show considerable ambivalence about what lies beyond the open door. Nonetheless, with their heads in the air, even if with their hearts sometimes in their boots, many have sought such evidence as they can find that there are more things in Heaven and Earth—but especially more things on Earth—than dreamt of in common sense philosophy. Countless people may say words that sound like—and surely were meant to be—an indictment of Christianity. Even with that being the case, people still keep their faith in miracles as the testament to the fact that Christianity is doing its proper job. We continue to doctor our faith as a hope of transcending physical reality, and as we do so we have the opportunity to discover palpable evidence that there is more to life than common sense suggests. Miracles are more important than some may thing. Even for someone who calls to deride all paranormal phenomena as nonsense, when they are drowning, these same individuals often pray that a legion of angels will carry them safely to shore. And when some are in a gloomy mood, they cannot but hope for divine interference with Universal law might lift their spirts. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Substance takes form through faith, and is projected upon the screen of human experience through the mold of mental equivalents. Miracles are as important as we think. They become even more important when the miraculous events that common sense has already told us are unlikely to happen are declared by a newly authoritative science to be unable to happen. The search for extraordinary facts becomes a crusade to retake the present on behalf of the future. And yet exactly what kind of extraordinary facts might be the solution? What people wanted—and still want—is, above all, to get their souls back from science. For it was and still is their possession of a soul that most people have relied on as their ticket to a better World. The immediate task therefore has to be to seek out whatever facts could be counted as firm evidence in favour of the soul’s existence. We should throw away all doubt, fear, and despair, and enter joyously into our inheritance. However, the very law which we are using should teach us that we shall arrive at the consummation of our desire only by starting from where we are. We are told to despise not the day of small beginnings. Each one must start with the mental equivalent one has today, and by enlarging upon it increase one’s capacity to receive. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Everybody believes—or at any rate hopes—that they themselves do possess a soul. Nonetheless, when it comes to looking for evidence, the problem is that the soul is not an entity that many people would know how to define in practical or instrumental terms. Perhaps most would, if asked, claim to know what a soul is even without being able to say what it is. Just like people hear words all their lives and understand how they are applied in a sentence, but might not actually know the definition. Maybe belief in the soul has always been one of those beliefs which does not lend itself to a final, clear interpretation. Sacred things are to be treated with ore care, given greater deference, and regarded with deeper reverence. Part of the interest of religious beliefs for those who hold them comes precisely from this element of mystery, their very mysteriousness makes them addictive. The essence of the soul is power. Our lives are all changed by encounters with the divine. These experiences strengthen us to remain faithful to the Lord and his work throughout our lives despite overwhelming opposition and subsequent difficult trials. Our strength to endure faithfully depends upon recognizing, remembering, and holding sacred that which we receive from above. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

In this connection we must remember that the Law of Cause and Effect, the Universal Subjectivity, has no intention or purpose of its own relative to any individual. It is natural to the power and economy of God’s operations that he should implant the idea of himself in the soul at its creation as the mark of the creator on his work. “Ask the Father to consecrate thy performance for welfare of thy soul,” reports 2 Nephi 32.9. As we seek answers from God, we feel the still, powerful voice whisper to our spirits. These feelings—these impressions—are so natural and so subtle that we may overlook them or attribute them to reason or intuition. These individualized messages testify to God’s personal love and concern for each of his children and their personal mortal mission. If we can become more in our inner consciousness we shall have more in our external environment. We should expect so much good that we should conceive it as being more than we even have time to enjoy. We should feel the presence of this good and appreciate its meaning and give thanks for its manifestation. There should be the combination of gratitude, expectancy, and joy. There should be enthusiastic recognition that we are in partnership with the divine and that God cannot fail. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

When it comes to actual and specific practice we should definitely know that the particular thing we desire, we already have. In this way we form a mold in our thought, and a definite one around which the creative energy of mind may play. This is our bowl of acceptance, catching, as it were, from the horn of plenty that which we are able to receive. We cannot experience more than we can accept, but we can expect more than we have been experiencing. If we are willing to start from where we are today, creating a little bigger, broader, and better mental equivalent than we had yesterday, we shall progressively advance. The addition of a soul to a machine could contribute anything to the machine’s practical capabilities. A mechanism as a watch would, once granted a soul, no longer be quite the watch it was before. A watch with a soul might at least have reason to feel less lonely and more cared for. Some are convinced that ordinary computers should in principle be capable of thinking very much like human beings, perhaps even conscious. Yet, human beings, unlike any conceivable computer, have an additional capacity that goes beyond mere thinking. It is paranormal powers we seek: powers that exceed the usual limits, powers that demonstrate beyond dispute that, while human beings are evidently in the World of physical machines, we are not entirely of that World. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

Hope of salvation and fear of damnation are clearly self-interested motives. To tell us that we ought to do good rather than harm to our fellow beings or that we ought to obey the rules of our society because we shall be rewarded for obedience or punished for disobedience hereafter is to appeal to our regard for our own interests. The Middle Ages are often referred to as the Age of Faith, and there is no doubt that the people mind entertained a literal and lively belief in Heaven and Hell. (Whether this is also true of the learned in an age in which any overt denial would have courted the risk of punishment by death it is difficult to say.) Yet the Age of Faith was not notable for its high standard of mortality. A lively belief in eternal torment as the punishment for sin existed alongside a cheerful disregard, in practice, of those moral rules for which eternal torment was held to be the punishment. The paradox is lessened by the fact that when morality is connected with religious faith, the penalties can be evaded. “Open your hearts and minds that mysteries may be unfolded to your view,” reports Mosiah 2.9. That which is sacred to God becomes sacred to us only through the exercise of agency. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

God sends light and knowledge from Heaven. He invited us to receive and treat it as sacred. People tell their children and teachers tell their pupils that morality is to be practiced because it earns an individual a good reputation. One of the laws of radiation says that the absorbing power of a substance is equal to its emitting power, which means that the ones that absorb the most must be the ones which emit the most. That is why we are taught to treat others like we would want to be treated. To refuse to give is to refuse to live to the fullest extent. To refuse to give love is to refuse to receive love. That which we refuse to give out not only closes the door on the giving but on the receiving as well. Each one of us is a point in the Infinite Mind, a center in the Consciousness of God or the Living Spirit. How many of us claim our divine inheritance? How many of us realize that the will or nature of God was written before the foundations of this physical Universe were laid, and that in this will each one of us was endowed with the faculty of true perception, bequeathed a life of perfection and guaranteed immunity from all evil? For surely the will of God could be no less than this. That which is of God is light; and one that receives light, and continues in God, receives more light; ad that light grows brighter and brighter until the perfect day. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes. Imagine how it felt for those who stood out from the traditional values. Or, rather, imagine how it feels, because the discussion is still very much a part of our contemporary culture. ‘I just want to know who I am and why I am alive.’ It is the cry of people everywhere. Everything can seem so frustrating. Our intellectual understanding of creation, nature, life, and death, is so limited. What is the problem? The problem is actually not that our intellectual understanding is so limited. Anyone who cares to do so can read up on creation, nature, life and death, any day they please. And they will get a much fuller and better understanding than has ever been available before. Rather, the problem is that this modern scientific understanding neither entails—nor, in all honesty, can even be said to be consistent with—the future people yearn for. They will not find from science that the only real answer is to allow our spirits to rise beyond ourselves, to rise to God in faith, love and worship. We are all God’s children. However, for some, alternative answers are possible, this can only because they do not have sufficient information to make a better judgement. God rewards those who earnestly seek him, so we need to keep looking for him. Do not give us. Seek God with all your hearts. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

