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One Would Think Happiness is Rare?
The trouble with some people is that when they get into trouble, they start acting like cannibals. With mood disorders so prevalent in all societies, it is no wonder that they have been the focus of so much research. Great quantities of data about these disorders have been gathered. Still, clinicians have yet to understand fully all that they know. Several factors have been closely tied to unipolar depression, including biological abnormalities, a reduction in positive reinforcements, negative ways of thinking, a perception of helplessness, and life stress and other sociocultural influences. Indeed, more contributing factors have been associated with unipolar depression than with most other psychological disorders. Precisely how all of these factors relate to unipolar depression, however, is unclear. Different factors may be capable of initiating unipolar depression in different persons. Some people may, for example, begin with low serotonin activity, which predisposes them to react helplessly and negatively, and enjoy fewer pleasures in life. Others may first suffer a severe loss, which triggers helplessness reactions, low serotonin activity, and reductions in positive rewards. Regardless of the initial cause, these factors may merge into a “final common pathway” of unipolar depression. However, culture influences many people’s health and belief system and has an effect on the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Some cultures have specific expectations of each age group that differ greatly from those in mainstream American society. Because of this difference, all age groups are exposed to conflict or clashes that may increase the risk for development of mental illness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Judging from the evening news and the spread of self-help books, one would think that happiness was rare. Ever psychologists seem far more interested in stuffing heartache. However, there is good news. A growing body of research indicates that most people’s lives are more upbeat than we think. In fact, 55 percent of adults in the United States of America say they laugh once an hour. In addition, most people around the World say they are happy—including those who are poor, unemployed, elderly, and disabled. Some say money buys happiness, well maybe not that much more. Wealthy people appear only slightly happier than those of modest means. Overall, only 1 person in 10 reports being “not too happy.” Although people are not happy every day, most seem to bounce back well from disappointments. Happy people also seem to remain happy from decade to decade, regardless of job changes, moves, and family changes. When treating people with unipolar depression, one method that seems helpful is to reintroduce clients to pleasurable events and activities. While reintroducing pleasurable events into a client’s life, the therapist also makes sure that the person’s various behaviours are reinforced correctly. Behaviourists have argued that when people become depressed, their negative behaviours—crying, complaining, or self-depreciation—keep others at a distance, reducing changes for positive reinforcement. To change this pattern, the therapist may use a contingency management approach, systematically ignoring a client’s depressive behaviours while praising or otherwise rewarding constructive statements and behaviour, such as going to work. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
Although formal treatment is typically needed for severe depression, personal efforts such as going on vacation or spending time with friends can often make a significant difference for people who are struggling with mild depression. Research shows, for example, that regular exercise help prevent or reduce feelings of depression as well as other psychological symptoms. Life does not always turn out the way people want it to, you may end up living around people you do not care for and feel isolated and have no friends. You may want to get back to a lifestyle that is more conducive to your well-being. However, one thing that I find that helps, besides exercise and music is to some times just shut down and stop talking to people. Take some time to be quiet and work through the negative emotions and pray about them. Also, happy movies help. I had the TV on, while I was using my station bike, and had sworn off Christmas movies this year because you know, sometimes situations are ongoing and every year some expect them to be resolved, and they are not yet. However, I got stuck watching 12 Pups for Christmas (2019) Starring Charlotte Sullivan and Donny Boaz. It was such a great movie and I highly recommend it. It is all about being in the prime of one’s life and then facing one unexpected situation after another, but one can see how God used Erin’s (Charlotte Sullivan’s) pain to put her in a better situation that she could not even imagine. The movie is so charming that I found myself smiling and laughing while watching it. I really enjoyed how the people all liked each other, and worked together and were open and optimistic and honest. The film reminded me of a passage in the Christian Bible, “Now therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for and support you and your little ones. And he comforted them [imparting cheer, hope, strength] and spoke to their hearts [kindly],” reports Genesis 50.21. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
The film 12 Pups for Christmas shows one how devastating life events can be and how nothing is promised, and things are not perfect, but if you keep the right attitude and keep persevering and being kind, the Lord will make things work in your favour. Although most of the variance in adult dysfunctions involving pleasures of the flesh is explainable by concurrent relational problems, some childhood interpersonal experiences may be viewed as distal contributory causes. Two such issues that are clearly rooted in family socialization are negative attitudes toward sexuality and extreme religious orthodoxy. Both of these are more psychological than interpersonal constructs. However, each can be viewed as a result of socialization in the family of origin, and each is related to the other. Children who are reared with extremely orthodox beliefs and values may view pleasures of the flesh as generally inappropriate and improper behaviour, unless it is explicitly enacted with the goal of procreation. Armed with such attitudes, some individuals might experience adjustment problems when paired with partners of differing beliefs and values. Related to this are negative attitudes toward pleasures of the flesh. Certain child-rearing practices and family environments may leave a child with a tendency to associate pleasures of the flesh with feelings of guilt and shame. Other family experiences may lead the child to link pleasures of the flesh with disgrace, emotional pain, or betrayal. To the extent that these negative attitudes, often learned in childhood, are durable through the adult years, impairment in functioning during pleasures of the flesh is a likely consequence. Another early interpersonal experience that can impair adult pleasures of the flesh functioning is childhood sexual abuse, especially when this abuse is intrafamilial. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
Multiple studies show that people who experienced such abuse as children are more likely than those who have not to experience dysfunctions in pleasures of the flesh as adults. Two important caveats must be noted, however. First, these same studies show that childhood sexual abuse is situation in a matrix of aversive childhood and family-of-origin experiences (such as excessive conflict, low cohesion, poor boundary regulation, physical abuse, and parental neglect), and that it is associated with a similarly diverse matrix of adult psychosocial problems (such as separation, divorce, relational dissatisfaction, substance abuse, depression, somatization, and anxiety, to name just some). Each of these on its own may be sufficient to interfere with functioning in pleasures of the flesh. Disentangling and understanding the effects of sexual abuse in particular continues to be a challenge for mental health research. Second, there is no deterministic relationship between childhood sexual abuse and adult functioning. Some children who experienced sexual abuse go on to develop happy and healthy interpersonal relationships, and are indistinguishable from their nonabused peers. Undoubtedly, this resilience is an amalgamation of personal and socioenvironmental factors that allows them to minimize and overcome the ill effects of this trauma. These caveats notwithstanding, childhood sexual abuse is thought to disrupt attachment to caregivers, trust in others, the development of self-esteem, and a sense of mastery. When a survivour of such abuse is confronted with new developmental tasks, such as management and negotiation of adult pleasures of the flesh, these liabilities may be manifested in a variety of psychosocial problems—including pleasures of the flesh dysfunctions. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
Psychogenic sexual dysfunctions tend to coexist with other mental health problems that also have an obvious interpersonal basis. However, unlike problems such as depression or schizophrenia, for example, the comorbidity of sexual dysfunctions has not been as thoroughly researched. This is perhaps due in part to the difficulty of accurately assessing and diagnosing these problems and the fact that such assessment requires ruling out physiological origins. Studies of people identified as having a psychogenic sexual dysfunction reveal a 30 to 35 percent incidence of others psychological problems. One common problem that is concomitant to sexual dysfunction is depression. As an example, the odds ratio for erectile dysfunction has been estimated at 1.82 in the presence versus absence of depressive symptoms. A study of couples seeking therapy for sexual dysfunction indicated that rates of depression, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders were all elevated in contrast to those in the generational population. Lifetimes rates of affective disorders (major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disorder) among the participants in this study were 21.5 percent and 38.3 percent for men and women, respectively. Associated rates of anxiety disorders were 19.9 percent and 37.3 respectively. Thus, problems like depression and anxiety are evident in the background of about 33 percent of those seeking treatment for sexual dysfunction. Like personality disorders, sexual dysfunctions tend t be comorbid with other sexual dysfunctions. In a large-sample, multisite pharmaceutical study, 40 percent of those with hypoactive sexual desire disorder were also diagnosed with a second sexual dysfunction. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
In view of the ill effect of anxiety on performance and depression on sexual desire, the comorbidity of these problems with sexual dysfunction is easily understood. However, it is equally evident that these problems are interconnected in at least some cases by interpersonal problems and stressors. When close relationships become distressed and/or when people have a history of interpersonal maltreatment, both depression and sexual dysfunction are likely consequences. Similarly, people who experience a great deal of anxiety in interpersonal contexts, perhaps because of poor social skills, may experience sexual dysfunctions that are secondary to that excessive anxiety. Psychogenic sexual dysfunctions appear to be every bit as much problems with couple relationships and a psychological sense of intimacy, as problems with the psychophysiology of human sexuality. People with psychogenic sexual dysfunctions often have intimacy problems that extend far beyond just sexual intimacy and include poor social and recreational intimacy with their partners as well. Psychogenic sexual dysfunctions may serve as regulative devices for addressing unresolved conflict and a lack of intimacy. Like those of other mental health problems, the symptoms of psychogenic sexual dysfunction may draw attention away from more substantial underlying interpersonal problems that a couple is unable or unwilling to address openly. They may also serve as a means of communicating distress indirectly. In either case, sexual dysfunctions may be indices of more pervasive interpersonal/relational problems. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
A number of relations themes are evident in studies of sexually dysfunctional couples. These include open conflict, as well as passivity, discouragement, a lack of agreement and understanding, and hostility that is often not expressed directly and openly. Some of these phenomena are even evident through observations of brief laboratory interactions between partners. Notwithstanding the associations between sexual dysfunctions and current relational problems, some interpersonal childhood experiences may be distal contributory causes of adult sexual dysfunctions. When children are socialized with strict orthodox religious beliefs and values, and/or when they learn negative attitudes toward sexuality, they are predisposed to experience psychogenic sexual dysfunctions as adults. A history of childhood sexual abuse is also more common among those with psychogenic sexual dysfunction, compared to their well-functioning counterparts. Such abuse may set the stage for views of sexuality as coercive, hostile, and motivated by malfeasance. Both somatoform disorders and psychogenic sexual dysfunctions involved the experience and expression of physical symptoms in the absence of any obvious medical or physiological cause. Each of these disorders is a sign of intrapersonal and interpersonal distress, and serves a communicative value. The interpersonal pathogenesis of somatoform disorders can be primarily located in family-of-origin experiences; although such experiences do play a role in psychogenic sexual dysfunctions, these dysfunctions more strongly signal troubles with family-of-orientation relationships. I remember the time when some brothers of the Lord were praying over me for a new release of the Holy Spirit. At a certain point they invited me to choose Jesus as the Lord of my life, freely and consciously. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
At that moment I happened to look up, and my eyes fell on the crucifix which was on the wall opposite above the altar. He seemed to have been there for some time, waiting for me. In an instant, this truth branded itself within me: “Make no mistake, this is the Jesus Christ you are choosing as your Lord, not a different rose-water version!” How often, since then, have I tried to admit the truth of those words! Being espoused to Christ means, here below, being “crucified with Christ,” but also in the hope of being glorified with Him. Joy is never absent, but it is a hope-filled joy (spe gaudentes). In other words, it is hoping to be happy, and happy to be hoping. “All who belong to Christ Jesus,” writes the Apostle—“have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” repots Galatians 5.24. It is a beautiful thing to die to the World for the Lord, so as to raise in Him. Earthly longings (eros) have been crucified; in the me there is left no spark of desire for mundane things. It is no joke to crucify one’s flesh with its passions and desires, especially pleasures of the flesh desires, which are among the most imperious of all. The desires of the flesh—self-indulgence—are always in opposition to the Spirit. Some have been brought to the edge of despair by temptations of the flesh. We are now living in a social context where it is no longer possible to rely on external safeguards for the defense of one’s chastity, as it was in the past—things like the separation of the genders, a rigorous filtering of contacts with the World, and all the countless other detailed precautions with which “Rules” usually surround the observance of this vow. Unconstrained communications and travel have created a new situation. The defence of one’s chastity is now for the most part in the hands of the individual, and it cannot rest on anything other than strong personal convictions, acquired precisely through contact with God in prayer and in His Word. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
It is this spirit and with this intention that we continue our reflections. Celibacy, then, is for the sake of the Kingdom. However, why does the Kingdom call for celibacy? Can it not be achieved and manifested completely through marriage? Some Fathers of the Church, such as John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor, thought that is Adam had not sinned, there would have been no marriage, with the sexual procreation that is now its distinguishing feature, because in the way in which it is now exercised, human sexuality is the fruit of original sin. However, from a mere biblical and less Platonic perspective it must be said that rather the reverse is true: that, had there been no sin there would have been no virginity, because the would have been no need to question marriage and sexuality and subject them to judgment. Poverty, chastity and obedience are not a renunciation—or worse, a condemnation—of a created good, but a rejection of the evil that has come to overlay that good. Therefore they are, by definition, a proclamation of the original goodness of created things. They are a way of imitating the Word of God Who, by taking flesh, took on all that belongs to human nature, but did not take on sin. “For we do not have a great High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning,” reports Hebrews 4.15. The Gospel counsels, and the vows based upon them, proclaim the goodness and beauty of God’s creation precisely by the denouncing the ambiguity of human creation. The inability to understand the value of virginity, and likewise of obedience and voluntary poverty, is always a sign that the sense of sin has disappeared from the horizon of faith. It is typical of periods of acute secularization and naïve optimism concerning humanity and the World. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
Seen in this light, poverty, chastity and obedience are the most eloquent proclamation there is of Christ’s redemption and of the Paschal Mystery, which does not cancel out the original creation, as the heretic Marcion thought, but it “recapitulates” it, as St. Irenaeus said, in other words, brings it out into the light from under the covering of sin. In this light it is also possible to understand the positive element, still valid today, in the Fathers’ insight that virginity was a return to the Heavenly state, but on condition that this return is not understood as bypassing marriage and human sexuality itself (male and female He created them), but only the sin with which they have been overlaid by human freedom. A virginal and chaste life if therefore in a very profound sense a paschal life. “I beg you, then, by God’s mercy, my brothers, to offer your bodies as a holy and living sacrifice which will be pleasing to God—this is your spiritual worship. Do not pattern yourselves after the ways of this World but transform yourselves by the renewal of your minds, so you will be able to discern what God’s will is—what is good, pleasing and perfect,” reports Romans 12.1-2. Their celibacy was the most delicious of all: transformative and liberating, and the instrument of its own success. However, the demons’ traps are evil thought. Become saved again, and commit your soul to God. We need to seek how to please God in our bodily members [as well as spiritually]. Everything we observe, and even more important, our way of observing it, is already culture and pattern of culture. If we cannot observe it, what is the sense of mentioning “human nature”? The wild Babes give up their individualistic mores and ideology, exempli gratia, selfishness or magic thinking or omnipotence, and join the tribe of Society; they are soicalised. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
You can teach people anything; if you use the right techniques of socializing or communicating, you can adapt them to anything. The essence of human nature is to be pretty indefinitely malleable. Humans are what suits a particular type of society in a particular historical age. This fateful idea, invented from time to time by philosophers, seems finally to be empirically evident in the most recent decades. For instance, in our highly organized system of machine production and its corresponding social relations, the practice is, by “vocational guidance,” to fit people wherever the products of the system need to be used up, the practice is, by advertising, to get people to consume them. This works. There is a human for every job and not many are left over, and the shelves are almost always cleared. Again, in the highly organized political industrial systems of Germany, Russia, and now China, it has been possible in a short time to condition great masses to perform as desired. Social scientists observer that these are the facts, and they also devise theories and techniques to produce more facts like them, for the social scientists too are part of the highly organized systems. Astonishingly different, however, is the opinion of experts who deal with human facts in a more raw, less highly processed, state. Those who have to cope with people in small groups rather than statistically, attending to them rather than to some systematic goal—parents and teachers, physicians and psychotherapists, police officers and wardens of jails, shop foremen and grievance committees—these experts are likely to hold stubbornly that there is a “human nature.” You cannot teach people some things or change them in some ways, if you persist, you are in for trouble. Contrariwise, if you do not provide them with certain things, they will fill the gaps with eccentric substitute. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
This is immediately evident when something goes wrong; for instance, when a child cannot learn to read because one has not yet developed the muscular accommodation of one’s eyes; if you persist, one withdraws or becomes tricky. Such a clear-cut cause (it is “physical”). However, the more important causes have the following form: the child does take on the culture habit, exempli gratia, early toilet training, and indeed the whole corresponding pattern of culture, but there is a minishing of force, grace, discrimination, intellect, feeling, in specific behaviours or even in one’s total behaviour. One may become too obedient and lacking in initiative, or impractically careful and squeamish; one may develop “psychosomatic” ailments like constipation. Let me give an instance even earlier in life: an infant nurtured in an institution without a particular nurse attending one during the first six months, does not seem to develop abnormally; but if during the end of the first year and for some time thereafter one is not given personal care, one will later be in some ways emotionally cold and unreachable—either some function has failed to develop, or one has already blocked it out as too frustrated and painful. In such examples, the loss of force, grace, and feeling seems to be evidence that somehow the acquired cultural habits do not draw on unimpeded outgoing energy, they are against the grain, they do not fit the child’s needs or appetites; therefore they have been ill adapted and not assimilated. That is, on this view we do not need to be able to say what “human nature” is in order to be able to day tht some training is “against human nature” and you persist in it at peril. Teachers and psychologists who deal practically with growing up and the blocks to growing up may never mention the word “human nature” (indeed, they are better off without too many priori ideas), but they cling stubbornly to the presumption that at every stage there is a developing potentiality not yet cultured, and not blank, and that makes possible the taking on of culture. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
We must draw “it” out, offer “it” opportunities, not violate “it” except for unavoidable reasons. What “it” is, is not definite. It is what, when appealed to in the right circumstances, gives behaviour that has force, grace, discrimination, feeling. This vagueness is of course quite sufficient for education, for education is an art. A good teacher feels one’s way, looking for response. The immediate horror humans perceive is one’s own death, but beyond that one begins to see the entire life process as carnage, as eating and being eaten. A terrible screaming pervades the Universe. Humans are the first to hear it. This is the vision we cannot accept. It drives towards madness or despair. What does Christianity do with this vision. It does not deny it; it makes it acceptable. What Christianity does for the true believer is give one strength to bear it. Redeems it. That is the word! The scheme of things redeems the way things are. However, what is redemption? It must be an interpretation. The scheme of things, therefore, is both a diagram of the something grand and an interpretation of the way things are as an essential step on the way to the something grand. The life process thereupon becomes less horrible and more bearable because it serves, however obscurely, a glorious end. When it is in the service of something grand, one’s individual life is redeemed. The beginning of the redemption of life is the beginning of culture. All culture is redemption. The history of culture is the history of changing forms by which a short and brutish life has been redeemed. The culture of people is the incarnation of its religion. Any religion, while it last, provides the framework for a culture, and protects the mass of humanity from boredom and despair. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
Humans search for a scheme of things larger than their own life, with greater authority, to which one may belong. The hunger from which this search issues is profound and inalienable. If one can find such a scheme and makes one’s life “mean” something in it, that is, contribute to it, make a difference, one will have ferried something of one’s mortal self across the gulf of death to become a part of something that will live on. The doomed life must leave a residue of value. The carrier and guarantor of this value is human-made scheme of things perceived as reality and presumed to be eternal. What can one say of the way things are? The constructions of the mind are not coextensive with existence, that there is something “out there,” a universe independent of humans, there before we arrived and to be there after we have disappeared. It affects us and we it. IT and we are in continual contact and interaction, and we know it not. We cannot bear to know. An angel, detached and immortal, could know; we, mired in mortality, are at risk. Interest deflects our knowing. Our lives depend on its being other than it is. In the midst of the way things are we know only the scheme of things in which we live. If someone is not treating you right today, go out of your way to be kinder than usual to that person. If your husband is not serving God, do not go around beating him over the head with your Bible, proselytizing him, nagging him, coercing him to attend church with you. No, just start being extra kind to him. Start living him in a fresh way. The Holy Bibles teaches, “It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance,” reports Romans 2.4. God’s goodness expressed through you will overcome evil. Friend, love never fails. Now turn not a df ear to that which I have spoken, for My Word shall rise withing you with great revelation. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
For I am doing in this hour things that humans have not understood, just as was prophesied in the days of old. I said it by My prophets that you would not believe the reports of the things that I would do. Some will not believe, but the hour is coming that humans shall proclaim My Word boldly over their own bodies and it will cause sickness and disease to depart. Their words will cause the enemy to flee in terror. If anyone had a right to return evil instead of love, it was Joseph, the young man with the distinctive coat of many colours. His brothers hated him so much, they threw him into a deep pit and were going to kill him, but “out of the kindness of their hearts,” they decided instead to sell him into slavery. Years went by, and Joseph experienced all sorts of troubles and heartaches. However, Joseph kept a good attitude, and God continued to bless him. After thirteen years of being in prison for a crime he did not commit, God supernaturally promoted him to the second-highest position in Egypt. Joseph was in charge of the food supply when a famine struck the land, and his brothers traveled to Egypt, hoping to buy provisions for their families. At first they did not recognize their long-lost brother. Joseph finally said, “Do not you who I am? I am Joseph, your brother. I am the one you threw into the pit. I am the one you tried to kill, the brother you sold into slavery.” Can you imagine what was going through his brothers’ minds? Imagine the fear that must have griped their hearts! This was Joseph’s opportunity to pay back his brothers for the years of pain and suffering they had caused him. Now their lives were in his hands. Joseph could have ordered them killed or imprisoned for life. However, Joseph said, “Do not be afraid. I am not going to harm you. I am going to do good to you. I am going to give you all the food you need.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
The Christian Bible says, “Love does not hold a grudge. Love does not harbour unforgiveness,” report 1 Corinthians 13.5. You may have people in your life who have done you great wrong, and you have a right to be angry and bitter, or foolish and ghoulish, full of doom and gloom. You may feel as though your whole life had been stolen away by someone who has mistreated you or deceived you. However, if you will choose to let go of your grudge and forgive them, you can overcome that evil with good. You can get to the point where you can look at the people who have hurt your and return good for evil. If you do that, God will pour out His favour in your life in a fresh way. He will honour you; He will reward you, and He will make those wrongs right. When you can bless your worst enemies and do good to those who have used and abused you, that is when God will take that evil and turn it around for good. No matter what you have gone through, no matter who hurt you or whose fault it was for causing all the trauma and drama, let it go. Do not try to get even. Do not hold a grudge. Do not try to pay them back. God says show mercy. Aim for kindness. Seek to do good. You may be thinking, but that is just not fair! No, it is not. However, life is not fair. We have to remember that God is the One keeping the score. He is in control. And when you bless your enemies, you will never lose. God will always make it up to you. The power of the Lord shall rise withing humans until there will be a race of people on this Earth when I come that will stand against Satan and see him flee from them. They will stand without sickness or disease in their bodies. They will stand even before whole cities and proclaim, “In the name of Jesus, I break the power of sin over this city.” Then the walls of Satan will crumble and the power of God shall be loosed in that city. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
The wisdom of God shall flow unhindered and my power shall rule in the midst. Even as the darkness grows more morbid, the light shall grow more optimistic. My wisdom shall be released in greater measure and greater revelation as human take My Word at face value, even as I have spoken it. The tongue cannot be controlled by natural ability. It is an unruly evil in the unregenerate state. However, the wisdom of God that has come by the rebirth of the human spirit, imparted by the Holy Spirit to the hearts of humans, will cause the tongue to come into subjection to the spirit of humans, which is ordained of God to rule. It shall cause the body to conform to the Word of the living God. Dear Lord in Heaven, I dare to believer that You can take even the bad things that happen to your children and transform them into something good and useful, not merely in our own lies, but in the lives of other around us. You know, I am against taxes, I think they should be as long as possible and once politicians start taxing things to make improvements in areas that the budget cannot support, it leads to excessive taxes, which then leads to communism. One absurd tax is the bag tax. Sure, the thicker bags are good for people who can afford to buy them and have to walk with the groceries. However, it is a common courtesy to provide people with complimentary bags for purchasing items at your story. The supposed goal was to reduce plastic waste, but most people buy these thicker plastic bags anyway. Most stores do not allow reusable bags to come into their store because they may be contaminated with bacteria or viruses or infested with cock roaches and their eggs and can infest the stores, spread to other customers and make people fatally ill. Also, what about the people who can barely afford what they are buying? For some people, an extra $2.00 for twenty bags, for example, is a lot of money when they can barely afford what they are buying. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
However, I truly wish there was a way we could find some money in the budget to pay our service members and veterans $100,000.00 a year and lifelong medical benefits for their priceless service. And also, if we want law enforcement reform, why not pay officers the same wages and require that they obtain at least an Associates in Arts in psychology, law, or something so we know they have some understanding of what life is like outside of their family-of-origin and family-of-orientation. Some police are education, some have PhDs, and an educated officer may not be better at one’s job than a high school graduate, but I wonder what the studies say? It is possible that requiring an education would reduce conflict in the community and screen out officers who have a vendetta against other races, religions, creeds or genders. Also, regulating leaf blower nose and usage would be great. The government bans the use of fireplaces on certain days, which is sad because some people cannot afford to burn their heaters and knowing how much heat they are using helps them from keeping their electricity from getting shut off. People have trees they can cut down and burn for fuel. The system in America is set up, well, it was once set up to accommodate the rich, but the poor and rich are getting jilted, while the middle class is disappearing before your eyes like a dope fiend. And I have looked at some of these million dollar homes in California, and I am so disappointed. I expect something more and grand for $1 million. Sure, inflation is real, but wage inflation is not happening. Everything is just getting more and more expensive and cutting into people’s wages. In Sacramento, if you did not become established 10-20 years ago, and are not a professional and do not have two or more employed people in the house, the cost of living is almost unaffordable. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
The shrinkage of the nation-state reflects the appearance of a new-style global economy that has emerged since the Third Wave began its surge. Nation-states were the necessary political containers for nation-sized economies. Today the containers have not only sprung leaks, they have been made obsolete by their own success. First, there is the growth within them of regional economies that have attained a scale once associated with national economies. Second, the World economy to which they gave rise had exploded in size and is taking on strange new forms. Thus the global economy is dominated by the great transnational corporations. It is serviced by a ramified banking and financial industry that operates at electronic speeds. It breeds money and credit no nation can regulate. It moves toward transnational currencies—not a single “World money” but a variety of currencies or “meta-currencies,” each based on a “market basket” of national currencies or commodities. The global economy is torn by a World-scale conflict between resource supplies and users. It is riddled with shaky debt on a hitherto unimaginable scale. It is a mixed economy, with private capitalist and state-socialist enterprises forming joint ventures and working side by side. And its ideology is not laissez faire or Marxism, but globalism—the idea that nationalism is obsolete. Just as Second Wave created a slice of the population that had larger than local interests and became the base of nationalist ideologies, so the Third Wave gives rise to groups with larger than national interests. These for the base of the emerging globalist ideology sometimes called “planetary consciousness.” This consciousness is shared by multinational executives, long haired environmental campaigners, financiers, revolutionaries, intellectuals, poets, painters, not to mention members of the Trilateral Commission. I have even had a famous U.S. four-star general assure me that “the nation-state is dead.” #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
Globalism presents itself as more than an ideology serving the interests of a limited group. Precisely as nationalism claimed to speak for the whole nation, globalism claims to speak for the whole World. And its appearance is seen as an evolutionary necessity—a step closer to a “cosmic consciousness” that would embrace the Heavens as well. Therefore, at every level, from economics and politics to organization and ideology, we are witnessing a devastating attack, from within and without, on that pillar of Second Wave civilization: the nation-state. At the exact historical moment when many poor countries are desperately fighting to establish a national identity because nationhood in the past was necessary for successful industrialization, the rich countries, racing beyond industrialism, are diminished, displacing, or derogating the role of the nation. We can expect the next decades to be torn by struggle over the creation of new global institutions capable of faily representing the prenational as well and the postnational peoples of the World. Be praised my Lord with all Your creatures but especially with Brother Sun because You show us light and day through him and he is lovely glowing with a great shine from You my Lord: his definition. Be praised my Lord for Brother Wind and for the air and cloudy days and bright and all days else because through these You give Your creatures sustenance. Be praised my Lord for Sister Water because she shows great use and humbleness in hers and preciousness and depth. Be praised my Lord for Brother Fire through whom You light all nights upon the Earth because he is too lovely full of joy and manly strength. Be praised my Lord because our sister Mother Earth sustains and rules us and because she raises food to feed us; coloured flowers and grass. Be praised my Lord for those who pardon by Your love and suffer illness and grief. Bless those who undergo in silence the poor for whom you hold a crown. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
Be praised my Lord for Sister Death-of-Body whom no human living (as of yet) will escapes and piety those who die in mortal sin and everyone she finds who minds you bless: no second death to bring them hurt. Oh praise my Lord and bless my Lord and thank and serve my Lord with humbleness Triumphant. Just think, immortality is not too far away. Eventually scientists will find a cure of aging and death. For some it will give them more time to get right in the eyes of the Lord and do things they love, for others, it will allow them to evade eternal punishment…for a while. O Lord, open Thou my lips and my mouth shall declare Thy praise. Praised art Thou, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, mighty, revered and exalted God. Thou bestowest lovingkindness and possessest all things. Mindful of the patriarchs’ love for Thee, Thou wilt in Thy love bring a redeemer to their children’s children for the sake of Thy name. Remember us unto life, O King who delightest in life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life so that we may live worthily for Thy sake, O Lord of life. O King, Thou Helper, Redeemer and Shield, be Thou praised, O Lord, Shield of Abraham. Thou, O Lord, art mighty forever. Thou callest the dead to immortal life for Thou art might in deliverance. One may be lifted up by the light of a great experience or the presence of a great soul, but in the end one falls back to the consciousness one ordinarily has, to the self one ordinarily is. This is not to say tht what has happened is without value—on the contrary, such a glimpse is very important—but that under the thrill of its emotional accompaniments one may easily miscomprehend a part of it to the point of self-deception. The error is to believe that one has now been put in possession of all truth, or the highest truth, for all time. However, it is only a transient glimpse! If one were pure enough and prepared enough to receive the light in all its fullness and in all the parts of one’s being, the glimpse would not leave one. However, one is not. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
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Why Can they Not Understand the Cold Logic of it?
