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Those Who Can Give Justice are Owed Justice!
There is no yesterday, so what is left is today. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The signs of the Kingdom of God are like a human planting a seed. We do our part; but then God makes the seed grow. For it is God who produces the signs of His Kingdom on this Earth. We are merely the instruments. The Kingdom of God will transform places of hopelessness in the kingdom of man. Justice and hope will be found where there was once only inequity and despair. When we consider the basis of equality, the features of human beings in virtue of which they are to be treated in accordance with the principles of justice, what are our relationships with other human persons supposed to be like? We examine what determines the range of application of conceptions of justice. We may distinguish three levels where the concept of equality applies. The first is to the administration of institutions as public systems of rules. In this case equality is essentially justice as regularity. It implies the impartial application and consistent interpretation of rules according to such precepts as to treat similar cases similarly (as defined by statutes and precedents) and the like. Equality at this level is the least controversial element in the commonsense idea of justice. The second and much more difficult application of equality is to the substantive structure of institutions. Here the meaning of equality is specified by the principles of justice which require that equal basic rights be assigned to all persons. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Presumably this excludes animals; they have some protection certainly but their status is not that of human beings. However, this outcome is still unexplained. We have yet to consider what sort of beings are owed the guarantees of justice. This brings us to the third level at which the question of equality arises. The natural answer seems to be that it is precisely the moral persons who are entitled to equal justice. Moral persons are distinguished by two features: first they are capable of having (and are assumed to have) a conception of their good (as expressed by a rational plan of life); and second they are capable of having (and are assumed to acquire) a sense of justice, a normally effective desire to apply and to act upon the principles of justice, at least to a certain minimum degree. We use the characterization of the persons in the original position to single out the kind of beings to whom the principles chose apply. After all, the parties are though of as adopting these criteria to regulate their common institutions and their conduct toward one another; and the description of their nature enters into the reasoning by which these principles are selected. Thus equal justice is owed to those who have the capacity to take part in and to act in accordance with the public understanding of the initial situation. One should observe that moral personality is here defined as a potentiality that is ordinarily realized in due course. It is this potentiality which brings the claims of justice into play. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
We see, then, that the capacity for moral personality is a sufficient condition for being entitled to equal justice. This fact can be used to interpret the concept of natural rights. For one thing, it explains why it is appropriate to call by this name the rights that justice protects. These claims depend solely on certain natural attributes the presence of which can be ascertained by natural reason pursuing common sense methods of inquiry. The existence of these attributes and the claims based upon them is established independently from social conventions and legal norms. The propriety of the term “natural” is that is suggests the contrast between the rights identified by the theory of justice and the rights includes the idea that these rights are assigned in the first instance to persons, and that they are given a special weight. Claims easily overridden for other values are not natural rights. Now the rights protected by the first principle have both of these features in view of the priority rules. This justice as fairness has the characteristic marks of a natural rights theory. Not only does it ground fundamental rights on natural attributes and distinguish their bases from social norms, but it assigns rights to persons by principles of equal justice, these principles having a special force against which other values cannot normally prevail. Although specific rights are not absolute, the system of equal liberties is absolute practically speaking under favourable conditions. Nothing beyond the essential minimum is required. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
Whether moral personality is also a necessary condition, I shall leave that aside. I assume that the capacity for a sense of justice is possessed by the overwhelming majority of humankind, and therefore this question does not raise a serious problem. That moral personality suffices to make one a subject of claims is the essential thing. We cannot go far wrong in supposing that the sufficient condition is always satisfied. Even if the capacity were necessary, it would be unwise in practice to withhold justice on this ground. The risk to just institutions would be too great. It should be stressed that the sufficient condition for equal justice, the capacity for moral personality, is not all stringent. When someone lacks the requisite potentiality either from birth or accident, this is regarded as a defect or deprivation. There is no race or recognized group of human beings that lacks this attribute. Only scattered individuals are without this capacity, or its realization to the minimum degree, and the failure to realize it is the consequence of unjust and impoverished social circumstances, of fortuitous contingencies. Furthermore, while individuals presumably have varying capacities for a sense of justice, this fact is not a reason for depriving those with a lesser capacity of the full protection of justice. Once a certain minimum is met, a person is entitled to equal liberty on a par with everyone else. A greater capacity for a sense of justice, as shown say in a greater skill and facility in applying the principles of justice and in marshaling arguments in particular cases, is a natural asset like any other ability. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
The special advantages a person receives for its exercises are to be governed by the difference principle. Thus is some have a preeminent degree the judicial virtues of impartiality and integrity which are needed in certain positions, they may properly have whatever benefits should be attached to these offices. Yet the application of the principle of equal liberty is not affected by these differences. It is sometimes thought that basic rights and liberties should vary with capacity, but justice as fairness denies this: provided the minimum for moral personality is satisfied, a person is owed all the guarantees of justice. First of all, when considering the basis of equality, it may be objected that equality cannot rest n natural attributes. There is no natural feature with respect to which all human being are equal, that is, which everyone has (or which sufficiently many have) to the same degree. If we wish to hold a doctrine of equality, it might appear we must interpret it in another way, namely as a purely procedural principle. Thus to say that human beings are equal is to say that none has a claim to preferential treatment in the absence of compelling reasons. The burden of proof favours equality: it defines a procedural presumption that persons are to be treated alike. Departures from equal treatment are in each case to be defended and judged impartially by the same system of principles that hold for all; the essential equality is thought to be equality of consideration. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
There are several difficulties with this procedural interpretation. For one thing, it is nothing more than the precept of treating similar cases similarly applied at the highest level, together with an assignment of the burden of proof. Equality of consideration puts no restrictions upon what grounds may be offered to justify inequalities. There is no guarantee of substantive equal treatment, since slave and caste systems (to mention extreme cases) may satisfy this conception. The real assurance of equalities lies in the content of the principles of justice and not in these procedural presumptions. The placing of the burden of proof is not sufficient. However, further, even if the procedural interpretation imposed some genuine restrictions on institutions, there is still the question why we are to follow the procedure in some instances and not others. Surely it applies to creatures who belong to some class, but which one? We still need a natural basis for equality so that this class can be identified. Moreover, it is not the case that founding equality on natural capacities is incomplete with an egalitarian view. All we have to do is to select a range property (as I shall say) and to give equal justice to those meeting its conditions. For example, the property of being in the interior of the unit circle is a range of property points in the plane. All points inside this circle have this property although their coordinates vary within a certain range. And they equally have this property, since no point interior to a circle is more or less interior to it than any other interior point. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
Now whether there is a suitable range property for singling out the respect in which human beings are to be counted equal is settled by the conception of justice. However, the description of the parties in the original position identifies such a property, and the principles of justice assure us that any variations in ability within the range are to be regarded as any other natural asset. There is no obstacle to thinking that a natural capacity constitutes the basis of equality. How then can it seem plausible that founding equality on natural attributes undermines equal justice? The notion of a range property is too obvious to be overlooked. There must be a deeper explanation. The answer, I think, is that a teleological theory is often taken for granted. Thus, if the right is to maximize the net balance of satisfaction, say, then rights and duties are to be assigned so as to achieve this end. Among the relevant aspects of the problem are human’s different productive skills and capacities for satisfaction. It may happen that maximizing aggregate welfare requires adjusting basic rights to variations in these features. Of course, given the standard utilitarian assumptions, there is a tendency to equality. The relevant thing, however, is that in either case the correct natural basis and the appropriate assignment of rights depend upon the principle of utility. It is the content of the ethical doctrine, and the fact that it is a maximizing notion, that allows variations in capacity to justify unequal fundamental rights, and not the idea that equality is founded on natural attributes. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
An examination of perfectionism would, I believe, lead to the same conclusion. However, justice as fairness is not a maximizing theory. We are not directed to look for differences in natural features that affect some maximand and therefore serve as possible grounds for different grades of citizenship. Although agreeing with many teleological theories in the relevance of natural attributes, the contract view needs much weaker assumptions about their distribution to establish equal rights. It is enough that a certain minimum is generally fulfilled. First of all, when considering some other points, it should be noted that the conception of moral personality and the required minimum may often prove troublesome. While many concepts are vague to some degree, that of moral personality is likely to be especially so. However, these matters are, I think, best discussed in the context of definite moral problems. The nature of the specific issue and the structure of the available general facts may suggest a fruitful way to settle them. In any case, one must not confuse the vagueness of a conception of justice with the thesis that basic rights should vary with natural capacity. The minimal requirements defining moral personality refer to a capacity and not to the realization of it. A being that has this capacity, whether or not it is yet developed, is to receive the full protection of the principles of justice. Since infants and children are thought to have basic rights (normally exercised on their behalf by parents and guardians), this interpretation of the requisite conditions seems necessary to match our considered judgments. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
Moreover, regarding the potentiality as sufficient accords with the hypothetical nature of the original position, and with the idea that as far as possible the choice of principles should not be influenced by arbitrary contingencies. Therefore it is reasonable to say that those who could take part in the initial agreement, were it not for fortuitous circumstances, are assured equal justice. Now of course none of this is literally argument. I have not set out the premises from which this conclusion follows, as I have tried to do, albeit not very rigorously, with the choice of conceptions of justice in the original position. Nor have I tried to prove that the characterization of the parties must be used as the basis of equality. Rather this interpretation seems to be the natural completion of justice as fairness. The problem of those who have lost their realized capacity temporarily through misfortune, accident, or mental stress can be regarded in a similar capacity of children in connection with paternalism. However, those are more or less permanently deprived of moral personality may present a difficulty. It is assumed that the account of equality would not be materially affected. First of all, the simplicity of the contract view of the basis of equality is worth emphasizing. The minimum capacity for the sense of justice insures that everyone has equal rights. The claims of all are to be adjudicated by the principles of justice. Equality is supported by the general facts of nature and not merely by a procedural rule without substantive force. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
Nor does equality presuppose an assessment of the intrinsic worth of persons, or a comparative evaluation of their conceptions of the good. Those who can give justice are owed justice. When other accounts of equality are examined, the advantages of these straightforward proposition become more evident. For example, one might think that equal justice means that society is to make the same proportionate contribution to each person’s realizing the best life which one is capable of. Offhand this may seem an attractive suggestion. It suffers however from serious difficulties. For one thing it not only requires a method of estimating the relative goodness of plans of life, but it also presupposes some way of measuring what counts as an equal proportionate contribution to persons with different conceptions of their good. The problem in applying this standard are obvious. A more important difficulty is that the greater abilities of some may give them a stronger claim on social resources irrespective of compensating advantages to others. One must assume that variations in natural assets will affect what is necessary to provide equal proportionate assistance to those with different plans of life. However, in addition to violating the principle of mutual advantage, this conception of equality means that the strength of human’s claims is directly influenced by the distribution of natural abilities, and therefore by contingencies that are arbitrary from a moral point of view. The basis of equality in justice as fairness avoids these objections. The only continency which is decisive is that of having or nor having the capacity for a sense of justice. By giving justice to those who can give justice in return, the principle of reciprocity is fulfilled at the highest level. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
A further observation is that we can now more fully reconcile two conceptions of equality. Some writers have distinguished between equality as it is invoked in connection with the distribution between equality as it is invoked in connection with the distribution of certain goods, some of which will almost certainly give higher status or prestige to those who are more favoured, and equality as it applies to the respect which is owed to persons irrespective of their social position. Equality of the first kind is defined by the second principle of justice which regulates the structure of organizations and distributive shares so that social cooperation is both efficient and fair. However, equality of the second kind is fundamental. It is defined by the first principle of justice and by such natural duties as that of mutual respect; it is owed to human beings as moral persons. The natural basis of equality explains its deeper significance. The priority of the first principle over the second enables us to avoid balancing these conceptions of equality in an ad hoc manner, while the argument from the standpoint of the original position shows how this precedence comes about. The consistent application of the principle of fair opportunity requires us to view persons independently from the influences of their social position. However, how far should this tendency be carried? It seems that even when fair opportunity (as it has been defined) is satisfied, the family will lead to unequal chances between individuals. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
Is the family to be abolished then? Taken by itself and given a certain primacy, the idea of equal opportunity inclines in this direction. However, within the context of the theory of justice as a whole, there is much less urgency to take this course. The acknowledgment of the difference principle redefines the grounds for social inequalities as conceived in the system of liberal equality; and when the principle of fraternity and redress are allowed their appropriate weight, the natural distribution of assets and the contingencies of social circumstances can more easily be accepted. We are more ready to dwell upon our good fortune now that these differences are made to work to our advantage, rather than to be downcast by how much better off we might have been had we had an equal chance along with others if only all social barriers had been removed. The conception of justice, should it be truly effective and publicly recognized as such, seems more likely than its rivals to transform our perspective on social World and to reconcile us to the dispositions of natural order and the conditions of human life. Last of all, we should recall here the limits of a theory of justice. Not only are many aspects pf morality left aside, but no account is given of right conduct in regard to animals and the rest of nature. A conception of justice is but one part of a moral view. While I have not maintained that the capacity for a sense of justice is necessary in order to be owed the duties of justice, it does seem that we are not required to give strict justice anyway to creatures lacking this capacity. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
However, it does not follow that there are no requirements at all in regard to them, not in our relations with the natural order. Certainly it is wrong to be cruel to animals and the destruction of whole species can be a great evil. The capacity for feelings of pleasure and pain and for the forms of life which of animals are capable clearly imposes duties of compassion and humanity in their case. These beliefs, however, are outside the scope of the theory of justice, and it does not seem possible to extent the contract doctrine so as to include them in a natural way. A correct conception of our relations to animals and to nature would seem to depend upon a theory of the natural order and our place in it. One of the tasks of metaphysics is to work out a view of the World which is suited for this purpose; it should identify and systematize the truths decisive for these questions. How far justice as fairness will have to be revised to fit into this larger theory it is sound as an account of justice among persons, it cannot be too wrong when these broader relationships are taken into consideration. Technocrats, experts in science or technology who have a lot of power in or influence with the government of industry, suffer from econo-think. They look at the World and analyze the way the World works by comparing the cost of an action with the benefit generated. Except during war and dire emergency, they start from the premise that even non-economic problems can be solved with economic remedies. Social futurism challenges this root assumption of both Marxist and Keynesian managers. In its historical time and place, industrial society’s single-minded pursuits of material progress served the human race well. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
As we hurtle toward the super age of information, however, a new ethos emerges in which other goals begin to gain parity with, and even supplant those of economic welfare. In personal terms, self-fulfillment, social responsibility, aesthetic achievement, hedonistic individualism, and an array of other goals vie with and often overshadow the raw drive for material success. Affluence serves as a base from which humans begin to strive for varied post-economic ends. At the same time, in societies arrowing toward super-age of information, economic variables—wages, balance of payments, productivity—grow increasingly sensitive to change in the non-economic environment. Economic problems are plentiful, but a whole range of issues that are only secondarily economy break into prominence. Racism, the battle between the generations, crime, cultural autonomy, violence—all these have economic dimensions; yet none can be effectively treated by econocentic measures alone. The move from manufacturing to health-care and social assistance, the psychologization of both goods and services, and ultimately the shift toward experiential production all tie the economic sector much more tightly to non-economic forces. Consumer preference turn over in accordance with rapid life style changes, so that the coming and going of subcults is mirrored in economic turmoil. Super-age of information production requires workers skilled in symbol manipulation, and computer information science, so that what goes on in their heads becomes much more important than in the past, and much more dependent upon computers, technology, and algorithm. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
Because many more American corporations are investing part of their sizeable portfolios in companies selected not for economic payout alone, but for their potential contribution to solving urban problems, providing jobs for hard-core unemployed, in organizing literacy and job-training programs, and scores of other unfamiliar activities, including worrying about water, air, and noise pollution, improving the aesthetic appearance of the company’s trucks and equipment, and fostering experimental preschool learning programs in underserved communities, and supporting cultural groups; although this is accurately signaling the direction of change, none of this necessarily implies that big companies are growing altruistic; it merely underscores the increasing intimacy of the links between the economic sector and powerful cultural, psychological, and social forces. While these forces batter at our doors, however, most technocratic planners and managers behave as though nothing had happened. They continue to act as though the economic sector were hermetically sealed off from social and psychocultural influences. Indeed, econocentric premises are buried so deeply and held so widely in both capitalist and communist nations, that they distort the very information systems essential for management of change. For example, all modern nations maintain elaborate machinery for measuring economic performance. We know virtually day by day the directions of change with respect to productivity, prices, investment, and similar factors. Through a set of “economic indicators” we gauge the overall health of the economy, the speed at which it is changing, and the overall directions of change. Without these measures, our control of the economy would be far less effective. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
By contrast, we have no such measures, no set of comparable “social indicators” to tell us whether the society, as distinct from the economy, is also healthy. We have no measures of the “quality of life.” We have no systematic indices to tell us whether people are more or less alienated from one another; whether education is more effective; whether art, music and literature are flourishing; whether civility, generosity or kindness are increasing. Gross National Product is our Holy Grail, but we have no environmental index, no census statistics to measure whether the country is more livable from year to year. On the surface, this would seem a purely technical matter—something for statisticians to debate. Yet it has the most serious political significance, for lacking such measures it becomes difficult to connect up national or local policies with appropriate long-term social goals. The absence of such indices perpetuates vulgar technocracy. Little known to the public, a polite, but increasingly bitter battle over this issue has begun in Washington. Technocratic planners and economists see in the social indicators idea a threat to their entrenched position at the ear of the political policy maker. In contrast, the need for social indicators has been eloquently argued by such prominent social scientists as Dr. Bertram M. Gross and Wayne State University, Eleanor Sheldon and Wilbert Moore of the Russell Sage Foundation, Daniel Bell and Raymond Bauer of Harvard. We are witnessing, says Gross, a “widespread rebellion against what has been called the ‘economic philistinism’ of the Untied States government’s resent statistical establishment.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
This revolt has attracted vigorous support from political and government officials who recognize our desperate need for a post-technocratic social intelligence system. In the near future, we can expect the same revolt to break out in other World capitals as well, once again drawing a line between technocrats and post-technocrats. The danger of future shock, itself, however, points to the need for new social measures not yet even mentioned in the fast-burgeoning literature on social indicators. We urgently need, for example, techniques for measure the level of transience in different communities, different populations groups, and in individual experience. It is possible, in principle, to design a “transience index” that could disclose the rate at which we are making and breaking relationships with the things, places, people, organizations and informational structures that comprise our environment. Such an index would reveal, among other things, the fantastic differences in the experiences of different groups in society—the static and tedious quality of turnover in the lives of others. Government policies that attempt to deal with both kinds of people in the same way are doomed to meet angry resistance from one or the other—or both. Similarly, we need indices of novelty in the environment. How often do communities, organizations or individual have to cope with first-time situations? How many of the articles in the home of the average working-class family are actually “new” in function or appearance; how many are traditional? #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
What level of novelty—in terms of things, people or any other significant dimension—is required for stimulation without over-stimulation? How much more novelty can children absorb than their parents—if it is true that they can absorb more? In what way is gaining related to lower novelty tolerances, and how do such differences correlate with the political and intergenerational conflict now tearing the techno-societies apart? By studying and measuring the invasion of newness, we can begin, perhaps, to control the influx of change into our social structures and personal lives. And what about choice and over choice? Can we construct measures of the degree of significant choice in human lives? Can any government that pretends to be democratic not concern itself with such an issue? For al the rhetoric about freedom of choice, no government agency in the World can claim to have made any attempt to measure it. The assumption simply is that more income or affluence means more choice and that more choice, in turn, means freedom. Is it not time to examine these basic assumptions of our political systems? If we are to prevent future shock and build a humane super-age of informational society, post-technocratic planning must deal with precisely such issues. A sensitive system of indicators geared to measuring the achievement of social and cultural goals, and integrated with economic indicators, is part of the technical equipment that any society needs before it can successfully reach the next stage of eco-technological development. It is an absolute precondition for post-technocratic planning and change management. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
This humanization of planning, moreover, must be reflected in our political structures as well. To connect the super-age of information social intelligence system with the decisional centers of society, we must institutionalize a concern for the quality of life. Thus it has been proposed by people in the social indicators movement that there is a creation of a Council of Social Advisers to the President. Such a Council, as they see it, would be modeled after the already existing Council of Economic Advisers and would perform parallel functions in the social field. The new agency would monitor key social indicators precisely the way the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) keeps its eye on economic indices, and interpret changes to the President. It would issue an annual report on the quality of life, clearly spelling out our social progress (or lack of it) in terms of specified goals. This report would thus supplement and balance the annual economic report prepared by the CEA. By providing reliable, useful data about our social condition, the Council of Social Advisers would begin to influence planning generally, making it more sensitive to social costs and benefits, less coldly technocratic and econocentric. Proponents differ as to whether the Council of Social Advisers ought to be organizationally independent or become a part of a larger Council of Economic and Social Advisers. All sides agree, however, on the need for integrating economic and social intelligence. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
The establishment of such councils, not merely at the federal level but at state and municipal levels as well, would not at the federal level but at state and municipal levels as well, would not solve all our problems; it would not eliminate conflict; it would not guarantee that social indicators are exploited properly. In brief, it would not eliminate politics from political life. However, it would end recognition—and political force—to the idea that the ais of progress reach beyond economics. The designation of agencies to watch over the indicators of change in the quality of life would carry us a long way toward that humanization of the planner which is the essential first stage of the strategy of social futurism. Replace fear with faith—faith in God and the power of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we think of the future, we should be filled with faith and hope. Always remember that Jesus Christ—the Creator of the Universe, the architect of our salvation, and the head of this Church—is in control. He will not permit His work to fail. He will be victorious over all darkness and evil. And He invites us all, members of His church and others who are the honest in heart, to join in the battle for the souls of God’s children. Along with all else we will do in life, we must also dedicate and consecrate our heart, might, mind, and strength to His cause, walking in faith and working with conviction. Face the future with optimism. I believe we are standing on the threshold of a new era of growth, prosperity, and abundance. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
I think the next few years will bring a resurgence in the World economy as new discoveries are made in communication, medicine, energy, transportation, physics, computer technology, and other fields endeavor. Many of these discoveries, as in the past, will be the result of the spirit whispering insights into and enlightening the minds of truth-seeking individuals. With these discoveries and advances will come new employment opportunities and prosperity for those who work hard and especially for those who strive to keep the commandments of God. This has been the case in other significant periods of national and international economic growth. People, we rainclouds closer to the sun and full of life soaking up the knowledge of the Earth and storing it within ourselves, moving on to spread truth through the World. We clouds are loved and feared, ready to explore and give new life to a dying planet. Beautiful clouds, casting shadows of love, shadows of dignity, shadows of healing. Giving of ourselves to promote life, while realizing our ability to destroy rainclouds, we are nature, natural! People, we rainclouds are closer to the run and full of life. May the Father of mercies who dwells on high, in His mighty compassion, remember the loving, upright and blameless souls and all the holy communities in America who laid down their lives for the sanctification of the divine name. Even as they were devoted and faithful in life, so in death they were not parted. They were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions to do the will of their Master and the desire of their Rock. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
May our God remember them for good with other righteous of the World, and bring retribution for blood of His servants which has been shed, in accordance with the promise given in the in the Law of Moses, reiterated in the Books of the Prophets and again stated in the Sacred Writings: Sing aloud, O ye nations, for God des bring to judgment those who shed the blood of His servants. Wherefore should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the retribution of Thy servants’ blood be made known among the nations in our sight. For God, the Avenger of bloodshed, will not forget the cry of the humble. He will judge among the nations, and crushing evil, will emerge triumphant. Happy are they that dwell in Thy house; they will ever praise Thee. Happy is the people who thus fare; yea, happy is the people whose God is the Lord. I will extol Thee, my God, O King, and I will bless Thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall laud Thy works to another, and shall declare thy might acts. On the majestic glory of Thy splendor, and on Thy wonderous deeds will I meditate. And humans shall proclaim the might of Thy tremendous acts, and I will recount Thy greatness. They shall make known the fame of Thy great goodness, and shall exult in Thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, long forbearing, and abundant in kindness. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord, and Thy faith one shall bless Thee. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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May the Nations, in the Efforts to Keep Peace in Being, Go to the Farthest Limits!
Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live. The fact that after awakening the mind picks up the thoughts of the day before, that the individuality connects with the old individuality of presleep, proves the continuity of existence of a part of the Self both and during sleep as during waking. We have not taken proper notice of history; and, in consequence, we no longer know what is just—or what is useful. The most flagrant violation of the rights of history—and, above all, of the rights of humans—occurs when a people is deprived of the right to the land on which it lives and has to move elsewhere. At the end of the second World War the victorious powers decided to impose this fate upon hundreds of thousands of people, and to impose it in the cruelest conditions; in this they showed how little they understood their task, and how unfitted they were to carry out a reorganization which would be reasonably equitable and might guarantee a more prosperous future. And now—what exactly is this problem of peace in the modern World? Its conditions are quite new—as different from those of former times as is the war which we seek to avert. Modern warfare is fought with weapons which are incomparably more destructive than those of the past. War is, in fact, a greater evil than ever before. It was once possible to regard it as an evil to which we could resign ourselves, because it was the servant of progress—and was even essential to it. It could be argued in those days that, thanks to war, those nations which were strongest got the better of their weaker neighbours and thus determined the march of history. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
It is worth remembering that for the generation which grew up before 1914, the enormous increase in the destructive power of modern armament was regarded as advantageous to humanity. It was argued that outcome of any future conflict would be settled much more quickly than in previous ages, and that any such wars would therefore be very brief. It was also thought that the harm done by any future conflict would be relatively slight, since a new element of humanity was being introduced into the rules of war. This arose from the obligations established by the Geneva Convention of 1864 as a result of the efforts of the Red Cross. The nations had entered int a mutual agreement to look after each other’s wounded, to ensure that prisoners of war were treated humanely, and to see that the civil populations were disturbed as little as possible. This convention did, in point of fact, have substantial results, and hundreds of thousands of men, civilians and combatants alike, have profited by it for the last one hundred and fifty years. However, these advantages are trifling when set beside the immeasurable harm which has been inflicted by modern methods of death and destruction. There cannot, at the present time, be any question of “humanizing” war. Now that we know how terrible an evil war is in our time, we should neglect nothing that may prevent its recurrence. Above all, this decision must be based on ethical values: during the last two wars we were guilty of atrocious acts of inhumanity. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
In any future war, we shall do yet more terrible things. This must not be. Let us be brave and look the facts in the face. Humans have become superhuman. One is a superhuman not only because one has at one’s command innate physical forces, but because, thanks to science and to technical advancement, one now controls the latent forces of nature and can bring them, if one wishes, into play. When quite on one’s own one could kill only at a distance by calling upon the personal strength one communicated to the arrow by suddenly unleashing one’s bow. Superhumans, on the other hand, have contrived to unleash something quite different: the energy released by the deflagration of a particular mixture of chemicals. This allows one to use a vastly more formidable projectile, and one can send it a great deal father. However, this superhuman suffers from a fatal imperfection of mind. One has not raised oneself to that superhuman level of reason which should correspond to the possession of superhuman strength. Today, once again, we live in a period that is marked by the absence of peace; today, once again, nations feel themselves menaced by other nations; today, once again, we must concede to each the right to defend oneself with the terrible weapons which are now at our disposal. I believe that I have here given voice to the thoughts and hopes of millions of human beings in our part of the World who live in the fear of a future war. May my words be those on the far side of the barrier who are haunted by this same fear. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
May those who have in their hands the fate of the nations take care to avoid whatever may worsen our situation and make it more dangerous. And may they take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, lice peaceably with all men.” His words are valid not only for individuals, but for whole nations as well. May the nations, in their efforts keep peace in being, go to the farthest limits of possibility, so that the spirit of humans shall be given time to develop and grow strong—and time to act. Can one live in a society that is out of control? That is the question posed for the concept of future shock. For that is the situation we find ourselves in. If it were technology alone that had broken loose, our problems would be serious enough. The deadly fact is, however, that many other social processes have also begun to run free, oscillating wildly, resisting our best efforts to guide them. Urbanization, ethic conflict, migration, population crime—a thousand examples spring to mind of fields in which our efforts to shape change seem increasingly inept and futile. Some of these are strongly related to the breakaway of technology; others partially independent of it. Then uneven, rocketing rates of change, the sifts and jerks in direction, compel us to ask whether the techno-societies, even comparatively small ones like Sweden and Belgium, have grown too complex, too fast to manage? #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
How can we prevent mass future shock, selectively adjusting the tempos of change, raising or lowering levels of stimulation, when governments—including those with the best intentions—seem unable even to point change in the right direction? Thus a leading American urbanologist writes with unconcealed disgust: “At a cost of more than three billion dollars, the Urban Renewal Agency has succeeded in materially reducing the supply of low cost housing in American cities.” Similar debacles could be cited in a dozen fields. Why do welfare programs today often cripple rather than help their clients? Why do college students supposedly a papered elite, riot and rebel? Why do expressways add to traffic congestion rather than reduce it? In short, why do so many well-intentioned liberal programs turn rancid so rapidly, producing side effects that cancel out their central effects? No wonder Raymond Fletcher, a frustrated Member of Parliament in Britain, recently complained: “Society’s gone random!” If random means a literal absence of patter, he is, of course, overstating the case. However, if random means that the outcomes of social policy have become erratic and hard to predict, he is right on target. Here, then, is the political meaning of future shock. For just as individual future shock results from an inability to keep peace with the rate of change, governments, too, suffer from a kind of collective future shock—a breakdown of their decisional processes. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
With chilling clarity, Sir Geoffery Vickers, the eminent British social scientist, has identified the issue: “The rate of change increases at an accelerating speed, without a corresponding acceleration in the rate at which further responses can be made; and this brings us nearer the threshold beyond which control is lost.” The United State is equipped with what are at least called planning departments. Why, therefore, despite all these efforts, should the system be spinning out of control? The problem is not simply that we plan too little; we also plan too poorly. Part of the trouble can be traced to the very premises implicit in our planning. First, technocratic planning, itself a product of industrialism, reflect the values of that fast-vanishing era. In both its capitalist and communist variants, the age of information is a system focused on the maximization of material welfare. Thus, for the technocrat in the Silicon Valley as well as Kiev, economic advance is the primary aim; technology the primary tool. The fact that in one case the advance redounds to private advantage and in the other, theoretically, to the public good, does not alter the core assumptions common to both. Technocratic planning is econocentric. Second, technocratic planning reflects the time-bias of the age of information. Struggling to free itself from the stifling past-orientation of previous societies, the age of information is focused heavily on the future. This means, in practise, that it is planning for the future. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
However, the idea of a five-year plan struck the World as insanely futuristic when it was first put forward by Soviets in the 1920’s. Even today, except in the most advanced organizations on both sides of the ideological curtain, one- or two-year forecasts are regarded as “long-range planning.” A handful of corporations and government agencies, as we shall see, have begun to concern themselves with horizons ten, twenty, even fifty years in the future. The majority, however, remain blindly biased toward next Monday. Technocratic planning is short-range. Third, reflecting the bureaucratic organization of the digital age, technocratic planning is premised on hierarchy. The World is divided int manager and worker, planner and plannee, with decisions made by one for the other. This system, adequate while change unfolds at a digital tempo, breaks down as the pace reaches super-age of information speeds. The increasingly unstable environment demands more and more non-programmed decisions down below; the need for instant feedback blurs the distinction between line and staff; and hierarchy totters. Planners are too remote, too unenlightened of local conditions, too slow in responding to change. As suspicious spreads that top-down controls are unworkable, plannees begin clamouring for the right to participate in the decision-making. Planners, however, resists. For like the bureaucratic system it mirrors, technocratic planning is essentially undemocratic. The forces sweeping us toward the super-age of information can no longer be channeled by these bankrupt industrial-era methods. For a time, they may continue to work in backward, slowly moving industries or communities. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
However, their misapplication in advanced industries, in universities, in cities—wherever change is swift—cannot but intensify the instability, leading to wilder and wilder swings and lurches. Moreover, as the evidences of failure pile up, dangerous political, cultural and psychological currents are set loose. One response to the loss of control, for example, is a revulsion against intelligence. Science first gave humans a sense of mastery over one’s environment, and hence over the future. By making the future seem malleable, instead of immutable, it shattered the opiate religions that preached passivity and mysticism. Today, mounting evidence that society is out of control breeds disillusionment with science. In consequence, we witness a garish revival of mysticism. Suddenly astrology is the rage. Zen, yoga, seances, and witchcraft have become popular pastimes. Cults form around the search for Dionysian experience, for non-verbal and supposedly non-linear communication. We are told it is more important to “feel” than to “think,” as though there were a contradiction between the two. Existentialist oracles join Catholic mystics, Jungian psychoanalysts, and Hindu gurus in exalting the mystical and emotional against the scientific and rational. This reversion to pre-scientific attitudes is accompanied, not surprisingly, by a tremendous wave of nostalgia in the society. Antique furniture, posters from a bygone era, games based on the remembrance of yesterday’s trivia, the revival of Art Nouveau, the spread of Queen Anne styles, the rediscovery of such faded pop-cult celebrities as Brad Pitt or Michael Jordan, all mirror a psychological lust for the simpler, less turbulent past. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
Powerful fad machines spring into action to capitalize on this hunger. The nostalgia business becomes a booming industry. The failure of technocratic planning and the consequent sense of lost control also feeds the philosophy of “now-ness.” Songs and advertisements hail the appearance of the “now generation,” and learned psychiatrists, discoursing on the presumed dangers of repression, warn us not to defer our gratifications. Acting out and a search for immediate payoff are encouraged. “We’re more oriented to the present. I got this. Live out load,” says a teenage girl to a reporter after the mammoth Coachella rock music festival. “It’s like do what you want to do now…If you stay anywhere very long you get into a planning thing…So you must just move on.” Spontaneity, the personal equivalent of social planlessness, is elevated int a cardinal psychological virtue. All this has its political analog in the emergence of a strange coalition of right wingers and New Leftists in support of what can only be termed a “hang loose” approach to the future. Thus we hear increasing calls for anti-planning or non-planning, sometimes euphemized as “organic growth.” Among some radicals, this takes on an anarchist coloration. Not only is it regarded as unnecessary or unwise to make long range plans for the future of the institution or society they wish to overturn, it is sometimes even regarded as poor taste to plan the next hour and a half of a meeting. Planlessness is glorified. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
Arguing that planning imposes values on the future, the anti-planners overlook the fact that non-planning does so, too-often with far worse consequence. Angered by the narrow, econoncentic character of technocratic planning, they condemn systems analysis, cost benefit accounting, and similar methods, ignoring the fact that, used differently, these very tools might be converted into powerful techniques for humanizing the future. When critics charge that technocratic planning is anti-human, in the sense that it neglects social, cultural and psychological values in its headlong rush to maximize economic gain, they are usually right. When they charge that it is shortsighted and undemocratic, they are usually right. When they charge it is inept, they are usually right. However, when they plunge backward into irrationality, anti-scientific attitudes, a kind of sick nostalgia, and an exaltation of now-ness, they are not only wrong, but dangerous. Just as, in the main, their alternatives to industrialism call for a return to pre-industrial institutions, their alternative to technocracy is not post-, but pre-technocracy. Nothing could be more dangerously maladaptive. Whatever the theoretical arguments may be, brute forces are loose in the World. Whether we wish to prevent future shock or control populations to check pollution or defuse the arms race, we cannot permit decisions of Earth-jolting importance to be taken heedlessly, witlessly, planlessly. To hang loose is to commit collective suicide. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
We need not a reversion to the irrationalism of the past, not a passive acceptance of change, not despair or nihilism. We need, instead, a strong new strategy. For reasons that will become clear, I term this strategy “social futurism.” I am convinced that, armed with this strategy, we can arrive at a new level of competence in the management of change. We can invent a form of planning more humane, more far-sighted, and more democratic than any so far use. In short, we can transcend technocracy. A scientifically or oriented psychology is bound to proceed abstractly; that is, it removes itself just sufficiently far from its object not to lose sight of it altogether. That is why the findings of laboratory psychology are, for all practical purposes, often so remarkably unenlightening and devoid of interest. The more the individual object dominates the field of vision, the more practical, detailed, and alive will be the knowledge derived from it. This means that the objects of investigation, too, become more and more complicated and that the uncertainty of the individual factors grows in proportion to their number, thus increasing the possibility of error. Understandably enough, academic psychology is scared of this risk and prefers to avoid complex situations by asking ever simpler questions, which it can do with impunity. It has full freedom in the choice of questions it will put to Nature. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
Medical psychology, on the other hand, is very far from being in this more or less enviable position. Here the object puts the question and not the experimenter. The analyst is confronted with facts which are not of one’s choosing and which one probably never would choose is one were a free agent. It is the sickness or the patient oneself that puts the crucial questions—in other words, Nature experiments with the doctor in expecting an answer from one. The uniqueness of the individual and of one’s situation stares the analyst in the face and demands an answer. One’s duty as a physician forces one to cope with a situation swarming with uncertainty factors. At first one will apply principles based on general experience, but one will soon realize the principles of this kind do not adequately express the facts and fail to meet the nature of the case. The deeper one’s understanding penetrates, the more the general principles lose their meaning. However, these principles are the foundation of objective knowledge and the yardstick by which it is measured. With the growth of what both patient and doctor feel to be “understanding,” the situation becomes increasingly subjectivized. What was an advantage to begin with threatens to turn into a dangerous disadvantage. Subjectivation (in technical terms, transference and countertransference) creates isolation from the environment, a social limitation which neither party wishes for but which invariably sets in when understanding predominates and is no longer balanced by knowledge. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
As understanding deepens, the further removed it becomes from knowledge. An ideal understanding would ultimately result in each party’s unthinkingly going along with the other’s experience—a state of uncritical passivity coupled with the most complete subjectivity and lack of social responsibility. Understanding carried to such lengths is in any case impossible, for it would require the virtual identification of two different individuals. Sooner or later the relationship reaches a point where one partner feels one is being forced to sacrifice one’s own individuality so that it may be assimilated by that of the other. This inevitable consequence breaks the understanding, for understanding also presupposes the integral preservation of the individuality of both partners. It is therefore advisable to carry understanding only to the point where the balance between understanding and knowledge is reached, for understanding at all costs is injurious to both partners. This problem arises whenever complex, individual situations have to be known and understood. It is the specific task of the medical psychologist to provide just this knowledge and understanding. It would also be the task of the “director of conscience” zealous in the cure of souls, were it is not that one’s office inevitably obliges one to apply the yardstick of one’s denominational bias at the critical moment. As a result, the individual’s right to exist as such is cut short by a collective prejudice and often curtailed in the most sensitive area. The only time this does not happen is when the dogmatic symbol, for instance the model life of Christ, is understood concretely and felt by the individual to be adequate. How far this is the case today I would prefer to leave to the judgment of others. At all events, the analyst very often has to treat patients to whom denominational limitations means little or nothing. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
One’s profession therefore compels one to have as few preconceptions as possible. Similarly, while respecting metaphysical (id est, non-verifiable) convictions and assertions, one will take care not to credit the with universal validity. This caution is called for because the individual traits of the patient’s personality ought not to be twisted out of shape by arbitrary interventions from outside. The analyst must leave this to environmental influences, to the patient’s own inner development, and—in the widest sense—to fate with its wise or unwise decrees. Many people will perhaps find this heightened caution exaggerated. In view of the fact, however, that there is in any case such a multitude of reciprocal influences at work in the dialectical process between two individual, even if it is conducted with the most tactful reserve, the responsible analyst will refrain from adding unnecessarily to the collective factors to which one’s patent has already succumbed. Moreover, one knows very well that the preaching of even the worthiest precepts only provokes the patient into open hostility or secret resistance and thus needlessly endangers the aim of the treatment. The psychic situation of the individual is so menaced nowadays by advertising, propaganda, and other more or less well-meant advice and suggestions that for once in one’s life the patient might be offered a relationship that does not repeat the nauseating “you should,” “you must” and similar confession of impotence. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
Against the onslaught from outside no less than against its repercussions in the psyche of the individua the analyst sees oneself obligated to play the role of counsel for the defence. Fear that anarchic instincts will thereby be let loose is a possibility that is greatly exaggerated, seeing that obvious safeguards exist within and without. Above all, there is the natural cowardice of most humans to be reckoned with, not to mention morality, good taste and – last but not least – the penal code. This fear is nothing compared with the enormous effort it usually costs people to help the first stirrings of individuality into consciousness, let alone put them into effect. And where these individual impulses have broken through too boldly and unthinkingly, the analyst must protect them from the patient’s own clumsy recurse to shortsightedness, ruthlessness, and cynicism. Amid the tumult of ego-directed thoughts and feelings, the distress brought on by an adverse circumstance which the ego has not been able to endure or set right can be lessened and relived by relaxing, letting go, pausing, lying physically and mentally still, whether in a prayer for inner peace or a simple meditation, but in any case turning the affair over to the higher power as a sign of having let go. Such temporary withdrawal gives the Overself its change to break through the ego’s crust and to bring its ministering peace, help, guidance, or healing. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
If you want to heal a human do not concentrate upon the nature of one’s disease, or you may strengthen it. Concentrate rather upon the nature of one’s Overself, that its might grace may be released to one. Do not even pray that one will be cured. Pray rather that the power of the Overself’s grace may work within one, and do what it will. The nape of the neck is one of these important—physically sensitive—centers. It can receive through the hand-touch of a healer the magnetism which affects the health condition. The Old World physicians use the prolonged fast treatment for advanced illnesses; other use mud packs. Thus both turn to Mother Nature, and do not always turn in vain. After one has felt the divine power and presence within oneself as the reward of one’s meditative search, one may turn it towards the healing of one’s body’s aliments. This could be impossible if one were less than relaxed, peaceful, assured, if either fear or desire introduce their negative presence and thus obstructed one’s receptivity to the healing-power’s penetration. When the contact is successfully made, one should draw the power to every atom of one’s body and let it be permeated. The cure could be had at a single treatment, if one could sit still and let the work go n to completion. However, although the power is unlimited, one’s patience is not. And so one must treat oneself day after day until the outer and physical result matches the inner and spiritual achievement. The lift of deep meditation reduces the need of sleep shown by the case of the Spanish Saint John of the Cross. Three or four hours of repose at night were quite enough for him. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
If it is adopted more enthusiastically, a new bodily regime can be adopted more quickly and more easily. Some people play with the thought of it for years but never actually started on it. Others, frightened into it by some dire necessity or taking to it through strong yearning for its benefits, make up their mind to the point of getting excited about it. For them action is the direct consequence of aspiration. Chemical changes in every cell of one’s body are the outer physical result of this inner second birth. That word “normal” is a deceptive and even dangerous one to use in these matters. For the human race’s present condition is an unevolved and, from the philosophic standpoint, unclear one. To accept this as the norm, the ideal to be attain by individuals, is to prevent growth. Pleasures of the flesh, wrathful temperament, and despondent outlook may have their source in the body or in the mind, or in both together. If a lasting result is to be gained, where the physical origin exists, the physical treatment should be given. How proudly and how carefully a cat cleans, washes, and combs its fur coat! A clean body is more responsive to the finer feelings and nobler thoughts. However, we must remember that skin cleanness is only small part of the whole. The intestinal tract, the tissues, and the organs are the larger part. To the extent that one has transgressed the laws of moral, mental, and physical hygiene, to that extent one might reasonably be asked to preform penance in proportion. However, Nature is not so exacting as that. She will cooperate with and help one from the moment one repents and does some of the required penance. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Even if these physical plane methods offer only contributory help and secondary values, they will still be worth using by those who need all the help they can get. Those who want the higher degree of knowledge and pace must but their way into it. The purchase price is high, no less than abstinence, continence, self-denial, and self-mastery—alike in the realm of thoughts as that of acts. Constipation is specifically blamed as a hindrance to the practice of meditation by some teachers. They require it to be cured before allowing students to proceed with the practice itself. They prescribe certain exercises and dietetic changes to remove the condition. These regimes are intended to remove some obstacles to the occurrence of Glimpses, obstacles which are physical and emotional. They are methods of cleansing the body and feelings to permit the intuitive element to enter awareness more easily. They constitute the preliminary part of the Quest, preceding or accompanying mediation. It is better to eliminate bad habits, stop unhygienic ways of living, and cultivate willpower if meditation is to take its full and proper effect. We deep on trees and animals, we depend on the Earth. Our minds open with wisdom and insight. We live in all things; all things live in us. We dedicate our practice to others. We include all forms of life. We celebrate the joy of living-dying. We live in all things; all things live in us. We are full of life. We are full of death. We are grateful for all beings and companions. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
O Heavenly Father, the approach of another month reminds us of the flight of time and the change of seasons. Month follows month; the years of human’s life are few and fleeting. Please teach us to number our days that we may use each precious moment wisely. May no day pass without bringing us close to some worthy achievement. Please grant that the new month bring life and hope and peace to all Thy children. Amen. Our God and God of our fathers, we invoke Thy blessing upon our country, on the government of this Republic, the President of the United States of America and all who exercise just and rightful authority. Do Thou instruct them out of Thy Law, that they may administer all affairs of state in justice and equity, that peace and security, happiness and prosperity, right and freedom, may forever abide among us. Unite all the inhabitants of our country, whatever their origin and creed, into a bound of true brotherhood to banish hatred and bigotry and to safeguard the ideals and free institutions which are our country’s glory. May this land under Thy Providence be an influence for good throughout the World, uniting humans in peace and freedom and helping to fulfill the vision of Thy Prophets: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall human learn war anymore. For all humans, both great and small shall know the Lord.” Amen. The dictionary defines individuality as separate and distinct existence. Both ego and the Overself have such an existence. However whereas the ego has this and nothing, more, the Overself has this consciousness within the Universal existence. That is why we have called it the higher individuality. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
Winchester Mystery House
Museums employ security guards to keep watch over property. Normally, where surveillance is concerned, the “buck stops” with those employees. At the Winchester Estate, however, the ghosts keep a watchful eye out for the guards. In the Summer of 1985, several new security guards were hired. One guard, perhaps an especially sensitive person, reported feeling that he was being watched. Upon careful inspection, he determined that no one else was in the mansion. Even so, he would suddenly feel uncomfortable and would hurry down the hall, hoping to see another person. He never did. Oftentimes it would feel like someone had been standing in the next doorway but had suddenly stepped back inside the room just as he approached. The guard did not see or hear anything–it was just something that he sensed. The mansion even hast its own “ghost writer.” As a release issued by the mansion indicates, “Late one evening on 18th April of 1989, the Night Supervisor of Housekeeping was passing the Personnel Office and heard the electric typewriter being used. Knowing that the staff leaves at 5PM, she knocked on the door to see who was in the office There was no response. Several times she knocked and called out, but there was still no response–only the steady tap-tap-taping of the typewriter. Next morning, when the personnel staff arrived, the typewriter was still turned on, a chair that had been left at a desk was now arranged in front of the typewriter, and the papers on all of the desk had been neatly arranged.
A few months later, Sales Coordinator Merrick Montgomery got a real surprise when he entered his own office early one July morning. His electric typewriter was, as he put it, “typing all by itself.” When Merrick expressed his alarm, the typing stopped. After taking a deep breath, the man informed whatever force was at work, “That is fine, you keep working on that.” The activity resumed. He lifted the letter from the typewriter, it said: “And tonight, as I passed the cemetery, a lost child wandering dangerously alone for all the World to pity me, I bought these chrysanthemums, and lingered for some time within the scent of the fresh graves and their decaying dead, wondering what death life would have had for me had I been let to live it. Wondering if I could have loved as much as I love now?” A legible messages from beyond was certainly intriguing! It was dated 18 April 1906. Ghosts and electrical equipment have often proved to be a volatile combination, and this was certainly the case when a film crew came into the Winchester mansion to shoot a documentary about the residents spirits just before Halloween, on 16 October 1989. Each time the camera operators moved to the corridor outside the blue séance room, where Mrs. Winchester used to contact the spirits, lights would inexplicably go out, and explode. The camera was on a tripod and it started to shake and fell to the ground and broke. Sound equipment broke down while the operators were tying to work on another floor, and when the team moved to the grand ballroom, the audio equipment was also affected–but only within the cold spot.
At another point in the shoot–and for no reason that anyone could discern–film jammed in the cameras. Perhaps the most interesting moment in the filming ordeal came when the crew set up to capture some footage of a particular mirror, seconds into the shooting the scene, something triggered the alarm in a nearby smoke detector. The crew never did get that shot recorded. Then they saw a man standing about halfway down the hall. Thinking he was lost or in need of some kind of assistance, Merrick called out to him. The man did not answer but he kept looking from side to side as if he was not sure which way to go, the concerned employee approached him. The man turned and walk toward the the east end of the hall. Then he turned and walked through the door! He did not open it and walk out–he went through the door! Merrick tried to follow, but his feet were rooted to the spot. The very next day was the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, which occurred which was magnitude 6.9, resulting in 63 deaths and 3,757 injuries. The mansion did not withstand any damage. The Loma Prieta segment of the San Andreas Fault System had been relatively inactive since the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Some took the recent spiritual activity as an omen that something was coming, which was more obvious in retrospect. Mysterious symbols hidden in the details. What’s your favorite lesser-known-detail in the house? Despite the elegance and great location of the property, it has remained empty for decades. Over the years, numerous legends are associated with the home. This has lead to the property becoming known as “Ghost Mansion” and “Casa Delle Streghe” (The House of Witches). The mansion is full of secrets. Do we really want to unlock those secrets, and how will we deal with the darkness that lies inside?
The spiderweb pattern is a common design found throughout Mrs. Winchester’s mansion. Appearing on fireplace mantles, stained-glass windows, and windows like these. What do you think this design meant to Sarah? Maybe they represent a spiritual prison. Much like the boarded up rooms and wings, perhaps Mrs. Winchester was trying to keep something from escaping? Over the years, the property has gained further attention thanks to its alleged paranormal activity. So much so, it has become known as California’s most haunted house. A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻
🗝 winchestermysteryhouse.com
In the Hearts of the People Today there is a Deep Longing for Peace!
A gift to the wrong person is darkness, and when darkness is gone, it it best to forget it. Write out of love; write out of instinct; write out of reason. However, always for money. In an atomic war, there would be neither conqueror nor vanquished. During such a bombardment, both sides would suffer the same fate. A continuous destruction would take place and no armistice nor peace proposals would bring it to an end. In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. It is only when this really happens, that the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of human’s hearts, that humanity can be saved from perishing. Before Constantine’s Christianizing of the Roman empire, all Christians were advised to avoid civil office because of the idolatrous emperor worship it demanded. (In some instances that concern is as relevant today as it was in ancient Rome.) Even after Constantine, church policy restricted members of the clergy from holding office. The American colonists wrote similar prohibitions into several state constitutions, which remained in effect until 1978, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Tennessee restrictions as a violation of a minister’s First Amendment right. There were few exceptions over the centuries; when they were made, it was to protect religious liberty, as, for example, when anti-Catholic legislation was being enacted in Hungary; the priests were released to engage in politics “for the sake of safeguarding religion or promoting the common good.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
Despite the Tennessee case and the fact that the United States Constitution contains no such prohibition, the tradition remains strong. Few clergy have held major offices in Western democracies. In the Catholic church, Pope John Paul’s rejection of the tiara of temporal authority was a clear signal: ecclesiastical goals would not be sought through political means. Thus it was consistent that John Paul II in 1980 ordered priests out of secular office entirely. Five-term Congressman Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest and outspoken liberal, quietly resigned. In Nicaragua, however, three priests defined the papal order. This has been a major cause of the rift not only within the church, but it has compromised the integrity of the church. Those priests may say they are acting in civil capacity but can they really disavow responsibility for the expulsion of missionaries, restriction on the free press, including Iglesia, the official Catholic newspaper? The cleric in public office can hardly avoid such doublemindedness. And presenting two faces to the World inevitably damages the work that should be of primary concern: the witness of the church. Regardless of one’s stand on abortion, for example, no one could seriously imagine Sister Agnes Mary Mansour as commissioner of Health and Welfare in Michigan, supervising state-funded abortions while in conscience maintaining her vows to a church that forbids abortion. Definitions of integrity have been stretched in recent years, but not that far. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
Any priest or minister who feels called to seek public office should, as a citizen, be free to undertake that vocation. However, doing so means that one must leave the pulpit, resigning all ecclesiastical functions. One must make it clear that one is acting as a private citizen seeking office to fulfill civic, not spiritual goals. (In many denominations, however, the priestly office cannot actually be resigned.) However, if the clergy should not hold office, should the institutional church be silent on political issues? This is perhaps the most sensitive question of all. The Church acts as the conscience of society. The soul of the New World civilization is Christianity. So the Church must address moral issues in society and measure public actions by biblical standards of justice and righteousness. However, there are pitfalls. One of the greatest is the tendency Christians have to believe that because the Bible is “on their side” they can speak with authority on every issue. Many church bureaucracies have succumbed to this temptation in recent decades, spewing out position papers on everything from public toilet facilities to nuclear war. The New Right has engaged in such excesses with its scorecards covering the gamut of issues from trade legislation to the Panama Canal. When Christians use the broad brush, they become simply another political interest group, pontificating on matters about which they are often woefully uninformed. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
A case in point was the United States Catholic bishops’ position paper on nuclear war. It hardly seems necessary to convene a conference to announce that it is a moral issue to unleash weapons that would annihilate millions. The bishops did, however, and they went on to conclude that the deterrent posture of the United States of America was unsatisfactory from a moral point of view. That could be true—particularly if one realizes that our missiles are aimed at Soviet cities, just as Soviet missiles are aimed at U.S. cities, and Korean often launches missiles over Japan to try to see how close they can come to hitting the United States of America as their nuclear technology increases, then there is also a threat from the Middle East directed at America. However, deterrence itself is not immoral by definition; deterrence is impeding another nation’s hostile act. The existence of a nuclear weapon (as with a police officer’s gun) may prevent a much greater evil. At this stage we have the choice of two risks: the one lies in continuing the mad atomic-arms race with its danger of an unavoidable atomic war in the near future; the other in the renunciation of nuclear weapons, and in hope that the United States of America and the Soviet Union, and the peoples associated with them, will manage to live in peace. The first holds no hope of a prosperous future; the second does. We must risk the second. Any moral analysis must take into account the complexity of modern nuclear strategy and the actual efficacy to deterrence. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
To determine the efficacy, one cannot simply consider just numbers of bombs or throw-weight, but targeting studies and the whole range of strategic options; what would remain after a surprise attack; what defenses neutralize attacking missiles; what would the communications capacity be, and the like. Ironically, the country that renounces a first strike (the more moral position, as the bishops would no doubt agree) has need for a much larger deterrent capability (which the bishops decry as immoral). The logical consequences of their paper is a Catch-22. At the present time when violence, clothed in life, dominates the World more cruelly than it ever has before, I still remain convinced that truth, love, peaceableness, meekness, and kindness are the violence which can master all other violence. While the bishops certainly could have commented on the immorality of unleashing nuclear war, they simply did not have all the facts necessary to render an authoritative judgment beyond that. This was summed up by a University of Chicago professor who agreed personally with the bishops’ position, but concluded that they could not determine whether deterrence was immoral because such judgment depended on facts “which are secret—and thus, unknown to the bishops.” In the hearts of the people today there is a deep longing for peace. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. It is only when this really happens, that the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of human’s hearts, that humanity can be saved from perishing. Is the human spirit able to achieve those things which, in our distress, we must expect of it? We must not underestimate its strength. Through human history this strength has made itself manifest. It is to the strength of the human mind that we owe the humanitarianism that is at the origin of a progress towards a higher way of life. When we are animated by humanitarianism, we are faithful to ourselves and capable of creation. Russell Kirk, a Catholic layman himself, has described the delegates to such conferences as “utopians…wondrously unaware of the limits of politics.” Certainly the heated controversy resulting from the bishops’ attempt to formulate United States of America’s defense policy called their own competence into question of policy, must about which the church demonstrably lacked expertise, bishop Kirk mused that he would “as soon go to a bartender for medical advice as to a church secretary for political wisdom.” Poland’s Catholic bishops seem to have understood the need to deal with issues within their particular competence better perhaps than the United States counterparts. When Polish government engaged in one of its periodic purges of political dissidents in 1985, the bishops quickly condemned the persecution. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
A clear issue of human rights was at stake, and the moral question was unambiguous. They added, however, that “the Church is not and does not, want to be a political force [but it] has the right to give moral assessments, even in questions of political affairs when the basic rights of the individual or the salvation of the soul demands it. The Polish bishops understood the restraints imposed on the church when it speaks as the church. This is a crucial distinction. It is one thing for an individual Christian to address whatever issue one’s conscience dictates, but the church as a body, which purports to speak God’s truth, should speak only to those matters in which fidelity to holy Scripture itself makes it necessary to speak out: Issues where human life or dignity, religious liberty, or justice are involved. Even then, the church should claim no superior wisdom except in those areas where it is uniquely able to bring biblically informed truth to the debate. There are controversial issues in which the principle is unmistakable and the command of the hour comes through loud and clear. On these issues the church must make pronouncements. However, there are other general issues in which facts and motives are mixed consequences contradict the principles involved and equally dedicated and knowledgeable Christians disagree. In these cases the church should remain silent, letting individual Christians and Christian groups decide for themselves what Christian witness means. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
For the church to sponsor a political party, engage in lobbying, form coalitions with secular pressure groups and become entangled in the decisions of private business corporation, would be to take a position on precisely those issues in which the religious significance is unclear, ambiguous or non-existent. An excellent example, one that stands in distinct contrast to the pastoral letter on nuclear policy, was the 1987 Vatican statement on human life and biomedical ethics. It spoke forthrightly to a clear biblical issue on which the church has special competence and about which the secular World was grossly confused. It has been perhaps the single most useful document issued thus far to clarify moral questions in the growing debate over reproductive technology. Politics is not the church’s first calling. Evangelism administering the sacraments, providing discipleship, fellowship, teaching the Word, and exhorting its members to holy living are the heartbeat of the church. When it addresses political issues, the church must not do so at the risk of weakening its primary mission. As mainline churches discovered in the sixties, the faster they churned out partisan statements, the faster they emptied their pews. And while the Christian citizens can afford to be as partisan as they wish, Christian pastors cannot. If they are, they may soon discover they have compromised both their own witness and that of the church. An extreme example was the case of the bishop who presided at the May 1987 funeral of former CIA Director William Casey. Because President Reagan, former President Nixon, and a host of other government officials were in the congregation, this bishop used the occasion to attack U.S. foreign policy in Central America, for which the deceased Mr. Casey was an outspoken proponent. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
It was in such a deplorably bad taste that the incident, reported Worldwide, resulted in an adverse reaction not against U.S. policy, but against the church. Grieving families should receive spiritual comfort, not a political harangue against their loved one’s views. Admittedly a fine line exists here. It is clearly partisan for a pastor to stand in a pulpit and endorse a particular candidate, as some clergymen endorsed Jimmy Carter in 1980, and others endorsed Ronald Reagan 1984. However, what about Cardinal O’Connor’s statement in the same campaign that a Catholic could not in conscience vote for a candidate who supported abortion? His remarks were reported as a partisan rebuke of the views of two of his New York parishioners, Governor Mario Cuomo and vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro. Admittedly, the cardinal’s timing made his remarks suspect, but they could also be regarded as no more than a statement of elementary logic. Since the Catholic church believes that the taking of unborn lives violates God’s law, could a Catholic in conscience logically vote for one who willfully violated that law? While I believe an open pulpit endorsement of a candidate is improper, I also feel that—if made responsibly from the right motivations—a cleric’s statement that Christians should not support candidates who reject basic human rights is justified. Within these limits, then, we can conclude that Christians, both individually and institutionally, have a duty, for the good of society as a whole, to bring the values of the kingdom of God to bear within the kingdoms of man. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
It is fair to say, however, that Christians have not done a particularly good job at this task. Often they have terrified their secular neighbours, who see Christian political activists as either backwoods bigot or religious ayatollahs attempting to assault them with Bible verses or religious magisteriums. In a pluralistic society it is not only wrong but unwise for Christians to shake their Bibles and arrogantly assert that “God says…”That is the quickest way for Christians, a distinct growing majority in civil affairs, to lose their cases altogether. Instead, positions should be argued on their merits. If the case is sound, a majority can be persuaded; that is the way democracies and free nations are supposed to work. I am often asked to meet with government officials concerned with criminal-justice policies. They are frustrated. The more prisons are built—at great expense—the more the crime rate goes up. So whenever I suggest restitution as an inexpensive and effective alternative to prison for nonviolent offenders, politicians are receptive. However, only after I have cited the facts of the position (for instance, only one tenth of the cost of incarceration is statistically effective in reducing recidivism) do I explain that the source of restitution was God’s laws prescribed to Moses at Sinai. Christians are to do their duty as best they can. However, even when they feel that they are making no difference, that they are failing to bring Christian values to the public arena, success is not the criterion. Faithfulness is. For in the end, Christians have the assurance that even the most difficult political situations are in the hands of a sovereign God. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
This assurance comes from the teaching of Christ. Jesus likened the Kingdom to the humble act of a farmer sowing seeds. The farmer tills the soil, but the seeds sprout and grow because of a power beyond the farmer’s control. What Jesus was saying is that Christians are to do their part, of course, as best as they are able, but the manifestation of the Kingdom comes through God’s power, not theirs. I saw this firsthand over a fourteen-year span in one of the toughest neighbourhoods in Midtown Sacramento, California USA. It all began with moving to one of the most dangerous communities in Sacramento. For more than two thousand and five hundred years Mormons and Jewish people and many others have awaited the Saviour’s coming. Upon this event they had rested their brightest hopes. In song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer, they had enshrined His name. And yet at His coming they knew Him not. The Beloved of Heaven was to the an angel from Heaven; and they saw in Him the most beautiful soul and face and body, as if he were a Greek God. He looked like the statue of David, which was carved by Michelangelo di Lodovico, with gorgeous wavy hair and blue eyes that looked like arctic pools. All complimented by smooth coper/caramel skin, the perfect teeth and a radiant smile. God had chosen America. He had called them to preserve among humans the knowledge of His law, and of the symbols and prophecies that pointed to the Saviour. He desired them to be as wells of salvation to the World. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
Jesus Christ was to be what Abraham was in the land of his sojourn, what Joseph was in Egypt, and Daniel in the courts of Babylon, the Hebrew people were to be among the nations. They were to reveal God to humans. In the call of Abraham, the Lord had said, “I will bless thee; and thou shalt be a blessing: and in thee shall all families of the Earth be blessed. The same teaching was repeated through the prophets. Even after America has been wasted by war and captivity, the promise was theirs, “The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.” Concerning the Salt Lake Temple, in Salt Lake City, Utah USA, the Lord declared through Joseph Smith, “Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all peoples.” The Mormons quickly fixed their hopes on spiritual greatness. From the time of their entrance to the land of Utah, they cleaved to the commandments of God, and followed the ways of the Lord. It was in great faith God sent them blessings by His prophets so they would not suffer in vain nor experience the chastisement of heathen oppression. Every reformation was followed by deeper faith in the ways of our Lord. Because America had been true to God, He allowed them to accomplish His purpose through their honour and exaltation. Because they walked in the ways of obedience, God made them high above all nations which He hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
People saw that this was a nation of wise and understanding people. By the power of God, Joseph Smith was able to translate the strange writing on the golden plates, using the Urim and Thummim. The Urim and Thummim were two transparent stones set in silver bows fastened to a breastplate. They were similar to a large pair of spectacles. The Urim and Thummim and breastplate were used by an ancient seer as mentioned in the Bible. They are called “interpreters” in the Book of Mormon. They were to be used only under the direction of God, and they had a significant meaning. Urim means “light,” not light as the light of day, but the light which is intelligence or the ability to understand or comprehend. Thummim means “perfect,” a condition of being excellent, pure, and complete—without defect. The breastplate was a symbol of “judgment” which means an ability to make correct decisions. Thus the use of the Urim and Thummim and breastplate by a seer meant that by the power of God this man would have intelligence—a divine intelligence—a sense of that which is pure and excellent, and the ability to decide correctly matters which came before him. It was this gift, a wonderful gift indeed, which God had given to Joseph Smith when he entrusted in his keeping the precious gold plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. By God’s power, Joseph Smith was able to look through the Urim and Thummim and interpret the symbols written on the golden plates that he might translate their meaning into the English language. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
The procedure was not entirely automatic. The fact that these instruments could be used only by “seers” indicates the importance of moral excellence in their use. At first Joseph’s wife helped him with the work, writing the words as Joseph translated from the golden book. However, her daily duties prevented her from spending much time at it. Later Joseph received help from Martin Harris, a middle-aged farmer who lived near Palmyra, New York. He became interested in the golden plates and proved to be a friend to Joseph when he most needed friendship. It was Martin Harris’s gift of fifty dollars that had enabled Joseph and Emma to take the precious plates to Pennsylvania where they could translate without trouble. However, Martin Harris’s wife and family did not approve of his interest in what they considered visionary schemes, and objected to his giving Joseph money. Martin Harris was anxious to prove to his family and neighbours that Joseph Smith was sincere and that the things he told about his visions and the plates were true. Joseph carefully copied some of the characters from the golden plates. Martin Harris took this paper, together with a translation of part of the characters, to Professor Charles Anthon in New York City, a man well known for his literary ability. Professor Anthon told him the translations was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. He said the characters were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic, and that they were true characters. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
The professor gave Martin Harris a certificate to show to the people of Palmyra stating they were true characters and that which had been translated was correct. Martin Harris put the certificate in his pocket and was about to leave when Professor Anthon called him back. He asked how Joseph Smith had found the plates, and Martin Harris explained that an angel of God had shown him where they were. “Let me see that certificate,” Professor Anthon said. When Martin Harris returned the paper to hum, the professor tore it to pieces saying there was no such things now as the ministering of angels and if the plates were brought to him, he would translate them. When Martin Harris told him that he could not bring them because part of the plates were sealed and they could not be shown to anyone, Professor Anthon replied, “I cannot read a sealed book.” Martin Harris was disappointed that he could not take the certificate to show his wife and friends so they might share his enthusiasm, but he was firm in his belief that the time would come when he could convince them that his confidence in his young friend was not in vain. It is interesting to note in the Bible what the prophet Isaiah has said concerning the coming forth of this book in the latter days. “And this vision of all is become into you as the words of a book that is sealed, which humans deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray three; and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed,” reports Isaiah 29.11. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
The words of Isaiah prophesied are remarkably similar to Professor Anthon’s words, “I cannot read a sealed book.” I was born part of this Earth. My Grandmother Earth. I was born art of this Earth. My Mother, all living beings. I was born part of this Earth. My Grandfather, the sky. I was born part of this Earth. My Father, all creatures of the air. I was born part of this Earth. The eight Grandfathers. I was born part of this Earth. The eight Grandfathers. I was born part of the Earth. The four corners of the Earth. I was born part of this Earth. The great wind grain of the North. I was born part of the Earth. The red road of the dead. I was born part of this Earth. The blue and black road of destruction I was born part of the Earth. The ancient ones say, the old way’s gone, the ancient ones say. Still, I was born part of this Earth. My He who wrought wonderous deeds for our fathers, and redeemed them from slavery unto freedom, soon redeem us and gather our exiled brethren from the four corners of the Earth, for all America is one fellowship; and let us say, Amen. The New Month will begin on May, this New Month brings blessing to us and to all America. May the Holy One, blessed be He, renew this month for us and for all His people, the house of America, for life and peace, for gladness and joy, for salvation and comfort; and let us say, Amen. We live by the sun, we feel by the mon, we move by the stars. We live in all things; all things live in us. We eat from the Earth, we drink from the rain, we breathe of the air. We live in all things; all things live in us. We call to each other. We listen to each other. Our hearts deepen with love and compassion. We live in all things. All things live in us. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!