Sometimes it is not easy to develop faith in spiritual things while living in a physical World. In some circumstances too much depends on our making the correct prediction about what we are dealing with for it to be permissible to play fast and loose with truth. If anything goes, some things obviously go on more than others. And when it comes to discovering what does go and what does not go, the scientific method has repeatedly proved itself terribly convincing. If the physical Universe has been created by God, it would follow that there was a time when the quantity of matter was less than it is now, when it was in fact zero. However, physics proves or presupposes that the quantity of matter was always been the same. Notwithstanding the jibes of its detractors, science has in most areas made the World much less of a mystery than it was in the past, and its explanations are sometimes almost alarmingly straightforward. However, the doctrine of eternal return tells us that every event in the Universe, in all its details and in its whole cosmic context, will recur an infinite number of times in exactly the same way that it has already occurred an infinite number of times in the past. Eternity is the complete possession of eternal life all at once—a notion that becomes clearer from comparison with things temporal. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Whatever lies in times moves as something present from the past to the future, and there is nothing placed in time that can embrace the whole extent of its life at once. It does not yet grasp tomorrow, and it has already lost yesterday. And even in the life of today you do not live longer than in the transitory moment. That, then, which is subject to the condition of time, even if (as Aristotle thought of the World) it has no beginning or end and its life extends through endless time, is still not such as may be rightly judged from eternal. For though its life be endless, it does not grasp and embrace the extent of it all at once [totum simul] but has some parts still to come. And so, if, following Plato, we wish to give things their right names, let us say that God is eternal, but the World is ever lasting. Also, perhaps if we only pry a little bit further, we shall find new facts that science has yet to take on board—non—standard facts that may, with luck, still force a revision of the scientific picture? Indeed perhaps such facts have been knocking on the door for ages, only to be told by science to go away? Faith is a strong conviction about something we believe—a conviction so strong that it moves us to do things that we otherwise might not do. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

Forced rewriting of the rules does in fact happen every so often, even within conventional science. However, once physicists come up against certain peculiar phenomena at the atomic level, such as the photo-electric effect, they have no alternative. Only the complicated theory could now meet all the facts. Or consider an example of a more controversial kind. The conventional scientific theory of how human memory works assumes that people’s memories are stored as physical traces in their individual brains. Almost all the data are, of course, consistent with this. Nonetheless for some time there have been other, more outre theories doing the rounds. These suggest that memories are actually not stored in the physical brains at all but rather in non-physical fields outside the brain to which individuals tune in when occasion arises because before this life the human soul lived among timelessly existent forms and contemplated the directly as in this life it sees things belonging to the realm of becoming. The field theory (if someone were ever to spell out just how it works) would certainly be much more complicated than the brain theory. Since the facts as known at present do not demand it, most scientists would say there is no reason whatever to take it seriously. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

However, if and when we look in the right places in nature, we shall find new evidence (which same say has already been discovered) that completely undermines the brain theory: evidence, for example, of memories being transferred between different individuals who have had no form of physical contact. If it were really to be so, it would be right that the field theory would then be the only one left in contention. Scientific theories themselves undoubtedly do change and grow in response to new evidence and human insights. An accepted theory can be proved wrong and even turned on its head when more facts come to light. The World is much mysterious than we realize; in fact, I think it is dynamic than we can realize. There is always room for further change in the World outlook, and therefore—for those who do not like the current scientific picture—room for hope. All Universal principles are available to those who understand them, and they immediately respond to anyone who subjects oneself to the way which they work. For instance, water will reach its own level by its own weight—water will flow downhill. We obey this principle. We use it. We apply it, but we cannot go contrary to that principle and compel water to flow uphill. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

It is the same with electricity. The electrician can do anything he or she wishes to with his or her principle provided one realizes that it flows from a higher to lower potential, but one cannot make it act contrary to its own nature. Yet, brilliant minds do sometimes come up with revolutionary ideas before their time. It has often been said that the mark of genius is to be able to see the revolution coming, to sense that something is wrong with a received idea even while other people are still celebrating its rightness. Our great investigators in the field of experimental science have watched the operations of nature so often and closely that they are able to guess what course it is likely to take, to smell out, so to speak, methods that are still to be discovered, new experiments, unknown results. These scientific innovators posses l’esprit de divination. Divine necessity and the law of cause and effect teaches us to believe that we shall receive, and we shall have these things we desire. The law of cause and effect operates through human consciousness. This remarkable genius does not deny us the right to possess and use the entire gift of God, wholeness of life and its manifestation. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

While scientists have, for sure, taken it on themselves to watch the operations of nature often and closely, the poets and mystics have arguably watched human nature more often and more closely than anyone. Maybe they could already legitimately claim to know something the scientists do not. Rather than ignoring or deriding science, the better way could be to try to beat science at its own game. We want a particular future state. We cannot expect to get to it unless we have good reasons to posit a special explanation of the present facts. As things stand, however, contemporary scientific doctrine tells us this special explanation is not required. Then our strategy, should perhaps, be to go out and uncover new facts that do require it: facts that prove the current doctrine wrong. Human beings may have faculties, and be surrounded by agencies, which physical science does not take into account in its theory of the Universe and of human nature. Of God’s ever-present eternity all years stand at once (omnes simul stant). The divine will is toward life, since being the very principle of life it cannot contradict itself; it must be toward life. It is toward givingness, since in giving it expressing itself. Therefore we know that as far as the divine is concerned, it is always its will that we be self-expressed. For God is expressed through the expression of humans. The divine will is harmony, peace, love, goodness, truth, and beauty. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7

Often the future is unknown; therefore, it behooves us to prepare for uncertainties. We must purse an education and learn marketable skills so that, should the situation arise, we are prepared to provide. Education will open the doors of opportunity. As we follow the Lord’s admonition to seek learning, even by study and also by faith, we gain not only knowledge from our study but added light as we learn by faith. We should seek learning by studying diligently. Rarely will we be able to spend as much time dedicated to learning as we can now. The pattern of study we establish during our formal schooling will in large measure affect our lifelong thirst for knowledge. We must get all of the education that we possibly can. Sacrifice anything that is needed to be forfeited to qualify oneself to do the work of this World. Train your minds and hands to become an influence for good as you go forward with your lives. Be a good student. Arise and shine forth in your school with hard work, honesty, and integrity. If we are struggling or discouraged with our performance in school, it is important to seek help from mentors, parents, teachers, and helpful Church members. Never give up! Share your educational goals with your family, friends, and leaders so they can support and encourage you. This is the pattern of personal progress. When I was eight years old I was sent away from home to a boarding school in Sussex called Windlesham Board. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

Many of the kids were their because their parents lived abroad, sometimes because their parents lived in London and always because people wanted their children to love the fun, friendly atmosphere where they could be encouraged to grow up as the Windlesham Family. On my arrival the first day I was introduced to an older boy, Hugh Stewart, and told that he was to be my moral guidance and would ensure that I gained the most from this unique environment. I said I was not in need of ‘looking after’, and he went away. However, I told a story. I needed it like anything, only not from him. Every night before lights-out in the communal dormitory, the Matron, Miss Chard, would stand in the doorway with an open notebook and ask each boy in turn, ‘Have you managed properly today?’ Each of us regularly said, ‘Yes, Miss Chard.’ But in the early days, when I was missing my parents particularly badly, sometimes I said, ‘No, Miss Chard.’ Usually nothing happened. However, one I said ‘No, Miss Chard’ two nights in a row. Then I asked to present myself in Matron’s room and was given a large spoonful of castor oil. It was only many weeks later that I discovered what Hugh Stewart might have told me, that Miss Chard’s concern was with whether I had moved my bowels that day, not with whether I had been moved to tears of loneliness. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

It was a great school, where we learned during the day the difference between latitude and longitude, how to decline Greek verbs, about how science is caught rather than taught, we investigated the growth and reproduction of plants, and something about why the stars shine and something about the hearts of men (thought not of women). ‘To be learning something is the greatest of pleasures,’ Aristotle said, ‘not only to be a philosopher but also to the rest of humankind.’ At school we were getting learning in full measure and any of us found it passably pleasurable, dynamic, and interactive. The highlight of the week for all of us was ‘own jams day’, when at high teatime we were allowed the jar of jam that we brought from home. The jam had a nature so tender that it quivered when cut with a spoon and revealed sparkling, ruby-like faces. It was a reminder that someone somewhere cared for us. Most nights (and especially on the nights of own jams days) many of us were so happy we could hardly sleep. ‘With passion’, Klay wrote, ‘I have sought knowledge.’ But with equal passion ‘I have sought love. I have sought it because it relieves loneliness—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it because in the union of love I have seen, in mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the Heaven that saints and poets have imagined.’ #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