Leaders have a significant role in creating a state of mind that promotes wisdom. They can serve as symbols of the moral unity of a community. They can express values and show one how to make the impossible dream become attained in possible stages. To know how to do it is skill. This World as we know it is passing away. God wants us to be free from anxiety. These are now the end times in which it is possible to live already as “children of the resurrection” in the manner of the World to come. However, there is a danger in seeing virginity and celibacy as a wonderful opportunity for a tranquil life, with no problems or worries. God wants us to be free from all anxiety. No matter what lifestyle one leads, there may be some things that one faces that are unpleasant. Yet, the goods, or affairs, of the Lord are the souls He died for: the Kingdom. This is why celibates and virgins exist: so that there will be someone, in the Church and in the World, who is concerned solely for God’s interests. It is not true that such people do not marry. Virgins are not people who renounce marriage. They are people who renounce life-long commitment to a creature. This becomes true and obvious for virgins from the moment when they make the person discover of Jesus as “Lord” of their life, and realize that this Lord is not Someone Who belongs only to the past (when He was on Earth), or only to the future (when we too will be with Him in Heave), but that, in virtue of His resurrection He is alive “in the Spirit” and is present at every moment in His Church. So it is not a questions of a virgin man or woman renouncing a “concrete” love for the sake of an “abstract” one, a real person for an imaginary Christ and with God, even leaving aside all the mystical significance usually associated with this term in religious language. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
We say of someone metaphorically that they have “espoused” a cause when they have given themselves wholly to it, body and soul, making the interests, risks, and success of that cause their own. In this sense we are entitled to say that the virgin has espoused the Kingdom or the Lord, but to a much greater degree, because virginity is not just espousing a “cause,” but also a person; not just for a time, but for eternity. The bond that binds the celibate and the virgin to the Lord is so total, so exclusive, that its only equivalent on the human level is when a man marries a woman. With all the more reason, the Christian celibate or virgin can make these words their own and say: “My soul is in love with Jesus Christ. Others will make sure that the World survives.” Having espoused the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are called to serve that cause; having married a person, the Lord, we are called to please that person. “The unmarried person,” St. Paul says, “is concerned with the Lord’s affairs, with how to please the Lord.” Manicheanism was a dualistic, contrasting a Prince of Darkness with a God of Light. In this contest between light and dark, good and evil, the body of the Manichean was no more than a prison, created by demons, which trapped the good light withing. The great Manichean goal was to liberate that imprisoned light. The only way to achieve this was through celibacy, which would prevent the creation of new prisons, and other ascetic practices, which would release trapped light. In a maze of lost, we search for an informing principle, a truth that will teach us how to live, will define our task, enable us to transcend our folly and cruelty, to use ourselves up in a way that counts. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
The way to live should issue from our nature, from what it is we believer ourselves most deeply to be. We tend to assume that we know what we are, that our nature is obvious, given to us by direct observation of others and of ourselves; Just look around the World and look into your own heart and you will know the human condition. It is not so. What it is to be a human being is not clear at all, but deeply shrouded. Because, in the evolution from medieval times to present awareness, we have gained knowledge and the ability to deceive ourselves. We arrange not to know our nature, not to see what we are up to. Our self-deceptions are so dense, piled on so thick, like layers of paint on a Victorian being painted without stripping for over a century, layer after layer, laid on until it gets so thick it becomes an enamel. We have gone from stories to book, to the Internet and Television. There are so many layers of what we are supposed to be that it is hard to get a clear view of what we really are. Behind our loudly professed values of freedom, justice, and equality lies a propensity to violence far stronger and far deeper than is known to any of us, even the most cynical. It is all but invincible, invades even the bedroom, and corrupts what we call love. We indulge in vast hypocrisies, flagrant and subtle, to conceal from ourselves this destructiveness. We are in fact largely the opposite of what we think we are. And as we deceive ourselves, we deceive also others. Self-awareness comes into being in the midst of struggles for power and is immediately put to use. One defends oneself, or seeks advantage, by misrepresenting oneself. One does not think about it; it happens instantly, automatically, inalienably. It is not possible to abstain. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
One cannot be oneself. To be human is to be false. Awareness is inseparable from misrepresentation. The soul of self-awareness is deception. Somatoform disorders are often accompanied by other psychological problems. A study of over 1,000 adolescents indicated that almost half of those with a somatoform disorder also had at least one other documentable psychological disorder. Among adults with somatization disorder, 23 percent had one personality disorder, and 37 percent had two or more. The most frequently occurring personality disorder among the patients with somatization disorder in this study were avoidant, paranoid, self-defeating, obsessive-compulsive, histrionic, and antisocial. Some have estimated the rate of personality disorders to be as high as 60-70 percent among people with somatoform disorders. The pure heart, blind to its own purity, sees only outward; the reflective heart is devious. They reality to which that “truly” refers is a slippery item. “Say everything that comes to mind,” the analyst says to the analysand, “nothing must remain hidden”; but the first association scurries for cover as the second is being staged by the third, and the bottom of that barrel can never be scraped. Below the deepest uncovering one yet deeper is possible. From an interpersonal perspective, the coincidence of somatoform disorders and personality disorders is understandable. In most patients with somatoform disorders, illness behaviour is a lifestyle in which the sick role is a mode of relating to self and others…in relation to others the role provides strategies for eliciting care and exercising control. Recall that, by definition, personality disorders involve inflexible and maladaptive patterns of behaviour, with problems in the interpersonal domain. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
People with personality disorders often related to other people in ways that ill suited for the situation. The same reasons for this maladaptive relating to others undoubtedly also cause the somatization. In fact, somatization could be understood as an interpersonal manifestation of a personality disorder. Instead of communicating with other directly and openly, the person with a somatoform disorder develops symptoms in an effort to convey a message (neediness, desire for attention, et cetera) to other people. It is ways to envision how somatization could be a “functional” form of communication for persons with avoidant personality disorder, who shun direct communication with others; those histrionic personality disorders, who have a taste for drama; or those with dependent personality disorder, who want to be taken care of. However, the most important thing about human life is that we come upon from within and can know only from within. Many people stage their existence and block it from view with contrived sets that they call reality, and though they know those sets to be fake, so many labour endlessly to make them look real. And they go about those actions on that stage which accord with those sets, individuals come finally to believe they are real. The backdrop being them is forgotten. Somatoform disorders involve the experience and expression of distressing physical symptoms in the absence of any medical cause. The expression of distress through physical symptoms serves a number of social functions, such as secondary gain, signaling intrapersonal and interpersonal distress, and providing a temporary solution to a systemwide problem. The unchanging backdrop, the raw nature of existence, unadorned, unmediated, overwhelming one with dread, the way things are becoming too awful and too fearful to be endured. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
The set changes over the course of history, though they may seem fixed over the course of a lifetime. The set, as in a play, is the arrangement in which one lives, the scheme of things. Psychoanalysis attends to those distortions of mind that have come about as a result of mishaps and mistreatments in childhood. Not just analysts and analysands, but all of us, simply by being members of a culture permeated with the promise of psychology, share in the belief that such is possible. And as one, acting on tis belief go about the processing of analyzing the miseries visited upon us by the preceding generation, it comes insidiously to seem that all misery is of this kind, not destiny but mishap, that therefore if people generally were free of neuroses they would no longer torment themselves and their families, nor would tyrants torment their subjects (nor themselves even want to be tyrants), and that human life would then be happy and secure. Thus psychology slides into place as the modern ideology, the heir to religion. It is the scheme of things in which we live. Many people with somatoform disorders have a history of adverse childhood experiences, ranging from growing up in a family characterized by conflict, poor boundary regulation, little intimacy, excessive control, and exaggerate demands for success, to outright physical and sexual abuse. As in the case of substance use problems and eating disorders, modeling may play a role in the pathogenesis of somatoform disorders. Many such patients witnessed serious illness in their parents, and have a history of illness themselves. Two psychodynamically oriented theories of somatoform disorder postulate that insecure attachments prompt excessive care seeking in the form of physical symptom expression. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
Many investigators see somatoform disorders as maladaptive attempts to communicate psychological and interpersonal distress. Research findings reveal a number of interpersonal problems that tend to covary with somatoform disorders, although some of these problems may be due to psychological distress more generally, rather than to somatoform disorders in particular. What is the minimum penalty for being a conscious and self-conscious creature living simultaneously in an eternal symbolic World of one’s own construction and in the natural World in which, looking straight ahead, one sees one’s death oncoming? Indeed, suffering that one might wish to consider as avoidable or treatable must one conclude issues, not from mistreatment, but from this condition? And, further, what portion of that mistreatment of human by human and of child by parent, all of which appears gratuitous, may prove to be the unavoidable outcome of conditions that define the human state itself? Alexithymia is a communicative phenomenon that is common among people with somatoform disorders; it entails an inability to express emotions and feelings to other people. This condition may contribute to the expression of distress through physical symptoms. At a sociological level, somatoform disorders may represent cultural idioms of distress. In many cultures, it may be more socially acceptable to have a “physical” illness than to express psychological distress. In such cultures, the expression of physical symptoms may be a proxy for conveying emotional distress to others. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
Somatoform disorders tend to be comorbid with personality disorders. In many cases, the somatization may be a manifestation of the maladaptive interpersonal styles that are inherent in personality disorders. However, it is still possible to set forth—with great clarity, concision, and bluntness—what one knows of the ways of power and the ways of the heart. Magic money and commerce keeps problems far away, their screams unheard. So it comes about to teach us what life is, or should be. The innocence we ascribe to the childhood of humanity is the innocence we have come to know only much later, east of Eden, the innocence possible to us within the knowledge of good and evil. Such innocence consists in following the rules that banish violence. Therefore, as one projects such obedience backward, one pictures a gentle Eden wherein the lion and the lamb lie down together. And right there we have got it dead wrong. The innocence of our prehistory, our Garden of Eden, is the innocence of our prehistory, our Garden of Eden, is the innocence of unlimited violence, of acting according to nature. There were then no taboos to set limits, hence no good and no evil. The boundary zone of our existence is a forbidden territory called the sacred. We know we are there by signs. Voices are lowered and hushed, we tread softly, look up respectfully, apprehensively. We are warned to keep away. Near the boundary itself we are taken over by fear and trembling. We are too close to God. Common sense tugs at our sleeve: Turn back! Beyond the limit is great power. Those who cross that limit are struck down. Some few, able to seize and control the thunderbolts, become gods. The sacred is a minefield barring the way back. It lies between us and the freedom we have lost, the violence we so fear and so desire, the rush, the oneness of life, the fusion, the continuity, the not-knowing. The approach is posted with taboos. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
God patrols the border ceaselessly, drive us onward, warn us not to look back. We can never go home again. Nor can we ever forget or stop longing. Before humankind was enlightened, the awful power beyond the natural limits, securely removed from the ability of humans to reach control or to manipulate, was invoked by our priests and medicine men and women to strengthen those moral and pleasures of the flesh limits that human, by one’s own will, is capable of violating. The giant lurking in the Earth who shakes our house down, one or some other giant just like him or her, we are told, patrols also the pleasures of the flesh and moral boundaries. Watch out! God is everywhere. If you transgress, He will punish you. Now we are enlightened; and enlightenment, it transpires, draws in its train strange, perhaps sinister implications. After the initial grand victories of reason come disturbing aftershocks. Natural limits have been devastated of meaning. If famine sweeps the land, that is bad luck, but it is not God punishing us or telling us something. It is but the impersonal, meaningless operation of natural forces. The awful and the terrifying beyond the natural limits, therefore, cannot be used to maintain the inviolability of moral and pleasures of the flesh limits. No longer can we lend to morality the authority of lightning, of earthquake, of tidal wave. The Enlightenment has washed us up on an alien shore: All of our limits are variables, all are withing our control. We may draw them in closer or push them out farther. With no authority beyond humanity, by what standard can we designate anything as absolutely wrong? Wrong beyond reach of reconsideration? Whatever the nature of the limit, beyond that limit lies power. And that further increment of power will increase the temptation to yet further violation for a yet further augmentation of power. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
Free to choose how to live, the way we choose is meaningless; living in the certainty of meaning, we live a life that is imposed. How did we arrive at such a condition? Try to imagine it. People are so bemused by the way business and politics are carried on at present, with all their intricate relationships, that they have ceased to be able to imagine alternatives. We seem to have lost our genius for inventing changes to satisfy crying needs. However, this stupor is inevitably the baleful influence of the very kind of organizational network that we have: the system pre-empts the available means and capital; it buys up as much of the intelligence as it can and muffles the voices of dissent; and then it irrefutably proclaims that itself is the only possibility of society, for nothing else is thinkable. Let me give a couple of examples of how this works. Supposed (as is the case) that a group of radio and TV broadcasters, competing in the Pickwickian fashion of semi-monopolies, control all the stations and channels in an area, amassing the capital and variously bribing Communications Commissioners in order to get them; and the broadcasters tailor their programs to meet the requirements of their advertisers, of the censorship, of their own slick and clique tastes, and of a broad common denominator of the audience, none of whom may be offended; They will then claim not only that the public wants the drivel that they give them, but indeed that nothing else is being created. Of course it is not! not for these media; why should a serious artist bother? Or suppose again (as is not quite the case) that in a group of universities only faculties are chosen that are “safe” to business people trustees or the politically appointed regents, and these faculties give out all the degrees and licenses and union cares to the new generation of students, and only such universities can get Foundation or government money for research, and research is incestuously staffed by the same sponsors and according to the same policy, and they allow no one but those they choose, to have access to either the classroom or expensive apparatus. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
With such a limited selection being allowed, it will then be claimed that there is no other learning or professional competence; that an inspired teacher is not “solid”; that the official projects are the direction of science; that progressive education is a failure; and finally, indeed—as in Dr. James Conant’s report on the high schools—that only 15 percent of the youth are “academically talented” enough to be taught hard subjects. This pre-empting of the means and the brains by the organization, and the shutting out of those who do not conform, can go so far as to cause delusions, as when recently the president of Merck and Company had the effrontery to warn the Congress that its investigation of profiteering in drugs might hinder the quest of scientific knowledge! as if the spirit of Vesalius and Pasteur depended on the financial arrangements of Merch and Company. However, it is in these circumstances that people put up with a system because “there are no alternatives.” And when one cannot think of anything to do, soon one ceases to think at all. To my mind the worst feature of our present organized system of doing things is its indirectness, its blurring of the object. The idea of directly addressing crying objective public needs, like shelter or education, and using our immense and indeed surplus resources to satisfy them, is anathema. For in the great interlocking system of corporations people live not by attending to the job, but by status, role playing, and tenure, and they work to maximize profits, prestige, or votes regardless of utility or even public disutility—exempli gratia, the plethora of cares has now become a public disutility, but automobile companies continue to manufacture them and persuade people to buy them. The indispensable premise of city planning, according to vice president of Webb and Knapp, is to make a “modest long-term profit on the promoter’s investment.” (His exact sentence, to a meeting of young planners, was, “What we’re going to build will be built only if some developer is going to make a profit from it.”!) #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
Obviously he is not directly interested in housing people or in city convenience and beauty; he is directly interested in being a good vice president of Webb and Knapp. That is his privilege, but it I not a useful goal, and an idealistic young fellow would not want to be such a man. Another example: Some earnest liberal Congress people are baffled “how to give Federal aid to education and not interfere in the curriculum and teaching.” However, when the teaching function is respected and assayed by the teacher’s peers-in-skill, no one can interfere, no one would dare (just as Harvard tossed out McCarthy). The sole function of administration is to smooth the way, but in this country we have the topsy-turvy situation that a teacher must devote oneself to satisfying the administrator and financier rather than to doing one’s job, and a universally admired teacher is fired for disobeying an administrative other that would hinder teaching. To further illustration the situation, these same Congress people are concerned “how to discourage low-level programming in private TV stations without censorship.” Their questions presupposes that in communication the prior thing is the existence of networks and channels, rather than something to communicate that needs diffusing. However, the prior thing is the program, and the only grounds for the license to the situation is its ability to transmit it. Nothing could be more uneducated than for the communications commission to give people who handle the means of broadcasting the inventing of what to broadcast, and then, disturbed at the poor quality, to worry about censorship. We live increasingly, then, in a system in which little direct attention is paid to the object, the function, the program, the task, the need; but immense attention to the role, procedure, prestige, and profit. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
We do not get the shelter and education because not enough mind is paid to those things. Naturally the system is inefficient; the overhead is high; the task is rarely done with love, style, and excitement, for such beauties emerge only from absorption in real objects; sometimes the task is not done at all; and those who could do it best become either cynical or resigned. “One human gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty,” reports Proverbs 11.24. When you center your life around yourself, not only do you miss out on God’s best, but you rob other people of the joy and blessings that God wants to give them through you. The Scripture says, “We should encourage one another daily,” reports Hebrews 3.13. It is easy to criticize and condemn, to point out everyone’s flaws and failures. However, God wants us to build people up, to be a blessing, speaking words of faith and success into their lives. It does not cost anything or take a lot of time to give somebody a compliment. What does it cost to tell your wife, “I love you. You are great. I am glad you are mind”? How long does it take to tell your employee, “You are doing a fine job. I appreciate your hard work”? Many people think those nice thoughts, but faith to verbalize them. It is not enough to think kind compliments; we need to express them. As the old saying puts it: Love is not love until you give it away.” We should get up each morning with an attitude that says: I am going to make somebody else happy today. I am going to help met somebody else’s need. Do not go through life as a taker; become a giver. Waste no time. Hop to it! Look for the grace of devotion. Alas, the search for it may take some time. Be patient and faithful. Accept the fact that there may be a waiting period. When it does return, welcome it warmly, and do not let it out of your grasp. Follow it wherever it leads. What else can you do? Except perhaps to commit to God the when’s and how’s of the Supernal Visitation. Just know that if devotion has come and gone, it will come again. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
What do you do when you feel interior devotion ebbing? Take great pains to humble yourself—that is about the only thing one can do. At the same time keep your spirits up. Why? Simple. God often gives you in one moment what He has denied you for a long time. That is to say, He sometimes waits for the end of your prayer before He gives the grace of devotion; He could just as well have given it at the beginning. Whatever, whichever, just do not get caught with a hangdog face when the Hound of Heaven comes a-calling. If grace were always sudden—that is to say, came when you prayed for it—it would catch you in your infirmity, and you would not be able to lift it off the floor. However, if it came later, when hope was green and Impatience wore Impatiens—that is when the grace of devotion seems destined to come. However, what happens when devotion does not come? What happens when it comes but then tiptoes out the back way without your noticing it? Well, if you are looking for someone to point a finger at, blame it all on yourself and your sins. What gets in the way of grace is often something quite small and manageable. However, if it is minuscule, then it should not be labeled majuscule. Except that in the matter of grace nothing is small, everything is humongous; any obstacle whether small or large, stops that flow of good. Remove it, the flow is restored, and all of the sudden, right before your eyes, is the grace of devotion you have been seeking so strenuously. What happens then? Immediately one has handed oneself over to God from the bottom of one’s heart, no longer hithering and dithering with this with this or that thing. Place yourself in His palm, and you will find yourself at home with you One True Friend. Why? That is because nothing will please or taste so well as the pleasure of the Divine Will. Who is the sort of person grace will occasionally grace? The one who pulls one’s intention up to God with a simple heart as one’s only winch and hoists oneself out of the slough of self-love. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
Yes, My beloved friend, you re a vase, an empty vase, and yes, Jesus Christ sometimes parades around with an empty watering can. However, some days the can is full, and would He bother to water one with His blessings if He thought one was full? One must renounce more perfectly than the lowest and, using contempt of self as a tool, die more to oneself, if one ever wants sudden grace to come again, to flood one till one overflows, and to save one’s heart from drowning. Then one will feel enriched, and one’s eyes will wonder, and one’s heart will enlarge, as Isaiah descried the phenomenon (60.5), because the hand of God is with one—an expression from Acts (11.21), and one has placed oneself on that hand forever. Behold that this is the kind of person who is blessed because one seeks God with one’s whole heart—a thought from the Psalmist (119.2)—and “does not let one’s soul slip into vanity,” as the Psalmist described one’s own spiritual journey (24.4). This person in receiving the Holy Eucharist is promised the great grace of Divine Union. That is because one does not dote on devotion and consolation as personal gifts to oneself. All one is concerned about is the Grand Dote, that is to say, devotion and consolation only as they are applied to the glory and honour of God. Get your mind off your problems and begin to help others, you will not have to worry about your needs. God will take care of them for you. Something supernatural happens when we get our eyes off ourselves and turn to the needs of those around us. The Old Testament teaches, “When you feed the hungry, when you clothe the naked, when you encourage the oppressed, then your life is going to break forth like dawn. Then your healing is going to quickly come,” reports Isaiah 58.7-8. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
In other words, when you reach out to hurting people, that is when God ensures that your needs are supplied. When you focus on being a blessing, God make sure that you are always blessed in abundance. When you are feeling sick, refuse to dwell in that sickness. In your time of greatest need, go to church and pray for other people who are sick and in need. Sow those seeds of healing. And just as the Scripture says, as one begins to help others people in need, you light will break forth like the dawn, and your own healing will come. If they would simply turn their attention away from their own needs and problems, and start to focus on being a blessing to other people, I am convinced that may people will receive the miracle they have been praying about. All too often we spend most of our time trying to be blessed. “God, what can You do for me? God, here is my prayer list. Can I have it by next Monday?” We need to look for opportunities to share God’s love, His gifts, and His goodness with others. The truth is, the more you help other, the more God will make sure that you are helped. You can do this in many practical ways. If you have things lying around your house or in storage that you are never going to use again, why not give those things away to someone who could use them? Those extra things are not doing you any good stacked in your attic, basement, or garage. If it is not meeting a need, turn it into a seed! Our minds can conjure up all kinds of excuses when God begins unclasping them. Human nature wants to hold on to everything. However, you probably have some clothes you have not worn in years; cooking utensils still packed in boxes from your last move, books, your children’s crib, and baby clothing, and all sorts of other things that you have not used in ages! #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
Most clutter experts say, “If you have not used an item within the past year, give it away!” If it is not meeting a need, turn it into a seed. Remember, we will reap what we sow. When you do good for other people, that is when God is going to make sure that His abundant blessings overtake you. If you want to live your best lie now, you must develop a lifestyle of giving: living to give instead of living to get. Have an attitude that says, Who can I bless today? Rather than Who can I get over on today? Dear Lord in Heaven, I know You have blessed me, and I want to be a blessing to others. Please help me not to be simply a consumer of Your blessings, but a person who passes blessings on to others. Other than God, the best-publicized and most powerful of the new forces is the transnational, or more commonly, the more commonly, the multinational corporation. What we have seen in the past 50 years is an extraordinary globalization of production, based not merely on the export of raw materials or finished manufactured goods from one country to another, but on the organization of production across national lines. The transnational corporation (or TNC) may do research in one country, manufacture components in another, assemble them in a third, sell the manufactured goods in a fourth, deposit its surplus funds in a fifth, and so on. It may have operating affiliates in hundreds of countries. The size, importance, and political power of this new player in the global game has skyrocketed. Unilever, McDonalds, Apple, and BMW are all examples of TNCs. Transnational Corporations are among the World’s biggest economic institutions. Some experts suggest that the 300 largest TNCs own or control at least one-quarter of the entire World’s productive assets. This is worth approximately $5 trillion USD. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
Recent years have seen rapid growth in global trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in all sectors of activity. Transnational corporations from developed countries have been driving this growth, but increasingly, TNCs from developed countries have been driving this growth, but increasingly TNCs from developing countries are contributing. Between 1990 and 2003, the values of assets of foreign affiliates of the World’s TNC’s increased by a factor of five, and sales and employment have multiplied respectively by three and two. At the same time, World gross domestic product (GDP) in current prices increased by 160 percent. Today, there are an estimated 77,000 TNCs in the World, with more than 770,000 foreign affiliates. As stated above, these affiliates generated approximately $5 Trillion USD in value added, employed some 65 million workers, and exported goods and services valued at more than $4.5 trillion USD. Even those figures probably understand the role of TNCs in the global economy, both because of measurement difficulties and because firms carry out their transnational activities through a variety of non-equity arrangements—subcontracting, franchising, licensing, and the like, as well as through the formation of strategic alliances. One of the most “transnational” major TNCs is Nestle, the Swiss food giant; 91 percent of its total assets, 98 percent of its sales, and 97 percent of its workforce are foreign based. These TNCs represent a crucial new factor in the World system—and a challenge to the nation-state. TNCs have invested significantly in developing countries. During the period 1996-2006, such commitments amounted to about $246 billion, with a concentration in Latin America. That is more than the approved budget for the 2021-2022 of the United Nations, which is $6.37 billion. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
Currently, General Motors annual sales revenue of $122.5 billion is higher than the Gross National Product of Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and several other countries. It was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire. Today the sun does set on the British Empire, but not on the scores of global corporate empires including GM, BMW, Samsung, and Maytag. Marxists tend to see national governments as handmaidens of corporate power, and therefore stress the commonality of interests between the two, yet the TNCs very often have their own interest that run counter to those of their “home” nations, and vice versa. “British” TNCs have violated British embargos. “American” TNCs have violated U.S. regulations. During the OPEC embargo the transnational oil companies rationed deliveries between countries according to their own, not national, priorities. National loyalties fade quickly when opportunities present themselves elsewhere, so tht TNCs transfer jobs from country to country to escape environmental rules, and play off host countries against one another. So it is not just because of taxes that companies are leaving the California and the United States of America. For the past few centuries, the World had been neatly divided into a set of independent, sovereign nation-states. With the emergence of literally hundred of multinational or global corporations, this organization of the World into mutually exclusive political entities is now being overlaid by a network of economic institutions. In this matrix, the power that once belonged exclusively to the nation-state when it was the only major force operating on the World scene is, at least in relative terms, sharply reduced. Indeed, transnationals have already grown so large that they have taken on some of the features of the nation-state itself-including their own corps of quasi-diplomats and their own highly effective intelligence agencies. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
The multinationals intelligence needs are not much different from those of the United States of America, France, or any other country. Indeed, if it does not describe the increasingly important roles played by the apparats of Exxon, Chase Manhattan, Honda, Lockheed Phillis and others, any discussion of the intelligence battles among the CIA, KGB, and their satellite agencies will be incomplete. Sometimes cooperating with their “home” nation, sometimes exploiting it, sometimes executing its policies, sometimes using it to execute their own, the TNCs are neither all good nor all bad. However, with their ability to shunt billions back and forth instantly across national boundaries, their power to deploy technology and to move relatively quickly, they have often outflanked and outrun national governments. It is not just, or even mainly, a question of whether international companies can circumvent particular regional laws and regulations. It is that our whole framework of thought and reaction is founded in the concept of the sovereign nation state [while] international corporations are rendering this notion invalid. In terms of the global power system, the rise of the great transnationals has reduced, rather than strengthen, the role of the nation-state at precisely the time when centrifugal pressures from blow threaten to part it at the seams. And with that in mind, many are also concerned that Russia has 12,000 tankers, while the United States of America has 6,000. Looks like America needs to bulk up its defense budget, and take care of its own people to make sure they remain “The World’s Super Holy One.” Dear Lord in Heaven, I ran through the fields and gathered flowers of a thousand colours—and now I pour them out at Your feet. Their beauty and their brightness shout for joy in Your presence. You created the flowers of the fields and made each one far more lovely than all the skill of humans could design. Please accept my joy along with theirs, this field of blossoms at Your feet. Holy One, as the wind blows through these flowers till they dance in the ecstasy of creation, please send Your Spirit to blow through my being till I too bloom and dance with the fulness of Your life. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
The glimpse is a precious thing but it is not enough. The human who has had it has also a new problem: how to find it again and how to turn it into an all-time state of mind, continuing through all kinds of circumstances and experiences. And how can one bring one’s everyday life into harmony with it? Please cause us, O Lord our God, to lie down in peace, and raise us up again, O our King, unto life Spread over us Thy tabernacle of peace. Direct us aright through Thine own good counsel. Save us for Thy name’s sake. Be Thou a shield about us. Remove from us every enemy, pestilence, sword, famine, and sorrow. Please help us, O Lord, to resist temptation. Please shelter us with Thy protecting love, for Thou art our guardian and deliver. Yea, Thou God and King art gracious and compassionate. Please Guard Thou our going out and our coming in unto life and peace, hence forth and forevermore. Please blessed be Thou, O Lord, who guardest Thy people of America forever. Blessed be the Lord forevermore. Amen and Amen. Blessed from America be the Lord who dwelleth in America. Praise the Lord. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of America, who alone doeth wondrous things. Blessed be His glorious name forever. Let the whole Earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; let the Lord rejoice in His works. Blessed be the nae of the Lord from this time forth and forever. For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake; for the Lord taketh delight in making you a people for Himself. And when all the people beheld the glory of the Lord, they fell on their faces and exclaimed: The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God. And the Lord shall be King over all the Earth; on that day shall the Lord be One, and His name one. May Thy lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, for we have placed our hope in Thee. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
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If Sparta and Rome Perished, What State Can Hope to Last Forever?