Brighton Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, Prairie, and Contemporary Farmhouse.
Located off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District.
Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Google Mini to help connect everything together!
With an array of beautifully designed homes and spacious, ranch-style cottage homes, this is the independent living community everyone has been looking for! https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/
Picture this. A beautiful, private, ranch-style cottage home with a floor plan you love in a vibrant community featuring an incredible variety of services and amenities. It’s all here, and it’s all waiting for you at Cresleigh Ranch!
The Home featured above is the upgraded model at Brighton Station Residence 2. This single story home boats an ideal layout with 2,427 square feet, of thoughtfully designed living space, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a three car garage.
“I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them,” reports 1 Nephi 3:7.
Ethics are Responsibility without Limit Towards All that Lives!
The concept of a united family that lives and progresses forever is at the core of Latter-day Saint doctrine. Within families led by a father and a mother, children develop virtues such as love, trust, loyalty, cooperation and service. We must rally to protect marriage, family, so we can strengthen our loved ones and protect their faith and freedom. There is a young and impressionable mind out there that is very hungry for information. Instead of fighting for freedom of the press, maybe we should be fighting for freedom from the press. I am worried about present-day journalism. The emphasis on negative happenings is much too strong. Not infrequently, news about events marking great progress is overlooked or minimized. It tends to make for a negative and discouraging atmosphere. If humans feel that very little happens to support that faith in the salvation of humanity, there is a danger that people may lose faith in the forward direction of Kingdom of God. And real progress is related to the belief that salvation and the Kingdom God will be established in our lifetime. Another hinderance to civilization today is the over-organization of our public life. While it is certain that a properly ordered environment is the condition and, at the same time, the result of civilization, it is developed at the expense of the spiritual life. Personality and ideas are often subordinated to institutions, when it is really thee which ought to influence the latter and keep them inwardly alive. Humans have lost the capacity to foresee and forestall. They will end by destroying the Earth. Simply investigating and apportioning responsibility after the fact is hardly sufficient. We must create an environmental screen to protect ourselves against dangerous intrusions as well as a system of public incentives to encourage technology that is both safe and socially desirable. This means governmental and private machinery for reviewing major technological advances before they are launched upon the public. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
So great was His love for the World, that God covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believe in Him should not peris, but have everlasting life. Lucifer has said, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. This was a voluntary sacrifice. Jesus might have retained the glory of Heaven, and the homage of the angels. However, He chose to give back the scepter into the Father’s hands, and to step down from the throne of the Universe, that He might bring light to the benighted, and life to the perishing. Over two thousand years, a voice of mysterious import was heard in Heaven, from the throne of God, “Lo, I come.” “Sacrifice and offering Thou would not, but a body has Thou prepared Me. Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.” In these words is announced the fulfillment of the purpose that had been hidden from eternal ages. Christ was about to visit our World, and become incarnate. He says, “A body has Thou prepared Me.” Had He appeared with the glory that was His with the Father before the World was, we could not have endured the light of His presence. That we might behold it and not be destroyed, the manifestation of His glory was shrouded. His divinity was veiled with humanity—the invisible glory in the visible form. This great purpose had been shadowed forth in types and symbols. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
The burning bush, in which Christ appeared to Moses, revealed God. The symbol chosen for the representation of the Deity was a humble shrub, that seemingly has no attractions. This enshrined the Infinite. The all-merciful God shrouded His glory in a most humble type, that Moses could look upon it and live. So in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, God communicated with America, revealing to humans His will, and imparting to them His grace. God’s glory was subdued, and His majesty veiled, that the weak vision of finite humans might behold it. So Christ was to come in the body of our humiliation in the likeness of humans. In the eyes of the World He possessed no beauty that they should desire Him; yet He was the incarnate God, the light of Heaven and Earth. His glory was veiled, His greatness and majesty were hidden, that He might draw near to sorrowful, tempted men. God commanded Moses for America, “Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them,” and he abode in the sanctuary, in the midst of His people. Through all their weary wandering in the desert, the symbol of His presence was with them. So Christ set up His tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment. He pitched His tent by the side of the tents of men, that He might dwell among us, and make us familiar with His divine character. “The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with out trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour’s life on Earth, we see “God with us.” Satan represents God’s law of love as a law of selfishness. He declares that it is impossible for us to obey its precepts. The fall of our first parents, with all the woe that has resulted, he charges upon the Creator, leading humans to look upon God as the author of sin, and suffering, and death. Jesus was to unveil this deception. As one of us Jesus was to give an example of obedience. His life testifies that it is possible for us also to obey the law of God. By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey. “God with us” is the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to obey the law of Heaven. Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan. By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan’s purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to God, like we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. “God so loved the World, that he gave His only-begotten Son. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
This is the pledge that God will fulfill His Word. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder.” God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest Heaven. It is the “Son of man” who shares the throne of the Universe. It is the “Son of man” who shares the throne of the Universe. It is the “Son of man” whose name shall be called, “Wonderful,” Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is enfolded in the bosom of Infinite Love. The exaltation of the redeemed will be an eternal testimony to God’s mercy. In the ages to come, God will show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. To the intent that unto the principalities and the powers in the Heavenly places might be made known the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purposes which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Through Christ’s redeeming work, the government of God stand justified. The Omnipotent One is made known as the God of love. Satan’s charges are refuted, and his character unveiled. Rebellion can never again arise. Sin can never again enter the Universe. Through eternal ages all are secure from apostasy. By love’s self-sacrifice, the inhabitants of Earth and Heaven are bound to their Creator in bonds of indissoluble union. The work of redemption will be complete. In the place where sin abounded, God’s grace much more abounds. The Earth itself, the very field that Satan claims as his, is to be not only ransomed but exalted. Our little World, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honoured above all other Worlds in the Universe of God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
Here, where the Son of God tabernacle in humanity; where the King of glory lived and suffered and died—here, when He shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with humans, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable Gift—God with us. God has a word for us to release increase, multiplication, and miracles right now in our lives. Our obedience to His Word leads to restoration and authority like a rushing river. “If you love me, you will obey what I command,” reports John 14.15. If you have been asking God for a supernatural turnaround in your life, Miracles are coming! Increase is coming! Multiplication is coming! God works in seasons, cycles, patterns. Understanding His timing is key to activating His greatest blessing in your life! A season means a “set time.” When you do not discern the shift of a season, you will lack in some area of your life! It is possible to be in a season that you are not cooperating with and therefore you are experiencing scarcity! This will change with your obedience! No more missed moments in Jesus’ name! “And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God,” reports Luke 24.52-53. One hundred and twenty of them remined in prayer until the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) arrived, and then it did, they were he gathered together. “On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave this command: ‘Do not leave America, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have hear me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit,’” reports Acts 1.4-5. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
What we seem to forget is that, yes, the sun will continue to rise and set and the moon will continue to move across the skies, but humankind can create a situation in which the sun and moon can look down upon the Earth that has been stripped of all life. “They joined all together in constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, ‘Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the moth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus—he was one of our number and shared in this ministry,’” reports Acts 1.14-17. “When the day of the Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them,” reports Acts 2.1-4. Those who conduct an atomic war for freedom will die, or end their lives miserably. Instead of freedom, they will find destruction. Radioactive clouds resulting from a war between The Old World and the New World would imperil humanity. There would be no need to use up the remaining stock of atom and H-bombs. An atomic war is therefore the most senseless and lunatic act that could ever take place. At all costs, it must be prevented. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
Corporations might be expected to set up their own “consequence analysis staffs” to study the potential effects of the innovations they sponsor. They might, in some cases, be required not merely to test new technology in pilot areas but to make a public report about its impact before being permitted to spread the innovation through the society at large. Much responsibility should be delegated to industry itself. The less centralized the controls the better. If self-policing works, it is preferable to external, political controls. Where self-regulation fails, however, as it often does, public intervention may well be necessary, and we should not evade the responsibility. At one point, in the United States of America, Congressman Emilio Q. Daddario, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Science, Research and Development, had proposed the establishment of a technology Assessment Board with the federal government. And this might be a great idea with social media becoming so power that the owners of these platforms were censoring and banned the President from using their forums. Studies by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Legislative Reference Service of the Library of Congress, and by the science and technology program of the George Washington University are all aimed at defining the appropriate nature of such an agency. We may wish to debate its form; its need is beyond dispute. The society might also set certain general principles for technological advance. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
Where the introduction of an innovation entails undue risk, for example, it might require that funds be set aside by the responsible agency for correction of adverse effects should they materialize. We might also create a “technological insurance pool” to which innovation-diffusing agencies might pay premiums. Certain large-scale ecological interventions might be delayed or prohibited altogether—perhaps in line with the principle that is an incursion on nature is too big and sudden for its effects to be monitored and possibly corrected, it should not take place. For example, it has been suggested that Aswan Dam, far from helping Egyptian agriculture, might someday lead to salinization of land on both banks of the Nile. This could prove disastrous. However, such a process would not occur overnight. Presumably, therefore, it can be monitored and prevented. By contrast, the plan to flood the entire interior of Brazil is fraught with such instant and imponderable ecological effects that it should not be permitted at all until adequate monitoring can be done and emergency corrective measures are available. At the level of social consequences, a new technology might be submitted for clearance to panels of behavioural scientists—psychologists, sociologist, economists, political scientists—who would determine, to the best of their ability, the probable strength of its social impact at different points in time. Where an innovation appears likely to entail seriously disruptive consequences, or to generate unrestrained accelerative pressures, these facts need to be weighed in a social cost-benefit accounting procedure. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
In the case of some high-impact innovations, the technology appraisal agency might be empowered to seek restraining legislation, or to obtain an injunction forcing delay until full public discussion and study is completed. In other cases, such innovations might still be released for diffusion—provided ample steps were taken in advance to offset their negative consequences. In this way, the society would not need to wait for disaster before dealing with its technology-induced problems. By considering not merely specific technologies, but their relationship to one another, the time lapse between them, the proposed speed of diffusion, and similar factors, we might eventually gain some control over the pace of change as well as its direction. Needless to say, these proposals are themselves fraught with explosive social consequences, and need careful assessment. There may be far better ways to achieve the desired ends. However, the time is late. We simply can no longer afford to hurtle blindfolded toward super-industrialism. The politics of technology control with trigger bitter conflict in the days to come. However, if the accelerative thrust is to be brought under control, conflict or no, technology must be tamed. And, if future shock is to be prevented, the accelerative thrust must be brought under control. In some cultures, people endure tattooing, stretching, cutting, and burning wit little apparent pain. How is such insensitivity achieved? Very likely the answer lies in four factors that anyone can use to reduce pain. These are anxiety, control, attention, and interpretation. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
The basic sensory message of pain can be separated from emotional reactions to it. Fear or high levels of anxiety almost always increase pain. (Anxiety is a feeling of apprehension or uneasiness similar to fear, but based on an unclear threat.) A dramatic reversal of this effect is the surprising lack of pain displayed by soldiers wounded in battle. Being excused from further combat apparently produces a flood of relief. This emotional state leaves many soldiers insensitive to wounds tat would agonize a civilian. In general, unpleasant emotions increase pain and pleasant emotions decrease it. If you can regulate painful stimulus, you have control over it. A moment’s reflection should convince you that the most upsetting pain is that over which you have no control. Loss of control seems to increase pain by increasing anxiety and emotional distress. People who are allowed to regulate, avoid, or control a painful stimulus suffer less. In general, the more control one feels over a painful stimulus, the less pain experienced. Distraction can also radically reduce pain. As you recall, attention refers to voluntarily focusing on a specific sensory input. Pain, even though it is highly persistent, can be selectively “turned out” (at least partially), just like any other sensation. Subjects in one experiment were in intense pain experienced the greatest relief when they were distracted by the task of watching for signal lights to come on. Another example is provided by burn patients, who must undergo excruciating pain while their bandages are changed. Recently, video games and virtual reality have been used to distract them from their pain, which helps immensely. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
The Fountain of Youth and the Elixir of Life were dreams of the ancient mystics, and they are still dreams of today. However, to the soul that has found the, in most cases, they are divine realities. If humans were to learn that one can prolong one’s life on this Earth in youth and health for an indefinite period in which days and years are not counted, one could pass from one joy to another. Nobody has historically succeeded in robbing Nature of her power to inflict death. However, there is another aspect of this topic which throws some light on it. When the body of Father Charles de Foucald was exhumed, one year after burial, for transfer to another site, his friend General Laperrine was astonished to find that the body was without any break and the face quite recognizable, whereas of the two Arabian guards murdered at the same time and buried near him only a little dust remained. One of the native soldiers then said, “Why are you astonished that he is thus preserved, General? It is not astonishing, since he was a great marabout (holy man).” Father Foucald was a nineteenth-century Christian hermit of the Saharan desert, who sacrificed social position and fortune for an ascetic existence devoted to prayer, meditation, and service for the poor. Hs ascetic self-mortification was extremely severe. To this case there may be added the somewhat similar cases of Swami Yogananda of Los Angeles, and Sir Aurobindo of Pondicherry. The ancient hatha yoga texts promise the successful yogi “the conquest of death.” This does not mean he will not die, but that his flesh will not decay after death. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
We have so intimate a relation to the body in practical life that none of us need be blamed for calling it “me.” However, metaphysically that indicates an adolescent attitude. We advance towards maturity when we regard it as only a part of “me.” This domain of natural living, food reform, and hygiene is infested with cranks, fanatics, extremists, and one-idea devotees, just as the domain of mysticism is. The seeker must be warned against letting oneself be deceived by their wild intemperate enthusiasms. Have you ever temporarily forgotten about a toothache or similar pain while absorbed in a movie or book? As this suggests, concentrating on pleasant, soothing images can be especially helpful. Instead of listening to the whirr of a dentist’s drill, for example, you might imagine that you are lying in the sun at a beach, listening to the roar of the surf. At home, music can be a good distractor from chronic pain. So much may depend on so little! The condition of a single organ or of a half-centimeter of gland may curse a human’s whole life more than and sorcerer can. A physical feature may be so dislike by others that one’s ambitions are thwarted or one’s desire for love defeated. Some physical attributes may be unpleasant, undignified, and unfortunate for a human. However, they are well-countered by invisible compensations. The meaning of interpretation, you give a stimulus also affects pain. For example, if you make a funny face at a child while playing, you will probably get a burst of laughter. Yet that same face given as a punishment may bring tears. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
The effects of interpretation are illustrated by an experiment in which thinking of pain as pleasurable (denying the pain) greatly increased pain tolerance. Another study found that people who believe a painful procedure will improve their health feel less pain during the procedure. A physiognomist once told me that he considered the mouth more revealing of a human’s character than, as commonly believed, the eyes. Is this a fact? How important is it to remember that the fall of temperature in the evenings is an invitation to catch cold. Goethe complained while living in Rome of the care one had to take even in the middle of summer to prevent the realization of this possibility. The joy owning a physical body comes out most in physical activity, yet the person will feel disgusted with it under different circumstances and at a different time. The pain of owning a body comes out mostly in ill health, yet the same person may glory in it during a game or a sport. For as bats’ eyes are to daylight so is our intellectual eye to those truths which are, in their own nature, the most obvious of all. It must be clearly understood that the argument so far leads to no conception of “souls” or “spirits” (words I have avoided) floating about in the realm of Nature with no relation to their environment. Hence we do not deny—indeed we must welcome—certain considerations which are often regarded as proofs of Naturalism. We can admit, and even insist, that Rational Thinking can be shown to be conditioned in its exercise by a natural object (the brain). #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
Rational Thinking is temporarily impaired by alcohol or a blow to the head. It wanes as the brain decays and vanishes when the brain ceases to function. In the same way the moral outlook of a community can be shown to be closely connected with its history, geographical environment, economic structure, and so forth. The moral ideas of the individual are equally related to one’s general situation: it is no accident that parents and schoolmasters so often tell us that they can stand any vice rather than lying, the lie being the only defensive weapon of most children. All this, far from presenting us with a difficulty, is exactly what we should expect. The rational and more element in each human mind is a point of force from the Supernatural working its way into Nature, exploiting at each point those conditions which Nature offers, repulsed where the conditions are hopeless and impeded when they are unfavourable. A human’s Rational thinking is just so much of one’s share in eternal Reason as the state of one’s brain allows to become operative: it represents, so to speak, the bargain struck or the frontier fixed between Reason and Nature at that particular point. A nation’s moral outlook is just so much of its share in eternal Moral Wisdom as its history, economics, et cetera, lets through. In the same way the voice of the Announcer is just so much of a human voice as the receiving set lets through. Of course it varies with the state of the receiving set, and deteriorates as the set wears out and vanished altogether if I throw a brick at it. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
The voice of the announcer is conditioned by the apparatus but not originated by it. If it were—if we know that there was no human being at the microphone—we should not attend to the news. The various and complex conditions under which Reason and Morality appear are the twists and turns of the frontier between Nature and Supernature. That is why, if you wish, you can always ignore Supernature and treat the phenomena purely from the Natural side; just as a human studying on a map the boundaries of Cornwall and Devonshire can always say, “What you call a bulge in Devonshire is really a dent in Cornwall.” And in a sense, you cannot refute one. What call a bulge in Devonshire always is a dent in Cornwall. What we call a rational thought in a human always involves a state of the brain, in the long run a relation of atoms. However, Devonshire is none the less something more than “where Cornwall ends,” and Reason is something more than cerebral bio-chemistry. The practical method which is here presented differs radically from the method of the Christian Scientists, although a superficial reading my give the impression of similarity. The Christian Scientist asserts one’s inner nature to be divine and a part of God, but the assertion remains a mere intellectual statement unless one has previously opened up a channel to that inner nature with the tool of intersession, prayer, or aspiration. If one has done this, then the assertion rises into the realm of reality and may produce remarkable results; if one has not succeeded in doing this, then one’s assertion remains mere words, one thought out of the multitude which pass and repass through the brain of humans. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
Moreover, so long as one possess false notions of what constitutes “demonstration,” so long as one thinks that one is entitled to prosperity, good health, and other desirable Worldly things because of his spirituality, so long will one find—as so many Christian Scientists do find—that one’s successes alternate with startling failures. It would be an unpleasant task to illustrate this statement with instances of such failures, not in the rank and file, but in the foremost ranks of the Christian Scientists, and I shall not attempt it. These failures indicate that we must follow no narrow track of sect-ordained thought, but do some research on our own account. It is a dramatic fact that remedial changes may take place in the organs themselves under the influence of this healing force. The more one comes into harmony with the cosmic order, the more will one’s health and strength benefit, one’s thoughts and feelings become beneficial. However, this is not to say that one will be cured of existing maladies or be kept in perfect health. Harmony means that due regard and attention will be given to the body’s importance, hygiene, care, and correct feeding. It means that the thoughts and feelings will be constructive. If not obstructed by human’s foolish methods, nature’s healing power will do its own work upon that sick body. It is possible to direct the healing power of the white light, in imagination and with deep breathing, to any part of the body where pain is felt or to any organ which is not functioning properly. This does not instantly remove the trouble, but it does make a contribution towards the healing process. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
For moderate pain, it can make quite a difference to reduce anxiety, redirect attention, and increase control. When you can anticipate pain (during a trip to the doctor, dentist, and so on), you can lower anxiety by making sure that you are fully informed. Be sure that someone explains everything that will happen or could happen to you. Also, be sure to fully discuss any fears you have. If you are physically tense, you can use relaxation exercises to lower your level of arousal. Relaxation methods involve tensing and then releasing muscles in various parts of the body. Some dentists are now equipped to help you shift attention away from pain. Patients are actively distracted with video games and headphones playing music. In other situations, focusing on some external object may help you shift attention away from pain. Pick a tree outside a window, a design on the wall, or some other stimulus and examine it in great detail. Prior practice in meditation can be a tremendous assistant to such attention shifts. Research suggests that distraction of this type works best for mild or brief pain. For chronic or strong pain, reinterpretation is more effective. Is there any way to increase control over a painful stimulus? Practically speaking, the choices may be limited. You may be able to arrange a signal with a doctor or dentist tat will give you control over whether a painful procedure will continue. A second possibility is more unusual. Ronald Melzack’s gate control the sensory of pain suggest that sending mild pain messages to the spinal cord and brain may effectively close the neurological gates to more severe or unpredictable pain. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
Medical texts have been recognized this effect. Physicians have found that intense surface stimulation of the skin can control pain from other parts of the body. Likewise, a brief, mildly painful stimulates can relieve more severe pain. Such procedures, known as counterirritation, are evident in some of the oldest techniques used to control pain: applying ice packs, hot-water bottles, mustard packs, vibration, or massage to other parts of the body. These facts suggest a way to minimize pain that is based on increased control, counterirritation, and the release of endorphins. If you pinch yourself, you can easily create and endure pain equal to that produced by many medical procedures (receiving an injection, having a toot drilled, and so on). The pain does not seem too bad because you have control over it, and it is predictable. This fact can be used to mask one pain with a second painful stimulus that is under your control. For instance, if you are having tooth filled, try pinching yourself or digging a fingernail into a knuckle while the dentist is working. Focus your attention on the pain you are creating, and increase its intensity anytime the dentist’s work becomes more painful. This suggestion may not work for you, but casual observation suggests that it can be a useful technique for controlling pain in some circumstances. Generations of children have used it to take the edge off spanking. Although some people have found spiritual benefit from sickness because of the enforced retirement to bed or hospital which it demands, or because of the reflections which it brings about the limitations of bodily satisfactions and pleasures, it would be a gross misunderstanding to make this only way of gaining these insights. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
Other persons have become so embittered and resentful through sickness that they have suffered spiritual loss. Still other persons who have maintained good health have thereby been able to provide the proper circumstances for spiritual search, study, and meditation. The eye is the reflector of mind, the revealer of a human’s heart and the diagnose of one’s bodily health. With health, everything is a source of pleasure; without it, nothing else, whatever it may be, is enjoyable. It follows that the greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness, whatever it may be—for gain, advancement, learning, or fame, let alone, then, for fleeting sensual pleasures. The Lord has commanded members to take care of their bodies and minds. They should obey the Word of Wisdom, eat nutritious food, exercise regularly, control their weight, and get adequate sleep. They should shun substances or practices that abuse their bodies or minds and that could lead to addiction. They should practice good sanitation and hygiene and obtain adequate medical and dental care. They should also strive to cultivate good relationships with family members and others. Maintaining the best possible physical health has been a gospel ideal throughout the ages—from the strict dietary laws of ancient America, with the example of Joseph Smith and his associates, to the Word of Wisdom in this dispensation and the counsel of today’s prophets and apostles. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
By maintaining good physical health, we become more self-reliant and are better prepared to progress personally, strengthen the family, and serve in the Church and community. Not long after the angel had disappeared the third time Joseph arose from his bed. He went about doing his daily work with his father in the field, but he soon found his strength was exhausted. His father noticed there was something wrong and sent his son home. Joseph went toward the house, but as he crossed a fence in the field his strength entirely failed him and he fell helpless to the ground. Joseph heard a voice call his nae and, looking up, he saw the same messenger, Moroni, standing over his head in a bright light. Again the angel repeated all the things he had told Joseph during the night and commanded him to tell his father of his vision. Joseph obeyed, going into the field to tell his father what had occurred. His father said he should obey the messenger from God. The young man went to find the place he had seen in his vision. Near Manchester, New York, a few miles from his farm home, Joseph found the hill had seen so clearly in his vision. On the west side of the hill, not far from the top, was a large stone which was thick and rounding in the middle of the upper side and thinner toward the edge. The middle part showed above the Earth, but the edges were covered. Joseph removed the Earth from the stone. With the assistance of a lever he raised the stone cover, and beneath it lay a stone box. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
In the box, which was made of stone set in a kind of cement, lay the golden plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, exactly as the angel had said. The golden plates formed a book with pages of gold held together by three large rings, much like a modern loose-leaf notebook. As Joseph reached to take the things from the box, the angel forbade him. Joseph was told he should return each year on the same date, 22 September, and he would be given further instructions until it was time for him to take the plates. Joseph returned to the hill, which has been called “Hill Cumorah,” each of the following four years and was met by the same messenger. The angel taught him many things about the plans of the Lord, and how his kingdom was to be built in the last days. Four years after Moroni’s first visit to Joseph, on 22 September 1827—on Joseph’s fifth visit to the hill—Moroni gave him the golden book, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. The angel cautioned him to guard them carefully, to allow no one to see them, and to do everything in his power to protect and keep them safely until the messenger should come for them. Joseph soon understood why he had been commanded so strictly to guard them carefully. Almost as soon as he had received the precious things, it became known throughout the countryside, and everyone wanted to see them. Many tried to take them away from him; but by hiding them Joseph was able to keep them safely. The excitement continued, and the people were determined to take the golden plates from him. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
Joseph soon realized that it would be impossible for him to do the work of translation at his home in New York. Joseph and his wife, Emma whom he had married in January, 1827, went to her parents’ home at Harmony, Pennsylvania. There in the home of Isaac Hale, during the early part of the year 1828, Joseph, by means of the Urim and Thummim, began the work of translation of the golden plates. In the mystery of these vestures of the Holy Ones, I gird up my power in the girdles of righteousness and truth in the power of the Most High: Ancor: Amacor: Amides: Theodonias: Anitor: let be might my power: let it endure for ever: in the power of Adonai, to whom the praise and the glory shall be; whose end cannot be. Earth mother, star mother, you who are called by a thousand names, may all remember we are cells in your body and dance together. You are the grain and the loaf that sustains us each day, and as you are patient with our struggles to learn so shall we be patient with ourselves and each other. We are radiant light and sacred dark—the balance—you are the embrace that heartens and the freedom beyond fear. Within you we are born, we grow, live, and die—you bring us around the circle to rebirth, within us you dance forever. May it be Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, to renew unto us this coming month for our good and for blessing, of sustenance, of bodily vigour; a life marked by reverence for Thee and the dread of sin, a life free from shame and reproach, a life of abundance and honour, a life in which the love of the Torah and the fear of Heaven shall ever be with us, a life in which all desires of our hearts shall be fulfilled for our good. Amen. If the technology that is supposed to increase our leisure and make our lives easier, starts to control our lives, we are in danger of losing our souls. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!