The passions for knowledge and for love cannot be expected to operate with equal strength. In the ideal World pictured by traditional religions—where the more you know, the more you can feel sure of being loved—the two passions compliment each other. However, in the World revealed by science—where the more you know, the less you can feel sure—they pull instead in opposite directions. Where once it was through knowledge, now it is love or knowledge. And, when people have to choose between one or other of these staples, it is pretty obvious what their priorities will be. There is a dilemma posed by scientific progress. People who have been brought up to believe that knowledge and love, explanation and assurance, would go together sometimes have to decide which to cling to: the rationality of scientific truth—the choice that feeds one’s intellect—or the comfortable optimism of traditional religion—the choice that still feels and smells right. Well, we have received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost will teach us truth and prepare us of life’s challenges. God gave us moral agency and the opportunity to learn whole on Earth, and he has work for us to do. To accomplish this work, we have an individual responsibility to seek learning. We should permit our consciousness to range in the field of greater possibilities. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

A certain time should be taken each day for the enlargement of consciousness. This is done by reminding our imagination that the field with which it deals is limitless, that the mind is the creator and the sustainer, that mind is infinite, ever available, and always responsive to us. There should never be any sense of finality in our self-discovery No matter how much good we experienced today, we should expect more tomorrow. Expectancy always speeds progress; anticipation of better yet to come helps to dissolve the overload of burdens which we now carry with us. We must learn to loosen our consciousness. Nothing it too good to be true when it comes to God. He never made a promise that was too big to keep. The Kingdom of Harmony is already an ever-present reality, but as far as we are concerned it waits to be perceived, and only as much good can come to us as we mentally receive. We must increase our receptivity, continuously extend and expand our comprehension. We should declare a hundred times a day: Good and more Good is mine. An ever-increasing good is mine. There is no limit to the good which is mine. Everywhere I go I see this good, I feel it, I experience it. It crowds itself against me, flows through me, expresses itself in me, and multiplies itself around me. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

We have to have as strong a commitment to knowledge as any of our generation. Gaining knowledge now will pay huge dividends. Certainty, certainty, feeling, joy, peace, and greatness of the human soul. Everlasting joy in return for one day’s effort on Earth. It will do you no good in life if you wake up one day, after partying your life away chanting: ‘I am: yet what I a none cares of knows, my friends forsake me like a lost memory, I am the self-consumer of my woes, and yet I am, and live.’ The key to halt the poverty cycle is found in education. People who are educated tend to give birth to healthier babies, have children who are healthier, more confident, resilient and have improved reasoning and judgment. An education is part of nurturing and is a sacred responsibility. Bless your children and your future home by learning as much as you can now. Seek learning by faith. We learn by faith as we diligently gain spiritual knowledge through prayer, scripture study, and obedience and as we seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost, who testifies of all truth. If you do your part to gain knowledge, the Holy Ghost can enlighten your mind. As we strive to keep ourselves worthy, the Holy Ghost will give direction and added light to our learning. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

Who am I to say what I a really? As the nineteenth century got under way, it became increasingly hard to dispute that science had got the measure of the stars and planets. However, perhaps it could still be argued that science would never get the measure of the human psyche. Are people obliged to take seriously the preposterous claim that human, that inextricable being, has been made known by brain physiology? Would it ever be necessary to accept statements such as this by modern philosopher John Searle: that even the most cursory investigations show that mental phenomena are as much a result of electrochemical processes in the brain as digestion is a result of chemical processes going on in the stomach and the rest of the digestive tract? Or this by the scientist Francis Crick: You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. Alfred Tennyson was sure it would never be so. As he commented sneeringly in In Memoriam: I think we are not wholly brain, magnetic mockers. Not only cunning casts in clay: Let science prove we are, and then what matters Science unto human? #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Can you imagine the consequences of being deprived of God’s presence and never again having a body? Just imagine how blessed we are to know that God is a being with a body of flesh and bones as tangible as ours, that we can worship a God who is real, who we can understand, and who has shown and revealed himself and his son to his people. He is a God who hears and answers our prayers; a God who watches us from Heaven above and is constantly concerned about or spiritual and temporal well-being. The obvious dangers without God is that, as happened to the state of the Virgin Mary in Hawarden, the tide would come up and carry the said people to some low land where they would be found the next day (or the next decade), drowned and dead. God gives us agency to decide for ourselves to follow him and obey his commandments without coercion. God gives us blessings and allows us to face trials so we can grow and become like him. He is a loving God who provided a plan through which we can enjoy happiness in this life and in eternity. We can be resurrected and, with sincere repentance and the making and keeping of sacred covenants, be once again in the presence of God. “Salvation to come to one who puts trust in the Lord, he will deliver you,” reports Alma 61.13. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

Good ever can be divided against itself. The idea of argument and criticism cannot enter into this family life. It certainly cannot upset the equilibrium of the spirit which indwells every member joining them together in a community of spirit. They have a partnership with each other and with the eternal. We must also know that there is no sense of jealousy or any other kindred thought which can operate in the family life. The household of God is a household of peace and happiness, and nothing enters it but love, joy, and understanding. The crucial issue over which science and religion were distend to break ranks was—and is—the question of exactly what kind of explanation we do have to posit in order to explain the present state of things. When a group of people come together with one accord and with one thought, a greater power is generated. The power of a group is much like bonding in carbon compounds. Carbon is unique among the elements in its ability to form strong bonds to itself as well as to other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. The fact that carbon-carbon bonds are strong means that chains of carbon atoms can form and will be stable. The chains can be of varying length, leading to literally an infinite number of compounds differing in chain length. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

Carbon bonds are similar to a family because there are unique types of people who make up a family, and generally large groups who love each other and bond tend to be strong and stable. Although the lengths of our life are different, through bloodlines and religion, we are bonded infinitely. Also, the creative principle responds to a number of people more than it does to one, and the combined faith of a group reaches a higher level of acceptance. Therefore, families should keep strong bonds with the purpose in mind at arriving at a deeper spiritual understanding. The best results are gained when all members of a family join together not for the purpose of acquiring any specific good but for the purpose of reaching a higher state of consciousness. There will be less confusion because of a greater degree of unity. Within a family, people will probably focus on such ideas as peace, joy, or general wholeness. They are taught the concept that there is one presence which is God, one perfect life which is right here, one divine intelligence guiding and governing, not for any particular or specific purpose in this case but just to imbibe the spirit of wholeness itself, to enter more largely into a complete acceptance of peace and poise and power. It is vital that we nourish those we teach and lead by focusing on the fundamental doctrines, principles, and applications emphasized in the scriptures. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

Whatever laws of nature God has laid down must be worthy of their author, very simple and written in a mathematical language of love. The mental powers of human beings so far exceed anything that we could imagine as being within the capacity of a mechanical device, that we graciously allow that the human body must have a rational soul contingently associated with it. No body could ever have a soul by virtue of tis material constitution. While a person’s soul might indeed interact via a channel in one’s brain with one’s material body and so move it from its course, the soul as such would not be part of the material World and must belong to an entirely different realm. Most people do not come to church looking for a few new gospel facts nor to see old friends, though all of that is important. They come seeking a spiritual experience. They want peace. They want their faith fortified and their hope renewed. People want to be nourished by the good word of God, to be strengthened by the powers of Heaven. We live in a World that is rich with colour and sound, redolent with fragrance, filled with gladness, love and beauty, speaking everywhere of purposive harmony and creative ideals’. Our highest priority is an integrated effort to build faith in God and strengthen families and not simply a correlated calendar. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