It is never too late to be what you might have been. This is the first motive for virginity and celibacy, deriving from the fact that the Kingdom has already come. Let us now go back to the foundational words of Jesus Christ to discover the second motive: it, too, is inherent in the nature of the Kingdom. We were saying that, in another sense, the Kingdom of God has “not yet” come, it is on the way. It has to come in intensity within the Church (how many areas inside ourselves are still pagan and need to be evangelized!). It must come in extension, until it reached the ends of the Earth. How many nations and entire continents are still waiting for the light of the Gospel! Now here is the motive that flows from this: since God’s Kingdom has not yet come but is on the way, we need men and women who will devote themselves full-time and wholeheartedly to the coming of that Kingdom. And this brings us to the missionary or apostolic dimension of virginity and celibacy, which flows quite obviously and without any forcing from Jesus’ words “for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Today there is a great deal of talk about the “quality of life.” It is said that the most important thing is not to increase the quantity of life on our planet, but to raise its quality. By “quality” people generally means the quality of hygiene, health care or culture. However, there is also a spiritual quality of life, which is the most important, because it concerns the human soul—what remains of a person in eternity. Those who are virgins for the sake of the Kingdom are called to spend all their energies in raising this spiritual quality of life—quite apart from the fact that they are often the ones who do most, in the best and most disinterested way, to raise the other quality of life, in hygiene, health care, and culture. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
In every act of procreation there is an element of selfish desire. When a man and woman produce a child, they give a gifts, certainly, but they also “gift each other.” They fulfill themselves, but they also “fulfill each other.” They need the encounter with the other for their own fulfillment and enrichment. On the other hand, when the Trinity creates, it confers fulfillment. Since it is already perfectly happy and complete in itself, it has no need of further fulfillment. “You have created all things” says Eucharistic Prayer IV, “to fill your creatures with every blessing and lead all men to the joyful vision of your light.” Here, virginity shows its most beautiful characteristic, which is gratuity. Christian virgin men and women imitate this gratuity to some degree when they love and care for children who are not their own according to the flesh, nurse the sick people of others, care for other people’s old folk, and when they carry the weight of other people’s sins, bring them before God in intercession for the World. Celibate childlessness is tragedy but rather a sign of holiness. A number of themes emerged over the years: the virtue of virginity, or the reborn virginity of celibacy; the primacy of God’s community of believers rather than human families in society; and increasingly, the carnal, lustful, seductive nature of humans. There is no greater calamity connect with [marital] captivity than to be the victim of another’s lust. It is laws which seem to make the difference between marriage and fornication; through diversity of illicitness, not through the nature of the things itself. The body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. While you remain chaste and virgins you are equal to the angels of God. For chastity has made even angels. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
As Christianity matured, its devotees strove for lifelong celibacy in the face of intense social pressures to marry and procreate. Celibates lived the lives of angels and built around themselves another, unsecular society of believers no longer bound by the familiar blood ties of family and kinship. Moreover, because each individual had free choice about reserving one’s body for Christian celibacy or giving it to mainstream society, alternative communities eventually sprang up for those choosing the former; convents, nunneries, and a celibate upper clergy. Christianity also developed striking and satisfying rituals of participation, transformation, and promotion. Baptism, for example, delivered believers into angelhood; the Holy Eucharist transported them into an intimacy with God. Early Christianity’s ongoing theological debate about virginity sought to clarify how humans related to each other, and whether their bodies belonged to society or to themselves, to manage as they chose. Against the backdrop of their highly stratified World, even the poorest Christians were offered the virginity of their bodies as vehicles to carry them to an angelic life, with access to the holiest of holies, the one God. Faithful Christians, poor as well as rich, woman as well as men, could wrest control of their bodies from society and dedicate them to Godly celibacy, an empowering act that raised them up to the company of angels. Christianity’s obsession with chastity has blazed at meltdown intensity ever since Christ’s birth to his virgin mother. This obsession targets all Christians, and though it focuses especially on women and religious, it embraces even married believers. However, somatoform disorders are often a means of expressing psychological and/or interpersonal distress to others. The audience for these displays my well be the same individuals who were instrumental in creating the distress. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Evidence for this cause of somatoform disorders can be found in research showing that people with these disorders have obvious interpersonal distress, and the expression of these symptoms has implicit communicative value. People with hypochondriasis often exhibit symptoms of social phobia and fear of criticism from others, as well as elevated loneliness. Patients with somatic symptoms not attributable to organic causes report greater interpersonal and social problems than those with organically caused pain. In a study of over 5,000 patients there was an association between psychological distress and symptoms without a medical explanation was generally consistent across different cultural groups. Studies of specific types of somatic symptoms present an equally compelling case for distressed interpersonal relationships at their core. When people with myofascial disorders were compared to those with medically documented arthritis, the patients with arthritis indicated that they had more available family and network support than those with myofascial disorders, who also appeared to experience significantly more conflict with members of their social networks. The extent to which patients’ personal relationships were supportive rather than conflictual was significantly, and negatively, correlated with their reports of pain. A similar pattern of findings is evident in a study of elderly people, whose rated satisfaction with social interaction protected against the experience of somatic symptoms that are commonly associated with depression (exempli gratia, trouble falling asleep, diminished appetite). One can find vigorous somatization in distressed marital and other family-of-orientation relationships. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
Early family studies of patients diagnosed with hysteria (somatization disorder) showed a high prevalence of separation, divorce, and sexual dysfunction. The elevated incidence of sexual problems and impairment in social roles among married patents with pain disorder lead researcher to conclude that the chronic illness or pain becomes a scapegoat towards which the couple can direct their energies rather than to the underlying material dysfunction, so affording the marriage a degree of stability. In the family context, individuals with somatization are also more likely to be married to spouses with alcoholism, to abuse or neglect their children, and to have serious marital problems. Patients who perceive high levels of criticism in their families have been known to report poorer physical health and to make more office visits to physicians than those reporting less family criticism. A unique experimental study with married couples shows that the experience of physical pain can be exacerbated by interpersonal stress. Researchers were randomly assigned patients with chronic back pain and their spouses to discuss an issue that was stressful or to simply describe some line drawings to each other. After this manipulation, subject were instructed to ride an exercise bicycle at a steady pace, assisted by feedback from their spouses, for 20 minutes or until they felt too much pain to continue. Over twice as many subjects in the stressful-interaction condition as in the nonstressful-interaction condition terminated the bicycle ride prior to the 20-minute time limit. This rare experimental investigation shows that interpersonal stress can precipitate the experience of pain and the avoidance of physically demanding activities. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
The expression of somatic symptoms and complaints tends to be synchronous with feelings of negative affect. In this longitudinal study, depression and anxiety improved and worsened in conjunction with physical symptoms. Since these symptoms often had no physiological basis, these findings suggest that the symptom expression may have been a proxy for more direct expression of psychological distress. A key assumption is that such symptoms are not mere artifacts of inner distress, but that they are interpersonally functional indicators of that distress. Somatic symptoms may be an alternative to direct communication of distress. Among children with low levels of social competence at time 1, there was a positive relationship between the experience of negative life events and somatic complaints at time 2. However, there was no such relationship for children with higher levels of social competence. Socially competent children have good communication skills and satisfactory relationships at their disposal. Presumably such individuals can cope with the experience of stress through expressing their reactions and concerns to others and through soliciting social support. However, these mechanisms are unavailable to the child lacking in social competence; hence the expression of somatic symptoms. People with somatization disorder often suffer from alexithymia. Alexithymia is a difficulty in describing emotions and feelings verbally. People with this problem tend to focus on external events rather than on inner emotions and wishes. In this context, physical symptoms may be a means of communicating some emotional distress when the person is unable to express it verbally. For example, anxiety and fear are often accompanied by a number of bodily sensations that may include stomach pain and muscle tensions. Rather than convey feelings of fear to other people, an individual with alexithymia will focus on one’s physical symptoms, complaining of muscle aches and stomach pain, instead of talking about the feeling of anxiety and what is causing that feeling. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
The alexithymia hypothesis has received some empirical support. Researcher obtained 5-minute speech samples from patients at a family practice center. Those with somatization disorder used many words in the “not” category (exempli gratia, “not,” “cannot,” “never”), suggesting a preoccupation with negativism, and very few words from emotion categories (exempli gratia, “angry,” “happy”), compared to patient controls. A further analysis of this data set revealed that the patients with somatization were 4.5 times more likely to make statements that involved “I am,” such as “I am going off deep,” “I am tired,” and “I am going to fall,” than groups of patients with paranoia. These examples illustrate that equation of self with negativity in the discourse of patients with somatization disorder. The role of culture in the somatoform disorders cannot be overlooked. Somatic symptoms have been described as cultural idioms of distress. Cultures vary in their acceptance of individuals who express and experience largely “emotional” problems. In some cultures, it is more appropriate to have physical symptoms than psychological problems. Accordingly, the somatic symptoms of people in these cultures and subcultures are considered to be idioms of distress—their own unique and culturally accepted, if not prescribed, mechanisms for expressing their emotional distress. Asian cultures are often held up as examples of contexts in which depression and other psychological disorders are not tolerated to the same extent as physical problems. Consequently, a high prevalence of somatization is expected in such cultures, although this notion has been challenged. Researchers has also question the role of culture in promoting somatization, given the ubiquity of the relationship between psychological distress and somatic symptoms across the range of cultures that they have studied. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
Although this is obviously a hypothesis that is indeed of more attention and evaluation, somatization may be a socially and culturally constructed mechanism for communicating psychological distress to others. “What is in it for me?” everyone wants to know nowadays. Many people are blatantly unashamedly living for themselves. They are not interested in other people. They will not take time to help others in need. They focus only on what they want, what they need, what they feel will most benefit themselves. Ironically, this selfish attitude condemns them to a living shallow, unrewarding lives. No matter how much they acquire for themselves, they are never satisfied. God, however, is a giver, if you want Him to pour out His blessings and favour in your life, then you must learn to be a giver and not a taker. Quit trying to figure out what everybody can do for you, and start trying to figure out what you can do for somebody else. We were not made to function as self-involved people, thinking only of ourselves. No, God created us to be givers. And you will never be truly fulfilled as a human being until you learn the simple secret of how to give your life away. You may not realize it, but it is extremely selfish to be dwelling on your problems, always thinking about what you want or need, and hardly noticing the many needs of others all around you. If you are having a problem, one of the best things you can do is to help solve somebody else’s problem. If you want your dreams to come to pass, help someone else fulfill one’s dreams. Start sowing some seeds so God can bring you a harvest. When we meet other people’s needs, God always meets our needs. We were created to give, not simply to please ourselves. If you miss that truth, you will miss the abundant, overflowing, joy-filled life that God has in store for you. #RnadolphHarris 8 of 20
However, when you reach out to other people in need, God will make sure that your own needs are supplied. If you are lonely or down and discouraged today, do not sit around feeling sorry for yourself. Get your mind off yourself and go help meet someone else’s need. Go visit the nursing home or children’s hospital. Call a friend and encourage that person. If you are struggling financially, go out and help somebody who has less than you have. You need to sow some seeds so God can bring you a harvest. Even giving a smile or a hug can be a meaningful task. Or mowing someone’s law, going to the grocery store for them, or writing someone an encouraging letter. Someone needs what you have to share. Somebody needs your smile. Someone needs your love. Someone needs your friendship. Someone needs your encouragement. God did not make us to function as “Lone Rangers.” He created us to be free, but He did not intend for us to be independent of each other. We really do need on another. If you want God to bless your life, start being a blessing to others. “God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son,” reports John 3.16. Your body is like a child; you can train it to obey your words. You have trained that old dog at your house to do certain things, or maybe your cat or bird. James says that you can train every beast, bird, serpent, and thing in the sea. Humankind by their natural ability can train a dog, a bird, or any beast. Once we had a parakeet that we trained to talk. We taught it by saying the same words over and over. My grandmother had one whose name was Mr. Peepers. The bird could say it as clear as anyone. It would say, “Mr. Peepers is a pretty bird,” and it would sound just like my grandmother. Parakeets do not really understand words, but they can be trained to talk. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Your dog does not understand either. It is repeating over and over of the same name until the dog comes when you say that name. You train animals with words. Now what makes you think that your body is less intelligent than a dog? What makes you think that you cannot train the human body to obey the voice of your spirit by the words of your mouth? It can be done, for the body was designed to be obedient to words. You had to train your body to pray. It had to be obedient to the spirit human. The words we speak in prayer do have a definite effect on our bodies. When we pray or continue to say the problem, the body reacts in line with our speaking prayer. Learn to use the Word of God to control your body. Paul said, “Mortify the deeds of the body.” How do you do that? You cannot take a knife to mortify the deeds of the body; you will hurt yourself. However, you can use words to put to death its deeds by training the body to react to God’s Word. You can cause your body to come into subjection to your spirit. Paul said, “I keep my body and bring it under lest while I preach the gospel I become a castaway.” In the literal Greek, Paul actually said, “I buffet my body.” Buffet means “to slap with an open hand or clenched fist.” Train your spirit man to believe what you say will come to pass by practicing tongue control. In the area of sickness, I believe we give place to the devil when we say, “Wonder what is wrong with me?” The devil can then get out his little flip chart and say, “Well, would you believe you are taking the flu?” We say, “Well, I have not been feeling too good.” Then we begin to reason, “It could be the flu. My neighbour had it last week and I went over and prayed for him. That must be where I caught it.” Satan suggested it and you reasoned yourself into it! #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Then your first desire is to tell someone that you believe you have the flu. If you will just quit thinking and talking about how you feel and say what God said (Matthew 8.17), you an stop 50 percent of it right there. Now do not misunderstand what I said. I did not say that it was all in your mind. I do not deny that the disease exists—I deny its right to exist in my body. Do not give place to the devil. Just refuse to give him any place. If you do not embrace them, many times the symptoms will go away. Your body obeys your words—positive or negative, good or bad. Some would say, “What if I make a faith confession and still get sick?” Just keep saying what God said. Do not base your faith on experience, but on God’s Word. You keep confessing God’s Word until it becomes a revelation in your spirit. It takes time to train your spirit. You may get sick several times while you are training, but do not quit just because you are not perfected yet. It is not a fad; it is a way of life. If you continue to say, “I am sick,” your words will stop your body’s resistance to that disease or virus. A few years ago, the Lord was dealing with me about the power of words and the authority they have over the body. One morning while attending a meeting at the Lake of the Ozarks, I woke up with a headache. It was just pounding. I seldom have a headache, and my first thought was, “I wonder what I am taking.” Then I said, “Wait a minute, I refuse to have it.” I decided I would act on what the Lord had been showing me about Paul brining his body int subjection. So I just slapped myself on the forehead with the palm of my hand and said, “Head, you stop that in the name of Jesus. You come into line with the Word of God.” Within two minutes, the headache was gone. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
Now with other things, it has taken a longer period of time for the manifestation to come. Several years ago, I had ulcers. I received my healing by confessing God’s Word over a period of about three months. Those symptoms tried to come back from time to time, but I learned to resist them instead of receiving them. I would slap my body with my hand and say aloud, Stop that in the name of Jesus. Body, you come into agreement with the Word of God. I am healed by the stripes of Jesus. Someone said, “Why, that is silly.” Well, it was not their body that was hurting. It was mine, and it worked! They do their dog that way. They slap him and say, “Stop that,” or “Get out of the house. Get out!” They think nothing of it. However, if you slap your body and tell it what to do, they think you are strange. If your dog understands that language, you know that your body must be more intelligent than an animal. “O how great is the multitude of Your candies, sweets that the fearful know not of,” wrote the Psalmist (31.19). When I call to mind some Devouts approaching your Sacrament with great devotion and affection, O Lord, I turn a hundred shades of pink that I should even think of approaching Your altar, the table of Holy Communion so tepidly, so frigidly. The result is that I remain arid and without affection of heart, that I am not totally ascended to Your presence, my God, not so vehemently attracted and affected as many others have been. These last could not restrain themselves from crying when confronted with the desire for Communion and sensible love of the heart. However, they longed, equally with the mouth of the heart and body, for You, God, the Living Fountain, the Source of the Well. They were not able to temper, let alone to satisfy, their appetite except when they received Your Host with all spiritual eagerness. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
How truly flaming is the faith of Devouts! And how truly amazing that that is not a bad proof of the existence of Your Sacred Presence! For the Apostles truly knew their Lord in the breaking of the bread, as noted by the Evangelist Luke (24.35); their hearts burned strongly in them as they walked with Jesus by the lakeside. Such great affection, such vehement love and ardour are often a long way from my reach and devotion. I know I am a pathetic case, Good Jesus, my Divine Friend, sweet and mild. Grant that I a poor pauper who has always had his hand out, may feel a little of the cordial affection of Your love as it is found in Holy Communion. May my faith convalesce more quickly, and my hope progress in Your goodness. Your charity once holocausted and Your manna once tastes, may they never fail me. Since Your mercy is powerful, O Lord, grant me the desired grace, ad in the spirit of ardour, when the Day of Your Pleasure comes, greet me like Your long lost friend. Although I do not flare up with the great desire of those special Devouts of Yours, nonetheless I do keep a steady flame with the help of Your grace, that is to say, a desire for that Great Desire, praying and desiring that I might become a participant in all such friendships of Yours and to be numbered among that Holy Company. Father, please help me to get my eyes off myself and to see the many needs in the people all around me. May I be a means of help, comfort, and encouragement to someone else today. When, through the medium of meditation exercise of the awakening by human skill or Nature’s charm of aesthetic appreciation, beginners feel a new joy or an unusual peace, they are too often carried away into extravagant exaggeration of the happening. What seems like a tremendous event may be so in its effect on their inexperienced minds, but mostly it is only a skimming of the surface. To realize its further possibilities, it ought to be used as a starting point for exploration in depth. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
When one is willing to let of the self-centered ego and the grace can manifest, there may be this union with one’s higher nature, with the Overself. It is usually not a permanent experience but the possibility of its becoming one is always there. Then then new outlook seems perfectly natural. Let one not be presumptuous. One has not attained the true goal yet despite these noteworthy experiences. For one’s present knowledge of the Overself comes to one partly through the imagination, partly through the emotions, partly through the intellect, and only partly through the Overself. It is authentic but inferior. One must learn to get it through the understanding which is also authentic, but superior. A continuous insight, present all the time, is the goal, not a passing glimpse. What one has gained is good but not enough, is mystical but not philosophically mystical. For it is not but a flash when it has yet to become constant; it is now partial when it has yet to become full. Its felt presence should be intimate and inseparable as well as clear and complete. When insight continues whatever one’s occupation of the hour may be, it can be called philosophic. The notion that the glimpse is the goal is a wrong one, usually corrected by time. A glimpse is only a beginning, and those who are willing to follow it up may be ready to study philosophy and learn why this World is only a husk. It must be penetrated, the husk removed and the kernel revealed, for a truer understanding, both of the World and oneself, to be gained. Because they come to an unprepared and unpurified person, these transient glimpses are not adequate, full, and clear. Insight, however, possesses all these qualities. Aspirants should understand that they have no right to expect a spiritual illumination to prolong its brief duration and stay forever with them, much less demand it, so long as they have not made themselves scrupulously fit for such a quest. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
Just as the private will acts constantly against the general will, so the government makes a continual effort against sovereignty. The more this effort increases, the more the constitution is altered. And since there is here no other corporate will which, by resisting the will of the prince, would create an equilibrium with it, sooner or later the prince must finally oppress the sovereign and break the social treaty. That is the inherent and inevitable vice which, from the birth of the body politic, tends unceasingly to destroy it, just as old age and death destroy the human body. There are two general ways in which a government degenerates, namely, when it shrinks, or when the state dissolves. The government shrinks when it passes from a large to a small number, that is to say, from democracy to aristocracy, and from aristocracy to royalty. That is its natural inclination. If it were to go backward from a small number to a large number, it could be said to slacken, but this reverse progression is impossible. In fact, the government never changes its form except when its exhausted energy leaves it too enfeebled to be capable of preserving what belongs to it. Now if it were to become still more slack while it expanded, its force would become entirely nil; it would be still less likely to subsist. It must therefore wind up and tighten its force in proportion as it gives way; otherwise the state it sustains would fall into ruin. The dissolution of the state can come about in two way. First, when the prince no longer administers the state in accordance with the laws and usurps the sovereign power. In that case a remarkable change takes place, namely that it is not the government but the state that shrinks. I mean that the state as a whole is dissolved, and another is formed inside it, composed exclusively of the members of the government, and which is no longer anything for the rest of the populace but its master and tyrant. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
So that the instant that the government usurps sovereignty, the social compact is broke, and all ordinary citizens, on recovering by right their natural liberty, are forced but not obliged to obey. The same thing happens also when the members of the government separately usurp the power they should only exercise as a body. This is no less an infraction of the laws, and produces even greater disorder. Under these circumstances, there are, so to speak, as many princes as magistrates, and the state, no less divided than the government, perishes or changes its form. When the state dissolves, the abuse of government, whatever it is, takes the common name anarchy. To distinguish, democracy degenerates into ochlocracy, aristocracy into oligarchy. I would add that royalty degenerates into tyranny, however this latter term is equivocal and requires an explanation. In the ordinary sense a tyrant is a king who governs with violence and without regard for justice and the laws. In the strict sense, a tyrant is a private individual who arrogates to oneself royal authority without having any right to it. This is how the Greeks understood the word tyrant. They gave the name indifferently to good an bad princes whose authority was not legitimate. (For all are considered and are called tyrants who use perpetual power in a city accustomed to liberty.) Thus tyrants and usurper are two perfectly synonymous words. To give different names to different things, I call the usurper of royal authority a tyrant, and the usurper of sovereign power despots. The tyrant is someone who intrudes oneself, contrary to the laws, in order to govern according to the laws. The despot is someone who places oneself above the laws themselves. Thus the tyrant need not be a despot, but the despot is always a tyrant. Such is the natural and inevitable tendency of the best constituted governments. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
If Sparta and Rome perished, what state can hope to last forever? If we wish to form a durable establishment, let us then not dream of making it eternal. To succeed, one must not attempt the impossible or flatter oneself with giving to the work of humans a solidity that things human do not allow. The body politic, like the human body, begins to die from the very moment of its birth, and carries within itself the causes of its destruction. However, both can have a constitution that is more or less robust and suited to preserve them for a longer or shorter time. The constitution of humans is the work of nature; the constitution of the state is the work of art. It is not within humans’ power to prolong their lives; it is within their power to prolong the life of the state as far as possible, by giving it the best constitution it can have. If no unforeseen accident brings about its premature fall, the best constituted state will come to an end, but later than another. The principle of political life is in the sovereign authority. Legislative power is the heart of the state; the executive power is the brain, which gives movement to all the parts. The brain can fall into paralysis and yet the individual may still live. A human may remain an imbecile and live. However, once the heart has ceased its functions, the animal is dead. It is not through laws that the state subsists; it is through legislative power. Yesterday’s law does not obligate today, but tacit consent is presumed from silence, and the sovereign is take to be giving incessant confirmation to the laws it does not abrogate while having the power to do so. Whatever it has once declared it wants, it always wants, unless it revokes its declaration. Why then is so much respect paid to ancient laws? For just this very reason. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
We must believe that nothing but the excellence of the ancient wills could have preserved them for so long. If the sovereign had not constantly recognized them to be salutary, it would have revoked them a thousand times. This is why, far from growing weak, the laws continually acquire new force in every well constituted state. The prejudice in favour of antiquity each day renders them more venerable. On the other hand, whatever the laws weaken as they grow old, this proves that there is no longer a legislative power, and that the state is no longer alive. Orthodox Communism is a typical nineteenth-century product. The doctrine arose out of a completely materialistic view of history. It was formulated in an age when the mechanistic conception of life had captured the thinking World. It led naturally to an ethic of hatred and violence. It excluded all consideration of the higher destiny of humans. Consequently it is emotionally unbalanced and intellectually unsatisfactory. The evil lies less in the doctrine itself, which is a confused mixture of nonsense and wisdom, of justice and crime, than in its human leaders. They are humans without a conscience and maniacs entrenched in the seats of power. They trade on this confusion of doctrine to suborn the masses who lack the capacity to understand the inner source of Communism and its inability to redeem its promises. They achieve for themselves positions of power because they mercilessly push aside and trample all who are hapless enough to stand in their way. One who thinks in terms of class hatred and class murder reveals oneself as being naturally neurotic or malignant. As such one is unfit to lead people into a better condition than before and can only lead them into a worse one. The average Communist is unfit to lead a people or govern a nation. One is an extraordinary compound of keen critical thinking and irrational obsession and class prejudices; consequently one’s thinking is distorted and unbalanced. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
The Communist rulers lives in a private Marxist World of one’s own, which one stupidly imagines to be a real World. However, the greatest defect in oneself and the greatest danger to others is the powerful hatred which actuates one and which has made one in fact a pathological case. One has become semi-insane because one cannot escape from it. Many Communist revolutions fail to bring a better society, a happier, healthier, and more honourable World for the underdog, because they fail to recognize that the only way this could be achieved was by leaders of disinterested character and superior quality descending to the service of the lower classes. If it comes from the mentally ungrown and ethically immature passes themselves, the reconstruction of the World’s social and economic order cannot succeed. This has been clearly demonstrated by the melancholy history and comparative failure of the brutal attentions by some nations. It could not be achieved by leaders of inferior character and merit rising from the ranks of the masses. The right way of socioeconomic progress is from the top downwards and not from the bottom upwards. The fruits of wisdom cannot come from below. However, this does not mean they come from the aristocracy of blood; they can come only from aristocracy of mind and character. The masses will be best served by the human who disdains their approbation and waves aside their applause. For intellectual awakening of a people does not begin as awakening of the masses; it begins as an awakening of the educated classes and proceeds downwards to the people. The masses must naturally follow more intelligent leaders, assimilate the ideas which are earlier embraced by their betters but which are gradually filtered down and thus rendered more acceptable. For it is not the ignorant blind toilers who can perceive the crowning principle of right reconstruction; they can perceive only their immediate needs, not their ultimate ones. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Therefore the creation of a new order must not come from below but from above. It must come from the intellectual cream, the spiritual elite of society—from those who can reflect philosophically and serve selflessly and act calmly. They stand on the mountain peak, as it were, and see clearly what ought to be done whereas the masses are herded on the plains and can only run hither or thither as their emotions drive them. Praise wet snow falling early. Praise the shadow my neighbour’s chimney casts on the tile roof even this gray December day that should, they say, have been white. Praise the invisible sun burning beyond the white cold sky, giving us light and the chimney’s shadow. Praise God and the Angels, the unknow, that which imagined us, which stays our hand, our murderous hand, and gives us still, in the shadow of death, our daily life, and the dream still of goodwill, of peace on Earth Praise flow and change, night and the pulse of day. True and certain it is that there is one God, and there is none like unto Him. It is He who redeemed us from the might of tyrants, and executed judgment upon all our oppressors. Great are the things that God hath done; His wonders are without number. He causes us to triumph over our enemies and raise up our glory above our foes. Wondrously He visited judgment upon Pharoah, Performing signs and wonders in the land of the United States. He brought forth the child of America from slavery unto freedom. In every age the Lord hath been our hope; He rescued us from enemies who sought to destroy us. May He continue His protecting care over America, and guard all His children from disaster. When the children of America beheld the might of the Lord, they gave thanks unto Him and praised His name. They accepted His Sovereignty willingly, and sang a song unto Him. Moses and the Children of America exultingly proclaimed: Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the mighty? Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, revered in praises, doing wonders? When Thou didst rescue America at September 11, 2001, Thy children beheld Thy supreme power. This is my God! they exclaimed, and said: The Lord shall reign forever and ever. As Thou didst deliver America from a power mightier so mayest Thou redeem all Thy children from oppression. Blessed art Thou, O Lord. Redeemer of America. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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Evil Spirits are Able to Exert a Great Deal of Influence Upon Humans!