Brighton Station at Cresleigh Ranch is Rancho Cordova’s newest home community! This charming neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, Prairie, and Contemporary Farmhouse.
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Cresleigh Ranch is one of the Northern California’s area’s best kept secrets. Offering a peaceful setting with a variety of activities. The two story yellow house at the very top is residence 3, I call it “The Baby Winchester.” It is approximately 2,800 square feet with 4 bedroom and 3.5 bathrooms, and a three car garage. Cresleigh has luxury home designs, with a wide range of options, allowing each buyer to tailor their home to their unique lifestyle.
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It is No Exaggeration to Claim that the Gifts God Blesses Us with are Sensational!
To be artistically beautiful and strong is only to have a soul with a perfect balance of faith and grace. In time, we shall desert the modern sense of materialism inflated by money, peer pressure, and television, and seek the full, rich, and beautiful soul through the collaboration of responsibility and dignity. Then we will give up trying to assemble life’s events with craftiness. Craftiness does not blond in the kingdom of God, for God is truth. Truth allows the magical tone of harmony to resonate in the soul infinitely, for the tones do not perish, but ascend to God like praise too deep for utterance. The ideal of civilized humans is none other than that of one who in every relation of life preserves true human nature. To be civilized humans means for us approximately this: that in spite of the conditions of modern civilization, we remain human. In the beginning, God was revealed in al the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the Heavens, and laid the foundations of the Earth. It was His had that hung the Worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. “Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power,” reports Psalms 65.5. It was God that filled the Earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in the Earth, and air, and sky, God wrote the message of the Father’s love. The body of the illumined human is subject to the same laws as the body of the unillumined one. Any violation of those laws through ignorance or custom may lead to sickness in humans. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
Each individual reacts differently to the suffering caused by sickness. However, the knowledge of higher laws does not exempt the illuminate from learning and obeying the lower ones. The work of purifying the physical organism will be completed in time only to give way to the work of regenerating it. However, only if the necessary knowledge is available, which is not ordinarily the case, can this second task be undertaken. What one is emotionally and mentally expresses itself to some extent in one’s body in one’s face and even in the way one hold’s one’s body and carries oneself, and still more remarkably in the very moments one makes. Some pioneer work in this research was done by Westerners such as F. Messias Alexander, Dr. Mensendieck, and Gaston Mengel. In the East, Japanese Zen masters developed this theme several centuries ago. Because of the closeness between body and mind, whatever is experienced in one is reflected in the other. The Japanese masters understand this and detect from the physical positions taken by the body in its movements something of the condition within oneself. We ourselves know that there is a connection between the pace and manner of breathing and the emotional condition. We can see how mental tension is reflected in muscular tension of the body; thus it is useful to learn about these different conditions and to benefit by the good ones and avoid the bad ones. How often does a human’s mental condition depend on one’s physical needs, on whether one has had too little of too much sleep or food, on whether one is exposed to tropical heat or arctic cold! #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
Ownership of a physical form lays a certain responsibility upon one. To evade this, in the name of metaphysical truth, may lead to an intellectually deceptive freedom from it but cannot lead to a factually physical freedom from the effects of one’s neglect. The body is part of the self, and those who preach neglect of the body is to point out how limited would be their life, and hence their consciousness is they lost a bodily part such as a hand, or a bodily sense such as taste. Instead of giving the fullest freedom of expression to the divine life-power within themselves, they would give it no more than a partial expression. The body is there; it has existence, life, and above all, inescapable needs. Let it not be despised, for we must use its services. However, let it not conquer us and stifle our aspirations. One is trapped in the nerve structure, the glands, and the brain cells of one’s physical body, dependent upon them and conditioned by them. To ignore the body in one’s spiritual seeking is foolish unpardonable neglect, but to deny it altogether, as some cults do, is simply absurd. The body must not be ignored, for consciousness, even will, is interwoven with it, affected by it while moods are born, or at least related, to it. Whether one is a high mystic or an ordinary human, one is blessed with a body which must be cared for, nourished and cleaned, kept alive. This is to say that it demands attention, thought, a portion of consciousness. Any attempt to decry it on the Vedantic ground of unreality is absurd. Every illness mocks such foolishness. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
I cannot forget the shock I experienced when on three different occasions and in three different parts of the World I heard spiritual teacher whom I admired and respected and who had a substantial following, express complete indifference to the condition of the body. One was a European, the other were from Asia. They expressed it not merely as personal opinion, but also as a part of their teaching, for their disciples were present on each occasion. One of the people from the East fell ill within a few weeks and had to cancel his meetings until he recovered. The other died under painful circumstances, that is, from most painful disease. The European was struck down within a few years and had to undergo a major operation from which he recovered, but with all his vitality gone, his creativity at an end, and personal work practically finished. I asked myself, “Was God trying to correct the attitude of these three spiritual guides? Can we afford to ignore the question of the health and sickness of the body? Is it not a fact that sickness destroys our pleasure in living and increases our negative thoughts?” The quester who says that one has practiced this and done that without any observable result, who is discouraged and depressed in consequence, has often failed to make any real effort to cleanse one’s body by reforming its habits. Food can be very enjoyable and the body’s life very comfortable. While we are alive the body is of grave importance but when we are dead it is of no importance to most. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
Those who condemn, despise, or minimize the body are premature. That kind of asceticism which considers the body as an enemy to the spirit, is a kind of sickness. The two dwell together, belong to one another, and in a proper life co-operate together. To consider them otherwise, to torment the body in order to gain the spirit’s favour, is to twist the very meaning of its existence. It is not God who asks would-be saints to do nasty things to their bodies but their own mental imbalances and excess of misplaced fanatic zeal. Only if we let it tyrannize over the finer aspirations, if we indulge it beyond its real needs and in violation of its real instinct, then the body becomes our enemy. The student who adopts drastic ascetic disciplines before one is ready for them is likely to have to modify one’s ascetic ideals or else accept a revised estimate of one’s strength and limitation. The life-principle is a nonmaterial reality which manifests as the aura in which the physical body is immersed. It keeps vital organs and vital parts in condition and activity until in vanishes as death and merges with the astral (mental-emotional) form instead. It can also manifest electromagnetically. What are the “higher bodies”? Just as humans have a physical body with which to operate in the physical World, so one has a vital body, an emotional body, and a mental body through which to express these other parts of one’s nature. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
These bodies survive the death of the physical body, but are reduced to seed atoms when, between spiritual rebirth, humans pass into a state of happy dreamless slumber. However, from the philosophical viewpoint, the “higher bodies” are simply thought bodies, or, more correctly, states of consciousness. The body’s health or sickness shows only the surface of what is happening: the inner human is concerned with it too. One’s thought, feeling, attitude, and actions—one’s whole character—reflect it. However, the inner human is unseen; hence only fragments get known. For there lies the aura where causes precede the physical effects. Only now in recent years has the aura been clearly photographed, both in black and white and on colour film. Just as a particular body may reject someone else’s surgically transplanted organ, so a particular aura may reject someone else’s as it impinges in close contact. Repulsion will be strongly felt. Some aura of the owner clings to much-used and much-worn objects. If the physical body has a limb amputated, the etheric body remains whole. If an eye is removed, the etheric eye remains untouched, whole. Behind, within, and around the physical body there is another and invisible body which we may all the vital body. This is a kind of archetype or pattern for the physical body. On several points they coincide, but not on others. This subtler etheric body comes into existence before actual birth and remains for a while after actual death. During incarnation it is closely connected with the physical body and especially with its vitality, health, and sickness. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
The part of it which surrounds the physical body and which we may call the vital aura should not be confused with the other and larger aura wherein emotions and thoughts are reflected. During experiments which I made with a group of London physicians before the war, it was found that this vital aura extended for about forty-five centimeters beyond the physical body. When the vital aura as in a devitalize, fatigued condition, there was less resistance to sickness; but when it was energized the resistance increased. The life-force which we draw from the universal life-force enters into the vital body. Resistance can be increased by deep breathing, by exercise, and by imagining the life-force as a white light entering through the head and penetrating downwards into every cell of the physical body. This also helps the healing process in sickness. Not only are the cells permeated by these methods, but they are also purified. The body does not function blindly like some machine. On the contrary it is an expression of the divine wisdom and the divine power, which are taking care of every cell within it from head to toe If the personal ego, with its materialistic ignorance and blind desires, did not willfully or unknowingly interfere with the body’s natural operation in health and in sickness, we would have much less trouble with it. Even so, despite the constant interference of the ego, the body is still a remarkable tribute to the wisdom and power inherent within it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
The healing powers of Nature truly exist, quite apart from the medical powers evoked by physicians, but they exist like electricity. To benefit by them we must draw them, focus on the, and concentrate them on ourselves. This is done by our strong and sufficient faith, by our own concentration of attention, and by our relaxing and stilling of the whole being. One will feel the Power moving through the flesh of one’s arm and hand, tingling in one’s fingers. One will feel the victorious attitude permeating one’s mind. If at all, because there is such peace revealed by the body, speech, and movement, wrinkles come slower to one’s face. Let us regard our bodies in the Lord’s way rather than the World’s way. When you look into the mirror, what thoughts run through your mind about your body? If you experience a flood of disparaging thoughts, you are far from alone. Recent studies find that approximately 63 percent of women and 50 percent of men in the United States of America are dissatisfied with their body and view it negatively—statistics that are reflected in the Latter-day Saint community. The modern human suffers from a certain physical sickness and some mental ailments which are of one’s own making. This is because one’s thoughts are forever centering in one’s personal ego, one’s emotions forever revolving round one’s little self. If one will create an oasis in this desert by daily and purposely withdrawing into the impersonal atmosphere of the higher nature, one can help to free oneself from the one and heal oneself of the other. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
What is the real power that works these cures? Who is competent to probe these workings and explain them accurately? The wonderful truth of reality hidden behind the illusion of this mortal World is often the greatest and grandest discovery one can make. There are miracles from the divine that we can access by diving in to the hidden and latent powers of the human mind by deep concentration. The first principle of healing is to stop the obstructive resistance of the little ego so carried away by the belief that it can successfully manage its own life. The method of doing this is to cast out all negative thoughts, all destructive feelings, and all excessive egoisms. The second principle is to attune the individual to the universal life-fore. The method of doing this is to learn the art of relaxing body and mind. The life-principle in humans can certainly heal one’s body, but the faculty conditions in that body which one must put right only by oneself. That is one’s share of the therapeutic work, and not the life-principle’s. That is where one must give it one’s co-operation. If one expects it to do everything, and is too ignorant or indolent do one’s part, one may get the healing but it cannot be more than an imperfect one. If one succeeds in arousing the “Spirit-Energy” one may direct it, if one chooses, toward defective bodily structures or toward faulty organic functions. This will effectually supplement whatever remedial agent is being used and perhaps even supplant it. How few have learned that is not the quantity of medicine they swallow but the degree of contact with Nature’s life force that they establish which cures their diseases. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
The same power which can illuminate the seeking mind can also heal the suffering body. One foundational gospel truth about the body is the principle that having a physical body is a Godlike attribute—you are more like God with a body than without. Our religion stands virtually alone in believing that God has a tangible body of flesh and bone and that our bodies were literally created in His likeness. In the Pearl of Great Price we read that “in the image of his own body, male and female, created he them,” (see Moses 6.8-9). To become as God requires gaining a body like He has and learning to correctly comprehend and use it. Those who chose not to follow God in the premortal state were denied mortal bodies. The Prophet Joseph Smith stated that Satan’s lack of a body is a punishment to him. Perhaps that is why he possesses so many people and fills them with evil passions and desires. The body, then, is necessary for progression and for obtaining a fulness of joy. Having a mortal body indicated that you chose rightly in the premortal state. Inherent in the mortal body are powers and capabilities that enable you to continue to progress toward Godhood. The body is not merely a mobile unit for the head nor a carnal vexation for the spirit as some believe. Rather, it is an integral, powerful component of the soul, for “the spirit and the body are the soul of man,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 88.15. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
Being privileged to know about the literal embodiment of God and the progressive nature of the body gives us a rare vantage point from which to comprehend and enjoy its tremendous capabilities. At this very moment, you are bathed in a swirling kaleidoscope of light, heat, pressure, vibrations, molecules, radiation, and mechanical forces. Without the senses, all of this would seem like nothing more than a void of darkness and silence. The next time you take in the beauty of a sunset, a flower, or a friend, remember this: God blessed us with sensations and sensations make it all possible. If new senses could be added—if we could “see” gamma rays, “hear” changes in barometric pressure, or “taste” light, what would the World be like? A second truth the scriptures offer about the body is the clarification of its nature as a scared gift from God. Though in mortality, at this point in evolution, we will all die unless a vaccine for death is invented. However, because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we will all be resurrected and united with our bodies forever. “Fr as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,” reports 1 Corinthians 15.22. Indeed sharp contrast to the World’s definition of a “perfect” body is our belief in a perfected body—a body together with a spirit—that has overcome both physical and spiritual death. A perfect or perfected body can ultimately be obtained only through Jesus Christ. Sensory systems link us to the external World and shape the flow of information to the brain. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
The scriptures warn us not to trifle with sacred things and to be wary of treating the body disrespectfully. “Can ye lay aside these things, and trample the Holy One under your feet; yea, can ye be puffed up in the pride of your hearts; yea, will ye still persist in the wearing of costly apparel and setting your hearts upon vain things of the World? Yea, will ye persist in supposing that ye are better one than another?” reports Alma 5.53-54. Sensory systems select, analyze, and transduce information from the surrounding World and send it to the brain. Private sensations do not correspond perfectly to external stimuli. Studies in psychophysics relate physical energies to the sensations we experience. The eyes and the brain form a complex system for sensing light. Vision is based on an active, computer-like analysis of light patterns. All of the senses rely on a complex series of mechanical, chemical, and neural events to convert stimuli onto messages understood by the brain. Such scriptures beg us to consider how we regard our bodies. If you become preoccupied with manipulating or adorning are you using your gift? If you do not properly care for your body, to what extent are you limiting your gift? If you use your body in direct opposition to the commandments of God, what ends will your gift serve? The scriptures ask a pointed question: “If a gift is bestowed upon ne, and one receive not the gift, what doth it profit the human?” reports Doctrine and Covenants 88.33. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
The purpose of the body is to help us learn, progress, serve, and glorify the Giver of the gift: God. Consider the words of Bob Edens, who had his sight restored at the age 51 after being blind since birth: “I never would have dreamed that yellow is so…so yellow. I do not have the words, I am amazed by yellow. But red is my favourite colour. I just cannot believe red. I cannot wait to get up each day to see what I can see. I saw some bees the other day and they were magnificent. I saw a truck drive by in the rain and throw a spray in the air. It was marvelous. And did I mention, I saw a falling leaf just drifting through the air?” If you are ever tempted to take sensory impressions for granted, remember Bon Edens. As his words show, sensation is our window to the World. All our meaningful behaviour, our awareness of physical reality, and our ideas about the Universe ultimately spring from the senses. It may be no exaggeration then, to claim that the gifts God blesses us with are “sensational.” Too often, however, people mistakenly presume that the body is intended to glorify the self. Disrespecting our body in any manner—flaunting it, disparaging it, participating in immoral behaviour, or neglecting it—constitutes rejecting the gift. A wise and loving God counsels us instead to be grateful for our body and to become a wise steward of it. To become a grateful and wise steward of the body often requires giving up something Worldly to gain something Heavenly. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
Vision gives us wide access to the World. In one instant you can view a star light-years away, and in the next, you can peer into the microscopic Universe of a dewdrop. Yet, vision also narrows what we observe. Like the other sense, vision acts as a data reduction system. It selects, analyzes, and filters information until only important details remain. In similar fashion, each of our senses routinely “boils down” floods of information into a stream of useful data. How does data reduction take place? Some selection occurs because sensory receptors are biological transducers. A transducer is a device that converts one kind of energy into another. For example, an electric guitar converts string vibrations into electrical signals, which are amplified and fed to a speaker. Pluck a strong and the speak with blast out sound. However, if you shine a light on the string our pour cold water on it, the speaker will remain silent. (The owner of the guitar, however, might get quite loud at this point!) Similarly, each sensory organ is most sensitive to a select type of range and energy. These are the stimuli that it can convert to nerve impulses. For instance, visible light is just a small slice of the electromagnetic spectrum (entire spread of electromagnetic wavelengths). The spectrum also includes infrared and ultraviolet light, radio waves, television broadcasts, gamma rays, and other energies. If your eyes were not limited in sensitivity, you would “see” a distorting jumble of energies. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Therefore, to preserve our body and senses, we may need to give up short-term pleasures of overeating, the avoidance of proper exercise, or the viewing of others’ bodies as objects for self-gratification. With such forsaking of Worldly practices come tremendous spiritual gains. Realizing and following the truth about the body brings freedom—freedom from the tyranny of vanity, fashion, envy, superficiality, self-criticism, backbiting, the ill effects of overeating, substance addiction, pornography, tattooing, and a host of other forms of Worldly weight and oppression. Developing an understanding of the true purpose of the body enhances our ability to use our agency, to progress, and to find joy. Another truth the scriptures teach about the body is that it is a temple. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” reports 1 Corinthians 6.19. The body and the person are not to be judged using Worldly criteria. What makes a temple precious is what it allows us to learn and to do. Many buildings are outwardly beautiful, but only within the temple can the splendor and magnificence of God’s eternal truth and promises be found. Likewise, the worth of the body is great in the sight of God, but he preciousness of the body comes from what it allows us to learn and do and from what it radiates from within. We must enable our temple-bodies to radiate the light, love, and truth of Christ. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
What we experience is also influenced by sensory analysis. As they process information, the senses divide the World into important perceptual features (basic stimulus patterns). For vision, such features include lines, shapes, edges, spots, colours, and other patterns. Alma asks: “Have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances?” reports Alma 5.14. A Christlike countenance that radiates truth, charity, and hope constitutes true beauty—beauty in the eyes of the ultimate beholder, God. True beauty comes from who and what an individual is. Such divine beauty is felt more than it is seen and is not bound by culture, age, or other Worldly criteria. Because he was denied a mortal body, Satan understands all too well how precious bodies are. He seeks to confuse and tempt us to misuse the body or even to reject it so that we might be miserable as he is. “Wherefore, humans are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto humans. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediator of all humans, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all humans might be miserable like unto himself,” reports 2 Nephi 2.27. Pain can be reduced or controlled by altering factors that affect pain intensity. Way of mistreating the body abound in all cultures. Amid such influences, treating the body properly requires deliberate thought and effort. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
Our Father in Heaven will help us with the struggles we face with our mortal bodies. He created us and our bodies and pronounced all that He had made as very good. Sensory adaption, selective attention, and sensory gating significantly modify our experiences. Only a small part of the sensory information surrounding us actually reaches the brain. “And I, God, saw everything that I had made, and, behold, all things which I had made were very good; and the evening and the morning were the sixth day,” reports Moses 2.31. The existence of synesthesia suggest that the senses are not entirely isolated from one another. Our private sensory Worlds are made up of a complex blend of information from all the senses. Seeking to understand the divine nature of the body and accepting the healing that comes from that understanding are the most powerful means by which you can overcome Worldly weight associated with the body—whether that weight is physical, ideological, emotional or behavioural. As Satan would conspire to have you be discontent with and disrespectful of your own and others’ bodies, God will inspire a different view. If you choose, through the Atonement, Jesus Christ can heal your mind, and heart. As you treat your own and others’ bodies in a manner consistent with the scriptures, your vision of the body will be transformed. You will recognize the illusions of the World, and you will experience a release from Worldly views and practices. Faith in these principles about the body shall helps make you whole. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
In some instances, the senses act as feature detectors that pick up very specific patterns. After they have analyzed information, sensor systems must code it. During sensory coding, important features of the World are converted into neural messages understood by the brain. God values us because of who we are, not how we look. If you criticize another’s appearance, this behaviour is inconsistent with gospel teaching. Now sin have marred God’s perfect work. However, even now all created things declare the glory of His excellence. There is nothing, save the selfish heart of humans, that lives unto itself. No bird that cleaves the air, no animal that moves upon the ground, but ministers to some other life. There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly blade of grass, but has its ministry. Every tree and shrub and leaf pours forth that elements of life without which neither human nor animal could live; and human and animal, in turn, minister to the life of tree and shrub and leaf. The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold their beauty in blessing to the World. The sun sheds tis light to gladden a thousand Worlds. The ocean, itself the source of all our springs and fountains, receives the streams from every land, but takes to give. The mists ascending from its bosom fall in showers to water the Earth, that it may bring forth and bud. Evolution tells us that we evolved from animals to strip us of the glory of being made in God’s image. God is not an animal, but the high, most exalted, divine creation that ever has or ever will exist. Do not discount your body and soul. The angels of glory find their joy in giving—giving love and tireless watch-care to souls that are fallen and unholy. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
Heavenly beings woo the hearts of humans; they bring to this morbid World optimism from the courts above; by gentle and patient ministry they move upon the human spirit, to bring the lost into a fellowship with Christ which is even closer than they themselves can know. Sensory localization means that the type of sensation you experience depends on which brain area is activated. Some brains areas receive visual information, others receive auditory information, and still other receive taste or touch. Knowing which areas are active tells us, in general, what kinds of sensations you are feeling. Sensory localization may someday make it possible to artificially restore sight, hearing, or other senses. In fact, researchers have already used a miniature television camera to send electrical signals to the brain. One man who has an implant of this type can “see” 100 dots of light. Like a sports scoreboard, these lights can be used to form crude letters. A larger number of dots could make reading, and “seeing” large objects, such as furniture and doorways, possible. A major barrier to such systems is the brain’s tendency to reject implanted electrodes. It is fascinating to realize that “seeing” and “hearing” take place in the brain, not in the eye or ear. Information arriving from the sense organs creates sensations. When the brain organizes sensations into meaningful patterns, we speak of perception. God created our bodies to help us be able to progress and become like Him. We can show God we appreciate our bodies by caring for them and using them as they were intended. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
The scriptures tell us that is we will turn to the Lord, ultimately “all things shall work together for our good,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 105.40. On an individual level, political involvement for the Christian entails not only voting and other basic responsibilities of citizenship, but dealing directly with political issues, particularly where justice and human dignity are at stake. A friend of mine, a prominent attorney, experienced this first hand. Dr. Jorge Crespo has always been an activist. For years he was an attorney for labour unions, fighting for justice and humane working conditions for labourers. He agreed to consider prison ministry. However, as soon as Dr. Crespo walked into the cellblocks of a prison, he felt a “deep sensation of pain, something like an echo of the pain of the prisoners. Since we are made in God’s image, we have been given His compassion toward our neighbour,” he explained. As Dr. Crespo investigated prison conditions, he uncovered, to his horror, instances of cruelty, deprivation, and misery. In one prison twenty prisoners were wedged into a cell the size of a small bedroom. In another inmates received less care than animals; their food budget was less than that of the officer’s guard dogs. In most women’s prisons, children were incarcerated along with their mothers. In some cases they were being used as pawns in child prostitution rings to make profits for their parents, the prison guards, politicians or three. Some parents even sold their children to escape jail time for crimes they had committed. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
There were also reports of inhumane treatment. Some prisoners had confessed to crimes of which they were innocent in order to escape measures. Dr. Crespo and his colleagues documented their case, then began to educate the public through press, radio, and television. They sent letters to the prison wardens with copies to the minister of government; they met with ministers of social rehabilitation and justice. Their campaign was not without personal sacrifice and political risk. Finally, they approached the tribunal overseeing constitutional enforcement, a governmental committee safeguarding provisions for human rights. Dr. Crespo spent two hors testifying about the despicable prison conditions as well as the inhuman treatment of inmates and those who had been detained for crimes but not yet proven guilty. The justices were shocked. Never before had such ugly topic been addressed in their ornate Victorian chambers. At the conclusion, the vice-president leaned forward to Dr. Crespo. “You have come here as Christians,” he said, “and what you have done today is truly Christian. That is why atheists are trying to strip God from the government and public life. They want to enforce tyranny and for people to forget the principles of the gospel so they will feel okay abusing people. As a result of Dr. Crespo’s efforts, he was able to organize a group of Christian police officers who are working to assure humane police investigation that does not rely on brutality. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
Dr. Crespo says the political and personal risks have been worth it. “To act as Christians we have to stand against injustice, and with prophetic voice talk courageously about truth, justice, fear, love. We ought not to bear infamy or atrocities. I believe a Christian who will remain silent is not a Christian.” Activists Christians like Dr. Jorge Crespo who work as private citizens to address problems within the structures of government do so not as moral busybodies who are seeking to foist their morals onto all of society by the force of law, but as those who have a passion for justice, as those who respect all persons as unique image bearers of God and who therefore seek to treat them with justice. Christians who are politicians can bear a biblical witness on political structures, just as they do in medicine, law, business, labour, education, the arts, or any other walk of life. God-fearing rulers are blessings bestowed upon humankind. Even if such cases benefit society more than their own political careers, they exhibit this in their moral witness and their willingness to stand up for unpopular causes. Remember, those that worship God, must worship Him in “SPIRIT and TRUTH.” Your spirit has one supreme function: To relate to God. “And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for HIM who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh (according to Worldly standards and values that derive from living as if one’s present physical life is all that matters). Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh,” reports 2 Corinthians 5.15-16. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
Christians can also bring mercy, compassion, and friendship to those in cutthroat business of politics. Sometimes even minor things can have a significant ripple effect in the everyday business of government. Christians in public office are motivated by something more than popularity or self-interest, something that frees them from being held hostage to political expediency. Their motivation to pursue what is right, in obedience to God, also gives them a source of wisdom and confidence beyond their own abilities. At the end of all its adventures, the lower self may indeed have to go, but the indestructible higher self will not go. In this sense there is no utter annihilation of the individual, no complete mergence of it into an all-swallowing ocean of cosmic consciousness, as s many New World critics of the Old World wisdom believe to be the latter’s last word. Because of the paradoxically dual nature which the Overself possesses, it is very difficult to make clear the concept of the Overself. Human beings are rooted in the ultimate mind through the Overself, which therefore partakes on the one hand of a relationship with a vibratory World and on the other of an existence which is above all relations. A difficulty is probably due to the vagueness or confusion about which standpoint it is to be regarded from. It if it thought of as the human soul, then the vibrator movement is connected with it. If it is thought of as transcending the very notion of humanity, and therefore in its undifferentiated character, the vibratory moment must disappear. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
If we are to think correctly, we cannot stop with thinking of the Overself as being only within us. After this idea has become firmly established for its metaphysical and devotional value, we must complete the concept by thinking of the Overself as being also without us. If in the first concept it occupies a point in space, in the second one it is beyond all considerations of place. On the evening of 21 September 1823—a few months before he was eighteen years old—Joseph Smith went to bed as usual. He prayed earnestly that God would forgive his folly and rebellion. He prayed to know his standing with God. It has been nearly three and a half years since the day of his vision and he prayed with all his might that God would show him what he should do. He was confident that God would answer his prayer. While he was praying, there appeared in his room a light which was bright than noonday. In this light an angel stood by his bedside. The angel seemed to be standing in the air, for his bare feet did not touch the floor. He wore a loose white robe which was very bright, and he was glorious to look upon. When Joseph first saw the angel he was afraid. However, the fear soon left as he heard his name called. The angel said he was Moroni and that he had a message from the Lord. “God has work for you to do,” the angel Moroni said. “Your name shall be had for good and evil among all nations, kindred and tongues.” The messenger told Joseph that hidden away was a book written upon gold plates telling of the people who long ago lived in the land of the Americas, and telling where they came from, and containing the fullness of the everlasting gospel as given by Jesus to these ancient people. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
You see, I am alive, I am alive. I stand in good relation to the Earth. I stand in good relation to God. I stand in good relation to all that is beautiful. I stand in good relation to the Heavens. Teach your children what we have taught our children—that the Earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth. If people spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know. The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth. We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. We give thanks and bless Thee, O Lord our God, for the Bible and for the worship of this day and for the prophets, which Thou hast given us for holiness and for rest, for joy and gladness, for glory and delight. Evermore may Thy name be continually praised by every living being. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hallowest the Sabbath and America and the festive seasons. Heavenly Father, we invoke Thy divine assistance upon the scholars and teachers associated in the study of the Holy Bible in the land of America, and in all the lands of the dispersion. We pray also for those leaders who spread learning among the people, the leaders of the community, those who head schools of learning as well as those who exercise authority in the courts and sacred law. May they, their disciples, the disciples of their disciples and all who apply themselves in the study of the Holy Bible be granted Heavenly salvation. Bestow upon them grace, lovingkindness and mercy, long life, ample sustenance, health of body and enlightenment of the mind. May they be blessed with children who will not neglect the Holy Bible. May the Ruler of the Universe bless them, prolong their lives, increase their days, and add to their years. May they be saved and delivered from every trouble and misfortune. May the Lord of Heaven be their help at all times and seasons; and let us say, Amen. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
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Mr. William Wirt Winchester Believes in the Sanctity of Property Because He is a Millionaire!