Divine intervention is necessary to keep the solar system stable. God is responsible for perfecting life on Earth, and human thought and consciousness involves non-mechanical spiritual powers. When we focus on God and harmony, the performance we see is a higher degree of consciousness is reached when there is a completely unified concept. For instance, a group of people could work together for an organization, or for the World purpose, or for their country, or for any public good; of they can work together for the purpose of acquiring a deeper consciousness of reality. Our ideas of our destiny, and the sphere of our activity must always desire to bring the spirit of the Lord into the hearts of the members in the room to produce faith and a determination to repent and to be clean. It is the spirit of God that is the most effective teacher in any given situation. The spirit of God speaking to the spirit of humans has power to impact with greater effect and understanding than the truth can be imparted by personal contact even with Heavenly beings. In fact so strong was the conviction in both classical and medieval Europe that everything that happens must have some sort of a deeper meaning, that accidental events could even be taken to the law courts to prove they were not really accidents at all but someone or something’s criminal responsibility. #RandolpHarris 4 of 8

There was a trial that took place at the village of Hawarden in Wales in the year 946, which illustrates how dramatically folk wisdom assumed there had to be a reason behind everything. It reports that there was a terrible drought in the locality and all the villagers prayed for rain, addressing their prayers to a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary in the loft of the village church. One day, with still no sign of rain, the Lady of the castle was praying long and hard when tragedy befell: the statue toppled from its loft, landed on her head and killed her. When news of this unprovoked assault on the good Lady spread, there was uproar in the village. The authorities decided to bring the statue of the Virgin to trial before a jury on a double charge: for the willful murder of the Lady and for not answering the people’s prayers. Accordingly the statue was brought to court, and after evidence had been heard on both sides, the statue was declared guilty on both counts. It was condemned to be hanged. However, in consideration of the fact that it was indeed an image of the Virgin Mary, the jury agreed that this sentence should be commuted to a lighter one. They decided therefore to place the statue on the sandbanks of the river Dee, to see what would become of it. In the event, the tide came up and carried the said statue to some low land near the walls of the city of Chester where, to everyone’s satisfaction, it was found next day drowned and dead. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

How could this kind of reasoning (which at one level or another still characterize many modern people’s thinking) fare under the scientific regime? In this World in which we live, things are not always what they appear to be. We sometimes are unaware of the powerful forces pulling on us. Appearances can be very deceptive. We must at last wake out of our millenary dream and discover the material World is also full of other energies. We must realize that, like a nomad, we live on the boundary of an alien World. Much of our World is still in the experimental stage, and we are likely to work out new techniques and perhaps better ways than have been discovered do far. If this were not true, our work would become static and heavy. We must depend upon a certain inspiration rising from our own soul, but always keep this inspiration controlled through purposiveness, because no matter how great a power is generated it will not produce results unless it is tied to a purpose. We are now talking about group purposes rather than individual desires. Both are important and should be worked out under the inspiration of our own inward awareness. In addition to receiving the counsel that has been given by those who had spoken or who are yet to speak, we should also carefully listen for and record the unspoken impressions given by the Holy Ghost. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

We must get our teachers to speak out of their hearts rather than out of their books, to communicate their love for the Lord and this precious work, and somehow it will catch fire in the hearts of those they teach. Through the right use of Law we may become free, but through a wrong use of it we may again be entangled in bondage. No plainer statement of the law of cause and effect could be given than this. We may a Victorian mansion, turn on the electricity, and have light. However, if the wire is short-circuited something will go wrong and then we shall again be entangled with darkness. The darkness was never a thing of itself; it was merely a confused state. The source of our supply is not really cut off; it stopped at our place of confusion and no longer functioned for us. This is a perfect statement of the mental law of cause and effect and it again warns us that we must be aware of the use we are making of the law; we must keep our thought straight. It is not always easy to do this, but the Law of Cause and Effect, being no respecter of persons and always working automatically and mechanically and with mathematical precision, must flow through each one of us in the terms of our own acceptance. When we become confused and short-circuit this acceptance we are cutting ourselves off from its supply, but we do not destroy the supply; it is still there. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

It is a wonderful thought to realize that the Eternal bounty can be short-circuited only as far as we are concerned; it cannot be either exhausted nor depleted. We shall never be disappointed, for the Law is always operating. Believe in yourselves. Believe that you are never alone. Believe that you will always be guided. “Trust in the Lord with all thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths,” reports Proverbs 3.5-6. We have some tight places to go before the Lord is through with us and the World in this dispensation. If we listen to and do these things that God has commanded us to do, we will not be deceived and great blessings will be ours. Obedience is part of the plan of eternal happiness. Sometimes it is necessary to be obedient even when we do not understand the reason for the Law. It takes faith. Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end therefor, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. By patiently trusting in the eternal plan, we can experience daily happiness and have hope for ever-after happiness. Things will straighten out. There is great purpose in our struggle in life. We can experience a speedier and more sure course to our ever-after happiness by developing certain habits and attitudes that encourage happiness. Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the Sunlight. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

We must believe there is one God or supreme Monarch. We must believe that he is the father of whom are all things, and that he loves his people as his children that they may mutually love him and obey him as their father. We must believe that God is the pantocrator Lord of all things with an irresistible and boundless power and that we may expect great rewards if we do his will. Many people have believed largely in a biblical authority, but by the seventeenth century in Europe the founders of the new science were becoming so bold as to argue that, by directly cross-questioning nature as to what the present facts are, they would find out even more about God’s ways and his master plan. These first scientists, devout believers to a human, did not think they were doing anything dangerously radical, let alone subversive. They took it for granted that the World is God’s creation and that, if put to the test, it could only provide further living proof of his wisdom and munificence. Many people would rather believe in all the miracles and legends than that this Universal frame is without a mind. A little science might be a dangerous thing. However, deep science could only lead people further on the path of right and righteousness. Science itself could be a form of worship. Its purpose would always be to tell more of the sacred story, never undermine it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

In our quieter moments we are all dreamers. Many scientists have the energy to study the scriptures and the Universe because they are looking for something more richer than the explanation that God created the Universe. And so they delved deeper, and deeper. They should perhaps have known it was curiosity not care that killed the cat. Some mysteries are better left alone. However wonderful a child may think his or her parents are for giving one life, it is probably not wise for the child to creep into the bedroom to try and get a closer view of the creative act. The Bible itself, in the story of the Fall, contains an early warning against wanting to learn more than is good for you. Many other cautionary tales tell of what happens to people who show too much zeal for knowledge. Pandora was told not to open the box that Zeus had given her, but she did—and out flew a swarm of evil sprites, all the bodily and mental ills that have ever since tormented the human race. Oedipus was warned by Tiresias against inquiring too deeply into his origins, but he did—and we know what a shocking discovery awaited him. Given the fact of God’s foreknowledge, we have not lapsed into determinism. Although God knows infallibly what an individual will freely do, such an infallible knows in no way determines the will of the individual. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

There is a cooperation or concursus of human’s free will with the divine grace. God foreknows from all eternity what an individual would do under certain circumstances if offered his grace. God wishes all people to be saved and he extends sufficient grace to all. With a passion, many scientists still seek knowledge. They wish to understand that hearts of humans, and they want to know why the stars shine. Remember, science requires your whole life. Even if you had two lives to give it would still not be enough. Science demands of people effort and supreme passion. What a scientist’s aim might be may sometimes be obscure, but their pains, their diligence at these times of working themselves into a frenzy, makes us believe that they are aimed at something beyond the reach of human art and industry. Some argue that it would be blasphemous not to make science one’s first priority. God, like any other artist, demanded an audience for his works, and would be upset if people took them too much for granted. In contrast to an earlier statement, because God created us with amazing intellectual capabilities, there is no reason to worry. For the more we pry into, and discover God’s works, the greater and ore glorious we find them to be, the more worthy of, and the more expressly to proclaim our great Creator. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