The Christian Bible teaches us that acceptance of this World system which is dominated by erroneous principles, selfish desires, improper motives, and unworthy standards of value that draws humans away from God and makes them “measure of all things,” is influenced so strongly by Satan and his army of evil spirits, which caused humans to adopt attitudes and to perform deeds which hinder God’s work and harm His people is done with every trace of wickedness (depravity, malignity) and all deceit and insincerity (pretense, hypocrisy) and grudges (envy, jealousy), and slander of every kind and evil speaking of every kind. This should make us crave like newborn babies the pure spiritual milk that by it one may be nurtured and grow unto salvation. Society in every age is characterized by such iniquities as selfishness, pride, immorality, and dishonesty, in spite of the efforts of sincere people to make it a better World. Twenty-first century humans, with more technical skills and knowledge than any previous generation, is unable to solve the problems of poverty, crime, racial hatred, and war. An increasing number of people go to bed hungry every night, crime is on the rise, racial hatred has never been more intense, and wars continue to be fought all over the World. Why? Because humankind has accepted a self-centered philosophy of life, and Earth’s citizens in general are motivated by the three evils of which John speaks in his first epistle—“the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” reports 1 John 2.16. The “lust of the flesh” is the desire for possession. It is the gratification of self by participation. Careful study of the word “flesh” indicates that this evil propensity of humankind involves more than just sins of impurity. The term, as used by John in this passage, does not have reference to the body but to the sinful Adamic nature. The individual sinner is born with a nature that is selfish, and one is part of a social structure which operates on grasping, egocentric, and selfish principles. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
A vast majority of men and women are materialistic, live to gratify the senses, and are self-centered even in the good things they do. Nations, too, seek only what is best for themselves. Leaders in industry, education, and even religion are primarily concerned about their own welfare, often neglecting the needs of those they serve. The “lust of the flesh” drives humans to desire and obtain material possessions, and to satisfy their physical appetites and passions at the expense of spiritual values. This basic selfishness and craving for the Earthly tangible pleasures of life leads people to misuse the physical and material blessings God has given all humans to enjoy. On a Worldwide scope, it has brought about a situation in which thousands live in unparalleled luxury while millions starve. When we stop to think about it, much of the World’s unrest and unhappiness today can be traced to the “lust of the flesh.” The “lust of the eyes,” the second characteristic of this World system, is sometimes defined as “gratification by contemplation.” The use of our eyes has vast potential for either great blessing of for degradation. For example, we are able to look upon the endless beauty of creation and sing praises to the Lord. Reading God’s Word, we can meditate upon the riches of glory in joyous expectation. However, Satan and his evil partners have perverted the use of the eye, inducing wicked humans to display scenes by which lustful thoughts are incited. They capitalize upon humans’ sinfulness and natural tendency to immorality. Down through the ages, immodest dress, impure books and pictures, and unholy theatrical productions have been used to degrade and degenerate both young and old. In addition, the eye affords an opportunity to enjoy by contemplation certain evils which one cannot or dare not actually perform. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
Therefore, people from all classes of society and every age bracket are influenced by the allurement that comes through the gift of sight. Discerning people who glance at the newsstands, read the advertisements in the theater page of the newspaper, or watch the programs and commercials presented on television, know full well that “lust of the eyes” has been exploited by the powers of evil. The evidence certainly indicates that Satan and his followers are truly the “leaders of the darkness of this World.” The “pride of life,” the third characteristic of this World system, refers to vanity and ostentation. Men and women put great stock in “being somebody.” To make a name for themselves they throw impressive parties, purchase expensive automobiles, and live in luxurious homes. Their only measure of success is by these standards. Others may acquire academic degrees to display their intellectual prowess, while athletes may exert maximum effort, not principally out of team spirit, but for money and applause. The struggle for power, prestige, and even glory is at the heart of almost every human endeavour. However, through all of this, humankind has been unable to discover true happiness and satisfaction. Most people confess they are not finding pleasures they expected, but nonetheless continue on their way, ever pursuing new baubles. The invisible forces of Satan so blind humans that they do not see true values, nor recognize the folly of their vain quest for this elusive will-o’-the wisp, “the pride of life.” According to the Bible the whole social structure of this World is controlled by a pervading principle of life that is foreign to God and leads humans away from Him. True every human is a sinner by nature and alienated from God, but this inherent human selfishness, under the direction of intelligent and powerful wicked spirits, compounds this basic sinfulness by brining out the very worst in humans. Evil spirits cruelly blind and deceive fallen humanity through the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
These fallen creatures actively try to manipulate the political rulers of the World. Satan’s organized army operates quietly and invisibly in the minds and the wills of Earthly sovereigns to achieve their evil purposes. The Bible indicates the nature and course of their activity in several references. Daniel 10 teaches that specific evil spirits are assigned the task of influencing human rulers. The chapter opens with a picture of Daniel in earnest prayer. He entreats the Lord for a period of three weeks, seeking God’s favour upon the Jewish people who have returned to Jerusalem from captivity. He learned that they were experiencing difficulty in rebuilding the temple. Ezra 4, which gives the history of these former exiles, indicates that the work of restoration was interrupted by adversaries almost immediately after the foundation of the temple had been laid. Finally, three weeks after Daniel began to pray, God sent him a most amazing experience. An angel came to Daniel and said, “Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia,” reports Daniel 10.12-13. The angel declared that he had left Heaven immediately after Daniel’s first prayer, but that on his way to Earth he had encountered opposition from “the prince of the kingdom of Persia.” The Heavenly messenger went on to say that it was not until Michael came to help him that he was able to overcome this opposing “prince.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
The struggle was obviously between angelic beings, for the one speaking to Daniel was an angel, and Michael is well known as the angelic protector of Israel. (See Daniel 10.21; 12.1; Jude 9; Revelation 12.7). This “prince of the kingdom of Persia” was obviously a wicked spirit of high rank. He had been delegated by the arch-enemy of God, the devil himself, for the task of influencing the Persian government to obstruct the Israelites in their rebuilding program. Thus success of this evil spirit’s attempt was apparent upon Earth. Even while the battle between the angelic beings was taking place in the air, the rulers of Persia were hindering the Jews in the task of rebuilding their temple. The people in Jerusalem could see only the treachery of their human enemies, not knowing that invisible spirits had been exerting pressure against them behind the scenes. The leaders of Persia were not aware that their decision to oppose Israel was the result of the working of evil spirits in their minds. These human rulers were actually mere puppets, carrying out the wishes of the invisible powers who were manipulating them. Even today humans who hold high political office may be the unwitting tools of evil spirits. Many humans lust for power. National groups vie for supremacy in the economic World. In this prevailing atmosphere of selfishness, evil spirits are able to exert a great deal of influence upon humans. Opportunistic politicians become ideal underlines of these evil spirits. In addition, the followers of Satan, in dominating the godless World rulers, are able to incite beastly behaviour in them. Many living today have witnessed the indescribable brutality of Nazism and theistic Communism. Highly civilized people find great pleasure in the development of more effective weapons with which to kills members of other nations. Humans tell lies, oppress others, and commit mass murders with no hint of shame or remorse. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
In fact, it is amazing that this modern age of civilization and refinement has been characterized by an inhumanity far worse than that of the ancient barbaric times. We believe this pathological condition can be traced to the fact that many highly educated humans of influence and power have rejected God. In so doing, they have opened themselves to the activity of evil spirits. Therefore, we have a confirmation of Paul’s declaration that the real World rulers of this darkness (Ephesians 6.12) are not the humans who have positions of leadership, but the evil spirits who rule their hearts and influence their thoughts and decisions. From the commencement of the seventeenth century to the Restoration of Charles II, be barren of witchcraft proper, it must at least be admitted that it is prodigal in regard to the marvellous under various shapes and forms, from which the hysterical state of the public mind can be fairly accurately gauged. During 1642, O’Daly in his History of the Geraldines relates that during the siege of Limerick three portents appeared. The first was a luminous globe, brighter than the moon and little inferior to the sun, which for two leagues and a half shed a vertical light on the city, and then faded into darkness over the enemy’s camp; the second was the apparition of the Virgin, accompanied by several of the Saints; and the third was a lusus nature of the Saimese-twins type: all three of which O’Daly interprets to his own satisfaction. The first of these was some from of the northern lights, and is also recorded in the diary of certain Puritan officers. That learned, but somewhat too credulous English antiquary, John Aubrey, relates in his Miscellanies that before the last battle between the contending parties “a woman of uncommon Statue all in white appearing to the Bishop [Heber McMahon, who Aubrey terms Veneras] admonished him not to cross the River first to assault the Enemy, but suffer them to do it, whereby he should obtain the Victory. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
“That if the Irish took the water first to move towards the English they should be put to a total Rout, which came to pass. Ocahan and Sir Henry O’Neal, who were both killed there, saw severally the same apparition, and dissuaded the Bishop from giving him the first onset, but could not prevail upon him.” N instance of an Irishman suffering from the effects of witchcraft outside Ireland is afforded us in a pathetic petition sent up to the English Parliament between the years 1649 and 1653. The petitioner, John Campbell, stated that twelve years since he lost his sight in Co. Antrim, where he was born, by which he was reduced to such extremity that he was forced to come over to England to seek some means of livelihood for himself in craving the charity of well-disposed people, but contrary to his expectation he has been often troubled there with dreams and fearful visions in his sleep, and has been twice bewitched, insomuch that he can find no quietness or rest here, and so prays for a pass to return to Ireland. The saintly James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, was a Prelate who, if he had happed to live at an earlier period would certainly have been numbered amongst those whose wide and profound learning won for themselves the title of magician—as it was, he was popularly credited with prophetical powers. Most of the prophecies attributed to him may be found in a little pamphlet of eight pages, entitled “Strange and Remarkable Prophecies and Predictions of the Holy, Learned, and Excellent James Usher, &c…Written by the person who heard it from this Excellent person’s own Mouth,” and apparently published in 1656. According to it, he foretold the rebellion of 1641 in a sermon on Ezekiel iv. 6, preached in Dublin in 1601. “And of this Sermon the Bishop reserved the Notes, and put a note thereof in the Margent of his Bible, and for twenty years before he still lived in the expectation of the fulfilling thereof, and the nearer the time was the more confident he was that it was nearer accomplishment, though there was no visible appearance of any such thing.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
He also foretold the death of Charles I, and his own coming poverty and loss of property, which last he actually experienced for many years before his death. The Rev. William Turner in his Compleat History of Remarkable Providences (London, 1697) gives a premonition of approaching death that the Archbishop received. A lady who was dead appeared to him in his sleep, and invited him to sup (eat supper) with her the next night. He accepted the invitation, and died the following afternoon, 21st March 1656. There is another story from Glanvill’s Relations. One Mr. John Browne of Durley in Ireland was made by this neighbour, John Mallett of Enmore, trustee for his children in minority. In 1654 Mr. Browne lay a-dying: at the foot of his bed stood a great iron chest fitted with three locks, in which were the trustees’ papers. Some of his people and friends were sitting by him, when to their horror they suddenly saw the locked chest begin to open, lock by lock, without the assistance of any visible hand, until at length the lid stood upright. The dying man, who had not spoken for twenty-four hours, sat up in the bed, looked at the chest, and said: “You say true, you say true, you are in the right (a favourite expression of his), I’ll be with you by and by,” and then lay down again, and never spoke after. The chest slowly locked itself in exactly the same manner as it had opened, and shortly after this Mr. Browne died. In the mid-1880s, during a Connecticut thunder storm, Mrs. Winchester’s husband and baby lost their lives in a tragic fire. The distracted widow turned to spiritualism and was advised to take a trip around the World. This she did, visiting mediums, spiritualists and yogis in Europe and India. Fortelling her future, one seer warned her of all the countless thousands of departed souls slain by her husband’s rifles; she must protect herself and atone for such mass murder. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
Mrs. Winchester was told to plan a castle and continue its building indefinitely because as long as it was under construction, she would live; cessation would prove immediately fatal. The head of a celebrated firm of Victorian restorers and decorators took a keen interest in Mrs. Winchester’s mansion. She constructed it for 38 years until she passed away in 1922. It is currently, approximately 24,000 square feet, and four stories tall, but at one time reached a height of 9 stories and may have been more than 50,000 square feet, but the 9-story tower and much of the 4th floor was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. Back then, two thirds of Mrs. Winchester’s estate was dark, unbroke forests, through whose tangled paths the mysterious winter wind groaned and shrieked and howled with weird noises and unaccountable clamors. The aged told their stories to the young—tales of early life; tales of war and adventure, of forest days, of Indian captives and escapes, of bears and wildcats and panthers, of rattlesnakes, of witches and wizards, and strange and wonderful dreams and appearances and providences at the Winchester mansion. Along the iron bound gates, the stormful skies of Llanada Villa raved and thundered, and wind dashed its moaning turrets, as if to deaden and deafen any voice that might tell of the settled life of the old civilized World, and shut the estate into wilderness. In 1923, there was work being done on the Winchester mansion. It was one of special interest to many antiquarians, and they wanted to restore it. However, in the basement, a large tomb was unearthed, and needed to be moved. The workers were very loth to disturb the tomb, but it was necessary to ensure the safety of the mansion. The tomb belonged to Sarah Winchester. She mostly lived alone in the castle. Her reputation was one of mystery, the supernatural and untold wealth. It was popularly supposed that she could never be killed. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The restorer made an especial study of old legends or family histories that came under his observation He was necessarily very well read and thoroughly well posted in all questions of folklore and medieval legend. Mrs. Winchester kept a careful record of every case she investigated involving a haunting. The manuscripts she left at her death were a special interest. From amongst them, were some particularly bizarre and extraordinary experiences. Now, the fact was, that ghost stories had been told so often about the Winchester mansion, that they were all arranged and ticketed into the minds of the movers. Still, they shivered, and clung to their knees at the mysterious tomb, and felt gentle, cold chills run down their spines. If the tomb be moved, it would have to be done in two pieces, the covering slab first and then the tomb proper. The movers decided to remove the covering slab first. Everything was ready for lifting off the covering stone, and after the men’s dinner, they started the jacks and pulleys. The slab lifted easily enough, though if fitted closely into its seat and was further secured by some sort of mortar or putty, which must have kept the interior perfectly air-tight. And it was one of those thundering stormy nights, when the winds appeared to be holding a perfect mad carnival over the mansion. They yelled and squealed round the corners; they collected in troops, and came tumbling and roaring down the chimney; and they shook and rattled the buttery door and the sink room door and the cellar door and the chamber door, with a constant undertone of squeak and clatter, as if at every door were a cold, discontented spirit, tried to warn them not to touch the tomb. People used to say Mrs. Winchester was set apart, when she was a child, to the service o’ the Devil, but many say she could never be made nothin’ but a Christian. Perhaps that was the appeal. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
She used to come to meeting with her husband, praying for the Indians. None of them were prepare for what they discovered under the cover lid of the tomb. There lay the fully dressed body of a woman, who had not aged nor decayed, but was ghastly pale, as if from starvation. The body was extraordinary fresh. Except for the appearance of starvation, life might have been only just extinct. The flesh was soft and white, the eyes were wide open and seemed to stare at them with a fearful understanding in them. The body itself was a young woman. For several moments, the movers gazed with horrible curiosity, and then it became too much for the workmen, who implored their boss to replace the covering slab. That, of course, they could not do; but he set the carpenters to work at once to make a temporary cover while they moved the tomb to its new position. This was a long job, and would take two of tree days. At sunset the next evening, they were startled by the howling of, seemingly, every dog in the village. It lasted for thirteen minutes, and then ceased as suddenly as it began This, and a curious mist that had risen round the mansion, make them feel rather anxious about Mrs. Winchester. According to the best-established traditions of the Vampire-haunted countries the disturbance of dogs or wolves at sunset is supposed to indicate the presence of one of these creatures, and local fog was always considered to be a certain sign. The Vampire has the power of producing it for the purpose of concealing its movements near its hiding-place at any time. Just before midnight, there was another outburst of hideous howling. It was commenced most distinctly by a particularly horrible and blood-curdling wail from the vicinity of the churchyard. The chorus lasted only a few minutes, however, and at the end of it, they crew say a large dark shape, like a huge dog, emerge from the fog and lope away at a rapid canter toward the open country. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
At 1.13 a.m., they saw another beast returning. It stopped at the spot where the fog seemed to commence, and lifting up its head, gave tongue to that particularly horrible long-drawn wail that the movers had noticed as preceding the outburst earlier in the evening. The boss got so frightened, you could faintly hear his teeth chatter. The next day it was discovered that some neighbouring sheepfold had been raided by a nocturnal marauder. The workmen that morning were much disturbed in mind about the howling of dogs. “We don’t like it, sir,” one of them said to the boss—“we don’t like it; there was somethin’ abroad last night that was unholy.” They were still more uncomfortable when the news came round that a large dog had made a rapid upon a flock of sheep, scattering them far and wide, and leaving thee of them dead with torn throats in the field. The boss and the crew were determined to catch the wild dog. During the afternoon, the men were lifting the temporary cover that was on the tomb, giving as an excuse the reason that they wished to obtain a portion of the curious mortar with which it had been sealed. After a slight demur, the raised the lid. If the sight that met their eyes gave them a shock. The woman was alive. And so it seemed for a moment. The corpse had lost much of its straved appearance and looked generously fresh and alive. They all believed that Mrs. Winchester was a Vampire and that is why she was so well preserved in her tomb. However, she had not yet come to full strength. It was just after midnight that the crew of movers noticed the fog creeping in again in the still of the night. Their first move was to try to penetrate the sense fog round the mansion, but there was something so chilly about it that their nerves nor stomachs were proof against it. Instead, they stationed themselves in the dark shadow of a cypress tree that commanded a good view of the jeweled front doors to the estate. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
The howling of the dogs began again, and in a few minutes, there was a large grey shape, with green eyes shining like lamps, shambling swiftly down the path towards them. The both stood very still and watched as the great beast cantered swiftly by. It was real enough, for they could hear the clicking of its nails on the stone flags. It passed within a few yards of the movers, and seemed to be nothing more nor less than a great grey wolf, thin and gaunt, with bristling hair and dripping jaws. It stopped where the mist commenced, and turned round. It was truly a horrible sight, and made their blood run cold. The eyes burnt like fires, the upper lip was snarling and raised, showing a great canine teeth, while round mouth clung and dripped a dark-coloured froth. It raised its head and gave tongue to its long wailing howl, which was answered from afar by the village dogs. After standing for a few moments it turned and disappeared into the thickest part of the fog. The boss said, “When the Devil drives: and in the face of what I have seen I must believe that some unholy forces are at work Yet, how can they work in this beautiful estate?” They set their teeth, however, and hardened their hearts. Then they went inside and replaced the cover on the tomb, took what they had collected from the estate and left. Never to return. Some believe that the movers were too afraid to return to the estate and that is why it was not completely looted and some valuables were left behind. It also why much of the damage was not repaired. I guess the estate has a way of protecting itself from those with bad intentions. Mrs. Winchester’s tomb was eventually moved to her home town New Haven, Connecticut to rest with her husband and daughter. Legend has it that it took movers six weeks, six trucks a day, to remove most of the furniture because they kept getting lost in the catacomb. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
Winchester Mystery House
“Wide Unclasp the Tables of Their Thoughts.” (From Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare.) What do you think this quote meant to Sarah Winchester? 🧐 winchestermysteryhouse.com
A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻
He is So Snobbish He Has an Unlisted Zip Code Number!