The fine women of Salem had some extracurricular activities that were hardly orthodox. Men have been burned at the stake for speaking ill of the Christian creed. People fought, not only verbally but physically, over their religious beliefs. Most people of that day used alcohol liquors. In almost every home liquor could be found. If a man was drunk it was not considered indecent, nor was his reputation injured by such conduct. Ministers, as well as doctors, were given a drink whenever they made a call at a home. It was almost impossible for them to make their daily calls without becoming intoxicated. Wine was generously served at religious ceremonies–marriages, christenings, funerals, and ordinations. Joseph Smith might have noted the conduct of members in a revival meeting. People would come from miles around to attend these meetings, camping in cabins and tents. At daybreak a trumpet was sounded to awaken the people. Services were held almost all day long, scarcely allowing time to eat, and giving no time at all for recreation and play. Singing and shouting during sermons was common. Men, women, children often fell to the floor in trances, sometimes barking like dogs. Now and then some would get what was know as the “jerks” and their heads would jerk back and forth rapidly. There seemed no way to stop these “jerks” though persons would run, dance, pray to escape them. As they listened to the thundering voice of the evangelist, many would cry and scream. Some ministers believed that the wilder the crowd became the more successful was the revival. Meantime, the FBI could find no DNA material from the site which matched the material of any current missing persons. Nevertheless, they were deeply courteous about having been called in, and they did confirm that the DNA of several persons was present in the evil morass and that the whole resembled an antiquated but gruesome crime scene. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Were these some of the things which were displeasing in the sight of the Lord? Were these people drawing near to God with their lips but keeping their hearts from them. Undoubtedly these were puzzling questions of fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith. Listening to the bird’s sing on this cool spring morning, I was reminded of how excitement used to fill this time of the year because it was near the end of a school year, and ever closer to graduation and adult life. Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentations, laughter—to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the World of unrest to the World of peace, and see reality in a new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplating hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil and fathomless water. The work and the worry that fell to my lot through the practical interest I took in organ building, made me sometimes wish that I had never troubled myself about it, but if I do not give it up, the reason is that the struggle for the good organ is to me a part of the struggle for truth. An organ is like a cow; one does not look at its horns so much as its milk. God is with us. The light of the knowledge of glory of God is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. From the days of eternity, the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the father; He was the image of God, the image of His greatness and majesty, the outshining of His glory. It was it was to manifest this glory that He came into our World. To this sin-darkened Earth He came to reveal the light of God’s love–to be God with us. Therefore it was prophesied of Him. By coming to dwell with us, Jesus Christ was to reveal God both to humans and to angels. He was the Word of God—God’s thoughts made audible. If we are not grateful to God, we can never see the greatness in our lives. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
When we start to appreciate, we will begin to elevate! Some people regard logical thinking as the deadest and driest of our activities and may therefore be repelled by the privileged position. However, logical thinking—Reasoning—is valid and no one can deny it (philosophically speaking). You cannot, as we already know, prove that there are no proofs. However, if you wish to regard all human ideals as illusions and all human love as biological by-products, you can. That is, you can do so without running into flat self-contradiction and nonsense. Whether you can do so without extreme umplausibility—without accepting a picture of things which no one really believes—is another matter. Besides reasoning about matters of fact, humans also make moral judgments—“I ought to do this”—“I ought not to do that”—“This is good”—“That is evil.” Two views have been held about moral judgments. Some people think that when we make them we are not using our Reason, but are employing some different power. Other people think that we make them by our Reason. I myself hold this second view. That is, I believe that the primary moral principles on which all others depend are rationally perceived. We “just see” that there is no reason why my neighbour’s happiness should be sacrificed to my own, as we “just see” that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. If we cannot prove either axiom, that is not because the irrational but because they are self-evident and all proofs depend on them. Their intrinsic reasonableness shines by its own light. It is because all morality is based on such self-evident principles that we say to a human, when we would recall one to right conduct, “Be reasonable.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
However, this is by the way. For our present purposes it does not matter which of these two views you adopt. The important point is to notice that moral judgments raise the same sort of difficulty for Naturalism as any other thoughts. We always assume in discussions about morality, as in all other discussions, if they can be fully accounted for by some non-moral and non-rational cause, that the other human’s views are worthless. When two humans differ about good and evil we soon hear tis principle being brought into play. “Mr. William Wirt Winchester believes in the sanctity of property because he is a millionaire”—“He believes in Pacifism because he is a coward”—“He approves of corporal punishment because he is a necrophile.” Such taunts may often be untrue: but the mere fact that they are made by the one side, and hotly rebutted by the other, shows clearly what principle is being used. Neither side doubts that if they were true, they would decisive. No one (in real life) pays attention to any oral judgment which can be shown to spring from non-moral and non-rational causes. The Freudian and the Marxist attack traditional morality precisely on this ground—and with wide success. All humans accept the principle. However, of course, what discredits particular moral judgments must equally discredit moral judgments as a whole. If that fact that humans have such ideas as ought and ought not at all can be fully explained by irrational and non-moral causes, then those ideas are an illusion. The Naturalist is ready to explain how the illusion arose. Chemical conditions produce life. Life, under the influence of natural selection, produces consciousness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
Conscious organisms which behave in one way live longer than those which behave in another. Living longer, they are more likely to have offspring. Inheritance, and sometimes teaching as well, pass on their mode of behaviour to their young. Thus in every species a pattern of behaviour is built up. In the human species conscious teaching plays a larger part in the building it up, and the tribe further strengthens it by killing individuals who to not conform. They also invent gods who are said to punish departures from it. Thus, in time, there comes to exist a strong human impulse to conform. However, since this impulse is often at variance with the other impulses, a mental conflict arises, and the human expresses it by saying “I want to do A but I ought to do B.” This account may (or may not) explain why humans do in fact make moral judgments. It does not explain how they could be right in making them. It excludes, indeed, the very possibility of their being right. For when humans say “I ought” they certainly think they are saying something, and something true about the nature of the proposed action, and not merely about their own feelings. However, if Naturalism is true, “I ought” is the same sort of statement as “I itch” or “I am going to be sick.” In real life when a human says “I ought” we may reply, “Yes. You are right. That is what you ought to do,” or else, “No. I think you are mistaken.: However, in a World of Naturalists (if Naturalist really remembered their philosophy out of school) the only sensible reply would be, “Oh, are you?” All moral judgments would be statements about the speaker’s feelings, mistaken by him for statements about something else (the real moral quality of actions) which does not exist. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
Such a doctrine, I have admitted, is not flatly self-contradictory. The Naturalist can, if one chooses, brazen it out. One can day, “Yes. I quite agree that there is no such thing as wrong and right. I admit that no moral judgment can be ‘true’ or ‘correct’ and, consequently, that no one system of morality can be better or worse than another. All ideas of good and evil are hallucinations—shadows cast on the outer World by the impulses which we have been conditioned to feel.” Indeed many Naturalists are delighted to say this. However, then they must stick to it; and fortunately (though in consistently) most real Naturalists do not. A moment after they have admitted that good and evil are illusion, you will find them exhorting us to work for posterity, to educate, revolutionise, liquidate, live and die for the good of the human race. A Naturalist like Mr. H. G. Wells spent a long life doing so with passionate eloquence and zeal. However, surely this is very odd? Just as all the books about spiral nebulae, atoms and cave men would really have led you to suppose that the Naturalists claimed to be about to know something, so all the books in which Naturalists tell us what we ought to do would really make you believe that they thought some ideas of good (their own, for example) to be somehow preferable to others. For they write with indignation like humans proclaiming what is good in itself and denouncing what is evil in itself, and not at all like humans recording that they personally like concentrated cranberry juice, but some people prefer sweetened cranberry juice. Yet if the “oughts” of Mr. Wells and, say, Franco are both equally the impulses which Nature has conditioned each to have and both tell us nothing about any objective right or wrong, whence is all the fervour? Do they remember while they are writing thus that when they tell us we “ought to make a better World” the words “ought” and “better” must, on their own showing, refer to an irrationally conditioned impulse which cannot be true or false any more than a vomit or a yawn? #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
My idea is that sometimes they do forget. That is their glory. Holding a philosophy which excludes humanity, they yet remain human. At the sight of injustice they throw all their Naturalism to the winds and speak like humans and like human of genius. They know far better than they think they know. However, at other times, I suspect, they are trusting in a supposed way of escape from their difficulty. It works—or seems to work—like this. They say to themselves, “Ah, yes. Morality”—or “bourgeois morality” or some such addition—“Morality is an illusion. However, we have found out what modes of behaviour we are pressing you to adopt. Pray, do not mistake us for moralists. We are under an entirely new management” …just as if this would help. It would help if only we grant, firstly, that life is better than death and, secondly, that we ought to care for the lives of our descendants as much as, or more than, for our own. And both these are moral judgments which have, like all others, been explained away by Naturalism. Of course, having been conditioned by Nature in a certain way, we do feel thus about life and about posterity. However, the Naturalists have cured us of mistaking these feelings for insights into what we once called “real value.” Now that I know that my impulse to serve posterity is just the same kind of thing as my fondness for cheese—now that its transcendental pretensions have been exposed for a sham—do you think I shall pay much attention to it? When it happens to be strong (and it has grown considerably weaker since you explained to me its real nature) I suppose I shall obey it. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
When it is weak, I shall put my money into cheese. There can be no reason for trying to whip up and encourage the one impulse rather than the other. Not now that I know what they both are. The Naturalists must not destroy all my reverence for conscience on Monday and expect to find me still venerating it on Tuesday. There is no escape along these lines. If we are to continue to make moral judgments (and whatever we say we shall in fact continue) then we must believe that the conscience of humans is not a product of Nature. Only if it is an offshoot of some absolute “on its own” and is not a product of non-moral, non-rational Nature. We must acknowledge the supernatural source for our ideas of good and evil. In other worse, we now know something more about God. If you hold that moral judgment is a different thing from Reasoning you will express tis new knowledge by saying “We now know that God has at least one other attribute than rationality.” If, like me, you hold that moral judgment is a kind of Reasoning, then you will say, “We now know more about the Divine Reason.” And with this we are almost ready to begin our main argument. However, before doing so it will be well to pause of the consideration of some misgivings of misunderstandings which may have already arisen. Happiness is related to good and bad life events, but the impact is smaller than you might imagine. The reason for this is that happiness tends to come from within a person. Subjective well-being is affected by our goals, choices, emotions, values, and personality. The way you perceive, interpret, and manage events is as important as the nature of the events themselves. People who are good a dodging the life’s rough, unsparing treatment (hard knocks) tend to create their own “luck.” As a result, they are happier and seem to negotiate life’s demands more smoothly. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
It is tempting to think that wealth brings happiness. However, does it? To a small degree wealthier people are happier than poorer people. Yet, the overall association between money and happiness is weak. In fact, people who win lotteries are often less happy than they were before, and imagine how much unhappier ill begotten gain might make them. Instant riches usually bring new stresses into a person’s life that tend to cancel out any beneficial effects of wealth. Essentially, money can make it possible to buy the good things in life, but money cannot buy a good life. Happiness usually must become from other sources More educated people tend to be a little happier than the less educated. However, this is most likely just another way of saying that there is a small connection between wealth and happiness. Higher education generally results in higher income and more social status. As education levels rise, more parents ae intellectually equipped to assume some responsibilities now delegated to schools. With the move toward knowledge-based industy and the increase of leisure, we can anticipate a small but significant tendency for highly educated parents to pull their children at least partway out of the public education systems, offering them home instruction instead. This trend will be sharply encouraged by improvements in computer-assisted education, Cisco Telepresence, electronic video recording, holography and other technical fields. Parents and students might sign short-term “learning contracts” with the nearby school, committing them to teach-learn certain courses or course modules. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
Students might continue going to school for social and athletic activities or for subjects they cannot learn on their own or under the tutelage of parents or family friends. Mobile education is also a proposal, which would take students out of the classroom not merely to observe but to participate in significant community activity. Curricula would be shaped by students and community groups as well as professional educators. The former United States Commissioner of Education, Harold Howe, II, has also suggested the reverse: bringing the community into the school so that local stores, beauty parlors, prints shops, architecture firms, be given free space in the schools in return for free lessons by the adults who run this. President Trump and other want to keep the schools and class rooms open, so children are being supervised by adults during work hours, which allows the parents to work and the kids to get an education. This reduces crime rates and helps increase income earnings in the future for students. School also serves as a nice social club for children where they make life long friends and memories. Also, school provides nutrition for students and proper nutrition helps to raise the IQ of students and keeps them healthy. Children also learn how to respect authority figures and learn that behaviour has bad consequences, whereas good behaviour and hard work is rewarded. People who live in the age of information must have new skills in three crucial areas: learning, relating, and choosing. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
Students will need an enhanced human adaptability. By instructing students how to learn and unlearn and relearn, a powerful new dimension can be added to education. Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the person who cannot read; one will be the human who has not learned how to learn. By speeding the turnover of people in our lives, we allow less time for trust to develop, less time for friendships to ripen. Thus we witness a search for ways to cut through the polite “public” behaviour directly to the sharing of intimacy. Presented with numerous alternatives, an individual chooses the one most compatible with one’s values. As overchoice deepens, the person who lacks a clear grasp of one’s own values (whatever these may be) is progressively disabled. Worse yet, students are seldom encouraged to analyze their own values and those of their teachers and peers. Millions pass through the education system without once having been forced to search out the contradictions in their own value systems, to probe their own life goals deeply, or even to discuss these matters candidly with adults and peers. Students hurry from class to class. Teachers and professors are harried and grow increasingly remote. Even the “bull session”—informal, extra-curricular discussion about pleasures of the flesh, politics, or religion that helps participants identify and clarify their values—grown less frequent and less intimate as transience rises. Married people report a greater happiness than people who are divorces, separated, or single. It could be that happiness people are simply more likely to get married than to remain sleepless in Seattle. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
However, better explanation for this association is that marriage partners can act as emotional and economic buffers against the hardships of life and a faithful marriage also helps keep people chaste in the eyes of the Lord, in most cases, as long as you are not sleeping with the enemy. There is a beneficial association between happiness and holding spiritual beliefs. Religious beliefs may add to feelings of purpose and meaning in life, resulting in greater happiness. Marriage between partners is a vital part of God’s plan. The Lord has said, “Whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 49.15. Since the beginning, marriage has been a law of the gospel. Marriages are intended to last forever, not just for our mortal lives. Adam and Eve were married by God before there was any death in the World. They had an eternal marriage. They taught the law of eternal marriage to their children and their children’s children. As the years passed, wickedness entered the hearts of the people and the authority to perform this sacred ordinance was taken from the Earth. Through the Restoration of the gospel, eternal marriage has been restored to Earth. Many people in the World consider marriage to be only a social custom, a legal agreement between two people in love together. However, to Latter-day Saints, marriage is much more. Our exaltation depends on marriage, along with other principles and ordinances, such as faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the holy Ghost. We believe that marriage is the most sacred relationship that can exist between two loving people. This sacred relationship affects our happiness now and in the eternities. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
Heavenly Father has given us the law of eternal marriage so we can become like Him. The Lord has said: “In the celestial glory there are three Heavens or degrees: and in order to obtain the highest, a human must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]; and if one does not, one cannot obtain it,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 131.1-3. Another possibility is that church membership may simply provide social support that softens that impact of life’s negative events. Incubation is the term applied to the sleeping in a temple—usually a special shrine or sanctuary used for healing and healing-dreams and dream-oracles alone—as a means of healing. This was practiced by ancient Greek and Babylonians. It was also frequently practiced in ancient Egypt at the temples of Isis and Serapis with effects similar to those of hypnotism. Five hundred years before Christ at the temple of Epidaurus, where the inspiring spirit or god was Aesculapius (the patron saint of modern medicine still), sick patients were put to sleep by priests at the foot of the Aesculapius’ statue. In many cases, they awoke suddenly cured. That the real effectiveness of incubation was not the work of a departed spirit but of Nature in the sleep state combined with the sufferer’s faith, was shown by the custom which still prevails in Greece. Here sleep in a temple of Aesculapius was simply replaced by sleep in the church associated with a Christian saint. Consider a cut had and how Nature at once sets to work to repair the damage. The anatomist tells us that the leucocytes in the blood automatically build a bridge of tissue over the wound’s surface. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
However, what orders the leucocytes to make the needed adjustments? What shows them how to make it? There is obviously an intelligence behind them, a mind within the body outside and apart from the conscious mind. There are miracles in Nature, and at this time, happenings to which science possesses no key. The human consciousness, for instance, is capable of manifesting power which contradict psychological knowledge, just as the human body is capable of manifesting phenomena which contradict medical knowledge. Both powers and phenomena may seem miraculous, but they really issue forth from the hidden laws of human’s own being. The process take pace in the dark only to us. This life-force, this invisible energy, is behind and within, around and above the physical body. Under certain circumstances its rea can be seen and traced out and its recuperative healing power drawn upon. It forms an aura, the etheric or vital body of light, but not the still more elusive and subtle divine body of Light nor the aura of various colours, the astral body. The stereotype of the crotchety antiquated person who id dissatisfied with everything is inaccurate. Life satisfaction and happiness generally do not decline with age. People are living longer and staying healthier, which has greatly delayed age-related declines. When declines do occur, mature people seem better able to cope with them. The hindrances which wrong bodily regimes put in one’s Quest are not only physical but also psychic, emotional, and mental. The condition of a human’s health, the medical state of one’s body, may contribute to one’s spiritual outlook, may enfeeble or enliven one’s faith. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
If union with the Overself-consciousness is to be achieved, or progress to that goal made, the body ought also to share in the benefits received. It too ought to be freer from discordant elements, organs, or operations. The wise student will recognize that one gains more than one loses by such sacrifices as this discipline of the body calls for. The benefits of resisting custom’s dominance are both disproportionate and durable, with a value so high as to make the discipline bearable and the sacrifices smaller. Wen one hears about these ascetic-sound regimes a chill sets in. However, what is it that rebels against them? It is the ego, the weakness of human will. Yet the rebellion is ill-founded, for the body is not tortured by being brought under control—only its perverted, exaggerated, or enslaving appetites suffer by doing so. The regimes themselves are sensible and are not fantastical fads. They are simply indication of the quester’s need to live more carefully than other people, and to change habits which are bad. They are hygienic recommendations offered to those who want to advance their spiritual journey more quickly. The bodily cells are so pervaded with toxic materials, clogged with them, so contaminated by them, that this purificatory work is an essential preliminary to the mystical work, proper for most aspirants except those who have the inborn capability of quickly rising to an intense concentration which frees the cells from such poisons. There is a mass of improperly digested, half-decayed food material lying in the intestines in a fermenting condition, while farther on here are accumulated deposits of petrified impurities on the lining of the colon and the membrane of the bowels. These substances are rejected by they body, which suffers by their presence but is unable to free itself from the without conscious and willing co-operation on the part of its owner. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
The body’s physiological processes are clogged and encumbered by them and its nervous system and brain organ polluted by the inferior blood brought to nourish them. To achieve this aim, a certain preparation as well as purification of the body is required. The spine must be cleared of adhesions, congestions, distortions, shrinkings, and nerve branch pressures. The tissues and blood have to be cleansed of the toxic material accumulated in them. The salvation which frees a human from enslavement to one’s lower nature is necessary and good, but it goes only part of the way to fulfilling one’s needs. One’s fleshly body also requires salvation. It ought to be freed from its poisoned, clogged, and unnatural condition. If it is saturated wit destructive acids or clogged wit decaying material, the body cannot respond so freely to the subtle forces, nor can the brain and nervous system respond so freely if they are stupefied by alcohol or drugs. As the consciousness evolves to a higher level, so the body it functions through must become more refined in quality and purified in nature. Mental equilibrium, deep prayer, cannot be attained without changing the habits which obstruct it. Even if the requisite purification of the body’s cells and blood from all toxins has been achieved, a human must still refrain from starting on those ways which caused toxemia. There is a common error that drugs and medicines are enough to keep us in good health. They are not. The only things that can do so are correct living habits, righting thinking habits, and proper eating habits. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
A knowledge of personal hygiene will keep us in better health than a hundred boxes of pills. We must learn to conform to the laws of hygienic living—mental and physical—if we want to achieve a sound mind in a should body. We may not break those laws with impunity, nor believe that because we have been spiritually healed once we are exempt from the always. The desire to gain purity must provide the power to follow the regimes needed for it. The sediment of egotism in the mind and animality in the flesh cannot be cleared out unless this desire grows strong and remains enduring. The mental courage to cast out those wrong habits of living which unenlightenment of spiritual hygiene has allowed one to pick up, must show itself. People who are satisfied with their jobs tend to be happier, but the association is weak. If fact, it probably just reflects the fact that job satisfaction is a large part of greater life satisfaction. With respect to happiness and personality, it may be fair to paraphrase Paris Hilton, “I am a star and I was born to shine. I am happy, powerful, strong and confident.” To a degree, some people are more temperamentally disposed to be happy, regardless of life events. In general, happier people also tend to be extraverted (outgoing), optimistic, and worry-free. This combination probably influences the balance of beneficial and negative emotions. In general, if they are meeting their personal goals, people tend to be happy. If you feel you are making progress, on a day-to-day basis, on smaller goals that relate to long-term, life goals, this is especially true. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
However, achieving one’s goals does not always lead to happiness. Consider the highly successful person who is absorbed in one’s accomplishments. All it may take is a crisis, like a child’s illness or the death of a friend, to make life feel meaningless. However, if the person begins to act with integrity, meaning can be restored and the crisis resolved. Thus, optimal human functioning involves integrity as well as an ability to accomplish goals. “Doing well,” they say, is associated with happiness. In contrast, “being yourself” is associated with leading a meaningful life. In short, if we are to live with integrity, the goals we purse must express our core interests and values. Examples of the kinds of personal projects (short-term goals) and long-term goals that occupy us: for architect’s the job is usually spent on location. When a project is located nearby, architect may leave the office periodically to stop by the project site. Some short-term goals involved checking in with building developers and engineers to ensure the client’s objectives are met, review projects, and check on any potential obstacles in construction. Many architects believed that if they did great work, somehow society would recognize the contributions and value they were making to the World and reward them with an endless stream of passion projects to grow their firm. However, the truth when it comes to long term goals, running an architecture firm is exactly the same as running any other business. You have to work just as hard to win business as you do to deliver it. An important long-term goal to remember is that your costs of running a business increase over the years. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
Your money goals should define the revenues and profits you will need to accommodate these increased costs, and support the growth you want. Also another long-term goal should be to become innovative and sometimes that requires a history lesson. For an architecture firm, stepping back into the past the Victorian America and seeing what was popular back them, like butler’s pantries, multiple parlors, patio spaces, and yards with green spaces, mixed with some modern style designs is a long-term way to stay relevant. People goals typically focus on who you want to work with. This can include the employees you want on your staff, and it may also include the type of clients you want to attract. Sometimes working with non-profits has provided some firms with not only a great sense of fulfillment but also a deeper connection to their local community. Working with one firm allowed the nonprofit client to connect with an ideal prospect and close a $6,000,000 group up non-profit project, at the height of the COVID-19 crisis pandemic. Who we work with can greatly affect our enthusiasm and motivation on the job, so setting goals around who we choose to work with can have an immense impact on our attitude towards our work. Such goals are crucial because overall well-being is a combination of happiness and meaning. Pursuing goals that are inconsistent with personal interests and values can leave a person feeling uneasy, bothered, and uncomfortable. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
Happier persons tend to be married, comfortable with their work, extraverted, religious, optimistic, and generally satisfied with their lives. They also are making progress toward their goals. However, attain goals that do not express our deeper interests and values may add little to happiness. When, then, makes a good life? Purpose and meaning are important sources of well-being at any point in life. As we have seen, a good life is one that is happy and meaningful. We are most likely to experience a meaningful life when we act with integrity. It is interesting that while achievement and external goals may preoccupy younger persons, integrity becomes increasingly important later in life. “To thine own self be true” may seem like a cliché, but it is actually not a bad place to begin a search for a happy and a satisfying life. “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. Let all things be done decently and in order,” reports 1 Corinthians 14.33 and 40. Our little World is the lesson book of the Universe. God’s wonderful purpose of grace, the mystery of redeeming love, is the theme into which “angels desire to look,” and it will be their study throughout endless ages. Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for Earth and Heaven; that the love which “seeketh not her own” has its source in the heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the character of Him who dwelleth in the light which no human can approach unto. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
Sometimes, when a bird cries out, or the wind sweeps through a tree, or an angel whispers in a far-off farm, I hold still and listen a long time. My World turns and goes back to the place where, a thousand forgotten years ago, the bird and the blowing wind were like me, and were my brothers. My soul turns into a tree, and an animal, and a cloud bank. Then changed and odd it comes home and asks me questions. What should I reply? Faithful art Thou, O Lord our God, and faithful are Thy words, for no word of thine shall remain unfulfilled. Thou art a faithful and merciful God and King. Blessed art Thou, O Lord God, who art faithful in fulfilling Thy words. Please be merciful unto America, for it is the fountain of our life, and mayest Thou soon in our day deliver Zion that is grieved in spirit. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who makest America rejoice with her children. Make us rejoice, O Lord our God, with Elijah the prophet, Thy servant, and with the kingdom of the house of David, Thine anointed. Soon may Elijah come and bring joy to our hearts. May no stranger occupy David’s throne and may no usurper inherit his glory. For by Thy holy name Thou hast promised unto one that one’s light will never be extinguished. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the Shield of America. We give Thee thanks and bless Thee, O Lord our God, for the Torah, and for the worship of this day and for the prophets, as well as for this Sabbath day which Thou, O Lord our God, hast given us for holiness and for rest, for glory and delight. Evermore may Thy name be continually praised by every living being. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hallowest the Sabbath. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
Winchester Mystery House
It’s May 1st which means it’s halfway to Halloween! We are hard at work dreaming up a new experience for Halloween 2021 that will feature a projection mapped show on the front of the mansion. Stay tuned for more details coming soon!