Limitless is our potential. Magnificent is our future, if we take control of it. It is often more rewarding to look at what science does than what people say about it. True researchers are commendable. When we follow the handy work of science, when and whither it leads us, we can admire the miracles, and set them forth to others. When it comes to any project with is massive and full of unknown territory, pain and expense are unavoidable.  There are indeed already martyrs in the cause of science. Archimedes had famously died at the hand of a Roman soldier, while contemplating a mathematical diagram in the sand. Galileo only just escaped with his life. Bacon himself met his end as the result of catching cold when stuffing a hen with snow in order to observe the effect of freezing on the preservation of flesh (the first—but by no means the last—experimental scientists to die in active service). Whatever the personal costs, however, it would not have occurred to any of these pioneers that their discoveries could possibly bring spiritual or even material costs to humankind as a whole. However, there is not a slightest doubt that these patterns of behavior will yield success and happiness and peace. If we follow our passions, our lives will be successful and good. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

We have to believe in the success of our endeavors. And as we grow, look back with appreciation for the manner in which we chose to live. The scientific study of human thought and action, undertaken by biologists, could have shown that there is no way of accounting for the obvious evidence for adaption and design in the structures of plants and animals without postulating a divine designer—with all that this would imply about God’s purpose in putting us on Earth. The Omega Point Theory, which is a model for an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, evolving, personal God who is both transcendent to spacetime and immanent in it, and who exists necessarily, is a spiritual belief and a scientific speculation that everything in the Universe is fated to spiral towards a final point of divine unification. The Omega Point Theory suggests a future Universal resurrection of the dead very similar to the one predicted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The notions of grace and the beatific vision appear naturally in the model. Our word will have power in such degree as we sense that it is the activity of the spirit within us, and the law unto that thing spoken of. We should have a sense of the indwelling spirit, all-present and all-powerful. There must be no despair or uncertainty, nor even supplication or reverence, for the tomb gives up its dead not to the dead, but to the living. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

Knowing the truth is a spiritual treatment. To know that there is no person external to the likeness of God is part of the treatment. We must rise higher in consciousness than the condition we expect to heal. Peace is greater than the experience of pain. Focus on peace, love, and perfection, whereas pain is not; pain is an experience which is now eliminated, now completely reversed. Fear and faith are identical mental attitudes. The energy used in one is the same energy as that used in the other, since there is but one final energy in the Universe and this final energy is the energy of spirit. Even the study of physical chemistry could have shown, as Newton himself hoped, that in order to explain certain chemical reactions it is necessary to postulate the existence of subtle spirits and assume a principle of sociability, indeed it is necessary to understand the anima, and investigate the laws which are observed in these operations of the spirit, the powers and actions of the electrical spirit which pervade all bodies—with all that this would imply about the possibility of mystical union with nature. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

There are skillful reasons to explain the effect that certain present facts such as the crystallization of salts and the nest-building habits of birds, we are required to postulate the operation of principle called morphic resonance, whereby patterns in nature get preserved and communicated across the aether. In the process of morphic resonance, organizing systems inherit a memory from previous similar systems. It its most general formulation, morphic resonance means that the laws of nature are more like habits. This also means that memory storage in the brain and biological inheritance are inherited as collective memory from past members of the species, and also contributes to the collective memory, affecting other members of the species in the future producing promising outcomes. This means that development of the Earth as a whole is essentially purposeful—with everything tending toward an evolutionary goal (whose nature, admittedly, we human beings are not yet privileged to understand). Researchers have come up with a new way to encode digital data in DNA to create the highest-density large-scale data storage ability ever invented. Capable of storing 215 petabytes (215 million gigabytes) in a single gram of DNA, the system could store every bit of datum ever recorded by humans in a container about the size and weight of a couple of pickup trucks. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

We come to this Earth to nurture and discover the seeds of divine nature that are within us. DNA has many advantages for storing digital data. It is ultracompact, and it can last hundreds of thousands of years if kept in a cool, dry place. And as long as human societies are reading and writing DNA, they will be able to decode it. DNA will not degrade over time like cassette tapes, 8-track, and CDs, and it will not become obsolete. God sent us here to prepare for a future greater than anything we can imagine. The divine nature within each one of us is refined and magnified by the effort we make to draw nearer to our Heavenly Father. We identify with our divine nature as we feel and give the love of our Father in Heaven. We have the agency to nurture it, let it flourish, and help it grow. As we understand who we are, we begin to feel those precious promises. In our future, a day at a tie, comes alive when we do more than just exist; it comes alive when we live our lives to fill the measures of our creation. This invites the Lord into our lives, and we begin to let his will become ours. Divine nature breathers into us the desire to know these eternal truths for ourselves. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come. Once we begin to see the divinity in ourselves, we can see it in others. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

The art of religion has been to offer a way of looking at the World in which explanation and assurance are part of a single integrated package. The claim made by believers, of course, is that this is not a matter of art but a matter of truth. No doubt it will take some specialist skill to reveal exactly what the World is presently like and to provide the one and only proper explanation—but, once this has been done, there will be no question about what follows (or might follow) as consequence. Life is hard. It is a challenge. At every age life presents trials to bear and difficulties to overcome. Growing up is hard. There are often the heartaches of feeling wronged or rejected. Pursuing an education can press us to financial, emotional, and intellectual limits. Serving a mission is not easy. It requires total dedication, spiritually and physically. The problems accompanying marriage, rearing a family, earning a living, or coping with infirmary, the golden years, and the thought of passing into Heaven are realities of life which we may be unprepared or unwilling to deal. We will be able to face and solve these challenges more willingly and courageously when we understand that such obstacles are encountered as a natural part of living. We can still confidently say that the very fact that we are living in this present means we have a hope of going forward to that future. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11

The attraction of supernatural belief system has a foundation in the reasonableness with which things fit together. The Lord has made available to us a power which will turn challenges into opportunities, a power which will enable us to understand the declaration that trials of our faith are indeed more precious than gold. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why religion often has such strength and staying power. Why do arches stand, while single columns fall? Because their parts mutually support each other. Why do skulls survive on the plains of Africa while diamonds disappear? Because there is no way for predators to get a hold of them, their teeth slip off. We have been referred to as a believing people. Certainly, individual faith is the foundation stone of the gospel and the quality which is most important to us as individuals. Faith is the assurance which people have of the existence of things which they have not seen, and the principle of action in all intelligent beings. It is the first great governing principle. We must have perfect faith in God, or we cannot be saved in the Kingdom of God. As a principle of power and of action, and as the key to our salvation, or individual faith, then, becomes of absolute importance to us. “Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity,” reports 1 Timothy 4.12. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11

Youth is a time for growth. Our minds during these formative years are receptive to truth, but they are also receptive to error. The time that does not belong to us excites our anxiety and hopes. The need for a personal code of honor is demanded not only on a daily basis, but frequently many times in a given day. We must have a spirit of determination to do the right thing. Hence, we set up goals and try to change the facts to meet them. We decide what we want (or perhaps what we do not want), work out what would be required to deliver it (or stop its being delivered), and then attempt to find it (or prevent it). When we are hungry, for instance, and want to obtain a gourmet meal, we do whatever we can now do to procure it. When we are in love and want to bring about a consummation, we say and do whatever seems suitable now to bring it about. And so on. This kind of constructive thinking is what our brains are best at. The whole kaleidoscope of human intelligence is concerned with, and has evolved for, and inspired by our devotion to responsibility in the cause of God. Faith is the ability to recognize the Lord as all-powerful and the giver of all blessings. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11

There is a very obvious reason why not, or at least why we should be very careful about manipulating our theory of present facts to deliver the theoretical future that we hope for. If we do this, we are in danger of losing touch with reality and becoming cocooned within a circle of self-delusion. Pray always in the performance of your responsibilities, and you will never be in the position of Alice in Wonderland. Alice was following a path through a forest in Wonderland when it divided into two directions. Standing irresolute, she inquired of the Cheshire Cat, which has suddenly appeared in a nearby tree, which path she should take. “where do you want to go?” asked the cat. “I do not know,” said Alice. “Then,” said the cat,” it really does not matter, does it?” We who believe in God know where it is we wish to go. Our objective is the celestial kingdom of our Heavenly Father. Ours is the sacred duty to follow the well-defined path that leads to it. Still, cocoons are relatively comfortable places (so would-be butterflies have been reported as saying). And, whatever the risks of circularity, there is no denying that this way of construing the present in order to construct the future ay be an effective psychological technique. It can be made to work well at the level of social propaganda to invite a Wonderland and convenient myths (sometimes translated as noble lies). #RandolphHarris 4 of 11