Around 95 percent of what is known about the brain has been learned in the past 30 years. How do biological theorists explain abnormal behaviour? Adopting a medical perspective, biological theorists view abnormal behaviour as an illness brought about by malfunctioning parts of the organism. Typically, they point to a malfunctioning brain as the cause of abnormal behaviour, focusing particularly on problems in brain anatomy or brain chemistry. The average brain weighs 3 pounds, and is 80 percent water. What is interesting is the liver weighs a pound more than the brain. While the brain accounts for only about 2 percent of the human weight, it requires about 25 percent of the oxygen intake. The brain is made up of approximately 100 billion nerve cells, called neurons, and thousands of billions of support cells, called glia (from the Greek meaning “glue”). Within the brain large groups of neurons form distinct areas, or brain regions. To identify the regions of the brain more easily, let us imagine them as continents, countries, and states. At the bottom of the brain is the “continent” knows as the hindbrain, which is in turn made up of countrylike regions called the medulla, pons, and cerebellum. In the middle of the brain is the “continent” called the midbrain. And at the top is the “continent” called the forebrain, which consists of countrylike regions called the cerebrum (the two cerebral hemispheres), the thalamus, and the hypothalamus, each in turn made up of statelike regions. The cerebrum, for instance, consists of the cortex, corpus callosum, basal ganglia, hippocampus, and amygdala. The neurons in each of these brain regions control important functions. The hippocampus helps control emotions and memory, for example. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Clinical researchers have discovered connections between certain psychological disorders and problems in specific areas of the brain. One such disorder is Huntington’s disease, a disorder marked by violent emotional outbursts, memory loss, suicidal thinking, involuntary body movements, and absurd beliefs. This disease has been traced to a loss of cells in the basal ganglia. Biological researchers have also learned that psychological disorders can be related to problems in the transmission of messages from neuron to neuron. Information spreads throughout the brain in the form of electrical impulses that travel from one neuron to one or more others. An impulse is first received by a neuron’s dendrites, antenna-like extensions located at one end of the neuron. From there it travels down the neuron’s axon, a long fiber extending from the neuron body. Finally, it is transmitted to other neurons through the nerve endings, at the far end of the neuron. However, how to messages get from the nerve endings of one neuron to the dendrites of another? After all, the neurons do not actually touch each other. A tiny space, called the synapse, separates one neuron from the next, and the message must somehow move across that space. When an electrical impulse reaches a neuron’s ending, the nerve ending is stimulated to release a chemical, called a neurotransmitter, that travels across the synaptic space to receptors on the dendrites of the adjacent neurons. Upon reception, some neurotransmitters tell the receiving neurons to “fire,’ that is, to trigger their own electrical impulse. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
Other neurotransmitters carry an inhibitory message; they tell receiving neurons to stop all firing. Obviously, neurotransmitters play a key role in moving information through the brain. Researchers have identified dozens of neurotransmitters in the brain, and they have learned that each neuron uses only certain kinds. Studies indicate that abnormal activity by certain neurotransmitters can lead to specific mental disorders. Certain anxiety disorders, for example, have been linked to low activity of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), schizophrenia has been linked to excessive activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine, and depression has been linked to low activity of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. Perhaps low serotonin activity is responsible for some people’s pattern of depression and rage. In addition to focusing on neurons and neurotransmitters, researchers have learned that mental disorders are sometimes related to abnormal chemical activity in the body’s endocrine system. Endocrine glands, located throughout the body, work along with neurons to control such vital activities as growth, reproduction, pleasures of the flesh, heart rate, body temperature, energy, and responses to stress. The glands release chemicals called hormones into the bloodstream, and these chemicals then propel body organs into action. During times of stress, for example, the adrenal glands, located on top of the kidneys, secrete the hormone cortisol. Abnormal secretions of this chemical have been tied to anxiety and mood disorders. Studies of twins suggest that some aspects of behaviour and personality are influenced by genetic factors. Many identical twins are found to have similar tastes, behave in similar ways, and make similar life choices. Some even develop similar abnormal behaviours. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
People often associate eating disorders with adolescence. However, cases of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are easily found among those in their 20s and 30s. Somewhat surprisingly, many of these people are able to maintain at least the semblance of normal adult relations through marriage and child rearing. However, the marriages of people with eating disorders are sadly distressed. Physical intimacy is a problematic theme in the literature on marriage and eating disorders. For example, an examination of case records from a large sample of patients with anorexia nervosa showed that among those who were married, only 10 percent indicated some interest in matter dealing with pleasures of the flesh, and 72 percent indicated active avoidance of activities dealing with pleasures of the flesh. There was also a high degree of conflict surrounding pleasures of the flesh and conflict avoidance in these patients’ families of origin. Here again, there is reason to suspect that problems bred in earlier family-of-origin interactions were transported into the marital relationships of these women with anorexia nervosa. It is unfortunate that these problems with physical intimacy in the marital relationship persist several years after remission of an eating disorder. Approximately 40 percent of the women in this study sample had clinically significant disorder in pleasures of the flesh with their mates, despite being asymptomatic for 2 years on average. They also noted that diminished involvement in marital (or any romantic/pleasure of the flesh) relationship was more common among people who had anorexia nervosa than among those with bulimia nervosa or control subjects without eating disorders. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
Marital problems have also been documented in the marriages of people with bulimia nervosa, however. Compared to healthy controls, people with bulimia nervosa report greater marital distress. In fact, the degree of distress in these marriages did not differ significantly from those of people seeking marital therapy. Assessments from these spouses during the investigation were also suggestive of marital distress. The women with bulimia nervosa in the study exhibited poor problem-solving skills and conflict avoidance, which may partially explain the state of their marriages. Taken as a whole, currently available evidence indicates that the other personal relationships of people with eating disorders are as disturbed as their family-of-origin relationships. They tend to hold dysfunctional attitudes toward love and romance, and, in the case of anorexia nervosa, avoidance of physical intimacy and involvement. The quest for self-verification may cause people with eating disorders to seek the very interpersonal responses that will worsen their condition. Among those who do get married, relational distress is still evident. It is impossible to overlook the potential connections between the distressed relationships in the families of origin and the adult romantic or marital relations of people with eating disorders. In many instances, people with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa appear to be set up for interpersonal trouble by their experiences in their families of origin. As noted earlier, these family interactions are often marked by poor handling of conflict, excessive cohesion, and what are sometimes gross boundary violations. Not surprisingly, children from such households go on to develop possessive and dependent attitudes toward love, poor conflict resolution skills, and fearful avoidance of physical intimacy. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
The implications for satisfaction with personal relationships are obvious. And if their own personal problems were not enough of a barrier to healthy relationships, other people appear reluctant and uncomfortable getting involved in a close relationship with those who have eating disorders. “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint and weary, and to one who has no might He increased strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young people shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired,” reports Isaiah 40.28-31. All of us face disappointments from time to time. No matter how much faith one has or how good a person one is, sooner or later, something (or somebody!) will shake your faith to its foundations. It may be something simple, such as not getting that promotion you really hoped for; not closing the big sale that you worked on so hard; not qualifying for a loan to buy that Cresleigh Home in Havenwood you really wanted. Or, it may be something more serious—a marriage relationship falling apart, the death of a loved one, or an incurable, debilitating illness. Whatever it is, that disappointment possesses the potential to derail you and destroy your faith. That is why it is vital that you recognize in advance that disappointments will come, and that you learn how to stay on track and deal with them when they do. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
God has given us more gifts than we know what to do with, He is our Beneficent and Munificent Friend. And He has done the same to all others who have received Him in the Sacrament. It is no wonder, then, that we think up more names for Him, or God. Protector of Human Infirmities. Purveyor of Internal Consolations. As proof od His goodness, as if we needed yet another one, is His grafting of consolation onto tribulation. The resulting staff can then be used to ward off various harms. When my interior acropolis crumbled and I despaired in the rubble, God gave me hope. Using new grace, God restored the scaffolding and relit the sconces. Looking forward, before they receive Communion, some Devouts feel anxious; that is to say, their souls feel like stones, they have lost all their affections. Then comes the Communion. Looking back, after dining on the Heavenly Food and Drink, they find themselves changed for the better. Often, defeating disappointments and letting go of the past are flip sides of the same coin, especially when you are disappointed in yourself. When one does something wrong, it is important not to hold on to it and beat oneself up about it. Admit it, seek forgiveness, and move on. Be hasty to let go of one’s mistakes and failures, hurts, pains, and sins. The disappointments that disturb us the most, however, are usually those caused by other people. Many individuals who have been hurt by others are missing out on their new beginnings because they keep reopening old wounds. However, no matter what we have gone through, no matter how unfair it was, or how disappointed we were, we must release it and let it go. Someone may have walked out on you. Someone may have done you a great wrong. You may have prayed fervently for a loved one’s life to be saved, yet your loved one died. Leave that with God and go on with your life. The Christian Bible says, “The secret things belong to the LORD,” reports Deuteronomy 29.29. Leave them there. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
God is far more accepting of our real weaknesses than more of us realize. As the Psalmist said: “As a father has compassion on His children, so has the Lord compassion on all who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust,” reports Psalm 103.13-14. It is in owning our weaknesses that we have access to the presence of God. He welcomes those who confess their need. And the greatest need is for communion with God. In the New Testament both James and Peter reiterate the Old Testament theme: “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” (James 4.6; I Peter 5.5). If we desire to encounter and surrender to God, we must become aware of our helplessness. We must experience the reality that on our own part, if apart from God’s plan and resources, we will live a partial and fragmented life. This is why the Christian Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, emphasizes that God meets face to face with those of a humble heart, while resisting people who are rigid and controlling in their arrogance. However, here we must make a distinction between humbling ourselves, on the one hand, and becoming helpless, servile, and self-effacing on the other. While the Scriptures advocate a certain childlike openness and honesty in relating to God and others, they do not teach us to remain fixated at an immature level of development. This is what the Helpless Christian does not understand. So one gets stuck at the infantile stage of psychological and spiritual development. However, in order to restore the rhythm of growth, the manipulative tactics of withdrawing and avoiding need to be transformed into the actualizing qualities of feeling vulnerable and empathizing. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
Getting in touch with one’s own helplessness, pain, and vulnerability is an excellent way to develop the quality of empathy toward others. This particular quality, expressed at its finest in Jesus Christ, made Him so approachable by the common people and by little children. Disappointments almost always accompany setbacks. When you suffer loss, nobody expects you to be an impenetrable rock or an inaccessible island in the sea. Not even God expects you to be so touch that you simply ignore the disappointments in life, shrugging them off as though you are impervious to pain. No, when we experience failure or loss, it is natural to feel remorse or sorrow. That is the way God made us. If you lose your job, most likely you are going to experience a strong sense of disappointment. If you go through a broken relationship, that is going to hurt. If you lose loved one, there is a time of grieving, a time of sorrow. That is normal and to be expected. However, if you are still grieving and feeling sorrow over a disappointment that took place a year or more ago, something is wrong! You re hindering your future. Your must make a decision that you are going to move one. It will not happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, “I do not care how hard this is I am not going to let this get the best of me.” The enemy loved to deceive us into wallowing in self-pity, fretting, feeling sorry for ourselves, or having a chip on our shoulders. “Why did this happen to me?” “I got played.” “They took my money.” “God must not love me. He did not answer my prayers.” “Why did my marriage end in divorce?” “Why am I so evil and jealous?” “Why did not things work out in my life?” Such questions may be valid and may even be helpful to consider for a season, but after that, quit waiting your time trying to figure out something you cannot change. It is time to move on and start living a successful life now. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
They are the true disciples of Christ, not who know must, but who love most. The love end of the anger/love polarity is expressed verbally with phrases such as “I am interested,” “I am attracted,” “I care,” and “I care tenderly.” The actualizing Christian has access to the experience and effective expression of these several intensities of love. Loving tenderness is a need all people have, and yet in American culture such expression is often discouraged. You must first receive before one has anything to give. If one has not received tender and affectionate feelings from parents, friends, or the Lord, then it is understandable that one may have difficulty dealing with these feeling. It is one thing to “know” in one’s head that one is loved; it is another thing to “feel” it in one’s heart. Most of us have been damaged to some extent by well-intentioned parents who firmly believed they loved us, yet did not know how to effectively communicate that love through cuddling, praise, and affirmation. If a child lives with encouragement, one learns confidence. If a child lives with praise, one learns to appreciate. If a child lives with fairness, one learns justice. If a child lives with fairness, one learns justice. If a child lives with security, one learns to have faith. If a child lives with approval, one learns to like oneself. If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, one learns to find love in the World. All of the foregoing lends credence to the idea that, in experiencing love developmentally, people also learn to love. It is in being loved that one learns to love. However, sometimes the very deprivation of love in growing up can become a strong motivator in learning how to go about giving and receiving love as an adult. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
The person who has not been adequately loved can become especially sensitive to the need for love in the World. Not taking love for granted, this person may grow substantially in one’s lifetime in the ability to love self and others. It seems possible, then, that both satisfaction and deprivation of one’s needs to feel loved and apricated can become tutors in the art of learning to love. It is not simply what happens developmentally that determines one’s personhood, but rather what one does about it through awareness and choice. It is self-knowledge, facilitated by the presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s life, that enables one to discover needs and wants and to make them known in the loving relationships of later years. This provides a second chance to actualize oneself in becoming a sensitive and loving human being. Human beings really do want to love one another but just do not know how to go about it. The actualizing Christian learns to accept responsibility for finding out how to get the flow of love going in one’s life. Even though one’s need for feeling loved may never be fully met in this life, one can go a long way toward learning to love oneself, feeling God’s love, and daring to risk loving others. This is the meaning of “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Dear Lord in Heaven, I know that I cannot change a single thing about the past, but I can choose how I will live in the future. Please help me to build my faith, Father, to believe that You will bring good even out of those circumstances I do not understand. I choose to trust You for good things in the days ahead. “Thou wilt keep one in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because one trusteth in thee,” reports Isaiah 26.3 #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
The many changes in the present and in the future in our conception of time also blast holes in our theoretical understanding of space, since the two are tightly interwoven. However, we are altering our image of space in more immediate ways as well. We are changing the actual spaces in which all of us live, work, and play. How we get to work, how far and how frequently we travel, where we live—all these influence our experience of space. And all these are changing. In fact, as the Third Wave plays out, we have entered a new phase in humanity’s relationship to space. The First Wave, which spread agriculture around the World, brought with it, as we saw earlier, permanent farming settlements in which most people lived out their entire lives within a few miles of their birthplace. Agriculture introduced a stay-put, spatially intensive existence, and fostered intensely local feelings—the village mentality. Second Wave civilization, by contrast, concentrated huge populations in great cities and, because it needed to draw resources from afar and to distribute goods at a distance, it bred mobile people. The culture it produced was spatially extensive and city- or nation- rather than village-centered. The Third Wave alters our spatial experience by dispersing rather than concentrating population. While millions of people continue to pour into urban areas in the still-industrializing parts of the World, all the high-technology countries are already experiencing a reversal flow. Tokyo, London, Zurich, Glasgow, and dozens of major cities are all losing population while middle-sized or smaller cities are showing gains. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
The American Council of Life Insurance declares: “Some urban experts believe that the major U.S. city is a thing of the past.” Fortune magazine reports that “transportation and communication technology has cut the cords that bound big corporations to the traditional headquarters cities.” And Business Week entitles an article “The Prospect of a Nation With No Important Cities.” This redistribution of and de-concentration of population will, in due time, alter our assumptions and expectations about personal as well as social space, about acceptable commuting distances, about housing density, and many other things. In addition to such changes, the Third Wave also appears to be generating a new outlook that is intensely local, yet global—even galactic. Everywhere we find a new concentration on “community” and “neighbourhood,” on local politics and local ties at the same time that large numbers of people—often the same ones who are most locally oriented—concern themselves with global issues and worry about famine not only 10,000 miles away, but also in the central cities. As advanced communications proliferate and we begin to shift work back into the electronic cottage, we will encourage this new dual focus, breeding large numbers of people who remain reasonably close to home, who migrate less often, who travel more perhaps for pleasure but far less often for business—while their minds and messages range across the entire planet and into outer space as well. The Third Wave mentality combines concern for near and far. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
We are also rapidly adopting more dynamic and relativistic images of space. I have in my office several large blowups of satellite and U-2 photographs of New York City and the surrounding area. The satellite phots look like fantastical beautiful abstractions, the sea a deep green the coastline detailed against it. The U-2 photo shows that city infrared, and in such exquisite detail that the Metropolitan Museum and even individual planes parked on the ramps at La Guardia Airport are clearly visible. Referring to the planes at La Guardia, I asked a Nasa official if, by further enlarging the photos, one could actually see the stipes or symbols painted on the wings. He looked at me with amused tolerance and corrected me. “The rivets,” he replied. However, we are no longer limited to exquisitely refined still pictures. Satellites permits us to look at a living map—an animated display—of a city or a country and watch the activities on it as they are taking place. The map is no longer a static representation but a movie—indeed an X ray in motion, since it now shows not merely what is on the surface of the Earth but also reveals, layer by layer, what lies blow the surface and above it at each level of altitude. It also provides a sensitive, continually changing image of terrain and our relationships to it. At tone time, the most common map used by most of the World was based on Mercator’s projection. Now people use Google Maps, a digital form of a map, where one can zoom in on any community and look at it, or look at the comprehensive map. Scandinavia is no longer distorted to be larger than India. In the past, the distortions of the Mercator map fostered the arrogance of the industrial World in proper political, as well as cartographic perspective. Developing countries were once cheated with raged to their surface and their importance. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
People were once shocked to see a map that showed the accurate sizes of Europe, Alaska, Canada, and Russia being much smaller than they were led to believe, and a much elongated South America, Africa, Arabia, and India. However, what this controversy underscores is the recognition that there is no single “right” map, but merely different images of space that serve different purposes. In the most literal sense, the Third Wave and technology had brought new ways of looking at the World. For a monarchial state to be capable of being well governed, its size or extent must be proportionate to the faculties of the one who governs. It is easier to conquer than to rule. With a long enough lever, it is possible for a single finger to make the World shake; but holding it in place requires the shoulders of Hercules. However small a state may be, the prince is nearly always too small for it. When, on the contrary, it happens that the state is too small for its leader, which is quite rare, it is still poorly governed, since the leaders, always pursuing one’s grand schemes, forgets the interests of the peoples, making them no less wretched through the abuse of talents one has too much of then does a leader who is limited for want of what one lacks. A kingdom must, so to speak, expand or contract with each reign, depending on the ability of the prince. On the other hand, since the talents of a senate have a greater degree of stability, the state can have permanent boundaries without the administration working any less well. The most obvious disadvantage of the government of just one human is the lack of that continuous line of succession which forms an unbroken bond of unity in the other two forms of government. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
When one king dies, another is needed. Elections leave dangerous intervals and are stormy. And unless the citizens have a disinterested and integrity that seldom accompanies this form of government intrigue and corruption enter the picture. It is difficult for one to whom the state has sold itself not to sell it in turn, and reimburse oneself at the expense of the weak for the money extorted from one by the powerful. Sooner or later everything becomes venal under such an administration, and in these circumstances, the peace enjoyed under kinds is worse than the disorders of the interregna. What has been done to prevent these ills? In certain families, crowns have been made hereditary, and an order of succession has been established which prevents all dispute when kinds die. That is to say, by substituting the disadvantage of regencies for that of elections, an apparent tranquility has been preferred to a wise administration, the risk of having children, monsters, or imbeciles for leaders has been preferred to having to argue over the choice of good kings. No consideration has been given to the fact that in being thus exposed to the risk of the alternative, nearly all the odds are against them. There was a lot of sense in what Dionysius the Younger said in reply to his father, who, while reproaching his son for some shameful actions, said “Have I given you such an example?” “Ah,” replied the son, “But your father was not king.” When a human has been elevated to command others, everything conspires to deprive one of justice and reason. A great deal of effort is made, it is said, to tech young princes the art of ruling. It does not appear that this education does them any good. It would be better to begin by teaching them the art of obeying. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
The greatest kings whom history celebrates were not brought up to reign. It is a science one is never less in possession of than after one has learned too much, and that one acquires it better in obeying than in commanding. For the most useful as well as the shortest method of finding out what is good and what is bad is to consider what you would have wished for not wished to have happened under another prince. One result of this lack of coherence is the instability of the royal form of government, which, now regulated by one plan now by another according to the character of the ruling prince or of those who rule for one, cannot have a fixed object for very long or a consistent policy. This variation always causes the state to drift from maxim to maxim, from project to project, and does not take place in the other forms of government, where the prince is always the same. It is also apparent that in general, if there is more cunning in a royal court, there is more wisdom in a senate; and that republics proceed toward their objectives by means of policies that are more consistent and better followed. On the other hand, each revolution in the ministry produces a revolution in the state, since the maxim common to all ministers and nearly all kinds is to do the reverse of their predecessor in everything. From this same incoherence we drive the solution to a sophism that is very familiar to royalist political theorists. Not only is civil government compared to domestic government and the prince to the father of the family (an error already refuted), but this magistrate is also liberally given all the virtues one might need, and it is always presupposed that the prince is what he ought to be. With the help of this presupposition, the royal form of government is obviously preferable to any other, since it is unquestionably the strongest; and it lack only a corporate will that is more in conformity with the general will in order to be the best as well. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
However, if according to Plato, a king by nature is such a rare person, how many times will nature and fortune converge to crown one; and if a royal education necessarily corrupts those who receive it, what is to be hoped from a series of humans who have been brought up to reign? Surely then it is deliberate self-deception to confuse the royal form of government with that of a good king. To see what this form of government is in itself, we need to consider it under princes who are incompetent or wicked, for either they come to the throne wicked or incompetent, or else these thrones makes them so. These difficulties have not escaped the attention of anyone one, but some people are not troubled by them. They remedy, they say, is to obey without murmur. God in his anger gives us bad kinds, and they must be endured as punishments from Heaven. No doubt this sort of talk is edifying, however I do not know but that it belongs more in a pulpit than in a book on political theory. What is to be said of a physician who promises miracles, and whose art consists entirely of exhorting one’s sick patient to practice patience? It is quite obvious that we must put up with a bad government when that is what we have. The question is how to find a good one. God told Israel He had given them the land, but they were to go in and possess it. The land belonged to them, yet they did not possess it for forty years because they believed more in circumstances than in God’s Word. “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief,” reports Hebrews 3.19. The word of unbelief here literally means “disobedience.” God said to possess it, but they said, “We are not able.” So they did not obey God and they did not possess the land until all who doubted God had died. Out of the twelve spies, Joshua and Caleb were the only two that went in to possess the land. These two held fast to their confession: “We are well able to take the land.” For forty years, they held fast to that one confession and they got what they said. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
Let us therefore hold fast to our confession of faith that we may possess those things that God says are ours. The promised land is not a type of Heaven, as some believe, but a type of success living on Earth. We are well able to enter in through faith. Hatred does not stop hatred. It ceases by compassion. If philosophy advocates the peaceful way of quickened evolution and dynamic progressivism as against the violent way of abrupt revolution, it is because it knows that the moral evils which are introduced by brutality—not to speak of the physical ones which inevitably follow from it—constitute too high a price for the benefits received. For if the latter tend to disappear, the former tend to become stabilized. A great social change which stimulated hatred, passion, selfishness, and materialism would negate the ultimate purpose which lies behind all social evolution—the spiritualization of human character. A better society, to be based on the goodwill and co-operation, cannot be reached by arousing hatred and selfishness. The defense that ends justify means is a self-deceptive one. It is for the votaries of philosophy to follow the right path and to abstain from brutal or bloody methods, especially as we know that whilst conditions create them, there will always be others who are naturally inclined towards the transplanted barbarism of Communism. Because their daily work keeps them in constant touch with nature, some people everywhere in the World have a more religious emotion and mystical feeling than the others. However, we must be careful of real evil. Brutal hatred and camouflaged materialism, as well as the selfish preservation of one’s own power can create a criminal leadership. And their years of sacrifice in blood and comfort will profit them nothing. They are sacrifices made in an evil cause. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Those whose whole attitude is quarrelsome and carping and hating and irresponsible can contribute only unscrupulous criticism and hysterical destruction towards life. They are eager to obstruct and even destroy, but never to create, to co-operate, or to build. The Communist leaders, as distinct from their blind dupes, are the poisonous scorpions of society. O God, creator of our land, our Earth, the trees, the animals and humans, all is for your honour. The drums beat it out, and people sing about it, and they dance with noisy joy that you are the Lord. You also have pulled the other continents out of the sea. What a wonderful World you have made out of wet mud, and what beautiful men and women! We thank you for all the beauty of this Earth. The grace of your creation is like a cool day between rainy seasons. We drink pure water in your creation with out eyes. We listen to the birds’ jubilee with our ears. How strong and good and sure your Earth smells, and everything that grows there. Please bless us. Please bless our land and people. Please bless our forests with mahogany, wawa, and cacao. Please bless our fields with cassava and peanuts. Please bless the waters that flow through out land. Please fill them with fish and drive great schools of fish to our seacoast, so that the fishermen and women in their unsteady boasts do not need to go out too far. Please be with us in our countries and in all Africa, and in the whole World. Please prepare us for the service that we should render. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the King of judgment. As for slanderers, may their hopes come to naught, and may all wickedness perish. May all Thine enemies be destroyed. Do Thou uproot the dominion of arrogance; crush it and subdue it in our day. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who breakest the power of the enemy and bringest low the arrogant. May Thy tender mercies, O Lord our God, be stirred towards the righteous and the pious, towards the leaders of Thy people America, towards all the scholars that have survived, towards the righteous proselytes and towards us. Please grant Thy favour unto all who faithfully trust in Thee, and may our portion ever be with them. May we never suffer humiliation for in Thee do we put our trust. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who are the staff and trust of the righteous. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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When Asked His Name He Said “Legion” Because Many Demons Were Entered into Him!
It is easy to imagine how the combined grief of losing both a child and a spouse could be very crippling. However, if you have $20,000,000 (2021 inflation adjusted $347,910,691.82), and all the time in the World to help you cope, what would you do? Mrs. Sarah L. Winchester’s response to the deaths of her child and husband left a bizarre and impressive architectural reflection of her soul. After a series of violent confrontations, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company hires a private investigator to follow her. Mrs. Winchester ascends into mystery and it is soon clear that she is hiding a much bigger secret—one that is both inexplicable and shocking. A “possessed” person may have symptoms much like those that are apparent in the mentally ill. One may be deeply melancholic or depressed, appear to be withdrawn from reality, or may manifest emotions that range from ecstatic joy to violent screaming or wild ferocity. These various states may present themselves from time to time during “attacks.” Demon possession may be distinguished from insanity, however, by observing the manner in which the afflicted person speaks. An insane individual may have a mistaken concept of one’s own identity, wear clothing by which one attempts to look like the person one thinks oneself to be, but speak in one’s own voice, and in such a manner that one can tell one is doing only a superficial impersonation of the individual one thinks oneself to be. A demon-possessed person, on the other hand, is obviously controlled by the indwelling evil spirit. The wicked being may use a language or dialect the individual never knew, and sometimes will name oneself. Therefore, one should carefully note the symptoms of a disturbed person, never making the diagnosis of demon possession on the basis of a superficial judgment. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
If a believer should meet a demon-possessed individual, one would be unwise to make a frontal attack upon the powers of darkness by immediately issuing a command in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Kurt Koch, an evangelical Christian who has made a lifetime study of Satan and occultic activities, declares that whenever Christians lightly engage in an effort to cast out demons, they run the risk of being attacked by evil spirits. Such people often suffer deep spiritual depression and find themselves in an attitude of complete hopelessness. Since this is true, a believer should band together with others in a time of prayer, and no efforts should be made to expel the evil spirits until the Holy Spirit prompts someone to issue the command. Unbelievers and adherents of the non-Christian religions apparently can command evil spirits without suffering bad consequences. Archeologists have found manuscripts containing incantations and magical formulas for the expulsion of demons; and today in the Philippines and other countries of the far East, as well as in some areas of South America and Africa, pagan religious leaders seriously perform rituals to ward off or cast out evil spirits. Sometimes they beat the person who is demon-possessed, prick one with needles, or even burn portions of one’s body, thinking that this pain will drive out the evil spirits. The Jewish people in Christ’s day also used spells, magical phrases, and religious rituals to expel demons. That they sometimes appeared to be successful is clear, for Jesus said, “if I, by Beelzebub, cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges,” reports Matthew 12.27. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
In this statement the Lord Jesus Christ acknowledged that evil spirits sometimes left the bodies of their victims when incantations, spells, or magical rites were used by Jewish religious leaders. However, Christ did not say these men accomplished their goal by the power of God, nor did He imply that they were actually doing damage to the cause of Satan. He was answering the charge that He was casting out demons in the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons. He declared that is such were the case, the kingdom of Satan would be divided against itself. Actually, the exorcists, whether Jewish or pagan, did not really possess authority over the invisible World, but the evil spirits merely cooperated with them, leaving the bodies of some of their victims to give the appearance that they had been forced out. By working with these unbelieving sorcerers, the devil aided his own cause. The demons either temporarily left the person, only to return a short time later, or entered the body of some other victim. No one should attempt to deal with the forces of evil by using the name of Jesus unless one is a child of God. Luke, in Acts 19, graphically portrays the seriousness of hypocritically dealing with the powers of darkness. Seven sons of Sceva, a professional exorcist who had no personal faith in Christ, tried to combine the words “in the name of Jesus” with their magical formula. The evil spirits, recognizing that these impostors had no right to use Jesus’s name, reacted in a violent manner. The demon-possessed individual attacked these men with superhuman strengths, so that with torn clothing and bleeding bodies they fled from the Winchester mansion. The frequency of demon possession—the record of history establishes without a doubt that demon possession was known before the Lord Jesus Christ came to Earth, and the testimony of missionaries indicates that it has continued down through the centuries. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