“Lord God,” said Mrs. Sarah Winchester, as the flames rose and the fire crackled. “We got a dead girl, a huge mansion that is too big to heat, too big to maintain, too expensive to sale, a bunch of weird books, and a regular tomb of gold with an empty iron coffin in it, and a half-ghost boy standing here. Now this translation just arrived. ‘Here sleeps Annie Winchester, whose mortal hands once made the most beautiful cameos, even for emperors and and kings. Guard me, ye gods and goddesses whose images I render so well. A curse on those who attempt to disturb my resting place.'”
Watch your step in the séance room! There are three exits in this room, The main door, a secret passageway leading into an unfinished closet, and this door that opens to an 8-ft drop into the kitchen below.
Self-Guided Mansion Tour:
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When a Person Speaks, Please Listen, they are Revealing their Hearts!
No one can give a definition of the soul. However, we know what it feels like. The soul is the sense of something higher than our selves, something the stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspirations which go out to the World of goodness, truth and beauty. The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this World of light and never to lose it—to remain children of the light. We need also to remember that the attitude of the advanced soul towards personal suffering is not the same as the common one. One’s standpoint is different. So far as we know human history on this globe, all the facts show that sickness, pain, disease, and death are parts of the conditions governing the physical body’s experience because they are inescapable and inevitable parts of all physical-plane experience for highly organized forms, whether human or otherwise. That is, they are part of the divine plan for humans. We humans resent such experiences, but it may be that they are necessary to our rounded development and that the Illuminated who have approached closer to the infinite wisdom perceive this and drop their resentment. Here we may recall Sri Ramakrishna’s attitude towards the cancer in the throat from which he died, Saint Bernadette of Lourdes’ attitude towards her painful lingering and fatal disease of consumption, Ramana Maharshi’s fatalism about his bodily pains and ailments, and Sri Aurobindo’s reply to the physician who attended him for a broken knee after a fall: “How is it that you, a Mahatma, could not foresee and prevent this accident?” “I still have to carry this human body about me and it is subject to ordinary human limitations and physical laws.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
Only familiarity with the thought of death creates true, inward freedom from material things. The ambition, greed, and love of power that we keep in our hearts, that shackle us to this life in chains of bondage, cannot in the long run deceive the human who looks death in the face. Rather, by contemplating one’s end, one eventually feels purified and delivered from one’s baser self, from material things, and from other humans, a well as from fear and hatred of one’s fellow humans. With time, as it stands at this point in our evolution, the body deteriorates, its youth and beauty vanish, its health becomes uncertain or, worse, precarious. The young Gautama, overwhelmed by this sudden realization, sought in the mind a better and more lasting condition. The natural contemplation of death can be comforting. If our lives had no appointed end but went on forever, have you ever considered how dreadful it would be, as we are living in a continuously changing World, full of corruption, and factions of authority figures that are out of control and insane? Can you imagine that as far as the eye can see into the future we should remain enmeshed in the desires and troubles of this life and that all the ensuing envy, hatred, and malice, our own and other people’s should continue to pile up undiminished? The vain delusion that death will have no power over the prophet, and over those followers who faithfully practise the prophet’s teaching, has appeared in modern times in the New World as well as the Old World. Even Gandhi shared and propagated the view that a sinless human would necessarily have a perfectly healthy body. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
When, later, Gandhi suffered from appendicitis, he blamed his own failure to control passion and thought for its appearance. However, we also know that our environment can affect our health. For instance, chemicals that people are exposed to like Agent Orange can kill them, alter their DNA, cause cancer, and birth defects in their children. It can also poison the environment. Or if one lives in a substandard home where mold grows in the carpets, on the windows and in the closets, they can become ill and die. Or if the landlord feels it is their right to expose you to deadly poisons and the state refuses to enforce the laws, one can become ill and die. So, sin may cause all illness, but it is not necessarily your sinning that is causing you to become ill and die. There are often other precipitating factors that we have no control over. However, if one can succeed in refusing to identify oneself with the suffering body, one will not suffer with it. All the high-sounding babble will not remove the stark fact staring them in the face; all the glib consolatory theorizing will not waft away the terrible spectacle of the guru stricken by cancer. The ordinary human feels that pain alone. The philosopher feels both the pain and its antidote—Being. Such is our unenlightened state that we weep when one human, who is weary with age, escapes from one’s body, and we preform a dismal ceremony of lament when another human, tired with sickness, separates oneself from it. We pretend to believe in God, in Mind infinitely wise, and yet we have not learned to accept death as a wise event in nature and as proper as birth. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
These cults which seek to perpetuate Earthly life thereby question the divine wisdom and reveal their own materialistic and egoistic attachments. The attainment of spiritual consciousness does not automatically bring with it the attainment of healing powers, any more than it brings mathematical powers or musical powers. The fallacy that the body is automatically healed of its diseases when the mind is healed of its unenlightened state, needs to be exposed because it is so specious and so attractive. It is a curious bifurcated kind of consciousness where ne is aware of what the body is suffering but where one can also feel the support of infinite peace at one’s center. Thus both pain and peace are within it. Fountaingrove was established in 1875 by Thomas Lake Harris, founder of the Brotherhood of the New Life and of the three colonies in New York between 1861 and 1867. Fountaingrove, described by its founder as a Theo-Socialist community was situated in Northern California on 700 acres two miles north of Santa Rosa, “the Eden of the West.” The charismatic Mr. Harris called himself the “primate” or “pivotal man” chosen by God, in whom forces of good and evil fought on Earth and from whom the announcement of Christ’s Second Coming would emerge. His spiritualist doctrine included teachings such as Divine Respiration, which enabled the brotherhood to commune with God through rhythmic breathing. In 1891, Mr. Harris’s complex theories of Spiritual Counterparts—each person has a counterpart in Heaven—and celibacy left Fountaingrove with a successful enterprise. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
Even in the midst of bodily sufferings, one will still keep and not lose one’s beautiful serenity of mind. And one is able to do so precisely because one is able to differentiate the flesh from the mind. Inevitably, it must counteract, even though it may not obliterate, the body’s pain. Pain and suffering, sin and evil, disease and death, exist only in the World of thoughts, not in the World of pure thought itself. They are not illusions, however, but they are transient. Whoever attains to pure Thought will also attain in consciousness to a life that is painless, sorrow-free, sinless, undecaying, and undying. Beings above desires and fears, it is necessarily above the miseries caused by unsatisfied desires and realized fears, it is necessarily above the miseries caused by unsatisfied desires and realized fears. However, at the same time one will also have an accompanying consciousness of life in the body, which must obey the laws of its own being, natural laws which set limitations and imperfections upon it. This much can be said to the element of truth contained in some theoretical doctrines of Vedantic Advaita and Christian Science. You may think it strange that I have spoken so much about death and not a word about immortality, the word one generally uses to dispel one’s fears. Perhaps one has talked too much and too superficially about immortality, in order to comfort people in the face of death. Hence the word has been depreciated. Immortality believed in for the sake of comfort is not genuine immortality. The impression it makes on us is as fleeting as a picture pained on a wall in watercolour—the next shower of rain will wash it away. It is imposed on people from the outside. They soon forget about it, preferring to stifle their fear of death by refusing to think about it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
However, the human who dares to live one’s life with death before one’s eyes, the human who receives life back bit by bit and lives as though it did not belong to one by right but has been bestowed on one as a gift, the human who has such freedom and peace of mind that one has overcome death in one’s thoughts—such a human believes in eternal life because it is already one’s, it is a present experience, and one already benefits from its peace and joy. No one we know of, because Jesus Christ, has ever come back from the other World. I cannot console you, but one thing I can tell you as long as my ideals are alive, I will be alive. There is a single source of Life which envelops the Universe and pervades humans. By its presence in oneself, one is able to exist physically and function mentally. That Power which brought the body into existence originally maintains its involuntary functions, cures its diseases, and heals its wounds. It is within the body itself; it is the life-force aspect of the Soul, the Overself. Its curative virtue may express itself through various mediums—as herbs and foods, hot, cold, or mud baths, and deep breathings, exercise, and osteopathy—or it may express itself by their complete absence as in fasting, often the quickest and most effective medium. Or, disdaining physical methods entirely, it may act directly and almost miraculously as spiritual healing. The role of physical treatments of any kind is to supply favourable conditions for the action of the universal life-force which does the real healing work, just as food, water, and air supply materials to this same force for the repair of tissue and the regeneration of cells. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
If it is the heart’s activity which enables the whole body to exist and carry out its function in the World, it is the life-force’s activity which enables the heart to carry out its function in the body. The body has its own natural intelligence which serves it when the skin is cut or the flesh is wounded, coagulating the blood and forming new tissue. This intelligence heals, repairs, and re-energizes, provided you put no obstructions in its way through wrong diet, excessive activity, or bad habits. Nature is an expression of the Universal Mind. The plants are given to us for medicine or food. It is an insult to Nature to despise these remedies. The physical body attracts solar energies from the surrounding atmosphere, and vital elements from food, air, and water, and incorporates them into itself. This gives it the force whereby its limbs make their own movements. However, the ultimate sustaining strength is derived from the Overself. It is this intelligent life-force which regulates the hair’s growth, keeps the body at an even temperature, and regulates contracting and expanding of the lungs. Humans do not do these things consciously or ordinarily, but the fore is well able to take care of them. The life-force comes into play automatically when healing is required, but we put so much obstruction in its path that we prolong the disease until it may become chronic. The belief that the body is permeated by a power which heals it when sick was accepted by the Greeks before Christ. The medical person’s role is to co-operate with this power. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
Just as there is one process in the body which decays it with the years and ultimately destroys it, so there is another process which beneficently recuperates and even heals it. After all and in the end, it is Nature which brought us to birth n this planet. Can we not therefore credit her with the power of restoring the health needful to maintain the lives she has taken the trouble to originate? Nature not only soothes troubled minds but heals troubled bodies. She provides them with curative herbs, barriers, barks waters, rays, leaves—the woos are sanitariums. The psychic poisons resulting from civilized human’s excessive, exciting, and ego-stimulating activities must be treated on different levels, the antidotes being sleep, mental quiet, diet, rest, and relaxation. The life-force displays one remarkable effect during sleep: it not only recuperates the body but—as in the cases of Napoleon and General Douglas MacArthur—keeps the body strong and tough even though never exercised. For these two men possessed the uncommon power of being able to fall asleep within a minute or two at will. There is nothing the blood of Jesus Christ cannot handle! He has already given you the victory! For every weary, worn out place in your mind, body and soul—I pray God is supernaturally giving you His strength to heal and fortify and repair right now in the name of Jesus! The Christian who recognizes the never-ceasing wonder and divine worth of one’s body, who accepts it as the stage on and through which one has to fulfill oneself and realize one’s ideal, is not degrading that ideal or falling back into bondage but is actually carrying out the high purpose which is held before humans in the cosmic scheme. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
Every part of the body shows forth this infinite wisdom. The body gives us our existence in this time-spaced World but its service does not stop there; for, its flesh cleansed and its breathing quieted, it lends itself to higher purpose—no less than acting as a temple of the holy spirit for blissful prayer. Incarnation is an opportunity for salvation. The body is a holy temple. The flesh is a revelation of the World’s Mind working. And if humans are made in the image of God it is so in one’s whole person, and it is a ridiculous stand to denounce the flesh as worthless. We are not only spiritual beings, we are material beings and here to have a spiritual and material existence. Life should be beautiful. We should not want to badly to escape the flesh, but to end corruption and greed so we can better enjoy our finite experience on Earth. The spirit is interblend with the flesh. How close is our relationship to that other Self, that Godlike Overself! And not only one’s mind’s relationship but also one’s body’s. For in the center of every cell in blood, marrow, flesh, and bone, there is the void that holds, and is, pure Spirit. This physical life may seem like death to the inner life; yet it is our only means of developing the inner life. All these physical methods are only preliminary, are only disciplines to establish the proper bodily conditions for inner work. They can not o themselves bring about spiritual illumination. The body is our physical home. Though its five senses we may suffer pain and misery or enjoy satisfaction and pleasure. Therefore it should be well treated and well cared for, kept healthy as far as we can. This is not only a personal need but also a spiritual duty for its condition may obstruct or assist the inner work. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The earth is the scene where humans are placed to achieve their spiritual development. The body is the only direct contact one has with it: How foolish is it to mistreat the body through unenlightenment, abuse it through carelessness, or neglect it through laziness? The belief that any physical method can liberate humans spiritually or evolve one mystically is shallow and deceptive. However, if it cannot fulfill these aims it can indirectly promote them by providing more favourable conditions for their attainment. That this way of purer living leads to a higher vitality, a greater physical buoyancy than one would otherwise have had is a pleasant incidental result. However, the deeper result, which most concerns aspirants, is a more active intuitive life and a less active animal nature. If we will take sufficient care of the body and give sufficient thought to its experiences, if we will follow the counsel of reason rather than the impulse of appetite, its experiences, if we will follow the counsel of reason rather than the impulse of appetite, its health will be fostered, its life prolonged, and its functioning improves. If we treat the body carefully and heed the laws of health, we will have fewer obstacles in the way of spiritual efforts. Food is important for this purpose. Tensions in the muscle should be avoided, for there is an influence on the mind from the body. The body (like the soul) gives messages of counsel, warning or approval to one but too often one does not listen to them, does not understand them, or does not want one’s complacency (formed by tendencies, habits, and surroundings) disturbed. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
The terrestrial inheritance—the body’s instincts, appetites, and passions—must be controlled and disciplined if these higher interests are to bear any fruit. Time, strength, attention, for, pleasures of the flesh, activity and nonactivity, sleep and waking must all be regulated. The mysterious character of the Overself inevitably puzzles the intellect. We may appreciate it better if we accept the paradoxical fact that it unites a duality and that therefore are two ways of thinking of it, both correct. There is the divine being which is entirely above all the temporal concerns, absolute and universal, and there is also the demi-divine being which is in historical relation with the human ego. It is possible for the fully illumined mystic to experience two different states of identification with one’s Higher Self. In one, one becomes conscious of the latter on IT’s own plane; in the other, which one experiences in deep trace only, even if that is transcended and there is only the ONE/Being. Yet this is not annihilation. What it is (infinite) is beyond human comprehension, and therefore beyond human description. It is hard to tell in words about the wordless, hard to formulate in intellect-born phrases what is beyond the intellect. To say that the higher self is or is not individualized is to distort meaning and arouse miscomprehension. However, a smile may help us here. The drop of water which, with the countless millions of other drops, makes up the ocean is distinct but not separable from them. It is both different from and yet the same as them. At the base of each human’s being stretches the one infinite life alone, but within it one’s center of existence rests. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
A miracle is an extraordinary event caused by the power of God. Miracles are an important element in the work of Jesus Christ. They include healings, restoring the dead to life, and resurrection. Faith is necessary in order for miracles to be manifested. “And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep the in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith,” reports Moroni 6.4. We are Nature, long have we been absent, but now we return, we become plants, trunks foliage, roots, bark, we are bedded in the ground, we are rocks, we are oaks, we grow in the opening side by side, we browse, we are two among the wild herds, spontaneous as any, we are two fishes swimming in the sea together, we are what locust blossoms are, we drop scent around lanes mornings and evenings, we are also the coarse smut of beats, vegetables, minerals, we are two predatory hawks, we soar above and look down, we are two resplendent suns, we it is who balance ourselves orbic and steller, we are as two comets, we prowl fang’d and four-footed in the woods, we spring on prey, we are two clouds forenoons and afternoons driving overhead, we are seas mingling, we are two of those cheerful waves rolling over each other and interewtting each other, we are what the atmosphere is, transparent, receptive, pervious, impervious, we are snow, rain, cold, darkness, we are each product and influence of the globe, we have circled and circled till we have arrived home again, we too, we have voided all but freedom and al but our own joy. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
It is lovely indeed, it is lovely indeed. I, I am the spirit within the Earth. The feet of the Earth are my feet; the legs of the Earth are my legs. The strength of the Earth is my strength; the thoughts of the Earth are my thoughts; the voice of the Earth is my voice. The feather of the Earth is my feather; all that belongs to the Earth belongs to me; all that surrounds the Earth surrounds me. I, I am the scared works of the Earth. It is lovely indeed, it is lovely indeed. Sometimes people deny the power of God; yet in the same breath they are according the Devil a power which is greater than one is willing to acknowledge the Lord can possess. There are many things that may be displeasing in the sight of the Lord. Some religious people believe that if people are of “of the elect” God will save them in one’s own due time regardless of the way they live or what they do. If there were “not of the elect,” it will do no good to preach to or teach them because a saving faith, or “regeneration” as it is called, is considered a gift from God by which one transformed the hearts of a few chosen. Various denominations attempt to confine their religious beliefs into definite molds. These rigid beliefs stand in the way of the forward march of truth. They give no opportunity for new truths nor for new or corrected interpretation of the doctrine. Let the love of God invade your heart, your head, your life and lead you in all that you do! Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Rock of all ages, righteous in all generations. Thou art the faithful God, promising and performing, speaking and fulfilling, for all Thy words are true and righteous. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
WE BUILD THE PLACES WHERE LIFE’S BEST MOMENTS CAN HAPPEN
Imagine…you are in the kitchen cookin’ up dinner, your spouse is on the couch watching TV, while you teenager completes homework in the loft space upstairs. We love the togetherness accomplished with the open floorplan of Cresleigh Home. Within each Cresleigh neighborhood, you’ll find new homes thoughtfully designed to suit the needs of any generation and any lifestyle, with energy efficiency and reliability at their core.
Every Cresleigh team member is passionate about building a new home that you can rely on and a new home that helps you to focus on what truly matters: creating memories with the people you love.
No matter what “home” means to you, there is surely something nostalgic about the place we call home. A Cresleigh Home is the place where we eat, the place with friends and family, where we enjoy our home goods and decor, and it’s the place we make our own.
There is nothing more important than a good, safe, secure home. https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-ranch/
Welcome to the neighborhood.
God is Any Respecter of Persons—Understand the Pleasures of the Other!
For centuries sermons have been preached on the terror of death in order to frighten people into believing in eternal life. And the result? Numbness, numbness. What a strange and fateful phenomenon! In all sphere of life, anything repeated over and over again loses its effect. A ball bounced hundreds and hundreds of times will finally not bounce anymore. The best medicine, taken day in, day out, will not longer be effective. A truth constantly repeated, generation after generation, is eventually disbelieved. That is what has happened all around us. People are no longer moved by fear of death or by the hope of eternal life. All they ask is that death not be mentioned. And thus is seems a conspiracy of silence has been descended. We all pretend toward our neighbour that the possibility of one’s death could never happen. If we want to grow into really good people, we must all become familiar with the thought of death. We need not think of it every day or every hour. However, when the path of life leads us to some vantage point where the scene around us fades away and we contemplate the distant view right to the end, let us not close our eyes. Let us pause for a moment, look at the distant view, and then carry on. Thinking about death in this way produces true love for life. When we are familiar with death, we accept each week, each day, as a gift. Only if we are able thus to accept life—bit by bit—does it become precious. God has spoken and ordained that a season of incredible favour is coming your way. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
How can death be overcome? By regarding, in moments of deepest concentration, our lives and those who are part of our lives as though we already had lost them in death, only to receive them back for a little while. “Whom He predestined, them He also called,” reports Romans 8.30. It is fitting that God should predestine humans. For all things are subject to His providence. Now it belongs to providence to direct things towards their end. The end towards which created things are directed by God is twofold; one which exceeds all proportion to created nature, to which end created being can attain accord to the power of its nature. Now if a thing cannot attain to something by the power of its nature, it must be directed thereto by another; thus, an arrow is directed by the archer towards a mark. Hence, properly speaking, a rational creature, capable of eternal life, is led towards it, directed as it were, by God. The reason of the direction pre-exists in God; as in Him is the type of the order of all things towards an end, which we proved above to be providence. Now the type in the mind of the doer of something to be done, is a kind of pre-existence in one of the thing to be done. Hence the type of aforesaid direction of a rational creature towards the end of life eternal is called predestination. For to destine or send. Thus it is clear that predestination, as regards its objects, is a part of providence. Damascene calls predestination an imposition of necessity, after the manner of natural things which are predetermined toward the end. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
This imposition of predestination is clear from his adding: “He does not will malice, nor does He compel virtue.” Whence predestination is not excluded by God. Irrational creatures are not capable of that end which exceeds the faculty of human nature. Whence they cannot be properly said to be predestined; although improperly the term is used in respect of any other end. Predestination applies to angels, just as it does to humans, although they never been unhappy. For movement does not take its species from the term “wherefrom” but from the term “whereto.” Because it matters nothing, in respect of the notion making white, whether one who is made white was before black, yellow, or red. Likewise it matters nothing in respect of the notion of predestination whether one is predestined to life eternal from the state of misery or not. Although it may be said that every conferring of good above that which is due pertains to mercy; as was shown preciously. Even if by a special privilege their predestination were revealed to some, it is not fitting that it should be revealed to everyone; because, if so, those who were not predestined would despair; and security would beget negligence in the predestined. When so many others fall victim at some time to sickness or accident, there is no certainty that one will remain indefinitely immune. The truth is with Jesus Christ, who said that flesh and blood will no inherit eternal life. Life brings its sufferings to every quester, as to every nonquester, as to all beings who move on this Earth. Successful completion of the quest may free one from some of them but could it ever free one from all of them? The happiness one may find cannot be an absolute; it must be qualified. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
The characteristic stamped upon Earthly life are in part unpleasant, miserable, and painful. Sickness and struggle are not merely the result of wrong thinking, as Christian science avers, but native to and almost inevitable in our existence. Were it otherwise, we would be so satisfied that we would never aspire to a higher existence, but anxieties goad us eventually into seeking inner peace, Worldly troubles stir us to seeking unworldly refuge, fated frustrations drive us to seeking diviner satisfactions, and bodily illness to seeking spiritual joy. Ours is the World of the imperfect. The perfect reality could never be expressed amid its limitations. No one has ever “demonstrated” conquest over death, or complete freedom from human afflictions before death. These things are inherent in out lot. Through death’s presence we are aroused to the need of eternal life; through afflictions to the need of eternal serenity. They exist only in the spirit. So the health and prosperity we can demonstrate are essentially spiritual. Out of this physical suffering one should have learned the lessons of a deep wisdom: first, that this Earth is not one’s home but only a camp; second, that this body is not one’s true self but only a garment; third, that suffering, disappointment, or discontent is inseparable from Earthly life, real happiness is to be found only in the super-Earthly life; fourth, that the full force of the mind must be developed by renunciation, sacrifice, concentration, and aspiration so that it can even here to a large extent create an inner life that continues peacefully in whatever state the body may find itself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
The pains and maladies which accompany and punctuate physical existence are not taken away from the spiritually aware human. Their presence continues to act as a reminder—as much to one as to all other humans—that just because they do accompany the body’s life, that life is an imperfect and unsatisfying one. One’s five senses are working like all other human’s and so must report the painful as well as pleasurable sensations. However, what one does gain is a peace deeper than the body’s sensations, and unbreakable by their painful nature. One part of one—the lesser—may suffer; but the other part—the greater—remains undisturbed. In one’s higher and spiritual nature one is well fortified against these afflictions, sustained by Heavenly forces denied to other people. The Buddha was not immune from disease. The austerities he practiced during his search for enlightenment permanently affected his health, and his ceaseless activity for forty-five years greatly weakened him towards the end of his life. He often suffered from a severe headache and in his old age he suffered from severe backache which sometimes forced him to stop a sermon halfway and ask one of one’s disciples to continue from where he left off. The unsuitable meals which we was sometimes force to eat were responsible for a dyspepsia which persisted throughout his life, culminating in his last fatal illness of dysentery. However, none of these ailments prevented him from being always ready with help for those who needed it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
Will humans ever be able to retain and maintain the same physical form permanently? To some it would be the height of happiness to realize such an aim, whereas to others it would be a sentence of captivity without hope of release. If the self-actualized able to prolong one’s physical life far beyond the normal period? Is there any truth in the Indian legends of yogis who lived for a thousand years or more? If not, why should such advanced humans lack this power? The answer to the first question is in the negative; to the second question probably in the negative. The answer to the third question is that transiency is the law governing all formed things; that death is the inevitable complement of birth because, as Buddha pointed out, whatever has a beginning in time must likewise have an end in time; and that the truth is that the self-actualized does not really die for one persistently is reborn in Christ in order to help humankind. We need the body—all of us, not materialists nor ordinary persons only—therefore we must respect it. It is with the ears that we listen to Beethoven: that is, with the body. It is with the eyes that we read beautiful poetry: again with the body. Let us not decry the body. If enlightenment is to be full, and completely balanced, it must not only occur in the thinking intellect and emotional feeling; it must also occur in the acting physical body. The physical body is each person’s responsibility. One has to live with it as well as live in it. The failure to care properly for it makes it complain. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
The only language in which the body can complain with most men and women is that of sickness, disease, or malfunction; with others, a silent intuitive feeling is enough. However, in the first case although its speech is heard, its message is often misunderstood, ignored, or rejected. One can and may transcend the body and the body’s World or deny them in mystical meditation, metaphysical speculation. However, this does not get rid of them. They are a fact which confronts one as soon as the speculation passes, or the meditation ebbs. It is then that the value of health must be recognized, the conditioning by surroundings properly appraised. Only on such a physical foundation can the mental exercises have enough good results; otherwise it is too hard a struggle to aspire and try to mediate. The modern civilized environment is artificial, is hostile to spiritual development, and periodic retreat or flight from it is essential. Those who feel they are making no progress at all and those who find what little they do make is slow and tedious, should look to neglected factors in their individual case. The physical body, for instance: does it get right diet, exercise, breathing, and relaxing, or does it sin against the laws of hygienic living? Sane and balanced life commands us to keep physically fit so far as doing so is within our power—which means so far as Universal laws permit. Physical fitness is the harmonious and efficient functioning of each part of the body. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
The yoga of body control must be broadly interpreted to mean not postural exercise alone, but the discipline of the whole physical organism. It is better for instance, to eat brown bread that to be able to contort the body in yoga posture number 57! Not only mind, not only hear, but also body is a chamber in which a master must work. Although one taught humans to give up the World and its ways, although one persuaded whoever would respond to adopt the inner life as a full-time occupation, Buddha was balanced enough to declare that a healthy body was a great benefit to everyone. Although one rejected the unnecessary, the greedy, or the imprudent gratification of the body’s desires and appetites, one commanded the satisfaction of is essential needs. Although one taught a strict discipline of the body, one did not teach humans to despise it. One’s praise of good health showed one’s wisdom. We have to live wit the body for the rest of our lives, and therefore must accommodate it in this quest. It is not to be denounced as a tomb if, by careful and pure living, it can be turned into a temple. It must be ruled, disciplined, used as an instrument. In needs to learn to sit still without fidgets when we wish it to do so for meditation periods. It needs to learn to like pure natural foods. Its lusts must be dealt with and mastered, not accepted feebly. Everyone who wans to reject these purifying disciplines of habits and progressive reforms of regime is perfectly entitled to do so, and on any grounds that appeal to one. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
However, if one chooses to do so, one ought to reject these purifying disciplines of habits modestly and quietly and humbly for, as personal hygienes, they represent the tested ideas and practices of thousands of years of experience among thousands of mystics, holy people, stains, self-actualized, and in continents far apart from one another. We are spiritually saved only when the whole of our being is cleansed and renewed, when body, mind, and feeling are purified and reborn. It is not enough to cleanse the moral character only. Most students know that the preparatory work includes purifying the heart of base feelings and clearing the mind of negative thoughts—arduous but necessary work. Few students know that it also includes cleansing the body of toxic matter. The body is to be brought under one’s command, made accustomed to do one’s higher will, that which serves one’s best, one’s purer consciousness. There is a wise use of the body and an unwise one. The philosopher increases its value as a servant by improving its health and increasing its vital force. These energies will be used to strengthen concentration and sustain mediation on one side of one’s being, and to cultivate will and rule the passions of the other. The unwise way is to drive the body into fanatic asceticism and foolish extremes. It should become a useful ally. Regeneration of the inner being must be begun or completed by attention to the outer being—the body. Those who are so captivated by the inner work that they fail to see the importance of the other, make a mistake. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The faulty use of the body is a consequence of the failure to bring both awareness and refection into it. This is to be guarded against because civilized living has substituted artificial habit for natural ones of the savage. The bad results of this failing make their appearance most often after the age of fifty. The human who starts to seek for God with little more than one’s earnestness or eagerness, has not started with enough. One need also a cleaner body and a clearer mind. To deny any organ of the body its legitimate function is to deny harmony, coordination, total well-being to the body. They have forced habits, foods, and environments on the body which it not only would never have freely chosen for itself but would instantly rejected if given the chance to be heard. The human being who tries to ignore one’s physical conditions, and especially one’s physical body, does not in the end usually succeed in doing so. This is true in the New World and to a lesser degree in the Old World. If cancer makes its appearance in that body, as a result of one’s disposition—which it mostly is—one is compelled to reckon with it. This thing, this fleshly body, which ascetics have hated and saints have despised, is a holy temple. The divine Life-force is always latently present in it and, aroused, can sweep through every cell, making it sacred. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
If the Word was made flesh, if the Cosmic Mind manifested this vast Universe out of its own substance, if the World is divine, why should we be stopped from enjoying our life in it? The body in itself is not evil, could not be if it expressed divine intelligence. Life in it is an inevitable phase of the entity’s development; the experiences garnered from it led to lessons learned and truths understood. Whereas every human personality is different in its characteristics from every other one, no human Overself is different in its characteristics from any other one. The seekers of all times and all places have always found one and the same divine being when they found the Overself. This Overself is everywhere one and the same for all humans. The experience of rising into awareness of it does not differ in actuality from one human to another, but the purity with which one absorbs it, interprets it, understand it, does. Hence, the varieties of expression used about it, the clash of revelations concerning it. This is the paradox, that the Overself is at once universal and individual. It is the first because it overshadows all humans as a single power. It is the second because it is found by each human within oneself. It is both space and the point in space. It is infinite Spirit and yet it is also the holy presence in everyone’s heat. This other being is outside the “I” yet, paradoxically, and in another sense, it is inside the “I.” It is not oneself yet also it is oneself. If these statements cannot be understood at first reading, do not therefore denounce them. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
If you are really in earnest, approach them prayerfully or, if your feelings cannot be made to run on that line, aspiringly at the precise moments when you approach the mysterious moment that transmutes your waking state into the sleep state. However, do not expect to receive satisfaction with the first trial nor even a twentieth—although this is always possible. If you do not desert the enterprise though impatience, you will find one day that you re at last able to read, clearly and correctly, the meaning of these mystical words. Other people have done it, have emerged from the mind’s obscurity into the intuition’s clarity, although at varying pace. They have succeeded because the constitution of humans, being double, makes it possible. If you lack any wisdom, let one ask of God. And it shall be given. Sometimes it is nice to pray on a beautiful spring day. Everyone sometimes has the desire to be alone—away from people—surrounded by God’s beautiful outdoors. On some occasions when one is praying, one can immediately feel a power overcome one and we are unable to express what we are feeling. Darkness may gather around until one thinks one will have to stop, but with all one’s strength it is important to remember to call upon God. When is seems as though one will have to give up, that is when a pillar of light will appear over one’s head. Gradually the light comes down from Heaven until it falls upon one, and the darkness will be gone. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
Many draw near to God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him; they teach for the doctrine the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. Prayers seek to heal the division that has grown between us and the rest of nature. They tell us: Pay attention. Attend to the relationships alive among all forms of life. Use imagination to explore the binding curve that joins us together. Seek to know the other. Join it with care. Care for it as for yourself. When the human spirit is understood in this sense, as the mode of consciousness in which we are connected to the planet as a whole, it become clear that our entire life is an Earth Prayer. Exalted and honoured be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, whose glory transcends, yea, is beyond all praises, hymns and blessings that humans can render unto Him; and say ye, Amen. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who hast selected good prophets, taking delight in their words which were spoken in truth Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hast chosen the Bible, Thy servant Moses, Thy people America, and the prophets of truth and righteousness. The mountain, I become part of it. The herbs, the fir tree, I become part of it. The morning mists, the clous, the gathering waters, I become part of it. The wilderness, the dew drops, the pollen, I become part of it. I am the one whose prases echoes on high I adorn all the Earth. I am the breeze that nurtures all things green I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits, I am led by the spirit to feed the purest streams. I am the rain coming from the dew that causes the graces to laugh with the joy of life. I am the yearning for good. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
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The Popular Idea that “You Cannot Legislate Morality” is a Myth!