However, after being forced to deal with the realities of life, Wonderland may become less attractive, and you may need some psychotherapy to conspire to bring yourself to a future state of health by uncovering the memories of past events and appropriate explanations to go with them. And soon, you will be ready to serve a mission. It will be wonderful when you and prepared to serve wherever the Spirit of the Lord directs. This alone is a modern miracle, considering the times in which we live. We should pray that people be lifted up together and rejoice in the beautiful things of the gospel. I have in my pocket a silver dollar. One side says, “In God we trust.” We have been taught by the prophets to truth in the Lord, to trust as did young David when facing the giant Goliath. Now, there is another side to that coin. Would that it read, “And God can trust in you.” The Lord wants us to trust in him, but he also wants to be able to trust in us. To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be liked or loved. It is sad that many people have this strategy of shamelessly writing facts and explanations into history so as to delver the prognosis that their clients want. In the USSR the joke used to be that the works of Lenin were still being written many years after his death. In fact, many succeed to such a degree that, just as with stories told in therapy, the mythical history may easily become established as the false memory of real events. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11

However, the art of truth is a self-validating argument. One of the principal purposes of this life is to find out if the Lord can trust us. We are destined to be tried, tested, and proven during our journey on Earth to see if we are trustworthy. The Lord loves all of his children, but he can trust some more than others. It is far better when he can both love and trust each one of us. The premises, once accepted, do lead to the conclusions—as so we should, since that is what we are designed to do. The Lord needs to know if he can trust us to do the right thing in every situation. And, there is art as well as truth—the art of begging the question. It is the art of a sculptor who sees the finished block of marble before one sets to work, the art of a Hollywood screenwriter whose first scene lays the ground for the happy ending…art of putting gas in the car before you drive it. A person of high character testifies and then lives in harmony with one’s testimony. “I cannot and I will not recant, for it is neither safe nor expedient to act against conscience. Here I take my stand I can do no otherwise, so help me God,” reports Martin Luther.  If it is to be of any service, all observation must be for or against some view. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11

Our chief concern in life should not be the acquiring of gold, or of fame, or of material possessions. It should not be the development of physical prowess, nor of intellectual strength, but our aim, the highest in life, should be the development of divine character. Reason must approach nature in order to be taught by it. It must not, however, do so in the character of a pupil who listens to everything that the teacher chooses to say, but of an appointed judge who compels the witnesses to answer questions which he or she has formulated. Compelling a witness to answer pre-formulated questions is not the same thing as compelling a particular answer. When the Bishop asked his page, “Who is that sees and hears all we do, and before whom even I am but as a crushed worm?” he did not expect to be told “Your wife, my Lord.” When Little Red Ridinghood asks the creature in her bed, “Why do you have such big teeth, Grandmother?” she was not looking forward to the answer she actually received. When we do science we are, for sure, going to get an explanation of the present, and from this explanation we are certain to get a future. However, we are living dangerously. The explanation may not be what we were anticipating, and the future that follows from it may no longer be the one for which we hope. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11

The United States Constitution was the first written constitution in the World. It has served Americans well, enhancing freedom and prosperity during the changed conditions of more than two hundred years. Frequently copied, it has become the United States’ most important export. After two centuries, every nation in the World except six have adopted written constitutions, and the U.S. Constitution was a model for all of them. No wonder modern revelation reports that God established the United States Constitution and that it should be maintained for the rights and protections of all flesh, according to just to just and holy principles. President George Washington was perhaps the first to use the word miracle in describing the drafting of the United States of America Constitution. In a letter written in the year 1788 to Lafayette, “It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the delegates from so many different states (which states you know are also different from each other in their manners, circumstances, and prejudices) should unite in forming a system of a national Government, so little liable to well-founded objections,” reports President George Washington. Every teaching of truth is an explanation rather than a suggestion, and in drawing our line we realize that if the teaching of truth is a mental suggestion, the it is a most desirable one. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11

The only suggestions we need to avoid are the destructive ones, those which coerce the mind. Unless America could adopt a central government with sufficient authority to function as a nation, the thirteen states would have remained a group of insignificant, feuding little nations united by nothing more then geography and forever vulnerable to the impositions of aggressive foreign powers. No wonder that the first preamble of the new United States Constitution was “To form a more perfect union.” Without a constitution, economically and politically, the country would be alarmingly weak. The states would suffer a paralyzing depression. Everyone would be in debt. The national treasure would be raided by foreign governments and sit empty. Inflation would become rampant. The various currencies would be nearly worthless. We would have a staggering trade deficit, and it is possible that human capital would be the only form of currency valued by our debtors. Since we are finite I supposed we are generally exchanging one belief for greater ones, I presume we have done well. However, if we were not a United States of America, we would suffer dearly. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11

People rant and rave about how prosperous California is and defies rules imposed by the federal government. The federal government is the very entity that has allowed California to flourish. California, right now, is acting like a pissy brats listening to stylistic tuns, who live off of their parents money, land, room and board and legacy and thinks he or she is all that in a bag of chips. However, without parents, that child, much like California in the absence of a federal government, would be on the mean streets and forced to protect itself against predators it did not know existed and would have no money, no place to stay, and no friends. People only like when we you are rich and willingly to give them a little piece, but as soon as you are down on hard times, the only person that will be there for you is your family and God, unless your tore your britches so bad that you become a child only God can love. The success of America has attributable in large to God and the remarkable wisdom, intelligence, wisdom, and unselfishness of the delegates. Truly, the United States Constitution was established by the hands of wise men and women whom the Lord raised up unto this very purpose. And I include women because everyone knows that the wife is the one who makes important decisions for her husband, even if she is not given credit. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11

This word is for America: Understand that love overcomes both hate and fear. Love does not overcome hate and fear by argument or force, but by some subtle power of transformation, transmutation, sublimation, invisible in its essence but apparent through its act. As light overcomes the darkness, as the presence of heart causes the atmosphere of the room to change until it is warm and comfortable, so the radiant presence of love and peace dissipates fear, hate, and confusion. Know that you are dominated by love and appreciated in love by everyone who contact you. Fear and hate cannot motivate you, cannot operate through you, cannot do anything to you, does not belong to you, and is not apart of you. Nothing enters your consciousness but a sense of peace. You do not fight evil. There is no evil. Allow the people in your lives to cover you with love. Love is the victor in every case. Love breaks down the iron bars of thought, shatters the walls of material belief, severs the chain of bondage which thought has imposed, and sets you free from captivity. There is nothing to coerce because there is no one there to be coerced. You cannot influence anyone because there is no one in your environment to be influenced or to influence. However, you can attract new friendships into your life. You must believe it. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11

The Moon has long been thought to be 4.53 billion years old. However, after analyzing some of the small impact craters scientists believer the Moon may be older than 4.53 billion years old. With all the incredible things going on in the World, why is it are journalism is so full of gossip and lies? Could it be that the majority of people have simply not heard what science has done? There are certainly some who not only prefer to remain ignorant themselves, but they do their best to keep everyone else in the same condition too. And it is of course almost inevitable that, in our truth-will-out, information-hungry culture, interesting ideas—be they welcome or not—soon enough become everybody’s property. Each new success is trumpeted from the presses, analyzed on television. When one scans through a newspaper or magazine, all the human interest stuff is characterized by conflicting statements from opposing parties in the absence of concrete evidence. The politics and economics the same sorry cyclic dramas. Human natures does not change much; science does. No, they have heard. Few adults in the modern World can actually be unaware that there are now physicalist explanations for most if not all natural phenomena, not excluding the workings of the human mind. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