The public ministry of Christ, however, was accompanied by an outburst of demon possession unparalleled in history. It seems that Satan threw all his power into his battle with Jesus Christ. True, the devil is not omniscient, but he knew that Christ had come to earth to atone for sin, conquer death, and bring about the defeat of evil. John tells us that “the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,” reports 1 John 3.8. Satan used every device at his disposal to frustrate the purpose of God in Christ. Subtle temptations, the wrath and wickedness of men, and a rash of demonic activity were part of his vain effort to prevent Jesus from performing the work He had come to accomplish. Demon possession gradually subsided during the first century A.D., and usually is not conspicuous in areas where a fairly large percentage of people have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. It appears that demons are hesitant to enter the bodies of people when informed believers are likely to cast them out in the name of Christ. Luke is the same one that is translated “bottomless pit” seven times in the book of the Revelation. We read, “And Jesus asked him, saying, ‘What is thy name?’ And he said, ‘Legion’; because many demons were entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was there and herd of many swine, feeding on the mountain; and they besought him that he would allow them to enter into them. And he permitted them,” reports Luke 8.30-32. Revelation 9 tells us that at some future time the “bottomless pit” will be opened, and a great army of evil spirits will be set free to plague humankind. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
It is at least a possibility that whenever demons are cast out of a human being in the name of Jesus Christ, they are sent to the bottomless pit, and will not be released until shortly before Christ returns to establish His kingdom. The realization that they will lose their freedom as members of the army of the “prince of the power of the air,” and be confined in the pit for an indefinite period of time, makes them hesitant to take possession of human beings. The risk is too great in an area where Christians exercise their authority in the name of Christ. People who live in civilized countries where the Gospel has been known for centuries should not rule out the possibility of demon possession, however, just because it has not been a common occurrence in these areas. Satan and his cohorts may conclude that most people, even professing Christians, will not recognize this phenomenon when they meet it. Therefore, as this age draws to a close, Satan may once again become very active in entering human bodies and controlling personalities. He will hope that the majority of humankind will either be deceived into following him or find a naturalistic explanation for the activities of the demons. This supernatural manifestation of the power of Satan and evil spirits is clearly predicted by the apostle Paul. In his second letter to the Thessalonian believers, he declares that just before Christ returns in glory, the devil will have his righthand mand upon the earth performing miracles which make him appear to be a god. Referring to the Antichrists, the apostle says, “Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” reports 2 Thessalonian 2.9, 10. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
Inasmuch as we can expect an increase of open opposition to God on the part of the Satanic hordes, we know Christ should humbly maintain fellowship with Him through full submission and ready obedience so that we may receive from Him the strength we need to overcome. James writes, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” reports James 4.6-7. Peter declares, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the World,” reports 1 Peter 5.8-9. No, Satan is not dead. He is like a wounded animal and still has great power to harm those who care careless or proud. Therefore, keep awake, be on alert, read the Christian Bible and the Book of Mormon, and pray! If you do not, he may destroy your effectiveness as a Christian. For the next instance of witchcraft and the supernatural in connection with Ireland, we are compelled to go beyond the confines of our own country. Though in this connection with the Green Isle is slight, yet it is of interest as affording an example of that blending of fairy lore with sorcery which is not an uncommon feature of Scottish witchcraft-trials. In the year 1613 a woman named Margaret Barclay, of Irvine in Scotland, was accused of having her brother-in-law’s ship to be cast away by magical spell. A certain strolling vagabond and juggler, John Stewart, was apprehended as her accomplice; he admitted (probably under torture) that Margaret had applied to him to teach her some magic arts in others that “she might get gear, kye’s milk, love of man, her heart’s desire on such persons as had done her wrong.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
Through John Stewart does not appear to have granted Margaret’s request, yet he gave detailed information as to the manner in which he had gained the supernatural power and knowledge with which he was credited. “It being demanded of him by what means he profession himself to have knowledge of things to come, the said John confessed that the space of twenty-six years ago, he being travelling on All-Hallow Even night between the towns of Monygoif and Clary, in Galway, he met with the King of the Fairies and his company, and that the King gave him a stroke with a white rod over the forehead, which took from him the power of speech and the use of one eye, which he wanted for the space of three years. He declared that the use of speech and eyesight was restored to him by the King of Fairies and his company on a Hallowe’en night at the town of Dublin.” At his subsequent meeting with the fairy band, he was taught all his knowledge. The spot on which he was struck remained impervious to pain although a pin was thrust into it. The unfortunate wretch was cast into prison, and there committed suicide by hanging himself from the “cruik” of the door with his garter or bonnet-string, and so “ended his life miserably with the help of the devil his master.” A tale slightly resembling portion of the above comes from the north of Ireland a few years later. “It is storied, and the story is true,” says Robert Law in his Memorialls, “of a godly man in Ireland, who lying one day in the fields sleeping, he was struck with dumbness and deafness. The same man, during this condition he was in, could tell things, and had the knowledge of things in a strange way, which he had not before; and did, indeed, by signs make things known to others which they knew not. Afterwards he at length, prayer being made from him by others, came to the use of his tongue and ears; but when that knowledge of things he had in his deaf and dumb condition ceased, and when he was asked how he had the knowledge of these things he made signs of, he answered he had that knowledge when dumb, but how and after what manner he knew not, only he had the impression thereof in his spirit. This story was related by a godly minister, Mr. Robert Blair, to Mr. John Baird, who knew the truth of it.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
The Rev. Robert Blair, M.A., was a celebrated man, if for no other reason than on account of his disputes with Dr. Echlin, Bishop of Down, or for his description of Oliver Cromwell as a greeting (id est, weeping) devil. On the invitation of Lord Claneboy he arrived in Ireland in 1623, and in the same year was settled as (Presbyterian) parish minister at Bangor in Co. Down, with the consent of patron and people’ he remained there until 1631, when he was suspended by Dr. Echlin, and was deposed and excommunicated in November, 1634. He has left a few writings behind him, and was grandfather of the poet Robert Blair, author of The Grave. During the years of his ministry at Bangor the following incident occurred to him, which he of course attributes to demonic possession, through homicidal mania resulting from intemperate habits would be nearer the truth. One day a rich man, the constable of the perish, called upon him in company with one of his tenants concerning the baptizing of the latter’s child. “When I had spoken what I thought necessary, and was ready to turn into my house, the constable dismissing the other told me he had something to say to me in private. I looking upon him saw his eyes like the eyes of a cat in the night, did presently conceive that he had a mischief in his heart, yet I resolved not to refuse what he desired, but I keeped a watchful eye upon him, and stayed at some distance; and being near to the door of the church I went in, and invited him to follow me. As soon as he entered within the doors he fell atrembling, and I awondering. His trembling continuing and growing without any speech, I approached to him, and invited him to a seat, wherein he could hardly sit. The great trembling was like to throw him out of the seat. I laid my arm about him, and asked him what ailed him? But for a time, he could speak none. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
“At last his shaking ceased, and he began to speak, telling me, that for a long time the Devil had appeared to him; first at Glasgow he bought a horse from him, receiving a sixpence in earnest, and that in the end he offered to him a great purse full of sylver to be his, making no mention of the horse; he said that he blessed himself, and so the buyer with the sylver and gold that was poured out upon the table vanished. But some days thereafter he appeared to him at his own house, naming him by his name, and said to him, Ye are mine, for I arled you with a sixpence, which yet ye have. Then said he, I asked his name, and he answered, they call me Nickel Downus (I suppose the he repeated evil, that he should have said Nihil Damus). Being thus molested with these and many other apparitions of the Devil, he left Scotland; but being come to Ireland he did often likewise appear to him, and now of late he still commands me to kill and slay; and oftentimes, says he, my whinger hath been drawn and kept under my cloak to obey his commands, but still something holds my hand that I cannot stroke. But then I asked him who he was bidden kill? He answered, any that comes in my way; but ‘The better they be the better service to me, or else I shall kill thee.’ When he uttered these words he fell again atrembling, and was stopped in his speaking, looking lamentably at me, designing me to be the person he aimed at; then he fell a crying and lamenting. I showed him the horribleness of his ignorance and drunkenness; he made many promises of reformation, which were not well keep’d; for within a fortnight he went to an alehouse to crave the price of his malt, and sitting there long at drink, as he was going homeward the Devil appeared to him, and challenged him for opening to me what had passed betwixt them secretly, and followed him to the house, pulling his cap off his head and his band from about his neck, saying to him, ‘On Hallow-night I shall have thee, soul and body, in despite of the minister and of all that he will do for thee.’” #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
In his choice of a date his Satanic Majesty showed his respect for popular superstitions. This attack of delirium tremens (though Mr. Blair would not have so explained it) had a most salutary effect; the constable was in such an abject state of terror lest the Devil should carry him off that he begged Mr. Blair to sit up with him all Hallow-night, which he did, spending the time very profitably in prayer and exhortation, which encouraged the man to defy Satan and all his works. The upshot of the matter was, that he became very charitable to the poor, and seems to have entirely renounced his intemperate habits. Rejecting the supernatural elements in the above as being merely the fruits of a diseased mind, there is no reason to doubt the truth of the story. Mr. Blair also met with some strange cases of religious hysteria, which became manifest in outbursts of weeping and bodily convulsions, but which he attributed to the Devil’s “playing the ape, and counterfeiting the works of the Lord.” He states that one Sunday, in the midst of public worship, “one of my charge, being a dull and ignorant person, made a noise and stretching of her body. Incontinent I was assisted to rebuke that lying spirit that disturbed the worship of God, charging the same not to disturb the congregation; and through God’s mercy we met with no more of that work.” Thus modestly our writer sets down what happened in his Autobiography; but the account of the incident spread far and wide, and at length came to the ears of Archbishop Usher, who, on his next meeting with Mr. Blair, warmly congratulated him on the successful exorcism he had practised.” Spirits of a diabolical and infernal nature, are not only ready upon all occasions to become subservient to exorcists and magicians, but are ever watching opportunities of exciting evil affections in the mind, and of stirring up the wickedly inclined to the commission of every species of iniquity and vice. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
Thus by the instigation of infernal spirits, and their own promptitude, they often terrify humans with nocturnal visions; provoke melancholy people to suicide; tempt drunkards and incendiaries to set houses on fire, to burn those who are in them, and allure careless servants and others to sound and incautious sleep; that such unlucky accidents might happen besides innumerable other ways they have of executing the devices of iniquitous spirits through malicious instigations, or secret stratagems, projected for the overthrow and destruction of mortal men; especially when the work to be effected by the devil is too hard for his subtle and spiritual nature to effect, because the same belongs to the outward source or principle to which these dubious spirits more immediately belong. A few nights into Christmas, there was a festival for which the Winchester mansion was making extensive preparations. The narrow streets which had been thronged with people were now almost deserted. In the comfortable coffee-room of the Winchester mansion, Mrs. Winchester had half a dozen guests, principally commercial travellers, sat talking by light of the fire. The talk had drifted from trade to politics, from politics to religion, and so by easy stages to the supernatural. In the flicker of the light of the fire, as it shone on the glasses and danced with shadows on the walls, the conversation proved so enthralling that Henry, the waiter, whose presence had been forgotten, created a very disagreeable sensation by suddenly starting up from a dark corner and gliding silently from the room. Mrs. Winchester then said, “Of course, it is an old idea that spirits like to get into the company of human beings. A man told me once that he travelled down the Great Western with a ghost and had not the slightest suspicion of it until the inspector came for tickets. My friend said they way that ghost tried to keep up appearances by feeling for it in all its pockets and looking on the floor was quite touching. Ultimately it gave it up and with a faint groan vanished through the ventilator.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
“That’ll do, Mrs. Winchester,” said Ludwig Leichhardt. “It is not a subject for jesting,” said Adam Worth,” who had been an attentive listener. “I’ve never seen an apparition myself, but I know people who have, and I consider that they form a very interesting link between us and the after-life. There’s a ghost story connected with this mansion, you know.” “Never heard of it,” said Edward Agar, “and I have visiting this estate for some years now.” “It dates back a long time,” said Ludwig. “You’ve heard about John V. Creely also know as Jesus Procopio?” “Well, I’ve just ‘eard odds and ends, sir” said the Edward, “but I never put much count to ‘em. There was one chap ‘ere what said ‘e saw it, and the gov’ner sacked ‘im prompt.” “My father was a native of this town,” said Ludwig, “and knew the story well. He was a truthful man and a steady churchgoer, but I’ve heard him declare that once in his life he saw the appearance of Jesus Procopio in this mansion.” “And who was this Jesus?” enquired a voice. “His real name was Tomaso Rodendo, one of the most fearless and daring desperadoes that has ever figures in the criminal annals of our state. Anything he could turn his dishonest hand to,” replied Ludwig; “and he was run to Earth in this mansion one Christmas week some five years ago. He took his last supper in this very room, and after he had gone up to bed a couple of thief takers, who had followed him from San Francisco but lost the scent a bit, went upstairs with Mrs. Winchester and tried the door. It was stout oak, and fast, so one went into the yard, and by means of a short ladder got on the window-sill, while the other stayed outside the door. Those below in the yard saw the man crouching on the sill, and then there was a sudden smash of glass, and with a cry he fell in a heap on the stones at their feet. Then in the moonlight they saw the white face of the pickpocket peeping over the sill, and while some stayed in the yard, others ran into the mansion and helped the other man to break the door in. It was difficult to obtain an entrance even then, for it was barred with heavy furniture, but they got in at last, and the first thing that met their eyes was the body of Jesus dangling from the top of the bed by his own handkerchief.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
“Which bedroom was it?” asked two or three voices together. Ludwig shook his head. “That I can’t tell you; but the story goes that Jesus still haunts this mansion, and my father used to declare that the last time he had slept here that the ghost of Jesus Procopio lowered itself from the top of his bed and tried to strangle him.” “That will do” said John Creely. “I wish you’d thought to ask your father which bedroom it was.” “I believe it was my Blue Séance room said,” Mrs. Winchester. “Well, I should take care not to sleep in it, that’s all, said John shortly. “There’s nothing to fear,” said Ludwig. “I don’t believe for a moment that ghosts could really hurt one. In fact my father used to confess that it was only the unpleasantness of the thing that upset him, and that for all practical purposes Jesus’s figures might have been made of cotton-wool for all the hard they could do.” “That’s all very fine,” said John; “a ghost story is a ghost story, sir; but when a gentleman tells a tale of a ghost in the house in which one is going to sleep, I call it most ungentlemanly!” “Pooh! Nonsense!” said Ludwig, rising, “ghosts can’t hurt you. For my own part; I should rather like to see one. Good night.” “Good night,” said Mrs. Winchester and the others. “And I hope that Jesus will pay you a visit,” added John as the door closed.” “Shall I light the gas, Adam?” said Henry. “No; the fires very comfortable,” he said. “Now gentlemen, any of you know any more?” “I think we’ve had enough,” said John; “we shall be thinking we see spirits next, and we’re not all like Ludwig who’s just gone.” Old humbug!” said John. “I should like to put him to the test. Suppose I dress up as Jesus Procopio and go to give him a chance of displaying his courage?” “Bravo!” said Adam huskily, drowning one or two faint “Noes.” “No, drop it, John” said Edward. “Only for the joke,” said John, somewhat eagerly. “I’ve got some things upstairs in which I am going to play in the ‘Rivals’—knee-breeches, buckles, and all that sort of thing. It’s a rare chance. If you’ll wait a bit I’ll give you a full-dress rehearsal, entitled, ‘Jesus Procopio; or, The Nocturnal Strangler.’” #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
“You won’t frighten us,” said Adam, with a husky laugh. “I don’t know that,” said John sharply; “it’s a question of acting that’s all. I’m pretty good, ain’t I, Edward?” “Oh, you’re all right—for an amateur,” said Edward, with a laugh. “I’ll bet you level sov. You don’t frighten me,” said Adam. “Done! said John. I’ll take the bet to frighten you first and Ludwig afterwards. These gentlemen shall be the judges.” “You won’t frighten us, sir,” said Edward “because we’re prepared for you; but you’d better leave Ludwig alone. It’s dangerous play.” “Well, I’ try you first,” said John, springing up. “No gas, mind.” He ran lightly upstairs to his room, leaving the others, most of whom had been drinking somewhat freely, to wrangle about his proceedings. It ended with them going to bed. “He’s crazy on acting,” said Adam, lighting his pipe. “Thinks he’s the equal of anybody almost. It doesn’t matter with us, but I won’t let him go to Ludwig. And he won’t mind so long as he gets an opportunity of acting to us.” “Well, I hope he’ll hurry up,” said Edward, yawning; it’s after twelve now.” Nearly half an hour passed. Edward drew his watch from his pocket and was busy winding it, when Henry, the waiter, who had been sent on an errand, burst suddenly into the room and rushed towards them. “E’s comin’, gentlemen,” he said breathlessly. “Why, you’re frightened, Edward,” said Adam with a chuckle. “It was the suddenness of it,” said Edward sheepishly; “and besides, I didn’t look for seenin’ ‘im in the bar. There’s only a glimmer of light there, and ‘e was sitting on the floor behind the bar. I nearly trod on ‘im.” “He’s taking too long, I’ll go and fetch him,” said Adam. “You don’t know what this mansion is like at night, sir,” said Henry, catching him by the sleeve. “It ain’t fit to look at by yourself, it ain’t, indeed. It’s got the—what’s that?” #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
They all started at the sound of a smothered cry from the staircase and the sound of somebody running hurriedly along the passage. Before anybody could speak, the door flew open and a figure bursting into the room flung itself gasping and shivering upon them. “What is it? What’s the matter?” demanded Edward. “Why, it’s Mr. Creely.” He shook him roughly and then held some spirit to his lips. John Creely drank it greedily with a sharp intake of his breath gripped him by the arm. “Light the gas, Adam,” said Edward. Adam obeyed hastily, John Creely, a ludicrous but pitiable figure in knee-breeches and coat, a large wig all awry, and his face a mess of grease paint, clung to him, trembling. “Now what’s the matter?” asked Edward. “I’ve seen it,” said John, with a hysterical sob. “O Lord, I’ll never play the fool again, never!” “Seen what?” said the others. “Him—it—the ghost—anything!” said John wildly. “Rot!” said Adam uneasily. All distinctly heard a step in the passage outside. It stopped at the door, and as they watched with bated breath, the door creaked and slowly opened. Adam fell back opened-mouthed, as a white, leering face, with sunken eyeballs ad close-cropped bullet head, appeared at the opening. For a few second the creature stood regarding them, blinking in a strange fashion at the candle. Then with a sidling movement, it came a little way into the room and stood there as if bewildered. Not a man spoke or moved, but all watched with a horrible fascination as the creature removed its dirty neckcloth and its head rolled on its shoulder. For a minute it paused, and then holding the rag before it, moved towards Edward. The candle went out suddenly with a flash and a bang. These was a smell of powder, and something writhing in the darkness on the floor. A faint, choking cough, and then silence. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
Edward was the first to speak. “Matches,” he said in a strange voice. Adam struck one. Then he leapt at the gas and a burner flamed from the match. Edward touched the thing on the floor with his foot and found it soft. He looked at his companions. They mouthed enquiries at him, but he shook his head. He lit the candle, and, kneeling down, examined the silent thing on the floor. Then he rose swiftly, and dipping his handkerchief in the water jug, bent down again and grimly wiped the white face. Then he sprang back with a cry of incredulous horror, pointing at it. Adam’s pistol fell to the floor and he shut out the sight with his hands, but the others, crowding forward, gazed spell-bound at the dead face of John V. Creely. Before a word was spoken the door opened and Ludwig hastily entered the room. His eyes fell on the floor. “Good God!” he cried. “You didn’t—” Nobody spoke. “I told him not to,” he said in a suffocating voice. “I told him not to. I told him—” He leaned against the wall, deathly sick, put his arms out feebly, and fell fainting into Ludwig’s arms. Many mysteries have taken place in the Winchester mansion over the years. It is an extravagant maze of Victorian craftmanship—marvelous, baffling, and eerily eccentric, to say the least. Tour guide must warn people not to stray from the group or they could be lost forever! Countless questions come to mind as you wander through the mansion—such as, what was Mrs. Winchester thinking when she had a staircase built that descends seven steps and then rises eleven? The Winchester Repeating Arms Company concluding their investigation by saying, “The mystery of the Winchester mansion is unquestionably great and infinite; perhaps spirits can take human shape, and disclose secrets and treasures guarded by this estate, but we must also be aware of skilled deceivers who will talk of Heaven and Hell and the Fall.” (WRA 1888.) After Mrs. Winchester’s death, crimes resulting in the theft of cash, jewels, historical European glass, furniture, and works of art worth over $10 million by Victorian standards (2021 inflation adjusted $291,146,315.79) went missing from the estate. Is the Winchester mansion haunted? Visits and find out for yourself. Their investigation sounds inconclusive. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
Winchester Mystery House
“Though she be but little, she is fierce.” ~ William Shakespeare
Did you know Sarah Winchester only stood at 4’10”? Much of the house was built to her specific height measurement including a shower, some doors, and hallways. winchestermysteryhouse.com
Better to Have Liberty Fraught with Danger than Servitude in Peace!
Respect is what we owe; love is what we give. As the moral movement was declining in the late 1800s, due to overcrowding, limited funding, and ineffective hospital treatments in state hospitals across the United States of America, which has continued well into the twenty-first century, two opposing perspectives emerged and began to vie for the attention of clinicians (a doctor having direct contact with and responsibility for patients, rather than one involved with theoretical or laboratory studies): the somatogenic perspective, the view that abnormal psychological functioning has physical causes, and the psychogenic perspective, the view that the chief causes of abnormal functioning are psychological. These perspectives came into full bloom during the twentieth century. The somatogenic perspective has at least a 2,400-year history—remember Hippocrates’ view that abnormal behaviour resulted from brain disease and an imbalance of humors? Not until the late nineteenth century, however, did this perspective make a triumphant return and begin to gain wide acceptance. Two factors were responsible for this rebirth. One was the work of an eminent German researcher, Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926). In 1883 Dr. Kraepelin published an influential textbook which argued that physical factors, such as fatigue, are responsible for mental dysfunction. In addition, he also constructed the first modern system for classifying abnormal behaviour. He identified various syndromes, or clusters of symptoms; listed their physical causes; and discussed their expected course. Dr. Kraepelin also measured the effects of various drugs on abnormal behaviour. New biological discoveries also triggered the rise of the somatogenic perspective. One of the most important discoveries was that an organic disease, syphilis, led to general paresis, an irreversible disorder with both physical and mental symptoms, including paralysis and delusions of grandeur. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
In 1897 Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), a German neurologist, injected matter from syphilis sores into patients suffering from general paresis and found that none of the patients developed symptoms of syphilis. Their immunity could have been caused only by an earlier case of syphilis. Since all patients with general paresis were now immune to syphilis, Dr. Krafft-Ebing theorized that syphilis had been the cause of their general paresis. Finally, in 1905, Fritz Schaudinn (18871-1906), a German zoologist, discovered that the microorganism Treponema pallida was responsible for syphilis, which in turn was responsible for general paresis. The work of Dr. Kraepelin and the new understanding of general paresis led many researchers and practitioners to suspect that organic factors were responsible for many mental disorders, perhaps all of them. These theories and the possibility of quick and effective medical solutions for mental disorders were especially welcomed by those who worked in mental hospitals, where patient populations were now growing at an alarming rate. Despite the general optimism, biological approaches yielded largely disappointing results throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Although many medical treatments were developed for patients in mental hospitals during that time, most of the techniques failed to work. Physicians tried tooth extraction, tonsillectomy, hydrotherapy (alternating how and cold baths), and lobotomy, a surgical cutting of certain nerve fibers in the brain. Even worse, biological views and claims led, in some circles, to proposals for immoral solutions such as eugenic sterilization. In the years 1896, Connecticut became the first state in the United States of America to prohibit persons with mental disorders from marrying. 1896-1933, every state in the United States of America passed a law prohibiting marriage by persons with mental disorders. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
Indiana became the first state to pass a bill calling for people with mental disorders, as well as criminals and other “defectives,” to undergo sterilization in the year 1907. Just 20 years later, in 1927, the United States of America’s Supreme Court ruled that eugenic sterilization was constitutional. Between the years 1907-1945, around 45,000 Americans were sterilized under eugenic sterilization laws; 21,000 of them were patients in state mental hospitals. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland passed eugenic sterilization laws from 1929-1932. In 1933, Germany passed a eugenic sterilization law, under which 375,000 people were sterilized by 1940. That very same year, Nazi Germany begin to use “proper gases” to kill people with mental disorders; 70,000 or more people were killed in less than two years. Whenever, therefore, Man takes up the task of ordering life on a rational and human basis, he has to been the problem of deciding what is to be done about this surplus. All human societies have been perpetually concerned with this problem from the outset, to a large extent unconsciously, to an ever-increasing degree consciously. By a systematic survey of the various races of the World, it is clear how the natural tendency to excess of population is among every human race. Naturally, the goal is checked in a great variety of ways, preventive, by the exercise of a restraint on procreation, and positive, by the destruction of the excess due to unrestrained procreation. These positive checks are extremely various and include every cause, whether arising from vice or misery, which in any degree contributes to shorten the natural duration of life. Under this head are enumerated all unwholesome occupations, severe labour and exposure to the seasons, extreme poverty, bad nursing of children, great towns, excesses of all kinds, the entire train of common diseases, and epidemics, pandemics, wars, plagues, famines. The whole of the obstacles to increase of population, preventative and positive, are regarded as resolvable into moral restraint, vice, and misery. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
The Eugenics Education Society believes that we need a decrease among the grossly defective class and that may be accompanied by an even greater increase among the less defective class just above them. The whole tone of a nation is permanently affected by the moral and intellectual contagion which is due to the presence in its ranks of persons of inferior type, even thought they are not of the lowest type. No compulsory sterilization can be enforced here; it is a problem which must be met indirectly. There can be no reasonable doubt that it makes for some benefit to the race, and is certainly for the benefit of the children who remain unborn and the parents who are spared the pains and trouble of begetting them, that parents who are mentally abnormal or defective should not begat or conceive children. During World War I in the United States of America, a number of laws were passed in many states for ordaining compulsory sterilization. These laws were often badly made as well as premature, frequently repealed or declared unconstitutional. Modern California has become so liberal, but that was not always the case. The sterilization of the insane or defective began in California in 1927, and it was the ordinary course carried out by agreement with the husband or wife or nearest relations when the patients are not legally competent to give their consent. During that time, in Californian mental hospitals, if strong objections were offered to it, though, by a wise precaution, sterilization was not performed. However, the inmates of mental homes were not allowed out, even for a short period, without sterilization. It has been estimated that the sterilization of even one tenth of the population would produce an appreciably beneficial eugenic effect on the whole nations, which is why so many people are happy that OSHA declared President Biden’s mandated vaccination of termination of employment unconstitutional. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
However, it is by the increase in the knowledge of heredity, by the spread of education among the masses of the population, and—perhaps above all—by the growth of the sense of social responsibility, that alone real progress is possible. Not until the 1950s, when a number of effective medications were finally discovered, did the somatogenic perspective truly begin to pay off for patients. The psychogenic perspective—the late nineteenth century also saw the emergence of the psychogenic perspective, the view that the chief causes of abnormal functioning are often psychological. This view, too, had a long history. The Roman statesman’s and orator Cicero (106-43 B.C.) held that psychological disturbances could cause bodily ailments, and the Greek physician Galen believed that many mental disorders are caused by fear, disappointment in love, and other psychological events. However, the psychogenic perspective did not gain much of a following until studies of hypnotism demonstrated its potential. Hypnotism is a procedure that places people in a trancelike mental state during which they become extremely suggestible. It was used to help treat psychological disorders as far back as 1778, when an Austrian physician named Friedrich Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) established a clinic in Paris. His patients suffered from hysterical disorders, mysterious bodily ailments that had no apparent physical basis. Dr. Mesmer had his patients sit in a darkened room filled with music; then he appeared, dressed in a flamboyant costume, and touched the troubled area of each patient’s body with a special rod. A surprising number of patients seemed to be helped by this treatment, called mesmerism. Their pain, numbness, or paralysis disappeared. Several scientists believed that Dr. Mesmer was inducing a trancelike state in his patients and that this state was causing their symptoms to disappear. The treatment was so controversial, however, that eventually Dr. Mesmer was banished from Paris. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
It was not until years after Dr. Mesmer died that many researchers had the courage to investigate his procedure, later called hypnotism (from hypnos, the Greek word for “sleep”), and its effects on hysterical disorders. By the late nineteenth century, two competing vies had emerged. Because hypnosis—a technique relying on the power of suggestion—was able to alleviate hysterical ailments, some scientists concluded that hysterical disorders must be caused by the power of suggestion—that is, by the mind—in the first place. In contrast, other scientists believed that historical disorders had subtle physiological causes. For example, Jean Charot (1825-1893), Paris’s most eminent neurologist, argued that hysterical disorders were the result of degeneration in portions of the brain. The experiments of two physicians practicing in the city of Nancy in France finally seemed to settle the matter. Hippolyte-Marie Bernheim (1840-1919) and Ambroise-Auguste Liebault (1823-1904) showed that hysterical disorders could actually be induced in otherwise normal subjects while they were under the influence of hypnosis. That is, the physicians could make normal people experience deafness, paralysis, blindness, or numbness by means of hypnotic suggestion—and they could remove these artificial symptoms by the name means. Thus, they established that a mental process—hypnotic suggestion—could both cause and cure even a physical dysfunction. Leading scientists, including Dr. Charcot, finally embraced the idea that hysterical disorders were largely psychological in origin, and the psychogenic perspective rose in popularity. Among those who studied the effects of hypnotism on hysterical disorders was Josef Breuer (1842-1925) of Vienna. This physician discovered that his patients sometimes awoke free of hysterical symptoms after speaking candidly under hypnosis about past upsetting events. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
During the 1890s Dr. Breuer was joined in his work by another Viennese, physician, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Dr. Freud’s work eventually led him to develop the theory of psychoanalysis, which holds that many forms of abnormal and normal psychological functioning are psychogenic. In particular, he believed that unconscious psychological processes are at the root of such functioning. Dr. Freud also developed the technique of psychoanalysis, a form of discussion in which clinicians help troubled people gain insight into their unconscious psychological processes. He believed that such insight, even without hypnotic procedures, would help the patients overcome their psychological problems. Dr. Freud and his followers applied the psychoanalytic treatment approach primarily to patients suffering from anxiety or depression, problems that did not typically require hospitalization. These patients visited therapists in their offices for session of approximately an hour and then went about their daily activities—a format of treatment now known as outpatient therapy. By the early twentieth century, psychoanalytic theory and treatment were widely accepted throughout the Western World. The psychoanalytic approach had little effect on the treatment of severely disturbed patients in mental hospitals, however. This type of therapy requires levels of clarity, insight, and verbal skill beyond the capabilities of most such patients. Moreover, psychoanalysis often takes years to be effective, and the overcrowded and understaffed public mental hospitals could not accommodate such a leisurely pace. If you have every struggled with an eating disorder in the past, you know that the path to recovery can be hard. Therefore, it is important that the government offers more funding to help people with dysfunctional behaviour. There is commonly held misconception that eating disorders are a lifestyle choice. Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that are associated with severe disturbances in people’s eating behaviours and related thoughts and emotions. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
Preoccupation with food, body weight, and shape may also signal an eating disorder. Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. People with anorexia nervosa may see themselves as overweight, even when they are dangerously underweight. People with anorexia nervosa typically weigh themselves repeatedly, severely restrict the amount of food they eat, often exercise excessively, and/or may force themselves to vomit or use laxatives to lose weight. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder. While many people with this disorder die from complications associated with starvation, others die of suicide. People with bulimia nervosa have recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food and feeling a lack of control over these episodes. This binge-eating is followed by behaviour that compensates for the overeating such as forced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives or diuretics, fasting, excessive exercise, or a combination of these behaviours. People with bulimia nervosa may be slightly underweight, normal weight, or above average weight. People with binge-eating disorder lose control over his or her eating. Unlike bulimia nervosa, periods of binge-eating are not followed by purging, excessive exercise, of fasting. As a result, people with binge-eating disorder often are above average weight or obese. Binge-eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the United States of America. Binge-eating may be considered a medical concern and not dysfunctional behaviour. The ratio of females to males suffering from anorexia nervosa is approximately 10.1. This may be due to the greater concerns with body image, dieting, and weight control among women compared to men. Perhaps owing to the widely held importance of the relationship with the same-sex parent in a child’s development, a great deal of attention has been granted to mother-daughter relationships in eating disorders. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