When the human mind is made obsolete by advancing technology, the soul may not be far behind. The pace of events is moving so fast that unless we can find some way to keep our sights on tomorrow, we cannot expect to be in touch with today. Every society faces not merely a succession of probable futures, but an array of possible futures, and a conflict over preferable futures. Future shock is the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future. In the quickening race to put humans and machines on the planets, tremendous recourses are devoted to making possible a “soft landing.” Every sub-system of the landing craft is exquisitely designed to withstand the shock of arrival. Armies of engineers, geologists, physicists, metallurgists and other specialists concentrate years of work on the problem of landing impact. Failure of any sub-system to function after touch-down could destroy human lives, not to mention billions of dollars worth of apparatus and tens of thousands of human-years of labour. Today over seven billion human beings, the total population of technology-rich nations, are speeding toward a rendezvous with the super-age of information. Must we experience mass future shock? Or can we, too, achieve a “soft landing?” We are rapidly accelerating our approach. The craggy outlines of the new society are emerging from the mists of tomorrow. Yet even as we speed closer, evidence mounts that one of our most critical sub-systems—education—is dangerously malfunctioning. What passes for education today, even in our “best” school and colleges, is hopeless anachronism. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
Parents look to education to fit their children for life in the future. Teachers warn that lack of an education will cripple a child’s chances in the World of tomorrow. Government ministries, churches, the mass media—all exhort young people to stay in school, insisting that now, as never before, one’s future is almost wholly dependent upon educations. Yet for all this rhetoric about the future, our schools face backward toward a dying system, rather than forward to the emerging new society. Their vast energies are applied to cranking out people who focus on information technology tooled for survival in a system that will long out live most people. The Information Age is the ideal that access to and the control of information is the defining characteristic of this current era in human civilization. The Information Age, also called the Computer Age, The Digital Age, and the New Media Age, is coupled tightly with the advent of personal computers. Companies whose businesses are built on digitized information have become valuable and powerful in a relatively short period of time. Just as land owners held the wealthy and wielded power in the Agrarian Age and manufacturers such as Henry For and Cyrus McCormick accumulated fortunes in the Industrial Age, the current Information Age has spawned its own breed of wealthy influential brokers, from Microsoft’s Bill Gates, John Tu and David Sun who are the founders of Kingston Technology, Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder and CEO of NantWorks, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell, and of course Jeff Bezos, co-founder and CEO of Amazon. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
To help avert future shock, we must create a super-age of information educational system. And to do this, we must search for our objectives and methods in the future, rather than in the past. Every society has its own characteristic attitude toward past, present and future. This time-bias, formed in response to the rate of change, is one of the least noticed, yet most powerful determinants of social behaviour, and it is clearly reflected in the way the society prepares its young for adulthood. In stagnant societies, the past crept forward into the present and repeated itself in the future. In such a society, the most sensible way to prepare a child was to arm one with the skills of the past—for these were precisely the same skills one would need in the future. “With the ancient is wisdom,” the Bible admonished. Thus farther handed down to son all sorts of practical techniques along with a clearly defined, highly tradition set of values. Knowledge was transmitted not by specialist concentrated in schools, but through the family, religious institutions, and apprenticeships. Learner and teacher were dispersed throughout the entire community. The key to the system, however, was its absolute devotion to yesterday. The curriculum of the past was the past. The mechanical age smashed all this, for industrialism required a new kind of human. It demanded skills that neither family nor church could, by themselves, provide. It forced an upheaval in the value system. Above all, it required that humans develop a new sense of time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
Mass education was the ingenious machines constructed by industrialism to produce the kind of adult it needed. The problem was inordinately complex. How to pre-adapt children for a new World—a World of cognitive kills such as conducting independent research, assessing information for credibility, applying concepts to new situations, and self-critiquing one’s own abilities are central to our success in today’s working World—and, more important, to our lives as human beings. People have to get used to machines, computers, crowded living conditions, collective discipline, a World in which time is to be regulated not by the cycle of sun and moon, but by the computer and the clock. The solution is an educational system that, in its very structure, simulates this new World. This system did not emerge instantly. Even today it retains throwback elements from pre-industrial society. Yet the whole idea of assembling masses of stents (raw material) to be processed by teachers (workers) in a centrally located school (factory) is a stoke of industrial genius. Although this is the age of information, many of the same concepts in industrialism apply. The whole administrative hierarchy of education, as it has grown up, follows the model of industrial bureaucracy. The very organization of knowledge into permanent disciplines is grounded on the drive to learn, for its own sake. Bells ring to announce the change of time, but schools are not bound by bells and walls. The inner life of the school thus becomes an anticipatory mirror, a perfect introduction to the age of information. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
The most criticized features of education today—the regimentation, lack of individualization, the rigid systems of seating, grouping, grading, and marking, the authoritarian role of the teacher—are precisely those that made the mass public education so effective an instrument of adaptation for its place and time. Young people passing through this educational machine emerge into an adult society whose structure of jobs, roles, and institutions resemble that of the school itself. The schoolchild does not simply learn facts that one could use later on; one lives, as well as learns, a new way of life modeled after one one would lead in the future. The primary goal is now to help one incorporate the computer into K-12 curriculum. To this extent the book cannot be taken in isolation. The ideas and skills have changed to engage the latest digital technologies. The method of distribution is now a blend between face-to-face and some other combination of virtual interfaces, and a text-plus-multimedia based learning. Thus the focus of education itself has begun to shift, ever so slowly, away from the past and toward the present. An educated workforce can help lift people out of poverty, recue premature mortality, strengthen gender equality, and promote civic participation. Works need breadth of skills such as literacy and numeracy as well as the ability to think critically and to solve problem collaboratively. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
In the digital age, citizens must be prepared to respond to the challenges presented by globalization, climate change, health epidemics, and economic uncertainty. Employers will be seeking out a workforce of possessing analytical skills and interpersonal skills. For example, children will no longer be asked why does it rain, but expected to memorize and recite a series of steps for ow precipitation occurs. As our planet speeds toward 10 billion people (likely 9.5 billion or so by 2050), it is not hard to believe that all life will look differently. We will likely see a lot more new food based programs and recycling degrees, and we will also see 1 in 6 adults on our planet over the age of 65. So, medicine and health degrees will be even more valuable than today, especially when you include the administration of new systems that do truly personalize medicine and connect patients to care anywhere. Most campuses will be commuter campuses as 90 percent of people will use the Internet to obtain their classes. You will likely see schools in places unseen today, like the Harvard office suite atop a London office building or a Michigan State food science degree on a farm in Iowa. There will still be some campuses, but the idea is already being practiced. When we went to study abroad in China, we took our own professors and had our classes in hotel conference rooms, as well as in classes Beijing Language and Culture University, as well as at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics because we were travelling while in China. #Randolphharris 6 of 23
Students will also go to corporation colleges to get their education. Like the University of BMW or Samsung college for the promise of a job upon graduation. The landscape will look different than it does today, and hopefully everyone will be ready for the changes. Education is perhaps one of the most ingredients to a happy, successful, and constructive life. In fact, having access to a good education during childhood and your early adulthood can make a real difference in your later life. Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the World. The technology of tomorrow requires millions of lightly lettered humans, ready to work in unison at endlessly repetitious jobs, it requires not humans who take orders in unblinking fashion, aware that the price of bread is mechanical submission to authority, but humans who can make critical judgments, who can weave their way through novel environments, who are quick to spot new relationships in the rapidly changing reality. It requires people who have the future in their bones. Education’s lesson is clear: its prime objective must be to increase the individual’s “cope-ability”—the speed and economy with which one can adapt to continual change. And the faster the rate of change, the more attention must be devoted to discerning the pattern of future events. It is no longer sufficient for Johnny to understand the past. It is not even enough for him to understand the present, for the here-and-now environment will soon vanish. Johnny must learn t anticipate the direction and rate of change. He must, to put it technically learn to make repeated, probabilistic, increasingly long-range assumptions about the future. And so must Johnny’s teachers. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
It is only by projecting what will be in demand 50 years in the future, the kind of vocations that may be needed, assumptions about the kind of family forms and human relationships that will prevail; the kinds of ethical and moral problems that will arise; the kind of technology that will surround us and the organizational structures with which we must mesh that successful people will survive the accelerative thrusts. We must create a “Council of the Future” in every school and community: Teams of men and women devoted to probing the future in the interests of the present. By projecting “assumed futures,” be defining coherent educational responses to them, by opening these alternatives to activate public debate, such councils—similar in some ways to the “prognostic cells” advocated by Robert Jungk of the Technische Hochschule in Berlin—could have a powerful impact on education. The creation of future-oriented, future-shaping task forces in education could revolutionize the revolution of the young. For those educators who recognize the bankruptcy of the present system, but remain uncertain about next steps, the council movement could provide purpose as well as power, through alliance with, rather than hostility toward, youth. And by attracting community and parental participation—business people, trade unionists, scientists, and others—the movement could build broad political support for digital age revolution in education. It would be a mistake to assume that the present-day educational system is unchanging. On the contrary, it is undergoing rapid change. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
However, much of this change is no more than an attempt to refine the existent machinery, making it every more efficient in pursuit of obsolete goals. The rest is a kind of Brownian motion, self-canceling, incoherent, directionless. What has been lacking is a consistent direction and a logical starting point. The council movement could supply both. The direction is the super age of information. The starting point: the future. As we become acquainted with truth in good sources of all kinds, we are better prepared to work in the World and serve in the kingdom of God. The Lord revealed, “The Glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 93.36. All truth comes from Heavenly Father and is designed for the good of His children. God wants us to educate our minds, improve our skills, and perfect our abilities so we can be a better influence for good in the World, provide for ourselves, our family, and those in need, and build God’s Kingdom. All truth, whether religious or secular, is included in God’s plan for our salvation and happiness. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life, one will have s much the advantage in the World to come.” The Lord has given each of us gifts and encourages us to improve upon them and seek other gifts. He has also instructed us to seek learning, even by study and also by faith. Work for an education. Get all the training you can. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
Who is to day religion and politics should not mix? Whose Bible are they reading? There is an implication that Christians are immune to corruption. Of course not. While Christians know that their faith requires high standards of righteousness, they are human and often capitulate to the same temptations as anyone else. In fact, Christians may well face more problems than others when they become involved in the political process. How does a Christian deal with the inherent divided loyalties: duty to God and duty to the national interest? Can a Christian successfully avoid the subtle snares of power? Can a Christian make the compromises necessary for the everyday business of politics? What about the question of candor, for example? At times national security may well require not only concealing the true, but lying. When in the White House, politicians often go through elaborate lengths to conceal essential secret negotiations. Henry Kissinger had a bad cold when he visited Pakistan in 1971—or so the press was told. Actually he had been flown to Beijing to conduct clandestine meetings in preparation for Mr. Nixon’s historic visit to China. Or take the day Nixon announced a major troop withdrawal in Vietnam. He immediately ordered Kissinger to bring Soviet Ambassador Dobrynin to a secret meeting room in the White House basement. “Henry,” he roared, “You shake him up. Tell him not to believe these news stories. We are only pulling out a few troop—and if the Russians do not back off in sending supplies to Hanoi, we will bomb the daylights out of that city. Tell him the president is uncontrollable, a madman—that he will do anything. Let us keep them off balance.” That such meetings took place was flatly denied in order to protect the lives of the withdrawing troops. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
President Regan did that same thing in 1983. When reporters asked about a rumored invasion of Grenada, official White House spokesmen dismissed such questions as “preposterous.” Actually, troops were at that moment disembarking on the island’s beaches. A “no comment” to the press, however, would have been tantamount to a “yes”—an admission that would have endangered lives. In these days of delicate international tensions and the instant communications ability of an almost omnipresent press, such deceit is a common instrument of foreign policy. The press even accepts it. In a 1987 Newsweek interview, crack ABC interviewer Ted Koppel acknowledge that government official must be “prepared to mislead and sometimes even to lie.” Deliberate lies, the corruption of power, compromise with ideological opponents, temptations on all dies—these appear to be the mechanism of modern government. Should the Christian circumvent the messy business of politics altogether? The answer must be an emphatic no. As Robert L. Dabney wrote, “Every Christian…whether law-maker or law executor or voter, should carry one’s Christian conscience, enlightened by God’s Word, into one’s political duty. We must ask less what party caucuses and leaders dictate, and more what duty dictates.” There are at least three compelling reasons Christians must be involved in politics and government. First, as citizens of the nation-state, Christians have the same civic duties all citizens have: to serve on juries, to pay taxes, to vote, to support candidates they think are best qualified. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
Christians are commanded to pray and respect governing authorities. (For years many Christian fundamentalists shunned the “sinful” political process, even to the extent of not voting. Whatever else may be said about it, the Moral Majority performed a valuable public service in bringing these citizens back into the mainstream.) Second, as citizens of the Kingdom of God they are to bring God’s standards of righteousness and justice to bear on the kingdom of this World. This is the cultural commission. As former Michigan state senator and college professor Stephan Monsma says, Christian political involvement has the “potential to move the political system away from the brokering of the self-interest of powerful persons and groups into a renewed concern for the public interest.” Third, Christians have an obligation to being transcendent moral values into public debate. All law implicitly involves morality; the popular idea that “you cannot legislate morality” is a myth. Morality is legislated every day from the vantage point of one value system or another. The question is not whether we will legislate morality, but whose morality we will legislate. Law is but a body of rules regulating human behaviour; it establishes, from the view of the state, the rightness or wrongness of human behaviour. Most laws, therefore, have moral implications. The more you know who you are in God, the easier it is to manifest the truth about yourself! #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
Statutes prohibiting murder, mandates for seat belts, or regulations for industrial safety are all designed to protect human life—a reflection of the particular moral view that values the dignity and worth of human life. And efficacy does not affect morality If in American we have more homicides per capita than any other country, it is not reason t repeal the laws making murder a crime. The common argument against the legislation of morality is Prohibition, which conjures up such caricatures as Billy Sunday waving a chair over his head and Carrie Nation chopping up whiskey barrels. The church has taken an undeserved bad rap for this. No one entity imposed Prohibition; it was voted in by a clear majority after a lengthy national debate. Admittedly, over the years of its existence Prohibition became increasingly difficult to enforce; it encouraged organized crime and ultimately led to widespread disrespect for the law. Eventually the costs outweighed the benefits. However, was it morally justified? Certainly one’s personal decision to drink alcohol is a private matter. When millions do it to such excess that public safety is endangered, however, it becomes a public concern. That was the case in the pre-Prohibition era. Thousands reported to their factory jobs under the influence and were maimed or killed by heavy industrial machines then being introduced in the American economy. The tavern trade spawned harlotry rings at a time, like today, when there was no cure for the raging epidemic of certain contagious and socially transmitted viral deception was being transmitted. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
Though many write off Prohibition as a complete failure, the facts are that industrial safety improved dramatically as per capita drinking, particular among working people, dropped precipitously, and the VD epidemic slowed. Not until 1970 did per capita consumption of alcohol again reach pre-Prohibition levels. Everyday, 29 people in the United States of America die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This is one death every 50 minutes. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $44 billion. And with the majority of crimes being committed by people under the influence of drugs or alcohol, can anyone really argue realistically today that moral issues are not matter of public interest? The real issue for Christians is not whether they should be involved in politics or contend for laws that affect moral behaviour. The question is how. The greatest relationship you will ever have is with God! There is nothing like it! There is a further aspect of moral attitudes that I have noted in the sketch of the development of the sense of justice, namely, their connection with certain natural attitudes. Thus in examining a moral feeling we should ask: what if any are the natural attitudes to which it is related? Now there are two questions here, one the converse of the other. The first asks about the natural attitudes that are sown to be absent when a person fail to have certain moral feelings. Where as the second asks which natural attitudes are evidences to be present when someone experiences a moral emotion. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
The first asks about the natural attitudes that are shown to be absent when a person fails to have certain moral feelings. Whereas the second askes which natural attitudes are evidenced to be present when someone experiences a moral emotion. In context of the authority situation, the child’s natural attitudes of love and trust for those in authority lead to feelings of (authority) guilt when one violates the injunctions addressed to one. The absence of these moral feelings would evidence a lack of these natural ties. Similarly, within the framework of the morality of association, the natural attitudes of friendship and mutual trust give rise to feelings of guilt for not fulfilling the duties and obligations recognized by the group. The absence of these feelings would imply the absence of these attachments. These propositions must not be mistaken for their converses, for while feelings of indignation and guilt, say, can often be taken as evidence for such affections, there may be other explanations. In general, moral principles are affirmed for various reasons and their acceptance is normally sufficient for the moral feelings. To be sure, on the contract theory principles of right and justice have a certain content, and as we have just seen, there is a sense in which acting in accordance with them can be interpreted as acting from a concern for humankind, of for the good of other persons. Whether this fact shows that one acts in part from certain natural attitudes, especially as these involve attachments to particular individuals, and not simply from the general forms of sympathy and benevolence, is a question I shall leave aside here. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
Certainly the preceding account of the development of morality supposes that affection for particular persons plays an essential part in the acquisition of morality. However, how far these attitudes are required for later moral motivation can be left open, although it would, I think, be surprising if these attachments were not to some degree necessary. Now the connection between the natural attitudes and the moral sentiments may be expressed as it follows: these sentiments and attitudes are both ordered families of characteristic dispositions, and these families overlap in such a manner that the absence of certain moral feelings evidences the absence of certain natural ties. Or alternatively, the presence of certain natural attachments gives rise to a liability to certain moral emotions once the requisite moral development has taken place. We can see how this is so by an example. If A cares for B, then failing a special explanation A is afraid for B when B is in danger and tries to come t B’s assistance. Again, if C plans to treat B unjustly, A is indignant with C and attempts to prevent one’s plans from succeeding. In bot cases, A is disposed to protect B’s interests. Further, unless there are special circumstances, A is joyful when together with B, and when B suffers injury or dies. A is stricken with grief. If the injury to B is A’s responsibility, A will feel remorse. Love is a sentiment, a hierarchy of dispositions to experience and to manifest these primary emptions as the occasion elicits and to act in the appropriate way. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
To confirm the connection between the natural attitudes and the moral sentiments one simply notes that the disposition on A’s part to feel remorse when one injures B, or guilt when one violates B’s legitimate claims, or A’s disposition to feel indignation when C seeks to deny B’s right, are as closely related psychologically with the natural attitudes of love as the disposition to be joyful in other’s presence, or two feel sorrow when one suffers. The moral sentiments are in some ways more complex. In their complete form they presupposed an understanding and an ability to judge in accordance with them. However, assuming these things, the liability to moral feelings seems to be as much a part of the natural sentiments as the tendency to be joyful, or the liability to grief. Love sometimes expresses itself in sorrow, at other times indignation. Either one without the other would be equally unusual. The content of rational moral principles is such as to render these connections intelligible. Now one main consequence of this doctrine is that the moral feelings are a normal feature of human life. We could not do away with them without at the same time eliminating certain natural attitudes. Among persons who ever acted in accordance with their duty of justice except as reasons of self-interest and expediency dictated there would be no bonds of friendship and mutual trust. For when these attachments exist, other reasons are acknowledged for acting fairly. This much seems reasonably obvious. However, it also follows from what has been said that, barring self-deception, egoists are incapable off feeling resentment and indignation. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
If either of two egoists deceives the other and this is found out, neither of them has a ground for complaint. They do not accept the principles of justice, or any other conception that is reasonable from the standpoint of the original position; nor do they experience any inhibition from guilt feelings for breaches of their duties. As we have seen, resentment and indignation are moral feelings and therefore they presuppose an explanation by reference to an acceptance of the principles of right and justice. However, by hypothesis the appropriate explanations cannot be given. To deny that self-interested persons are incapable of resentment and indignation is not of course to say that they cannot be angry and annoyed with one another. A person without a sense of justice may be enraged at someone who fails to act fairly. However, anger and annoyance are distinct from indignation and resentment; they are not, as the latter are, moral emotions. Nor should it be denied that egoists may want others to recognize the bonds of friendship and to treat them in a friendly way. However, these desires are not to be mistaken for ties of affection that lead one to make sacrifices for one’s friends. No doubt there are difficulties in distinguishing between resentment and anger, and between apparent and real friendship. Certainly the overt manifestations and actions may seem the same when viewing a limited span of conduct. Yet in the longer run the difference can usually be made out. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
One may say, then, that a person who lacks a sense of justice, and who would never act as justice requires except as self-interest and expediency prompt, not only is without ties of friendship, and affection, and mutual trust, but is incapable of experiencing resentment and indignation. One lacks certain natural attitudes and moral feelings of a particularly elementary kind. Put another way, one who lacks a sense of justice lacks certain fundamental attitudes and capacities included under the notion of humanity. Now the moral feelings are admittedly unpleasant, in some extended sense of unpleasant; but there is no way for us to avoid a liability to them without disfiguring ourselves. This liability is the price of love and trust of friendship and affection, and of a devotion to institutions and traditions from which we have benefited and which serve the general interests of humankind. Further, assuming that persons are possessed of interests and aspirations of their own, and that they are prepared in the pursuit of their own ends and ideals to press their claims on one another—that is, so long as the conditions giving rise to questions of justice obtain among them—it is inevitable that, given temptation and passion, this liability will be realized. And since being moved by ends and ideals of excellence implies a liability to humiliation and shame, and an absence of liability of a liability to humiliation and shame a lack of ends and such ideals, one can say of shame and humiliation also that they are a part of the notion of humanity. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
Now that fact that one who lacks a sense of justice, and thereby a liability to guilt, lacks certain fundamental attitudes and capacities is not to be taken as a reason for acting as justice dictates. However, it has this significance: by understanding what it would be to lack part of our humanity too—we are led to accept our having this sentiment. It follows that the moral sentiments are a normal part of human life. One cannot do away with them without at e same time dismantling the natural attitude as well. And we have also seen that the moral sentiments are continuous with these attitudes in the sense that the love of humankind and the desire to uphold the common good include the principle of right and justice as necessary to define their objective. None of this is to deny that our existing moral feelings may be in many respects irrational and injurious to our good. Dr. Freud is right in his view that these attitudes are harsher aspects of the authority situation in which they were first acquired. Resentment and indignation, feelings of guilt and remorse, a sense of duty and the censure of others, often take perverse and destructive forms, but blunt without reason human spontaneity and enjoyment. When I say that moral attitudes are part of our humanity, I mean those attitudes that appeal to sound principles of right and justice in their explanation. The reasonableness of the underlying ethical conception is a necessary condition; and so the appropriateness of moral sentiments to our nature is determined by the principles that would be consented to in the original positions. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
These principles regulate moral education and the expression of moral approval and disapproval, just as they govern the design of institutions. Yet even if the sense of justice is the normal outgrowth of natural human attitudes within a well-ordered society, it is still true that our present moral feelings are liable to be unreasonable and capricious. However, one of the virtues of a well-ordered society is that, since arbitrary authority has disappeared, its members suffer much less from the burdens of oppressive conscience. It is reason which helps to get beyond the trivialities of our daily life. We become concerned about all that is happening, with all the questions that beset our times. It makes us participate in the World and feel personally what is happening on Earth. Our happiness or unhappiness is not determined by what happens to us in everyday life. However favourable our circumstances, however successful our enterprises, however much envied we are by our fellow humans, we still may not be happy. For peace alone is the source of happiness. The more our reasoning throws us unto the turmoil of life’s problems, the more we yearn for peace. We are led up to the mountains until the glaciers begin to glitter before us. Then reasoning bids us climb still higher, still further into the light, still further into peace and quietude. The older we grow the more we realize that true power and happiness come to us only from those who spiritually mean something to us. Whether they are near or far, still alive or dead, we need them if we are to find our way through life. Only when they are near to us in spirit can the good we bear within us can be turned into life and action. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
What tremendous inner power exists in spiritual communion with another human! How pitiable and destitute humans are when they are spiritually alone, when they have no one to understand and encourage them. If they do not even feel the need for it, doubly pitiable. Blessed the Lord who is to be praised. Praised be the Lord who is blessed for all eternity. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who didst choose us from among all the peoples by giving us Thy Torah. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Giver of the Torah. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who in giving us a Torah of truth, hast planted everlasting life within us. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Giver of the Torah. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who in bestowing good upon humans beyond their deserving, hast dealt graciously with me. May He, who hath dealt graciously with you, continue to bestow His favour upon you. We recognize that our identity is inextricably entwined with lives beyond our own. This sense of expanded identity goes beyond human relationships. We depend upon trees, trees depend upon grasses, grasses depend upon animals, mountains depend upon oceans, the dolphin depends upon the farther star. Physically and spiritually, we all are woven into the living process of the Earth. We take part in—as science now tells us—a planet-sized living system. Our breathing, our acting, our thinking arise in interaction with our shared World. Our own hearts constantly beat out the cosmic rhythm within us. We cannot escape our involvement any more than we can escape breathing the air that has traveled from plants thousands of miles away. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
There is only one Overself for the whole race, but the point of contact with it is special and unique, and constitutes human’s higher individuality. The mountains, I become part of it. The herbs, the fir tree, I become part of it. The morning mists, the clouds, the gathering water, I become part of it. When we ground our spiritual awareness in this ecological context, then the strength and wisdom of the living Earth, in all its manifestations, flows through us. Our Earth Prayer becomes a means of acting upon ourselves. It helps us to empty the self and to open our hearts to be filled with empathy and creativity. The ecological self, like any notion of selfhood, is simply a metaphor, but it is a dynamic one. It involves our choice. We can choose at different moments to identify with different aspects of our interrelated existence—be they hunted whales, or humans without a home, or the planet itself. The prayers we recite remind us of this deep kinship—our boundedness with all of creation. Look deeply: I arrive in every second to be a bund on a spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion. Magnified and sanctified be the name of God throughout the World which He hath created according to His will. May He establish His Kingdom during the days of your life and during the life of all the house of America, speedily, yea, soon; and say ye, Amen. May His great name be blessed for ever and ever. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
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Remember, the E in East Matches the E in Early!
The biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, nor television. It is the manufacture, refinement, and distribution of anxiety. It is the only business based on the maxims, “The customer is always wrong,” “We aim to displease,” and “Send ‘em away unhappy.” Anxiety is the experience of Being affirming itself against Nonbeing. However, creative minds have always been able to survive any kind of bad training. The core of critical thinking is a willingness to actively evaluate ideas. True knowledge comes from constantly revising our understanding of the World. Admitting you are wrong is always hard—even though it is a skill that every psychologist has to learn. Few “truths” transcend the need for empirical testing. It is true that religious beliefs and personal values may be held without supporting evidence. However, most other ideas can be evaluated by applying the rules of logic and evidence. Judging the quality of evidence is crucial. Imagine that you are a juror in a courtroom, judging clams made by two battling lawyers. To decide correctly, you cannot just weigh the amount of evidence. You must also critically evaluate the quality of evidence. Then you can give greater weight to the most credible facts. Authority or claimed expertise does not automatically make an idea true. Just because a teacher, a guru, celebrity, or authority is convinced or sincere does not mean you should automatically believe them. Always ask, “What evidence convinced one? How good is it? It there a better explanation?” #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
Critical thinking requires a veil of ignorance. One must imagine oneself in an original position being a veil of ignorance. Behind this veil, one knows nothing of oneself and one’s natural abilities, nor one’s position in society. Behind such a veil of ignorance all individuals are simply specified as rational, free, and morally equal beings. This prevents one from taking into account one’s ethical, social status, gender and, crucially, one’s individual idea of how to lead a good life. This is to insure impartiality of judgment by depriving parties of all knowledge of one’s personal characteristics and social and historical circumstances. Be prepared to consider daring departures and go wherever the evidence leads. However, do not becomes so “open-minded” that you are simply gullible. Critical thinkers strike a balance between open-mindedness and a healthy skepticism. They are ready to change their views when new evidence arises. Descriptions, or naming and classifying, is typically based on making detailed record of behavioural observations. However, a description does not explain anything, does it? Right. Useful knowledge begins with accurate descriptions, but descriptions fail to answer the important “why” questions. Why do more women attempt suicide, and why do more men complete it? When they are uncomfortable, why are more people aggressive? Why are bystanders often unwilling to help in an emergency? Psychology’s second goals is met when we can explain an event. This is, understanding usually means we can state the causes of behaviour. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
Take our last “why” question as an example: Research on “bystander apathy” has shown that people often fail to help when other possible helpers are nearby. Why? Because a “diffusion of responsibility” occurs. Basically, no one feels personally obligated to pitch in. In general, the more potential helpers present, the less likely it is that help will be given. Now we can explain a perplexing problem. Psychology’s third goal, prediction, is the ability to forecast behaviour accurately. Notice that our explanation of bystander apathy makes a prediction about the chances of getting help. Anyone who has been stranded by car trouble on a busy freeway will recognize the accuracy of this prediction: Having many potential helpers nearby is no guarantee that anyone will stop to help. Behavioural predictions are quite useful. For instance, research predicts that if one flies east early in the say and west late in the day, one will suffer less jet lag. We have seen that moment-to-moment changes in activation can have major impact on performance. What about larger cycles of arousal? Do they also affect energy levels, motivation, and performance? Scientists have long known that the bodily activity is guided by internal “biological clocks.” Every 24 hours, your body undergoes a cycle of changes called circadian (SUR-kay-dee-AN) rhythms (circa: about; diem: a day). Throughout the day, large changes take place in body temperature, blood pressure, and amino acid levels. Also affected are the activities of the liver, kidneys, and endocrine glands. These activities, and many others, peak sometime each day. Output of the hormone adrenaline, which arouses the body, is often three to five times greater during the day. Most people are more energic and alert at that high point of their circadian rhythms. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
People with shorter circadian rhythms are “day people,” who wake up alert, peak early in the day, and fall asleep early in the evening. People with longer rhythms are “night people,” who wake up groggy, peak in the afternoon or early evening, and stay up late. Such differences are so basic that when a day person rooms with a night person, both are more likely to give the relationship a negative rating. This is easy to understand: What could be worse than having someone bounding around cheerily when you are half asleep, or the reverse? Circadian rhythms are most noticeable when there is a major shift in time schedules. Businesspersons, diplomats, athletes, and other time-zone travelers tend to make errors or perform poorly when their body rhythms are disturbed. If you travel great distances east or west, the peaks and valleys of your circadian rhythms will be out of phase with the sun and clocks. For example, you might find that you re wide awake and alert at midnight. Your low point, in contrast, occurs during the middle of the day. Shift work has the same effect, causing fatigue, inefficiency, irritability, upset stomach, and depression How fast do people adapt to tie shifts? For major time-zone shifts (5 hours or more) it can take from several days to 2 weeks to resynchronize. Adaptation to jet lag is slowest when you stay indoors, where you can sleep and eat on “home time.” Getting outdoors, where you must sleep, eat, an socialize on the new schedule, speeds adaptation. A 5-hour dose of bright sunlight early each day is particularly helpful for resetting your circadian rhythm in a new time zone. The same principle can be applied to shift work by bathing workers in bright light during their first few night shifts. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
The direction of travel also effects adaptation. If you fly west, adapting is relatively easy, taking an average of 4 to 5 hours. If you fly east, adapting takes 50 percent longer, or more. Why is there a difference? The answer is that when you fly east the sun comes up earlier (relative to your “home” time). Let us say that you live in Beverly Hills, California and Fly to Manhattan, New York. Getting up at 7AM in Manhattan will be like getting up at 4AM in Beverly Hills. If you fly west, the sun comes up later and it is easier for most people to “advance” (stay up later and sleep in) than it is to shift backward. Likewise, work shifts that “rotate” backward (night, evening, day) are more disruptive than those that advance (day, evening, night). Best of all are work shifts that do not change: Even continuous night work is less upsetting than rotating shifts. What does all of this have to do with those of us who are not shift workers or World travelers? There are few college students who have not at one time or another “burned the midnight oil,” especially for final exams. During any strenuous period, it is wise to remember that departing from your regular schedule is likely to cost more than it is worth. Often, you can do as much during 1 hour in the morning as you could have in 3 hours of work after midnight. The 2-hour difference in efficiency might as well be spent sleeping. If you feel you must deviate from your normal schedule, do it gradually over a few days. In general, if you can anticipate an upcoming body rhythm change (when traveling, before finals week, or when doing shift work), it is best to preadapt to your new schedule. Before traveling, for instance, you should go to sleep 1 hour later (or earlier) each day until your sleep cycle matches the time at your destination. If you are unable to do that, it at least helps to fly early in the day when you fly east. When you fly west, it is better to fly late. (Remember, the E in east matches the E in early.) #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
Studies of flight crews show that jet lag can also be minimized by a hormone called melatonin (mel-ah-TONE-in). Melatonin is normally produced at night by the pineal gland and suppressed during daylight. Melatonin has strong impact on the timing of body rhythms and sleep cycles. As far as the brain is concerned, it is bedtime when melatonin levels rise. Flight crews often suffer severe disruptions in their sleep cycles. For example, a crew that leaves Los Angeles at 4PM, bound for London, will arrive in 8 hours. Crew members’ bodes, which are on California time, will act as if it is 12AM. Yet in London, it will be 8AM. Recent studies confirm that melatonin can help people adjust more rapidly to such time-zone changes. To resent the body’s clock in a new time zone, a small amount of melatonin can be taken about an hour before bedtime. This dose is continued for as many days as necessary to ease jet lag. The same treatment can be used for rotating work shifts. Predication is especially important in psychometrics (mental measurement). Experts in this area use test to predict success in school, work, or a career. Description, explanation, and prediction seems reasonable, but is control a valid goal for psychology? Control may seem like a threat to your personal freedom. However, to a psychologist, control simply means altering conditions that influence behaviour in predictable ways. If I suggest changes in the classroom that help children learn better, I have exerted control. If a psychologist helps a person overcome a terrible fear of heights, control is involved. Clearly, psychological control must be used wisely and humanely. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
Psychology’s goals come from a natural desire to understand behaviour, which leads us to ask: What is the nature of this behaviour? (Description.) Why does it occur? (Understanding and explanation.) Can we predict when it will occur? (Prediction.) What conditions affect it? (Control.) The Christian understanding of power is that it is found most often in weakness. This paradox has been a thorn in the flesh of tyrants. The Judeo-Christian teaching that humans are vulnerable to the temptations of power has also caused democracies and free nations to build restraints and balances of power into their studies. Clearly this is what motivated the revolutionaries in England to guarantee a Parliament independent of the monarchy. And in American the Founding Fathers, influenced by Judeo-Christian teaching about the vulnerability of humans, wisely adopted the principle of the separation of powers. Within the government, power was diffused through a system of checks and balances so no one branch could dominate another. The Founders also assumed that the religious value system, evidenced through the separate institution of the church, would be the most powerful brake on the natural avarice of government. As Tocqueville observed, “Religion in America takes no direct path in the government or society but it must, nevertheless, be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country.” The most important restraint on power, however, is a healthy understanding of its true source. When power in the conventional sense is relinquished, one discovers a much deeper power. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
Prisoners often discover this, as did Mr. Jerry Levin and Mr. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. In his memoirs of the gulag, Mr. Solzhenitsyn wrote that as long as he was trying to maintain some pitiful degree of Worldly power in his situation—control of food, clothing, schedule—he was constantly under the heel of his captors. However, after his conversion, when he accepted and surrendered to his utter powerlessness, then he became free of even his captors’ power. Perhaps this is why Mr. Boris Pasternak once wrote that the only place one can be free in a communist society is in prison. The apostle Paul said, “My power is made perfect in weakness,” and concluded, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” And throughout Scripture God reveals a special compassion for the powerless: widows, orphans, prisoners, and aliens. Though the message of the Kingdom of God offers salvation for all who repent and believe, God does not conceal His disdain for those who repent and believe, God does not conceal His disdain for those so enamoured of their own power that they refuse to worship Him or to acknowledge His delight in the humble. A culture that exalts power and celebrity, that worships success and the fake news media, dismisses such words as nonsense. I have had reporters tell me that they do not have time to read the Bible. However, they sure have time to lie and conjure up chaos to keep people in a state of fear, hatred, and anxiety. Strong individuals rely on their own resources—which will never, ultimately speaking, be enough—but the so-called weak person knows one’s own limits and needs, and thus depends wholly on God. Perhaps this is why God so often confounds the wisdom of the World by accomplishing His purposes through the powerless and His most powerful work through human weakness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
I first learned this in school. When the frustration of my helplessness seemed the greatest, I discovered God’s grace was more than sufficient. And after I enrolled in college to study in China, I could look back and see how God used my powerlessness for His purposes. What God has chosen for my most significant witness was not my triumphs or victories, but my defeat. Similarly, counseling in schools has been effective not because of any power we may have as an organization, but because of the powerlessness of those we serve. During this COVID-19 pandemic, several millions of people, including a number of politicians, are crowded in abysmal conditions; hatred, hostility, and despair seeping out of their homes and offices. Yet within the darkness, the Kingdom of God is giving the thriving Christian community a reason to live—people who have finding Jesus Christ and experiencing renewed hearts and minds. The churches are shinning and blessed with the loving embraces of members of the Christian community, and they are addressing these officials at the highest levels of government—and they are listening intently. Had I gone to China specifically to meet with the key government leadership, I would have likely been stymied. They wanted to meet me not because of any power or influence I had, but because of our work in America. They knew that education, hard work, and faith in God was doing something to bring healing and restoration. Therefore, they were eager to listen to our recommendations, ready to discuss a biblical view of justice and educational issues. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
Whatever authority I had in speaking to these powerful men and women came not from my power but from serving the powerless. I have experienced this in country after country. It is the paradox of real power. Nothing distinguishes the kingdoms of humans from the Kingdom of God more than their diametrically opposed views of the exercise of power. One seeks to control people, the other to serve people; one promotes self, the other prostrates self; one seeks prestige and position, the other lifts up to lowly and despised. It is crucial for Christians to understand this difference. For through this upside-down view of power, the Kingdom of God can play a special role in the affairs of the World. As citizens of the Kingdom today practice this view of power, they are setting an example for their neighbours by modeling servanthood and exposing the illusions power creates. However, how does this paradoxical view of power apply to the Christian who is in a position of influence and control? Power involves the use of coercive force to make others yield to one’s wishes even against their own will. Authority is achieved—or is conferred upon one—by virtue of character that others are motivated to follow willingly. Therefore, the citizens of the Kingdom should seek authority that comes from one’s own spiritual strength. Never for self-advantage, but for the benefit of others. This does not mean that the Christians cannot use power. In positions of leadership, especially in government institutions to which God has specifically granted the power of the sword, the Christian can do so in good conscious. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
However, the Christian uses power with a different motive and in different ways: not to impose one’s personal will over others but to preserve God’s plan for order and justice for all. Those who accept the biblical view of servant leadership treat power as a humbling delegation from God, not as a right to control others. Moses offers a great role model. Though he had awesome power and responsibility as the leader of two million Israelites, he was described in Scripture as “a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the Earth.” He led by serving—intervening before God on his people’s behalf, seeking God’s forgiveness for their rebellion and caring for their needs above one’s own. The challenge for the Christian in a position of influence is to follow the example of Moses rather than fulfill Nietzche’s prophecy concerning the will to power. In doing so the citizen of the Kingdom has an opportunity to offer light to a World often shrouded by the dark pretensions of a devastating succession of power-mad tyrants. Someone attaining to the more complex forms of the morality of association, as expressed say by the ideal of equal citizen, has an understanding certainly of the principles of justice. One has also developed an attachment to many particular individuals and communities, and one is disposed to follow the moral standards that apply to one in one’s various positions and which are upheld by social approval and disapproval. Having become affiliated with others and aspiring to live up to these ethical conceptions, one is concerned to win acceptance of one’s conduct and aims. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
It would seem that whole the individual understands the principles of justice, one’s motive for complying with them, for some time at least, springs largely from one’s ties of friendship and fellow feeling for others, and one’s concern for the approbation of the wider society. Consider the process whereby a person becomes attached to these highest-order principles themselves, so that just as during the earlier phase of the morality of association one may want to be a good sport, say, one now wishes to be a just person. The conception of acting justly, and of advancing just institutions, comes to have for one an attraction analogous to that possessed before by subordinate ideals. In conjecturing how this morality of principles might come about (principles here meaning first principles such as those considered in the original position), we should note that the morality of association quite naturally leads up to a knowledge of the standards of justice. In a well-ordered society anyway not only do those standards define the public conception of justice, but citizens who take an interest in political affairs, and those holding legislative and judicial and other similar offices, are constantly required to apply and to interpret them. They often have to take up the point of view of others, not simply with the aim of working out what they will want and probably do, but for the purpose of striking a reasonable balance between competing claims and for adjusting the various subordinate ideals of the morality of association. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
To put the principles of justice into practice requires that we adopt the standpoints defined by the four-stage sequence. As the situation dictates, we take up the perspective of a constitutional convention, or of a legislature, of whatever. Eventually one achieves a mastery of these principles and understands the values they secure and the way in which they are to everyone’s advantage. Now this leads to an acceptance of these principles by a third psychological law. This law states that once the attitudes of love and trust, and of friendly feelings and mutual confidence, have been generated in accordance with the two preceding psychological laws, then the recognition that we and those for whom we care are the beneficiaries of an established and enduring just institution tends to engender in us the corresponding sense of justice. We develop a desire to apply and to act upon the principles of justice once we realize how social arrangements answering to them have promoted our good and that of those with whom we are affiliated. In due course we come to appreciate the ideal of just human cooperation. Now a sense of justice shows itself in at least two ways. First, it leads us to accept the just institutions that apply to us and from which we and our associates have benefited. We want to do out part in maintaining these arrangements. When we do not honour our duties and obligations, we tend to feel guilty, even though we are not bound to those of whom we take advantage by any ties of particular fellow feeling. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
It may be that they have not yet had sufficient opportunity to display an evident intention to do their share, and are not therefore the objects of such feelings by the second law. Or, again, the institutional scheme in question may be so large that particular bonds never get widely built up. In any case, the citizen body as a whole is not generally bound together by ties of fellow feeling between individuals, but by the acceptance of public principles of justice. While every citizen is a friend to some citizens, no citizen is a friend to all. However, their common allegiance to justice provides a unified perspective from which they can adjudicate their differences. Secondly, a sense of justice gives rise to a willingness to work for (or at least not to oppose) the setting up of just institutions, and for the reform of existing ones when justice it requires. We desire to act on the natural duty to advance just arrangements. And this inclination goes beyond the support of those particular schemes that have affirmed our good. It seeks to extend the conception they embody to further situations for the good of the larger community. When we go against our sense of justice, we explain our feelings of guilt by reference to the principles of justice. These feelings, then, are accounted for quite differently than the emotions of authority and association of guilt. The complete moral development has now taken place and for the first time we experience feelings of guilt in the strict sense; and the same is true of the other moral emotions. In the child’s case, the notion of a moral ideal, and the relevance of intentions and motives, are not understood, and so the appropriate setting for feelings of (principle) guilt does not exist. And in the morality of association, moral feelings depend essentially on ties of friendship and trust to particular individuals or communities, and moral conduct is based in large part on wanting the approval of one’s associates. This may still be true even in the more demanding phases of this morality. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Individuals in their role as citizens with full understanding of the content of the principles of justice may be moved to act upon them largely because of their bonds to particular persons and an attachment to their own society. Once a morality of principles is accepted, however, moral attitudes are no longer connected solely with the well-being and approval of particular individuals and groups, but are shaped by a conception of right chosen irrespective of these contingencies. Our moral sentiments display an independence from the accidental circumstances of our World, the meaning of this independence being given by the description of the original position and its Kantian interpretation. Which means that the person is seen as free and equal agents with different rational and more capacities, and this conception of the person is the basis of a deliberative procedure incorporating different requirements of practical reason that is used to justify a set of normative principles. However, even though moral sentiments are in this sense independent from contingencies, our natural attachments to particular persons and groups still have an appropriate place. For within the morality of principles the infractions which earlier gave rise to (association) guilt and resentment, and to the other moral feelings, now occasion these feelings in the strict sense. A reference to the relevant principle is made in explaining one’s emotions. When the natural ties of friendship and mutual trust are present, however, these moral feelings are more intense if they are absent. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
Existing attachments heighten the feeling of guilt and indignation, or whatever feeling is called for, even at the stage of the morality of principles. Now granting that this heightening is appropriate, it follows that violations of these natural ties are wrong. For if we suppose that, say, a rational feeling of guilt (that is, a feeling of guilt arising from applying the correct moral principles in the light of true or reasonable beliefs) implies a fault on our part, and that a greater feeling of guilt implies a fault on our part, and that a greater feeling of guilt implies a greater fault, then indeed breach of trust and the betrayal of friendship, and the like, are especially forbidden. The violation of these ties to particular individuals and groups arouses more intense moral feelings, and this entails that these offenses are worse. To be sure, deceit and infidelity are always wrong, being contrary to natural duties and obligations. However, they are not always equally wrong. They are worse whenever bounds of affection and good faith have been formed, and this consideration is relevant in working out the appropriate priority rules. It may seem strange at first that we should come to have the desire to act from a conception of right and justice. How is it possible that moral principles can engage our affections? In justice as fairness there are several answers to this question. First of all, as we have seen, moral principles are bound to have a certain content. Since they are chosen by rational persons to adjudicate competing claims, they define agreed ways of advancing human interests. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
Institutions and actions are appraised from the standpoint of securing these ends; and therefore pointless principles, for example, that one is not to look up at the sky on Tuesdays, are rejected as burdensome and irrational constraints. In the original position rational persons have no reason for acknowledging standards of this kind. However, secondly, it is also the case that the sense of justice is continuous with the love of humankind. When the many objects of its love oppose one another, benevolence is at a loss. The principles of justice are needed to guide it. The difference between the sense of justice and the love of humankind is that the latter is supererogatory, going beyond the moral requirements and not invoking the exemptions which the principles of natural duty and obligation allow. Yet clearly the objects of these two sentiments are closely related, being defined in large part by the conception of justice. If one of them seems natural and intelligible, so is the other. Moreover, feelings of guilt and indignation are aroused by the injuries and deprivations of others unjustifiably brought about either by ourselves or third parties, and our sense of justice is offended in the same way. The content of the principles of justice accounts for this. Finally, the Kantian interpretation of these principles shows that by acting upon them humans express their nature as free and equal rational beings. Since doing this belongs to their good, the sense of justice aims at their well-being even more directly. It supports those arrangements that enable everyone to express one’s common nature. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
Indeed, without a common or overlapping sense of justice civic friendship cannot exist. The desire to act justly is not, then, a form of blind obedience to arbitrary principles unrelated to rational aims. I should not, of course, contend that justice as fairness is the only doctrine that can interpret the sense of justice in a natural way. A utilitarian never regards oneself as acting merely for the sake of an impersonal law, but always for the welfare of some being or beings for whom one has some degree of fellow feelings. The utilitarian view, and no doubt perfectionism as well, meets the condition that the sentiment of justice can be characterized so that it is psychologically understandable. Best of all, a theory should present a description of an ideally just state of affairs, a conception of a well-ordered society such that aspiration to realize this state of affairs, and to maintain it in being, answers to our good and is continuous with our natural sentiments. A perfectly just society should be part of an ideal that rational human beings could desire more than anything else once they had full knowledge and experience of what it was. The content of the principles of justice, the way in which they are derived, and the stages of moral development, show how in justice as fairness such an interpretation is possible. It would seem, then, that the doctrine of the purely conscientious act is rational. This doctrine holds, first, that the highest moral motive is the desire to do what is right and just simply because it is right and just, no other description being appropriate. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
And second, that while other motives certainly have moral value, for example the desire to do what is right because doing this increases human happiness, or because it tends to promote equality, these desires are less morally worthy than that to do what is right solely in virtue of its being right. The sense of right is a desire for a distinct (and unanalyzable) object, since a specific (and unanalyzable) property characterizes actions that are our duty. The other morally worthy desire, while indeed desires for things necessarily connected with what is right, are not desires for the right as such. However, on this interpretation the sense of right lacks any apparent reason; it resembles a preference for tea rather than coffee. Although such a preference might exist, to make it regulative of the basic structure of society is utterly capricious; and no less so because it is masked by a fortunate necessary connection with reasonable grounds for judgments of right. However, for one who understand and accepts the contract doctrine, the sentiment of justice is not a different desire from that to act on principles that rational individuals would consent t in an initial situation which gives everyone equal representation as a moral person. Nor is it different from wanting to act in accordance with principles that express human’s nature as free and equal rational beings. The principles of justice answer to these descriptions and this fact allows us to give an acceptable interpretation to the sense of justice. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
In the light of theory of justice, we understand how the moral sentiments can be regulative in our life and have the role attributed to them by the formal conditions on moral principles. Being governed by these principles means that we want to live with others on terms that everyone would recognize as fair from a perspective that all would accept as reasonable. The ideal of persons cooperating on the basis exercises a natural attraction upon our affections. Finally, we may observe that the morality of principles takes two forms, one corresponding to the sense of right and justice, the other to the love of humankind and to self-command. As we have noted, the latter is supererogatory, while the former is not. In its normal form of right and justice the morality of principles includes the virtues of the moralities of authority and association. It defines that last stage at which all subordinate ideals are finally understood and organized into coherent system by suitably general principles. The virtues of the other moralities receive their explanation and justification within the larger scheme; and their respective claims are adjusted by the priorities assigned by the more comprehensive conception. The morality of supererogation has two aspects depending upon the direction in which the requirements of the morality of principles are willingly surpassed. One the one hand, the love of humankind shows itself in advancing the common good in ways that go well beyond our natural duties and obligations. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
This morality is not one for ordinary persons, and its peculiar virtues are those of benevolence, a heightened sensitivity to the feelings and wants of others, and a proper humility and unconcern with self. The morality of self-command, on the other hand, in its simplest form is manifest in fulfilling with complete ease and grace the requirements of right and justice. It becomes truly supererogatory when the individual displays its characteristic virtues of courage, magnanimity, and self-control in actions presupposing great discipline and training. And this one may do either by freely assuming offices and positions which call upon these virtues if their duties are to be well performed; or else by seeking superior ends in a manner consistent with justice but surpassing the demands of duty and obligation. This the moralities of supererogation, those of the saint and the hero, do not contradict the norms of right and justice; they are marked by the willing adoption by the self of aims continuous with these principles but extending beyond what they enjoin. A “future shock absorber” of a quite different type is the “half-way house” idea already employed by progressive prison authorities to ease the convict’s way back into normal life. According to criminologist Daniel Glaser, the distinctive feature of the correctional institutions of the future will be the idea of “gradual release.” Instead of taking a human out of the under-stimulating, tightly regimented life of the prison and plunging one violently and without preparation into open society, one is moved first to an intermediate institution which permits one to work in the community by day, while continuing to return to the institution at night. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
The fact of the matter is prisons are overcrowded, and recidivism is so high because once people are released from correctional institutions, many of them are unemployable because of policies corporations have against hiring someone with a criminal record. Recidivism rates by state vary, but California is among the highest in the nation. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, more than 65 percent of those released from California’s prison system return within three years. Now, many people are looking for affordable labour and skills. If there was a corporation that hired former prisoners and ensured clients that their workers are safe, many people may want to hire them at a discounted rate to save on labour cost, and it would decrease recidivism by at least 11 percent, which is substantial. Steady employment can lead to a reduction in criminal behaviour through the accumulation of conventional ties that accompany steady employment. In other words, stable employment is expected to deter offenders from crimes. When former prisoners find a job immediately after release and retain it during the 6-month follow-up, they will be able to accumulate bonds with their employer and co-workers (conventional others). Based on nations of social control theories, we therefore expect that former prisoners who are able to retain a job during the 6-month follow-up are less likely to reoffend than former prisoners who lose this job. With their housing situation, gradually restrictions are lifted until one is fully adjusted to the outside World. The same principle has been explored by various mental institutions. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
Similarly it has been suggested that the problems of rural populations suddenly shifted to urban centers might be sharply reduced if something like this half-way house principle were employed and they had someone to monitor them, entertain them, and enforce the rules like a parent would do because sometimes there people are not ready to live on their own and cannot handle the responsibility of being respectful and managing their own home or bodily functions. What cities need, according to this theory, are reception facilities where newcomers live for a time under conditions half-way between those of the rural society they are leaving behind and the urban society they are seeking to penetrate. If instead of treating city-bound migrants with contempt and leaving them to find their own way, they were first acclimatized, they would adapt far more successfully. A similar idea is filtering through the specialists who concern themselves with “squatter housing” in major cities in the technologically underdeveloped World. Outside Khartoum in the Sudan, thousands of former nomads have created a concentric ring of settlements. Those further from the city live in tents, much like the ones they occupied before the migration. The next-closer group lives in mud-walled huts with tent roofs. Those still closer to the city occupy huts with mud walls and tin roofs. When the police set out to tear down the tents, urban planner Constantions Doxiadis recommended that they not only destroy the, but that certain municipal services be provided to their inhabitants. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
Instead of seeing these concentric rings in wholly negative terms, he suggested, they might be viewed as a tremendous teaching machine through which individuals and families move, becoming urbanized step by step. The application of this principle, however, need not be limited to the less affluent, insane or criminal. The basic idea of providing change in controlled, graduated stages, rather than abrupt transitions, is crucial to any society that wishes to cope with rapid or social or technological upheaval. The veteran, for example, could be released from service more gradually. The student from a rural community could send a few weeks at a college in a medium-size city before entering the large urban university. The long-term hospital patient might ne encouraged to go home on a trial basis, once or twice, before being discharged. We are already experimenting with these strategies, but others are possible. Retirement, for example, should not be the abrupt, all-or-nothing, ego-crushing change that it now is for most humans. There is no reason why it cannot be gradualized. Military induction, which typically separates a young person from one’s family in a sudden and almost client fashion, could be done by stages. Legal separation, which is supposed to serve as a kind of half-way house on the way to divorce, could be made less legally complicated and psychologically costly. Trial marriage could be encouraged, instead of denigrated. Whenever a change of status is contemplated, the possibility of gradualizing it should be considered. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
I do not want to frighten you by telling you about the temptations life will bring. Anyone who is healthy in spirit will overcome them. However, there is something I want you to realize. It does not matter so much what you do. What matters is whether your soul is harmed by what you do. If your soul is harmed something irreparable happens, the extent of which you will not realize until it will be too late. And other harm their souls even without being exposed to great temptations. They simply let their souls wither. They allow themselves to be dulled by the joys and worries and distractions of life, not realizing that thoughts which earlier meant a great deal to them in their youth turned into meaningless sounds. In the end they have lost all feeling for everything that makes up the inner life. At this season of joyous thanksgiving, we are grateful unto Thee, O Keeper of America, for Thy many bounties with which Thou does bless us and for the protecting care with which Thy love doth watch over us. As Thou didst cause our fathers to dwell in Salt Lake City, Utah USA of Thy glory amid the perils of the wilderness, so spread Thou over us and over all America, the Salt Lake City of Thy love. O beneficent Father, as we recall this day the gratitude of the children of America for the harvest of their fields in Midwest, we, too, acknowledge Thee, the source of all our bounties. For all our blessings we give Thee thanks. May the Scriptures we read today teach us to share Thy gifts with those in need. Hasten that day when the children of America, in the land of their fathers, shall bring in their sheaves with rejoicing. We pray that Thou who didst protect our forefathers when they dwelt in the wilderness, wilt extend Thy blessing of peace over American and over all the peoples of the Earth. Amen. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
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Randolph Harris II International Institute 