Many people—including some of those who are themselves the messengers—continue to ignore the message. Indeed, it sometimes seems that the more that people hear, the less they want to know, and the more they want to gossip and invent vicious lies to spread around. In contemporary Russia, however, the population must be better educated in science than any other in the World, alternative beliefs—ranging from Christianity and popular culture—are flourishing to an extent that even America can hardly match. The reason is transparent. Scientific materialism is regarded by many, even by some of its own prophets, as deeply unsatisfying: scary, bewildering, insulting, demeaning, dispiriting, and confining. We have fully automated cars that supposedly do not need humans to drive them, but one has already killed an innocent person. We have computers to make accessing information easier, but people are also able to hack into our computers, steal information, and cyber stalk us. We have mobile phones to make communication easier, but with augmented reality, people have found ways to simply ignore each other and the material World in large groups. However, there are some modern marvels like the automatic machines that wash and dry your clothes and dishes. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

This era has created the first technical civilization, but it has reached the point beyond which the abyss begins. It is still important to also focus on the cultivation of soul, individual spirituality, and above all, trust in one’s own subjectivity as one’s principal link with the World. We stand at the end of the Age of Reason. A new era of the magical explanation of the World is rising. The demonstrators for a cause cannot always choose their comrades on the barricades. Nonetheless, human beings—especially the more articulate and poetic ones should have their say about matters that are theirs. Where have we come from? What are we? Where are we going? People want explanations to these questions and they are certainly not getting answers from fake news and gossip. Many want life’s symptoms that make sense. There has to be a reasonable diagnosis of what presently exists—an explanation, especially where obvious natural explanations are lacking, of the pains and aches, flushes, starts in the eyes, strawberry rashes of the present World. There have to be an acceptable prognosis of what lies ahead—an assurance, especially where natural assurances are lacking, that life is worth living. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

Human begins cannot stop the World, but they can always make a personal decision to get off. If, on the basis of the diagnosis, the prognosis looks too bad—the remedy is obvious. How thin the line between the will to live and the will to die. In Manhattan, New York USA, say, at the Brooklyn Bridge which has an elevation of 5,989 feet, a sign read: 4pm-8pm/ Monday, Wednesday, and Friday / Suicide Permitted. Just that. A sign. Why, surely people would jump who had hardly thought of it before. However, one must live somehow. It is by no means obvious that staying live is worth the effort. Most people have probably imagined ending it. Indeed, in the United States of America recent studies show that about 60 percent of teenagers report that they have considered suicide at sometime, 26 percent within the last year. When it comes to the elderly and disabled, considering the negative social messages concerning frailty we hear almost daily, it is not surprising that 68 percent of them have considered suicide after acquiring a disability. It may be also that these groups experience the common feeling of existential isolation. However, suicide is an error on the ground that it affords only an apparent and not a real release from the sufferings of life. Such a release is only apparent because the will as a thing-in-itself is outside of space and time, and the person committing suicide cannot destroy the will itself but only its manifestation at the place and time. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

The rejection of suicide is an implicit belief that life is worth living. Many physicians, are now refusing to supply or administer pain-killing drugs because they realize the effects may be not only to kill the pain, but also to shorten the life. In euthanasia, there are a number of indirect evils: the difficulty of ascertaining the patient’s real consent, which least to the danger of abuse; the risk of an incorrect diagnosis; the risk of administering euthanasia to a person who could have later been cured by new medical developments; and the wedge argument (condoning euthanasia would lead to general disrespect for the sanctity of human life). When people contemplate life they have a few questions. Who put me here? By whose command and act were this time and place allotted to me? And the eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies some. People are bound to dream of a less threatening, less lonely and more obviously ordered World. It may be a World that in their innocence they once believed was theirs already. For it is likely that in everybody’s life there was once a time when it seemed there would always be someone ready to take care of them…to lighten the darkness, to fence off the beckoning hole. There is so much violence in the World, so many people being bullied and killed, that families fear for the lives of their loved one’s whenever they walk out the door. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

 No wonder that, in these scary circumstances, people hark back to a time when things were better: to that time in each of their lives when things were better: to that time in each of their lives when most did indeed have parents to look after them—caring adults who would, at any rate in fantasy, act as founts of both wisdom and compassion. Those same parents are supposed to be their protectors and guides, guarantors of a safe passage. No surprise, therefore, that if people have once experiences—or even imagined—this comprehensive solution to their needs, they seek again in later life a singular philosophy to live by. This is why the World’s great religions has always been, at least in part, a desire for an idealized parent figure who is all in one. God, in the Christian tradition is both wisdom and love. To know him is to have the World both explained and made secure for us. The Christian God is both the God of the means and the God of the ends. God is both our doctor and instructor. In a recent study in Europe conducted by the European Values Study Group, it was found that, of those Europeans who believed in God (70 percent of the total), and full half (35 percent of the total) agreed with the statement that “Life is meaningful only because God exists.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

In other words, it is suggested that about 33 percent of people would find life meaningless if they were to be robbed of their belief in God. And this general picture of the saving effect of supernatural belief has time and again been both confirmed and illuminated by the testimony of writers, poets, and philosophers. If humans had no eternal consciousness, if, at the bottom of everything, there were merely a wild, seething force producing everything, both large and trifling, in the storm of dark passions, if the bottomless void that nothing can fill underlay all things, what would life be but despair? Research on disability and depression has consistently shown that when people with disabilities report dissatisfaction with their lives they are not nearly as concerned with things such as reliance on machines or medications as they are with their relationships, financial security, or difficulties while at work. And these are also concerns that others have as well, but when one has a disability, their options may be far more limited than you realize. Much like most students and single parents suffer a form a disability, in the form of financial stability. One of the most worrisome things in the World is not knowing how one is going to provide for oneself and keep a roof over their head. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

With prayer in our hearts for understanding, and some timidity, we should consider parents and children with special problems. These extraordinary challenges are, as the Savior himself said, “The Works of God should be made manifest.” Life is worth living even if it is not perfect. Everyone brings gifts to the World and to others who are free from those conditions in a manner that cannot come in any other way. People with limitations demonstrate in a miraculous way how they are able to adjust and compensate to life’s demands. Occasionally, other sense become more functional and substitute for the impaired sense in a remarkable way. There are two great pillars that bear us up, amid the wreck of misfortune and misery. The one is composed of the different modifications of a certain noble, stubborn something in humans, known by the names of courage, fortitude, magnanimity. The other is made up of those feelings and sentiments which connect us with and link us to, those awful obscure realities—an all power and equally beneficent God; and a World to come beyond death and the grave. The first gives the nerve of combat, while a ray of hope beams on the field: –the last pours the balm of comfort into the wounds which time can never cure. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

Surveys show that in general the degree of belief in supernatural forces is highest amongst the most vulnerable members of society. Predictably it comes to the fore at times of personal stress, as for example, in athletes before a competition, students before examinations, women during pregnancy, people who are recently divorced or bereaved, soldiers on the battlefield, and whole nations in times of political and economic chaos such as 1930s Germany and president-day America. Several recent studies have specifically compared the mental health of religious believers with the of non-believers, and found that, as might be expected, the former show many fewer symptoms of psychological disturbances. Irreligious individuals have 45 percent more symptoms of mental disturbance than their religious counterparts. There is a remarkable effectiveness of a supernatural belief system in combating feelings of worthlessness, lifting depression and calming fears. Many have a pure faith in others and a powerful belief in God. They can give their spiritual strength to others around them. All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the World are susceptible of enlargement. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