Girls with eating disorders have been known to describe their mothers as overprotective and less caring. In light of such findings, it is not surprising to discover that mothers of daughters with eating disorders have expressed a desire for greater family cohesion than what they currently perceive. A group of young women with eating disorders retrospectively reported maternal relations that involve more emotional coldness, indifference, and rejection, compared to a sample of controls. Some evidence suggests that dietary restraint may be passed on from other to daughter. In this particular sample of mother, they had a history of eating disorders. In a very carefully controlled study, rates of eating disorders in mothers of a group of probands (a person serving as the starting point for the genetic study of a family) diagnosed with bulimia nervosa, but with no history of anorexia nervosa. Their results indicated that 26 percent of the mothers of probands with bulimia nervosa had a lifetime diagnosis of some form of eating disorder (exempli gratia, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, eating disorder not otherwise specified, binge-eating disorder). This rate was significantly higher than that for mothers of a control group with no history of eating disorders. Of course, family studies confound the effects of genes and environment; thus it is not entirely clear whether the association between mothers’ and daughters’ eating disorders is the result of maternal genetic contributions, or of the social environment to which mothers contribute. Investigations of mothers’ attitudes toward their daughters’ body image paint an even more dismal picture of mother-daughter relations. Mothers of girls with eating disorders in one study thought that their daughters ought to lose significantly more weight than mothers of girls without eating disorders thought about their daughters. Sadly, these same mothers rated their daughters as significantly less attractive than the daughters rated themselves! This is particularly amazing, given that people with eating disorders typically have low self-esteem and a negative body image, and hence are unlikely to inflate ratings of their own attractiveness. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
Data provided by mothers in an interview study indicated that mothers of daughters with bulimia nervosa were more controlling and held higher expectations for their daughters than control mothers. The effects of being in a relationship with a mother prone to such negative and excessive evaluations could be extremely caustic for an adolescent girl. The attention grated to mothers of children with eating disorders has been criticized by feminist scholars as “mother-blaming.” The tendency to see mothers as casually related to child problems is a legacy of the psychoanalytic school, which overemphasized mothers’ roles and devalued the influence of fathers. At the same time, however, psychodynamically oriented theorists argue that many girls with eating disorders use food as a means of fighting a battle (both interpersonally and intrapsychically) with their overprotective but nonempathic mothers. The data on mothers’ roles in the pathogenesis of eating disorders are alluring. Whether they represent a disrespectful and misguided focus, or a theoretically and etiologically meaningful domain of inquiry, will best be resolved through future empirical investigation, particularly with comparative collateral data from fathers. “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you,” reports Isaiah 60.1. A lot of people subconsciously feel like victims and they project this victim mentality on to others. They are so focused on what they have been through, complaining about how unfair it was, and they do not even realize they are living in the past. It is they get up each day with a new story of how hurt and weak they are and want to share that misery with others. However, one has to get some therapy, go to church, or talk to a doctor and get on some medication and let that stuff go! #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
The past does not have to poison your future. Just because you have been through the ringer, or perhaps your dreams have been shattered, that does not mean that it is the end for you. God has another plan. God still have a bright future mapped out for you on this journey. However, each and every last one of us needs to understand this one important principal: The past is not present. One cannot undo anything that has happened to one. One cannot relive one moment in the past. However, one can do something right now. Do not dwell on the negative things that have happened. Do not think about all you have lost. Do not focus on what could have been if Taylor Swift did not steal your man. Be like Celine Dion and proclaim a new day has come. If one does that, God will give one a new beginning. God allows people to grieve for a certain period of time, but then He expects them to get up and go one with their lives. However, God does not expect us to be emotionless. It is okay to allow hurts from the past to register and process, but do not hold yourself there for too long or you might miss the new man God has lined up for you. Therefore, do not let that season of mourning turn into a lifetime of dysfunction, living a sour and negative life, going around with static. Some people wake up in the morning and before they groom themselves, brush their teeth or change their underwear, they out there hating on Paris Hilton. It is what brings them joy. However, that is why no one wants them. They are miserable and unhappy, evil and ugly. No man wants that kind of sour patch in his life. We all are living through tough times, no matter how rich one is, but it is important to shake it off, shake it off, and expect good things to happen. Enjoy life. We are so blessed to be alive. Are you still sour because Beyonce got that promotion a couple of years ago instead of you? Is your attitude negative because you were not able to buy that Cresleigh Home at Millionaires Station or the Ultimate Driving Machine? Are you bitter because Paris Hilton got married and your relationship is headed for the rocks? Are you angry because you were abused as a child? #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
Are you jealous because Aaliyah’s hair is longer and more shinny than yours? Stop! Stop morning over something you do not have or something that is already over and done. You have to let go of that mentality that you are so pathetic that all you can do is lay around eating, and complaining how hard your life is. Your future can start right now. It does not matter what you have been through. God wants to turn that around. God wants you to invite him into your life. Stop lying and being jealous. No one can make you open the door to God. All others can do is encourage you, but it is your choice what type of life you want to live. Develop a successful mentality. Let love fill your heart. Greet each day with a smile and a flip of your hair. Know that God is going to make it up to you. Just because your parents could not send you to Princeton does not mean that you have to fill your life with poison. There is nothing more than the enemy loves more than to see you sour, jealous and bitter. Many people have made a lot of mistakes, but the good news is we can all repent. God wants to take those negative experiences and use them to you advantage to make you stronger. Forget what lies behind with you and press on. Jesus Christ desires us to receive Him devoutly and reverently. Jesus Christ desires us to lead Him into our home, so He will favour us. Let your soul desire Christ’s Body in your Host. Christ’s heart desires to be united with you. Let Jesus Christ hand Himself over to you, and know that will be enough to satisfy your desires. For without the Holy Presence of Christ, consolation grows stale, falls flat, loses its flavour. Without Jesus Christ, we all have the staggers. Without Jesus’ sacramental visits, we would not have the strength to carry one. Approach the Holy Table frequently. If you do not stop, Jesus will stop the Celestial Alimony, and one will lose what little sense of direction one has. When preaching to the people and healing their maladies, Jesus in His mercy sometimes had to stop cold and says, “Those of you who are fasting, I cannot send you away on empty stomachs for fear you will never make it home.” That is how Matthew put it (15.32). #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
The government is here on Earth for our well-being and to protect the rights of our citizens. Never forget that America is one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. The sovereign can entrust the government to the entire people or to the majority of the people, so that there are more citizens who are magistrates than who are ordinary private citizens. This form of government is given the name of democracy. Or else it can restrict the government to the hands of a small number, so that there are more ordinary citizens than magistrates; and this form is called aristocracy. Finally, it can concentrate the entire government in the hands of a single magistrate from whom all the others derive their power. This third form is the most common and is called monarchy or royal government. It should be noted that all these forms, or at least the first two, can be had in greater or lesser degrees, and even have a rather wide range. For democracy can include the entire populace or be restricted to half. Aristocracy, for its part, can be indeterminately restricted from half the people down to the smallest number. Even royalty can be had in varying levels of distribution. Sparta always had two kings, as required by its constitution; and the Roman Empire is known to have had up to eight emperors at a time, without it being possible to say that the empire was divided. Thus there is a point at which each form of government is indistinguishable from the next, and it is apparent that, under just three names, government can take on as many diverse forms as the state has citizens. Moreover, since this same government can, in certain respects, be subdivided into other parts, one administered in one way, another in another, there can result from the combination of these three forms a multitude of mixed forms, each of which can be multiplied by all the simple forms. There has always been a great deal of argument over the best form of government, without considering that each one of them is best in certain cases and the worst in others. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
If the number of supreme magistrates in the different states ought to be in inverse ratio to that of the citizens, it follows that in general democratic government is suited to small states, aristocratic government to states of intermediate size, and monarchical government to large ones This rule is derived immediately from the principle; but how is one to count the multitude of circumstances that can furnish exceptions? One who makes the law knows better than anyone else how it should be executed and interpreted. It seems therefore to be impossible to have a better constitution than one in which the executive power is united to the legislative power. However, this is precisely what renders such a government inadequate in certain respects, since things that should be distinguished are not, and the prince and sovereign, being merely the same person, form, as it were, only a government without a government. It is not good for the one who makes them laws to execute them, nor for the body of the people to turn its attention away from general perspectives in order to give it particular objects. Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interests on public affairs; and the abuse of the laws by the government is a lesser evil than the corruption of the legislator, which is the inevitable outcome of particular perspectives. In such a situation, since the state is being substantially altered, all reform becomes impossible. A people that would never misuse government would never misuse independence. A people that would always govern well would not need to be governed. Taking the term in the strict sense, a true democracy has never existed and never will. It is contrary to the natural order that the majority govern and the minority is governed. It is unimaginable that the people would remain constantly assembled to handle public affairs; and it is readily apparent that it could not establish commissions for this purpose without changing the form of administration. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
In fact, I believe I can lay down as a principle that when the functions of the government are shared among several tribunals, those with the fewest members sooner or later acquire the greatest authority, if and only if because of the facility in expediting public business which brings this about naturally. Besides, how many things that are difficult to unite are presupposed by this government? First, a very small state where it is easy for the people to gather together and where each citizen can easily know all the others. Second, a great simplicity of mores, which prevents the multitude of public business and thorny discussions. Next, a high degree of equality in ranks and fortunes, without which equality in rights and authority cannot subsist for long. Finally, little or no luxury, for luxury either is the effect of wealth or it makes wealth necessary. It simultaneously corrupts both the rich and the poor, the one by possession, the other by covetousness. It sells the homeland to softness and vanity. It takes all its citizens from the state in order to make them slaves to one another, and all of them to opinion. This is why a famous author has made virtue the principle of the republic. For all these conditions could not subsist without virtue. However, owing to one’s failure to have made the necessary distinctions, this great genius often lacked precision and sometimes clarity. And one did not realize that since the sovereign authority is everywhere the same, the same principle should have a place in every well constituted state, though in a greater or lesser degree, it is true, according to the form of government. Let us add that no government is so subject to civil wars and internal agitations as a democratic or popular one, since there is none that tends so forcefully and continuously to change its form, or demands greater vigilance and courage to be maintained in its own form. Above all, it is under this constitution that the citizens ought to arm oneself with force and constancy, and to say each day of one’s life from the bottom of one’s heart with a virtuous Palatine said in the Diet of Poland: Better to have liberty fraught with danger than servitude in peace. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
Were there are people of gods, it would govern itself democratically. So perfect a government is not suited to humans. The organized politico-economy substitutes for organized religion have hardly proved any better when put into active life rather than mere theory. They have introduced much hate, misery, oppression, persecution, superstition, and war, like the other. In connection with the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, Mao Tsetung wrote that the working classes would from then on take over leadership in all activities. That is to say, the least fitted by natural mental development, experience, and acquired education would dictate what was to be taught in philosophical and similar reflections about life, man, and history, if indeed such subjects would not be dropped altogether as unpractical, hence useless. The Peking Institute of Philosophy, a leading one in China, stopped publishing its journal Philosophical Research in 1966. The fundamental mistakes which is responsible for the harm and evil and misery caused when these teachings of economic equality are put into harsh practice, is to do so in separation from the teachings concerning man’s spiritual life and spiritual needs. If the two were joined together then the fanaticism, delusion, and brutality of such practice would eliminate itself. It is inevitable that a group which espouses belief in atheistic materialism will also espouse belief in the use of force and violence to establish itself and its views. If there will be no peace, it is because they do not really want it. The most frenzied exponents of materialistic values today are those who have developed enough intellect to lose their faith in the hypocrisies of conventional religion but who have lost their true intuition along with their false belief. Such are the leaders and advocates of communism everywhere. Thus the good in their development is offset by the evil. The result is spiritual chaos and social turmoil for the masses who follow them. Since both the religious and their rebels have contributed to this situation, there is no remedy save in a clearer insight on the part of both. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
It is impossible to reconcile the criminal ethics and materialistic ideology of Communism with the lofty ethics and mystical ideology of philosophy. There is no communication and every disparity between them. The itch to meddle in other people’s affairs and to mind their business for them is an ancient one. It reaches its extreme degrees in tyrannies like the Germany Nazi and the Russian Communist and certain American political parties and clubs, where state interference in the people’s lives, culture, religion, and freedom become intolerable. Never before have so many people in so many countries—even educated and supposedly sophisticated people—been so intellectually helpless, drowning, as it were, in a maelstrom of conflicting, confusing, and cacophonous ideas. Colliding visions rock our mental Universe. Every day brings some new fad, scientific finding, religion, movement, or manifesto. Nature worship, ESP, holistic medicine, sociobiology, anarchism, structuralism, neo-Marxism, the new physics, Eastern mysticism, technophilia, technophobia, social media, the Internet, and a thousand other currents and crosscurrents sweep across the screen of consciousness, each with its scientific priesthood or ten-minute guru. We see a mounting attack on establishment science. We see a wildfire revival of fundamentalist religion and a desperate search for something—almost anything—to believe in. Much of this confusion is actually the result of an intensifying cultural war—the collision of an emerging Third Wave culture with the entrenched ideas and assumptions of industrial society. For just as the Second Wave engulfed traditional views and spread the belief system I call indust-reality, so today we see the beginnings of a philosophical revolt aimed at overthrowing the reigning assumptions of the past 360 years. They key ideas of the industrial period are being discredited, discounted, superseded, or subsumed into much larger and more powerful theories. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
The core beliefs of Second Wave civilization did not win acceptance during the nearly past four centuries without a bitter struggle. In science, in education, in religion, in a thousand fields, the “progressive” thinkers of the industrialism fought against the “reactionary” thinkers who reflected and rationalized agricultural societies. Today it the defenders of industrialism who have their backs against the wall as a new, Third Wave culture has taken form. Nothing illustrates this clash of ideas more clearly than our changing image of nature. In the past decade a Worldwide environmental movement has sprung up in response to fundamental, potentially dangerous changes in the Earth’s biosphere. And this movement has done more than attack pollution, food additives, nuclear reactors, highways, and hairspray aerosols. It has also forced us to rethink or dependency on nature. As a consequence, instead of conceiving ourselves as engaged in a bloody way with nature, we are moving toward a fresh view that emphasizes symbiosis or harmony with the earth. We are shifting from an adversary to a nonadversary posture. At the scientific level, this has led to thousands of studies aimed at understanding ecological relationships so that we can soften out impacts on nature or channel them in constructive ways. We have just begun to appreciate the complexity and dynamism of these relationships and to reconceptualize society itself in terms of recycling, renewability, and the carrying capacity of natural systems. All this is mirrored in a corresponding shift of popular attitudes toward nature. Whether we examine opinion surveys or the lyrics of pop songs, the visual imagery in advertising or the content of sermons, we find evidence of a heightened, though often romantic regard for nature. City dwellers by the millions of years for the countryside, and the Urban Land Institute reports a significant population shift toward rural areas. Interest in natural foods, hunting one’s own food, and natural childbirth, biorhythms, or body care has boomed in recent years. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
And public suspicion of technology is so widespread that even the most single-minded pursuers of GNP (Gross National Product) today pay at least lip service to the idea that nature must be protected, not raped—that the adverse side effects of technology on nature must be anticipated and prevented, not simply ignored. Because our power to damage has escalated, the Earth now is regarded as far more fragile than Second Wave civilization suspected. At the same time, it is seen as a diminishing dot in a Universe that grows larger and more complex with every passing moment. Since the Third way began some 85 years ago, scientists have developed a whole battery of new tools for probing nature’s most distant reaches. In turn these lasers, rockets, accelerators, plasmas, fantastic photographic capabilities, computers, laser lock cutters, and colliding-beam devices have burst our conception of what surrounds us. We are not looking at phenomena that are bigger, smaller, and faster by orders of magnitudes than any we examined during the Second Wave. Today we are probing phenomena that are as tiny as 1/1,000,000,000,000,000th of a centimeter in an explorable Universe whose edge lies at least 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away. We are studying phenomena so short-lived that they occur in 1/10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000th of a second. By contrast our astronomers and cosmologists tell us the Universe is some 20,000,000,000 years old. The sheer scale of explorable nature has burst beyond yesterday’s wildest assumptions. Moreover, in this swirling vastness, we are told, the Earth may not be the only inhabited sphere. Says astronomer Otto Struve, “the vast number of stars that mist possess planets, the conclusions of many biologists that life is an inherent property of certain types of complicated molecules or aggregates of molecules, the uniformity throughout the Universe of the chemical elements, the light and heat emitted by solar-type stars, and the occurrence of water not only on the Earth but on Mars and Venus, compel us to revise out thinking” and consider the possibility of extraterrestrial life. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
This does not mean little green humanoids. And it does not mean (or not mean) UFOs. However, by suggesting that life is not unique to the Earth, it further alters our perception of nature and our place in it. Since 1960, scientists have been listening in the dark, hoping to detect signals from some distant intelligence. The United States of America’s Congress has held hearings on “The Possibility of Intelligent Life Elsewhere in the Universe.” And the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, as it streaked into interstellar space carried with it a pictorial greeting to extraterrestrials. There is a rover on Mars surveying and taking pictures, and even private corporations planning to go into outer space. As the Third Wave dawns, our own planet seems much smaller and more vulnerable. Our place in the Universe seems less grandiose. And even the remote possibility that we are not alone gives us pause. Our image of nature is not what it used to be. Someday, let us be sure, the World will recognize all that it owes to those noble pioneers who, at the risk of obloquy, had the vision to see the fate that Threatens Man and the courage to face it with hope. Dear Lord in Heaven, I know the ashes signify that which has been destroyed in my life, but beginning this moment, I believe You can bring new fire into my life. I refuse to dwell on my disappointments. Instead, I will trust You for new appointments. Remember, remember, the circles of the sky, the stars and the brown eagle, the supernatural winds breathing night and day from the four directions. Remember, remember the great life of the sun breathing on the Earth, it lies upon the Earth to bring out life upon the Earth, life covering the Earth. Remember, remember the sacredness of things running streams and dwellings the young within the nest, a hearth for sacred fire the holy ray of light. Thou sustainest the living with lovingkindness, and in great mercy callest the departed to everlasting life. Thou upholdest the falling, healest the sick, settest free those in bondage, and keepest faith with those that sleep in the durst. Who is like unto Thee, Almighty King, who decreest death and life and bringest forth salvation? Who may be compared to Thee, Father of mercy, who in love rememberest thy creatures unto life? Faithful art Thou to grant eternal life to the departed. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who callest the dead to everlasting. Holy art Thou, and holy is Thy name and unto Thee holy beings render praise daily. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the holy God. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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If you want something from an audience, you give blood to their fantasies. It is the ultimate hustle. As 1800 approached, the treatment of people with mental disorders began to improve once again. Historians usually point to La Bicetre, and asylum in Paris for male patients, as the first site of asylum reform. In 1793, during the French Revolution, Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) was named the chief physician there. He argued that the patients were sick people whose illness should be treated with sympathy and kindness rather than chains and beatings. He unchained them and allowed them to move freely about the hospital grounds, replaced the dark dungeons with sunny, well-ventilated rooms, and offered support and advice. Dr. Pinel’s approach proved remarkably successful. Patients who had been shut away for decades were now enjoying fresh air and sunlight and being treated with dignity. Many improved greatly over a short period of time and were released. Dr. Pinel later brought similar reforms to a mental hospital in Paris, France for female patients, La Salpetriere. Jean Esquirol (1772-1840), Dr. Pinel’s student and successor, went on to help establish 10 new mental hospitals that operated on the same principles. Meanwhile an English Quaker named William Tuke (1732-1819) was bringing similar reforms to northern England. In 1796 he founded the York Retreat, a rural estate where about 30 mental patients lived as guests in quiet country houses and were treated with a combination of rest, talk, prayer, and manual work. “For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],” reports Romans 8.3. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
The spread of moral treatment—the methods of Dr. Pinel and Mr. Tuke, called spectful techniques, caught on throughout Europe and the United States of America. Patients with psychological problems were increasingly perceived as potentially productive human beings whose mental functioning had broken down under stress. They were considered deserving of individual care, including discussions of their problems, useful activities, work, companionship, and quiet. The person most responsible for the early spread of moral treatment in the United States of America was Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), an eminent physician at Pennsylvania Hospital. Limiting his practice to mental illness, Dr. Rush developed innovative, humane approaches to treatment. For example, he required that the hospital hire intelligent and sensitive attendant to work closely with patients, reading and talking to them and taking them on regular walks. He also suggested that it would be therapeutic for doctors to give small gifts to their patients now and then. Dr. Rush, widely considered the father of American psychiatry, also wrote the first American treatise on mental illness and organized the first American course in psychiatry. Dr. Rush’s work was influential, but it was a Boston Schoolteacher named Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) who made humane care a public and political concern in the United States of America. In 1841 Mrs. Dix had gone to teach Sunday school at a local prison and been shocked by the conditions she saw there. Before long, her interest in prison conditions broadened to include the plight of poor and mentally ill people throughout the country. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
A powerful campaigner, Mrs. Dix went from state legislature to state legislature speaking of the horrors she had observed and calling for reform. Similarly, she told the Congress of the United States of America that mentally ill people across the country were still being “bound with galling chains, bowed beneath fetters and heavy iron balls attached to drag chains, lacerated with ropes, scourged with rods and terrified beneath storms of execration and cruel blows.” From 1841 until 1881, Mrs. Dix fought for new laws and greater government funding to improve the treatment of people with mental disorders. Each state was made responsible for developing effective public mental hospitals. Mrs. Dix personally helped established 32 of these state hospitals (state-run public mental institutions in the United States of America), all intended to offer moral treatment. Similar hospitals were established throughout Europe. The Decline of moral treatment—as we have observed, the treatment of abnormality has followed a crooked path. Over and over again, relative progress has been followed by serious decline. Viewed in this context, it is not surprising that the moral treatment movement began to decline toward the end of the nineteenth century. Several factors were responsible. One was the speed with which the moral movement had spread. As mental hospitals multiplied, severe money and staffing shortages developed, recovery rates declined, and overcrowding in the hospitals became a major problem. Under such conditions it was often impossible to provide individual care and genuine concern. Another factor was the assumption behind moral treatment that if treated with humanity and dignity, all patients could be cured. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
For some, being treated with compassion and respect was indeed sufficient. Others, however, needed more effective treatments than any that had yet been developed. Many of these people remained hospitalized until they died. An additional factor contributing to the decline of moral treatment was the emergence of a new wave of prejudice against people with mental disorders. As more and more patients disappeared into large distant mental hospitals, the public came to view them as strange and dangerous. In turn, people were less open-handed when it came to making donations or allocating government funds. Moreover, many of the patients entering public mental hospitals in the United States of America in the late nineteenth century were impoverished foreign immigrants, whom the public had little interest in helping. By the early years of the twentieth century, the moral treatment movement had ground to a halt in both the United States of America and Europe. Public mental hospitals were providing only custodial care and ineffective medical treatments and were becoming more overcrowded every year. Long-term hospitalization became the rule once again. Beware of the evil eye—a number of demonological explanations for abnormal behaviour continue in today’s World. In rural Pakistan, for example, many parents apply special makeup around the eyes of their young children, as their ancestors have done for centuries. A paste of hazelnut powder and several oils, known as surma, is applied partly to protect the eyes from the smoke given off by home heating fires and partly to cool and clean the eyes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
However, another less acknowledged reason is to ward off nazar, the “evil eye,” thought to be responsible for the many deaths among the infants and for poor health and behavioural problems in those who survive. The American Psychiatric Association recognizes two distinct subtypes of eating disorders: anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Obesity is currently considered more of a medical condition than a mental health problem. The defining features of anorexia nervosa include a refusal to maintain a normal body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbance in body image and perception. Bulimia nervosa is defined by recurrent episodes of uncontrolled binge eating, inappropriate compensatory behaviours to control weight gain (exempli gratia, self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics), and an undue influence of body shape and weight on self-evaluations. A chief difference between the two disorders is that individuals with bulimia nervosa are able to maintain their body weight at or above normally prescribed levels, whereas those with anorexia nervosa have a body weight below 85 percent of what is expected. Similar to depression and alcoholism, eating disorders, especially anorexia nervosa, have a lethal component. The long-term mortality for those afflicted with anorexia nervosa is estimated to be over 10 percent. The standardizes mortality ratio (observed mortality divided by expected mortality) for people with eating disorders is 3.6 for people under 20 years of age, 9.9 for those aged 20-29, and 5.7 for those over age 30. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
Among females, the lifetime prevalence of anorexia nervosa has been estimated at 0.5 percent, and 1.3 percent for bulimia nervosa. The descriptions of these disorders in the DSM-VI-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2023). The description of these disorders in the DSM-VI-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2023) contain references to interpersonal problems. Associated features of anorexia nervosa include social withdrawal and lessened interest in pleasures of the flesh; episodes of binge eating associated with bulimia nervosa are often triggered by interpersonal stressors. Research on interpersonal relationships and eating disorders has been typical of the work on interpersonal relationships and mental healthy more generally. The recognition of some type of relational difficulty associated with the disorder predates current investigations by at least a century and a quarter. One of Lasegue’s more notable contributions was the suggestion of “prentectomy”—hospitalization of the patients to remove them from exacerbating parental forces. Family-of-origin relationships in particular have been a focal point in this line of work. Finally, the proliferation of studies on this associated feature of eating disorders has been particularly evident over the past 50 years. In one longitudinal investigation, patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa were followed for a period of 5 years. Among the most notable features of those who did not recover over the course of the investigation (53 percent) were unsatisfactory family-of-origin relationships and problems with making personal contacts outside the family. Findings such as these are suggestive of the important role played by social relationships in the course of the disorder. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
As noted above, research emanating from the interpersonal paradigm has sought to understand eating disorders largely through a focus on family-of-origin experiences. Extreme levels of family adaptability and cohesion, family expressed emotion (EE), inappropriate parental pressure, low parental care, parental overinvolvement, sexual abuse, and battles for control are dominant themes in the family histories of people with eating disorders. Some models and theories suggest that these family-of-origin processes play a critical role in the development of these disorders. Some problems with interpersonal communication may be secondary to these pathological family processes. In particular, there is some evidence linked childhood sexual abuse to a failure to develop adequate social skills, which in turn contributes to the development of eating disorders. Recent studies on the general personal relationships of people with eating disorders are also suggestive of interpersonal difficulties. Interpersonal rejection and distressed personal relationships are common problems in this population. Findings on family-of-origin experiences show that among those who are married, there is a strong association between eating disorders and marital distress. Like so many other psychological problems, eating disorders are situated in a network of other psychological problems with which they coexist, such as depression, borderline personality disorder (BPD), substance use disorders, and anxiety disorders. In the family-of-orientation experiences in eating disorders, there are family process variables. There is a dysfunctional interaction pattern among families of patients with anorexia nervosa. The interaction in these families often minimized conflict, with a rigid, nonadaptable style. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
These interactions were argued to be entwined with the symptoms of the disorder. Other family systems researchers and clinicians also saw eating disorders as built into and around family relations. Significant others usually interact with the bulimic in ways that exaggerate relationship characteristics that were present, but in a more subtle form, before the bulimia was revealed. The bulimia becomes a symptom around which the whole family revolves. While it may appear to be the individual’s problem, bulimia is a signal that the environment is not meeting one’s needs. In a family system perspective, disordered eating is understood to be caused and maintained by a family’s interpersonal behaviour, which itself is assumed to be influenced by the disordered eating of one of its members. Family process variables continue to receive a great deal of attention from those who seek to explain the origins and course of eating disorders. Examples of this can be found in the investigations on family cohesion and family adaptability. System-oriented researchers have emphasized these variables as two dimensions of family relationships that are crucial to healthy family functioning, provided that neither one is too extreme. Multiple studies indicate that eating disorders are associated with perceptions of low family cohesion. Although this finding has been relatively stable across child and parent reports, children with eating disorders give lower ratings of their families’ cohesiveness than their parents do. Generally, daughters’ ratings of family interaction have more diagnostic utility for predicting their eating disorders than mothers’ and especially fathers’ ratings do. Regardless of which family member’s perception is actually “correct,” the fact that a parent and a child with an eating disorder differ in their view of the family’s cohesiveness is perhaps itself diagnostically significant. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
Investigations of family adaptability have yielded less consistent results than those of cohesion. Some evidence indicates a negative association between family adaptability and symptoms of eating disorders. However, a study found more chaos, less organization, and more poorly defined boundaries in the family, all suggestive of pathologically high level of adaptability, among patients with eating disorders. In most studies, the families appeared to be extreme in their adaptability (either too much or too little) indicating potentially detrimental family relations. As in schizophrenia, family EE is emerging as an important family process variable in eating disorders. Investigation indicated that aspects of maternal EE during the interactions of patients with eating disorders and their families explained 28-34 percent of the variance in the patients’ eventual outcome and response to therapy. The extent to which mothers made openly critical comments during family interaction assessment was a stronger predictor of patients’ outcomes than a host of other impressive predictors, such as premorbid body weight, duration of illness, body mass index, and age at onset. Inappropriate parental pressure is a phenomenon that may be particularly prominent in families of people with eating disorders. When compared to both psychiatric controls and nonpsychiatric controls, one sample of patients with eating disorders experienced excessive pressure from parents. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