Special commendation belongs to parents and family members who have cared for their own children with special needs in the loving atmosphere of their own home. The real World is such that, once we have arrived at the correct understanding of what we are, we shall no longer have to worry about where we are going because we shall be able to see that what is true now pretty much guarantees that what is coming later will be alright. When we come into the field of spiritual mind treatment, we have not entered a field of chaos where nothing happens in accord with law. We have the obligation to do the best we can. The responsibility rests in the hands of God. Those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit are willing to do anything and everything that God asks of them. When we give thanks in all things, we see hardships and adversities in the context of the purpose of life. The children of God have always been commanded to give thanks. We have so much for which to give thanks. The revelations, for which we are grateful, show that we should even give thanks for our afflictions because they turn our hearts to God and give us opportunities to prepare for what God would have us become. If we understand the Lord’s teachings and promises, we will learn and grow from our adversities. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10

Many people feel so pressured by the expectations of others that it causes them to be frustrated, miserable, and confused. It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement—that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life. And yet, in making any general judgment of this sort, we are in danger of forgetting how variegated the human World and its mental life are. Progress in human affairs is more often a pull than a push, surging forward of the exceptional individual, and the lifting of one’s oppressed peers slowly and painfully to one’s vantage-ground. We believe in spiritual communion, which is the drawing of the essence of reality into our own minds through keeping the thought uplifted and in tune with the ultimate harmony, and there is a feeling called sensation of eternity. A feeling as of something limitless, unbounded—as it were oceanic. This feeling brings with it no assurance of personal immortality, but it is the source of the religious energy which is seized upon by the various churches and religious systems, directed by them into particular channels, and is immanent in everything and in every person. This feeling is of an indissoluble bond, of being one with the external World as a whole. We not only can talk with God but we can receive a direct answer though intuition. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, and respect the law. Just as treasures are uncovered from the Earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. Through such communion one enters into the realm of reality and imbibes the spirit of truth. There is an intelligent creative principle in everything and in everyone which responds to our word exactly the way we speak it. The improper way to secure the peace humanity is to wait until all the World is destroyed by war, then sit down to speak of making peace. Waiting until the brink of war to secure peace is not much better. The best way to secure the peace for humanity is to educate people so they know how to embrace the habit of meeting challenges with peaceful composure. When people grow up knowing how to make peace with their own inner diversity, they learn to make peace with one another. As their own inner peacemaking progresses as a matter of the course of daily living, they are much better prepared to work for peace in the World in the face of extraordinary events. Peacemaking is not the specialty of diplomats nor only for those of exceptional gifts. It is not storming the gates of Heaven with an affirmative petition. Peace is more like the calm contemplation of the mind which says there is a light, and because there is, darkness disappears. Peacemaking is a vital function of each and every human being and animal for each and every day of our lives. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

Peace is a prime priority that pleads for our pursuit. Peacemaking is not to be saved for the time when are so sick of war that we simply cannot take it anymore. “The Lord will convince people unto peace or deliver them to hardness of heart,” reports 1 Nephi 14.7. We do not question the physical diagnosis of the doctor or the mental diagnosis of the psychiatrist, provided they are true. We do not deny either mind or body. We do affirm the spirit as transcendent, having the ability to create new thoughts while new thoughts create new situations. The creation of peace is a part of the daily life of every citizen who seeks to improve themselves and their society. Peace can prevail only when that natural inclination to fight is superseded by self-determination to live on a loftier level. This concept of treating others as one would like to be treated is easy to understand. And it acknowledges the precious nature of each of God’s sons and daughters. We must teach people to love one another, and to serve one another. The importance of reconciliation and resolution is a gift. It is only when most citizens of the World are in the daily habit of working for peace within themselves that we have any chance at all of making lasting peace in the World. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

The commandments to love God and neighbor are interrelated. Peacemaking will only rise to sporadic and unreliable success if it is merely a special occasion reserved only for the preventing or ending of wars. It is when the masses learn to be daily peacemakers through knowing how to work together in creating new understandings and solving problems that the power of the human capacity for peacemaking will rise to new and beautiful heights. “How beautiful upon mountains are feet of one who publishes peace,” reports 1 Nephi 13.37. We walk through the doors of new discovery together. We learned to face challenges as valued members of the same tea, not just in spite of our differences but because of our differences. We learn to greet one another in conversation and acknowledge our own power to say yes or now. We offer to put our deepest commitments at risk before those who join us in conversation by welcoming their own power to agree or disagree respectfully. The open and courteous mutuality of our embrace of this power creates a common human ground, and manifests the fertile and foundational shared peace we need to work together in peace. “You will not have mind to injure one another, but to live in peace,” reports Mosiah 4.13. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

The scriptures are studded with stories of contention and combat. They strongly condemn wars of aggression but sustain obligations of citizens to defend their families and their freedoms. People are called into military service of many nations. We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of humanity; and that God holds men and women accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society. Because of the long history of hostility upon the Earth, many feel that peace is beyond hope. I disagree. Peace is possible. We can learn to love our fellow human beings throughout the World. We can live together with mutual admiration and respect, without forsaking our religious convictions. Things we have in common are greater than our differences. Peace is a prime priority that pleads for our pursuit. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. God makes wars to cease unto the end of the Earth. “Blessed are peacemakers for they shall be called children of God,” reports 3 Nephi 12.9. These statements transcend not only the physical or objective conditions, but subjective or unconscious causes as well. They are transcendent of bot the cause and the effect of the negative condition, rising to a position in mind which starts new and clean and fresh. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

Practicing peace in our own minds empowers us to engage in conversation with a human virtue of character that makes peace with our community. In effect, there is a truth which know will prove itself. And we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. Truth is transcendent of all negation. Human nature dictates that when we behave in the same way again and again, we become our habits. A human being who embraces the habit of loving to challenge oneself in the context of peaceful dialogue can meet the challenges of the World with greater power to create peaceful dialogue in any setting. This function is to facilitate a process that helps people commit themselves to a life of seeking knowledge, wisdom, and the cultivation of human virtue in a peaceful and productive manner. The benefits are best realized when it becomes a habit that persists. One who focuses on cultivation of the soul and peace is allowing their communication to affect one’s character in beneficial ways. A properly educated human being is also a person who has the character of a peacemaker. We are morally bound to seek to benefit ourselves. “Why should I yield to temptation, that evil one has no place in my heart to destroy my peace,” reports 1 Nephi 4.27. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. No matter how seemingly impossible any situation may be or how difficult any problem may appear, we should never become discouraged. We must continue in our work, knowing full well we are dealing with the invisible essence, the invisible substance, the great reality back of everything. It would be impossible for anyone to do this without being fully convinced that God is the only creative agency in the Universe and that we have direct and conscious access to God’s creativity. In our quest to live well, we must improve the justice and virtue of our human character, as this is at the heart of ideal living of an examined life. Resolution of present political problems will require much patience and negotiation. If pursed prayerfully, the process would be enhanced greatly. Peacemakers could lead in the art of arbitration, give relief to the needy, and bring hope to those who fear. Of such patriots, future generations will shout praises, and our Eternal God will pass judgments of glory. As individuals, we should follow things that make peace. We should be personal peacemakers. We should live peacefully—as couples, families, and neighbours. We should live by the Golden Rule and expand our circle of love to embrace the whole human family. It is also important to keep our principles on a high level and stand for the right. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. We must be conscious that right thought and true statements are the enforcement of this law of mind. Human being’s thoughts are the activity of the mind, for mind without thought or direct consciousness would have no real existence. There can be no existence apart from consciousness, then there is no one, no thing, and no intelligence to be aware of such existence. It is evident that without self-awareness there is not only realization of life, but no life to be realized. Hence we affirm that mind in action is law. “Spirits of righteous are received into paradise, a state of peace,” reports Alma 40.12. The person who understands this will not become discouraged. One will know that if he or she persists in declaring the truth, the pathway to reality will be cleared, obstructions will be removed, wrong forms will be dissolved. It follows that we will be both courageous and happy in our work. We will be happy because we are sure; doubts no longer assail us, fears do not possess us, negation no longer obsesses our thoughts. We continue to make our declarations with clam confidence and with divine assurance. “May peace of God rest upon you,” reports Alma 7.27. Ours is God’s supernal cause. Ours is the cause of eternal glory for all humankind. And as peacemakers, we shall be called the children of God. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8