This phenomenon is described as “gender-inappropriate pressure, age-inappropriate pressure, and inappropriate to the child’s abilities…the adolescents felt that they had been forced into an exaggerated feminine style of behaviour, that their parents had discussed topis (such as parental pleasures of the flesh) before the adolescents were prepared to deal with such subjects, and that the adolescents had been made to engage in activities which reflected their parents’ ambitions rather than their own. This leaves an adolescent in a state of conflict between premature exposure to the World of adults and anxiety over what is involved in that World, such as sexuality and high levels of achievement. Perhaps by exerting control over their own eating, adolescents may gain some feeling of mastery or control over this conflict. The families of patients with eating disorders identified four mechanisms by which family members contributed to the eating disorders, two of which are indicative of inappropriate parental pressure: high emphasis on achievement/perfection and overconcern with beauty/appearance/thinness. In American society, it is easy to locate very young children involved in competitive activities such as gymnastics, figure skating, ballet, and beauty contests. When 3- and 4- year-olds are seriously involved in such endeavours, it is difficult to avoid wondering about whose ambition is being pursued. In cases where the motivation come largely from the parents, and where the activity places an emphasis on physical appearance, the risk for later development of eating disorders is serious. Excessive parental pressure may also engender a sense of perfectionism among children. Perfectionism involves both self-oriented aspects (expecting the self to be perfect) and socially prescribed aspects (perceiving that other expect perfection). #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
Perfectionism has proven to be a risk factor for bulimia nervosa, particularly for women who are otherwise low in self-esteem. By pressuring their children to achieve, parents may inadvertently convey the attitude that anything less than “perfect” is a failure. Children who harbour such an attitude, and then perceive that they are not meeting some perfect standard of weight or body image, may engage in binge eating as an escape response to their painful self-awareness, which is then corrected with purging. Other family process variable that have been implicated in eating disorders include disturbed affective expression, low levels of family communication, lack of parental care, excessive parental overprotectiveness and intrusiveness, and excessive parental control. This last variable has particular significance, in that that symptoms of eating disorders may be overt manifestations of a struggle for control. Particularly among women with eating disorders and a history of sexual abuse, an external locus of control (id est, feeling little personal control over one’s fate) is common. Although the struggle for control may originally be with the parents, there is no reason to believe that it may extend to others with whom such women are in relationships. The rather paradoxical nature of some of these family processes in eating disorders is nicely illustrated. It was found that parents of patients with anorexia nervosa were simultaneously more nurturing and comforting, but also more ignoring and neglecting of their daughters, than were parents of either healthy controls or patients with bulimia nervosa. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
In contrast, the patients with bulimia nervosa and their parents showed signs of hostile enmeshment. These mixed messages create ambivalence about separation for daughters with anorexia nervosa. “Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us. For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height not depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” reports Romans 8.37-39. We all make mistakes, but God does not disqualify us simply because we have failed. He is the God of forgiveness. Even if you have missed your journey, God will always find a way to get you to a position of success. Some people have made some serious mistakes; they have done some things that were not the best for their life, and now they are living in guilt, condemnation, or with a sense of disqualification and disappointment and disillusionment. Several individuals feel they are in a trap house. The way to escape the trap house and trap spouse is to seek and receive God’s mercy and forgiveness, and move on with one’s life. Let go of the condemnation of the past mistakes. Seek God’s forgiveness, pick up the pieces and move on. God still have a great future for you. Keep on striving for success, continue, expect, endure in the face of opposition. Be persistent. Do not leave until you receive. Be just that stubborn about things that are significance to you, as long as it is safe and a rational desire. Have a persistent faith. True faith asks and receives. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
Persistent faith is faith that receives or takes from God. Faith takes This is what Jesus Christ is telling us. “Ask once and you receive.” That is consistent with Jesus’ teaching on prayer. Receive and keep on receiving every time you ask. If you child asks you for food, you would it to him or her. You would not make one ask a hundred more times, then change your mind The enemy would like for you to believe that is what God is like. That kind of thinking will lead one into error and hold one in bondage. The adversary wants to twist the Word and distort your image of God. Jesus Christ said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh recieiveth.” Jesus Christ said it, ad you can be sure Jesus meant what He said. Father, today I receive Your mercy and forgiveness. Despite my past, I believe You still have great things in store for me. Teach me how to shake off disappointment, guilt, or condemnation and live today in an attitude of faith. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” reports 1 John 1.9. The intellect, uncontrolled by intuition and unguided by revelation, has spawned the two great masters of our time—Science holding the atom bomb and Communism holding the revolution. Science, which is the last century promised so much, gave us the terrible problem of atomic war instead. Its ardent advocates pointed at it only yesterday as the road to our salvation. Today it has become the road to our destruction. This is not to say that it was a false light, but that we mistook its proper place and claimed too much for its human possibilities. We let it run away with us and our religion. We lost ourselves and our bearings. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
The atom bomb made us regard Nature as self-operative in a solely mechanical way. It left life on Earth without spiritual meaning, without moral purpose. Communism is another Heaven-promising panacea which has helped to make this Earth a little hell. If it accepts the leadership of humans, such as Communists, who regard conscience as a disease, there can be no worthwhile future for humanity. The Communist insensibility in practice to human suffering accords ill with its vaunted idealism in theory. Communism’s twisted ethic of wild hatred, its hard cruel face, its blind slavish obedience to a brutal organization which cares more for itself than for the workers it was supposed to save, its insane preachments against religion and denial of life beyond matter, have brought enough suffering to makes claims sound absurdly exaggerated. However, the intellectual movement which produced Science and the social movement which produced Communism will not continue unchecked. They are approaching the utmost limit possible. The violent materialism for which they are responsible will culminate in the next Armageddon, which will not only end them, but also end the epoch itself. In order to lay out the general cause of the difference, a distinction has to be made here between the prince and the government. The body of the magistrates can be made up of a larger or smaller number of members. We have said that the ratio of the sovereign to the subjects was greater in proportion as the populace was more numerous, and by a manifest analogy we can say the same thing about the government in relation to the magistrates. Since the total force of the government is always that of the state, it does not vary. Whence it follows that the more of this force it uses on its own members, the less that is left to it for acting on the whole populace. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
Therefore, the more numerous the magistrates, the weaker the government. Since this maxim is fundamental, let us attempt to explain it more clearly. We can distinguish in the person of the magistrate three essentially different wills. First, the individual’s own will, which tends only to its own advantage. Second, the common will of the magistrates which is uniquely related to the advantage of the price. This latter can be called the corporate will, and is general in relation to the government, and particular in relation to the state, of which the government form a part. Third, the will of the people or the sovereign will, which is general both in relation to the state considered as the whole and in relation to the government considered as part of the whole. In a perfect act of legislation, the private or individual will should be nonexistent; the corporate power will proper to the government should be very subordinate; and consequently the general or sovereign will should always be dominant and the unique rule of all the others. According to the natural order, on the contrary, these various wills become more active in proportion as they are the more concentrated. Thus the general will is always the weakest, the corporate will has second place, and the private will is first of all, so that in the government each member is first oneself, then a magistrate, and then a citizen—a gradation directly opposite to the one required by the social order. Granting this, let us suppose the entire government is in the hands of one single human. In that case the private will and the corporate will are perfectly united, and consequently the latter is at the highest degree of intensity it can reach. However, since the use of force is dependent upon the degree of will, and since the absolute force of the government does not vary one bit, it follows that the most active of governments is that of one single human. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
On the other hand, let us suppose we are uniting the government to the legislative authority. Let us make the sovereign the prince and all the citizens that many magistrates. Then the corporate will, confused with the general will, will have no more activity than the latter, and will leave the private will all its force. Thus the government, always with the same absolute force, will have it minimum relative force or activity. These relationships are incontestable, and there are still other considerations that serve to confirm them. We see, for example, that each magistrate is more active in one’s body than each citizen is in one’s, and consequently that the private will has much more influence on the acts of the government than on those of the sovereign. For each magistrate is nearly always charged with the responsibility for some function of government, whereas each citizen, taken by oneself, exercises no function of sovereignty. Moreover, the more the state is extended, the more its real force increases, although it does not increase in proportion to its size. However, if the state remains the same, the magistrates may well be multiplied without the government acquiring any greater real force, since this force is that of the state, whose size is always equal. Thus the relative force or activity of the government diminishes without its absolute or real force being able to increase. It is also certain that the execution of public business becomes slower in proportion as more people are charged with the responsibility for it; that in attaching too much importance to prudence, too little importance is attached to fortune, opportunities are missed, and the fruits of deliberation are often lost by dint of deliberation. I have just proved that the government becomes slack in proportion as the magistrates are multiplied; and I have previously proved that the more numerous the people, the greater should be the increase of repressive force. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
Whence it follows that the ratio of the magistrate to the government should be the inverse of the ratio of the subjects to the sovereign; that is to say, the more the state increases in size, the more the government should shrink, so that the number of leaders decreases in proportion to the number of people. I should add that I am speaking here only about the relative force of the government and not about its rectitude. For, on the contrary, the more numerous the magistrates, the more closely the corporate will approaches the general will, whereas under a single magistrate, the same corporate will is, as I have said, merely a particular will thus what can be gained on the one hand is lost on the other, and the art of the legislator is to know how to determine the point at which the government’s will and force, always in a reciprocal proportion, are combined in the relationship that is most advantageous to the state. What has gone almost unnoticed is not merely a change in the patterns of participation in the market but, even more fundamentally, the completion of the entire historical process of market-building. This turning point is so revolutionary in its implications, yet so subtle, that capitalist and Marxist thinkers alike, lost in their Second Wave polemics, have scarcely noticed its signs. It fits into neither of their theories and thus has remained undetectably by them. The human race has been busy constructing a Worldwide exchange network—a market—for at least 10,000 years. In the past 360 years, ever since the Second Wave began, this process has roared forward at very high speed. Second Wave civilization “marketized” the World. Today—at the very moment when prosuming begins to rise again—this process is coming to and end. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
The immense historical meaning of this cannot be appreciated unless we are clear about what a market exchange network is. It helps to imagine it as a pipeline. When the industrial revolution burst forth on the Earth, launching the Second Wave, very few people on the planet were tired into the money system. Trade existed but only the peripheries of society were touched by it. The various networks of jobbers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, bankers, and other elements of the trade system were small and rudimentary—providing only a few narrow pipelines through which goods and money might flow. For 360 years we poured Earth-cracking energies into building this pipeline. In was accomplished in three ways. First the merchants and mercenaries of the Second Wave civilization spread around the globe, inviting or coercing new populations to enter the market—to produce more and prosume less. Self-sufficient African tribesmen were induced or compelled to grow cash crops and dig copper. Asian who once grew their own food were put to work on plantation instead, trapping rubber trees to put tires on automobiles. Latin Americas began growing coffee for ale in Europe and the Untied States of America. With each such development the pipeline was built or further elaborated and more and more populations drawn into dependence on it. The second way in which the market expanded was through the increasing “commoditization” of life. Not only were larger populations enmeshed in the market but more and more goods and services were designed for the market, requiring a continual enlargement of the “channel capacity” of the system—a widening, as it were, of the diameter of the pipes. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
Finally, the market expanded in another way. As society and the economy grew more complex, the number of transactions required for, say, a single bar of soap to pass from producer to consumer multiplied. The more intermediaries, the more ramified the maze of channels or pipes became. This growing elaborateness of the system was itself a form of further development, like the addition of still more special tubes and values to a pipeline. Today all these forms of market expansion are reaching their outer limits. Few populations still remain to be brought into the market. Only a handful of the remotest people remain untouched by the market. Even the hundreds of millions of subsistence farmers in poor countries are at least partially integrated into the market and the accompanying money system. What remains, therefore, is a mopping-up operation at best. The market can no longer expand by engulfing vast new populations. The second form of expansion is still at least theoretically possible. With imagination, we can still, no doubt, think up additional services or goods to sell or barter. However, it is precisely here that the rise of the prosumer becomes significant. The relationships between Sector A and Sector B are complex, and many of the activities of prosumers depend on the purchase of materials or tools from the market. However, the rise of self-help, in particular, and the de-marketization of many goods and services suggests that here, too, the end of the process of marketization may be insight. Lastly, the increasing elaborateness of the “pipeline”—the growing complexity of distribution, the interpolation of more and more middlemen—also appears to be reaching a point of no return. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
The costs of exchange itself, even as conventionally measured, are now outrunning the costs of material production in many fields. At some point this process reaches a limit. Computers, meanwhile, and the emergence of a prosumer-activated technology both point to smaller inventories and simplified, rather than more complex chains of distribution. Once again, therefore, the evidence points to the end of the process of marketization, if not in our time, then soon after. If our “pipeline project” is nearing completion, what might this mean for our work, our values, and our psyches? A market, after all, does not consist of the steal or shoes or cotton or canned food that flows through it. The market is the structure through which such goods and services are routed. Moreover, it is not simply an economic structure. It is a way of organizing people, a way of thinking, an ethos, and a shared set of expectations (exempli gratia, the expectation that goods purchased will indeed be delivered). The market is thus as much a psychosocial structure as an economic reality. And its effects far transcend economics. By systematically interrelating billions of people to one another, the market produced a World in which no one had independent control over one’s destiny—no person, no nation, no culture. It brought with it the belief that economics and economic motivation were the primary forces in human life. It fostered a view of life as a succession of contractual transactions, and of society as bound together by the “marriage contract” or the “social contract.” Marketization thus shaped the thoughts and values, as well as the actions, of billions and set the tone of Second Wave civilization. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
It took an enormous investment of time, energy, capital, culture, and raw materials to create a situation in which a purchasing agent in South Carolina could do business with an unseen and unknown clerk in South Korea—each with one’s own abacus or computer, each with an internalized image of the market, each with a set of expectations about the other, each performing certain predictable acts because both have been life-trained to play certain prespecified roles, each part of a giant global system involving millions, indeed billions, of others. One might plausibly argue that the construction of this elaborate structure of human relationships, and its explosive diffusion around the planet, was the single most impressive achievement of Second Wave civilization, dwarfing even its spectacular technological achievements. The step-by-step creation of this essentially sociocultural and psychological structure for exchange (quite apart from the torrent of goods and services that flowed through it) can be likened to the building of the Egyptian pyramids, the Roman aqueducts, the Great Wall of China, and the medieval cathedrals, combined and multiplied a thousandfold. This grandest construction project of all history, the laying into place of the tubes and channels through which much of the economic life of civilization pulsed and flowed, gave Second Wave civilization everywhere its inner dynamism and propulsive thrust. Indeed, if this now dying civilization can be said to have had a mission at all, it was to marketize the World. Today that mission is almost fulfilled. The heroic age of market-building is over—to be replaced by a new phase in which we merely maintain, renovate, and update pipeline. We will undoubtedly have to redesign important pieced of it to accommodate radically increased flows of information #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
The system will increasingly depend on electronics, biology and new social technologies. This, too, will no doubt require resources, imagination, and capital. However, compared with the exhausting effort of Second Wave marketization, this renewal program will absorb a far smaller fraction of our time, energy, capital, and imagination. It will use less, not more, hardware and fewer, not more people than the original process of construction. However complex conversion process to be, marketization will fail to be the central project of the civilization. More and more people are seeking intimacy, personality, and humanity. The Third Wave is therefore producing history’s first “transmarket” civilization. By trans-market I do not mean a civilization without exchange networks—a World thrown back into small, isolated, completely self-sufficient communities unable or unwilling to trade with one another. I do not mean a move backward. By “trans-market” I mean a civilization that is dependent on the market but is no longer consumed by the need to build, extend, elaborate, and integrate this structure. A civilization able to move on to a new agenda—precisely because the market has already been laid in place. And just as no one living in the sixteenth century could have imagined how the growth of the market would change the World’s agenda in terms of technology, politics, religion, art, social life, law, marriage, or personality development—so too it is extremely difficult for us today to envision the long-range effects of the end of marketization Yet these are likely to radiate into every cranny of our children’s lives, if not our own. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
The marketization project exacted a price. Even in purely economic terms this price was enormous. As the productivity of the human race rose during the past three hundred years, a significant part of that productivity—in both sectors—was set aside and allocated to the market-building project. With the basic construction task now virtually complete, the enormous energies previously poured into building the World market system become available for other human purposes. From this fact alone will flow a limitless array of civilization changes. New religions will be born. Works of art on a hitherto unimagined scale. Fantastic scientific advances. And, above all, wholly new kinds of social and political institutions. What is at stake today is more than capitalism or socialism, more than energy, food, population, capital, raw material, or jobs; what is at stake is the role of the market in our lives and the future of civilization itself. This, at its core is what the rise of the prosumer is about. Change in the deep-structure of the economy is part of the same wave of interrelated changes now striking our energy base, our technology, or information system, and our family and business institutions. These are intertwined, in turn with the way we view the World. And in this sphere, too, we are undergoing an historic upheaval. For the entire World view of industrial civilization—indust-reality—is not being revolutionized. Excerpt from an article in a Czech magazine on contemporary Czech literature: “Those ideals which were formerly given to the World by prophets of religion, headed by Jesus the Nazarene, are now practically applied by scientific socialists beginning with Karl Marx.” Such is the plausible self-deception into which so many intellectuals have fallen. This quotation shows a grave lack of understanding of religion, of the prophets, and especially of Jesus. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
This distance between the Nazarene and the author of the First Communist Manifesto is not merely horizontal, it is vertical. The two men stand on different levels, belong to different Worlds. The presence of hatred as one of its animating ingredients is a moral disadvantage to any social movement. This is one reason why modern Communism is built on an unsure foundation. From the Center Galactic Source which is everywhere at once, may everything be known as the light of mutual love. O Hidden Life vibrant in every atom; O Hidden Light! shining in every creature; O Hidden Love! embracing all in Oneness; may each who feels oneself as one with Thee, know one is also one with every other. 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. 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. When I call upon the Lord, ascribe greatness unto our God. O Lord, open Thou my lips and my mouth shall declare Thy praise. Praised art Thou, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, mighty, revered and exalted God. Thou bestowest lovingkindness and possessest all things. Mindful of the patriarchs’ love for Thee, Thou wilt in Thy love bring a redeemer to their children’s children for the sake of Thy name. Remember us unto life, O King who delightest in life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life so that we may live worthily for Thy sake, O Lord of life. O King, Thou Helper, Redeemer and Shield, be Thou praised, O Lord, Shield of Abraham. Thou, O Lord, art mighty forever. Thou callest the dead to immortal life for Thou art mighty in deliverance. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
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Tell Me What to Do. I’m Sorry. Protect Me. I Can’t. Pray for Me. Help. It’s No Use Anyway.
So much for what you know, My dear Devout. Now let me tell you some things you may not know. When you receive this Sacramento, Spiritual Grace is conferred, and Virtue dimmed is restored to its original beauty. Once covered with soot and sin, the pallid soul will soon blush into a full palette of colours. Sometimes this grace is so great and devotion so great and devotion so pent that they burst, coursing through not just the mind, but the body, replacing weakness with strength. Yet, our own tepidity and negligence cause a great deal of pain, even misery. We should be drawn to receive You, O Christ, with greater affection, but we are not. How is this possible since You are the Total Hope, Total Merit, of those who will be saved? You are our Sanctification and Redemption, are you not? Consolation of us poor wayfarers, and the Eternal Fruition of the Saints? And so it is that Jesus Christ Grieves—and grieves again—that so many turn so little to this Salutary Mystery, which praises Heaven and supports the World! Alas, how blind, how hard, the human heart is! We should develop more devotion to the Ineffable Gift we receive every Sunday. If our devotion takes a dip, as for the rest of these days of the week, then we should do something about it. In any given year as many as 30 percent of the adults and 20 percent of the children and adolescents in the United States of America display serious psychological disturbances and are in need of clinical treatment. It is estimated that up to 25 percent of adults have a significant anxiety disorder (in flexible and maladaptive personality traits), 1 percent has schizophrenia (loses touch with reality for an extended period of time), 1 experiences the brain deterioration of Alzheimer’s disease, and 11 percent abuse alcohol or other drugs. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Add to these figures as many as 600,000 suicide attempts, 500,000 sexual assaults by physical force, and 3 million cases of child abuse each year, and it becomes apparent that abnormal psychological functioning is a pervasive problem in this country. The numbers and rates in other countries are similarly high. Furthermore, most people go through periods of extreme tension, demoralization, or other forms of psychological discomfort in their lives and at such times experience at least some of the distress associated with psychological disorders. It is tempting to conclude that unique characteristics of the modern World are responsible for these numerous emotional problems—perhaps rapid technological change, the growing threats of terrorism, or a decline in religious, family, or other support systems. Although the special pressures of modern life probably do contribute to psychological dysfunctioing, they are hardly its primary cause. Historical records demonstrate every society, past and present has witnessed psychological abnormality. Perhaps, then, the proper place to begin our examination of abnormal behavior and treatment is in the past. As we look back, we can see how each society has struggled to understand and treat psychological problems, and we can observe that many present-day ideas and treatments have roots in the past. A look backward makes it clear that progress in the understanding and treatment of mental disorders has already been a steady movement forward. In fact, many of the inadequacies and controversies that mark the clinical field today parallel those of the past. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
At the same time, looking back can help us to appreciate the significance of recent breakthroughs and the importance of the journey that lies ahead. Most of our knowledge of prehistoric societies has been acquired indirectly and is based on inferences made from archaeological discoveries. Historians scrutinize the unearthed bones, artwork, and other remnants of ancient societies to find clues to people’s customs and beliefs. Any conclusions are at the best tentative and are always subject to revision in the face of new discoveries. Thus our knowledge of how ancient societies viewed and treated people with mental disturbances is limited. Most historians believe that prehistoric societies regarded abnormal behaviour as the work of evil spirits. These early societies apparently explained all phenomena as resulting from the actions of magical, sometimes sinister beings who controlled the World. In particular, they viewed the human body and mind as a battle ground between external forces of good and evil. Abnormal behaviour was typically interpreted as a victory by evil spirits, and the cure for such behaviour was to force the demons from a victim’s body. This supernatural view of abnormality may have begun as far back as the Stone Age, a half-million years ago. Some skulls from that period recovered in Europe and South America show evidence of an operation called trephination, in which a stone instrument, or trephine, was used to cut away a circular section of the skull. Historians surmise that this operation was performed as a treatment for severe abnormal behaviour—either hallucinations, which people saw or heard things not actually present, or melancholia, characterized by extreme sadness and immobility. The purpose of opening the skull was to release the evil spirits that were supposedly causing the problem. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
In recent decades, some historians have questioned whether Stone Age people actually believe that evil spirits caused abnormal behaviour. Trephination may instead have been used to remove bone splinters or blood clots caused by stone weapons during tribal warfare. Either way, later societies clearly did attribute abnormal behaviour to possession by demons. Egyptian, Chinese, and Hebrew writings all account for psychological deviance this way. The Christian Bible, for example, describes how an evil spirit from the Lord affected King Saul and how David feigned madness in order to convince his enemies that he was visited by divine forces. However, did anyone else find it odd that when King David’s newborn baby was dreadfully sick near death, David prayed night and day, believing that God could heal his child. He would not eat or drink; he did not shave or shower. He did not attend to any business. He would not do anything but pray, crying out to God. Despite David’s passionate prayers, on the seventh day the child died. David’s servants worried how they were going to tell the king that his baby was dead. They thought he would be so devastated, so distraught that he could not handle it. However, when David finally figured out what had happened, he surprised them all. He got up off the floor, washed his face, and put on some fresh clothes. Then he asked his servants to bring him some food, and he sat down and ate a meal. His servants were confused. They said, “David, when your child was alive, you fasted and prayed. But now that he is gone, you act as though nothing is wrong.” David answered, “Yes, I fasted and prayed when my son was sick, thinking that God might heal him. But now that he is gone, I cannot bring him back. He will not return to me, but I will go to be with him.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
“But now that he is gone, I cannot bring him back. He will not return to me, but I will go to be with him.” Notice David’s attitude. He did not get bitter. He did not question God. He could have snarled, “God, I thought You loved me. Why didn’t You answer my prayers?” David did not do that. He dared to trust God in the midst of his disappointment. He washed his face and moved on with his life. The treatment for abnormality in these early societies was often exorcism. The idea was to coax the evil spirits to leave or to make the person’s body an uncomfortable place in which to live. A shaman, or priest, might recite prayers, plead with the evil spirits, insult them, perform magic, make loud noises, or have the person drink bitter potions. If these techniques failed, the shaman performed a more extreme form of exorcism, such as whipping or starving the person. The key feature of antisocial personality disorder (hereafter abbreviated as ASPD) is a pervasive pattern od disregard for and violation of other persons’ rights. This pattern is manifested in failure to conform to social norms, deceitfulness, lying, impulsivity, aggressiveness, disregard for the safety of others, irresponsibility, and lack of remorse for wrongdoing to others. The pattern is evidenced by age 18 and is foreshadowed by conduct disorder before the age of 15. People with ASPD behave as if the rules and norms of society do not apply to them. Of all the personality disorders, ASPD is characterized by the greatest hostility. Also, not that the terms psychopathy and sociopathy have often been used to descried ASPD. They argue that the distinction between the two lies in the origins of the disorder: Psychopathy arises from a constitutional disposition, whereas sociopathy results from poor socialization, typically defective parenting. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
Like all other personality disorders, ASPD is associated with numerous and serious interpersonal implications. In a unique comparative study, it was found that adolescents who went on to develop ASPD as young adults were typified by trouble with the law, a poor work record, and early cohabitation. In contrast, those who developed other personality disorders were characterized more by social isolation and other types of problematic interpersonal relations. People with symptoms of ASPD tend to endorse a ludus (game-playing) love style, and score low on the eros (pleasures of the flesh) love style. The ludus love styles appears to fit well with ASPD in that it is not an intimate means of relating to another person, and may well be seen as irritating by a large percentage of the population. This irritation and displeasure in others are obviously of little concern to a person with ASPD. On the contrary, the manipulations and “mind games” played upon others may be sources of satisfaction and amusement for such a person. The family-of-origin backgrounds of people with ASPD are expectedly troublesome. Poor relations with parents and a history of physical abuse have been tired to symptoms of ASPD. Gross neglect, to the point of abuse, is also fairly common in the family backgrounds of those with ASPD. Parental absence is equally prevalent in these families, especially through separation, divorce, death, or incarceration. A provocative hypothesis that may link these dysfunctional family-of-origin experiences with adult ASPD centers around a breakdown in the normal development of empathy. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
During childhood, those who will later develop ASPD learn to recode vicarious fear as excitement and their victims’ suffering as something akin to righteous punishment. One must entertain the possibility that this inverted emotional reaction was learned from the parents of future adults with ASPD may model an emotional indifference to their children’s suffering—an indifference that the children eventually internalize, and with which they then treat others. It would be a gross oversimplification to asset that parental neglect and abuse lead to ASPD. Parental abuse may be an adequate explanation for the aggressiveness and hostility of those with ASPD, but it does not explain their resistance to control and conformity with social norms. The combination of parental neglect and abuse with sporadic and harsh discipline is what leads more specifically to ASPD. The parents of future adults with ASPD, who perhaps have psychosocial problems of their own, may oscillate between excessive permissiveness due to their absence, and stern discipline driven by unchecked impulse. This accordingly makes these children resent any intrusion, while placing a high premium on independence and a lack of interference from others. Like empathy breakdown hypothesis, this formulation has considerable intuitive appeal, but has yet to be fully tested and supported empirically. People with ASPD (antisocial personality disorder) appear to lack a social conscience. They shamelessly exploit, manipulate, and aggress against others, with no apparent remorse. They often run afoul of the law and have difficulties in their work and personal relationships. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
People with ASPD have an orientation toward romantic relationship that has more to do with playing games than establishing a mutually meaningful connection. One often finds considerable dysfunction in the family backgrounds of those with ASPD, replete with the attendant physical abuse and neglect. Sporadic and harsh parental discipline may also figure into the etiology of this personality disorder. These disordered family processes may contribute to ASPD through modeling the replacement of vicarious fear with excitement, and by creating hostility and fierce independence as a result of stern but sporadic discipline. To live in the present moment, making the most of this day, we must forgive those people who have hurt us in the past. “Now we recognize and know that the Law is good if anyone uses it lawfully [for the purpose for which it was designed], knowing and understanding this: that the Law is not enacted for the righteous (the upright and just, who are in right standing with God), but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinful, for the irreverent and profane, for those who strike and beat and [even] murder fathers and strike and [beat and [even] murder mothers, for manslayers, [for] impure and immoral persons, those who abuse themselves with humans, kidnapers, liars, perjurers—and whatever else is opposed to wholesome teaching and sound doctrine,” reports I Timothy 2.8-10. Too often, we try to collect our debts from other people. When somebody hurts us, we feel like they owe us. Somebody should pay for that pain we have suffered! That is what happen when one is trapped in the past. One is always trying to collect those debts. One will take it out on other people even thought they were not even involved. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
Moreover, one should not drag something that happened in the past into one’s relationships today. Do not punish one’s spouse, children, pets, friends, neighbours, nor coworker for something that happened to one when one was growing up. Instead, turn it over to God. Keep your heart free from bitterness and resentment, and do not try to collect a debt that only God can pay. Start each day afresh and anew, especially in your family relationship. Do not let little things build up. Do not harbour unforgiveness and resentment. Do not allow the attitude of entitlement to overcome you. If one is not careful, even though vengeful snubs may seem insignificant to one, but over time that bitter attitude will build up, and it will end up causing one major problems. “Holding fast to faith (that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence) and having a good (clear) conscience. By rejecting and thrusting from them [their conscience], some individuals have made shipwreck of their faith,” reports I Timothy 1.19. If one is poisoned with unforgiveness, bitterness, or resentment on the inside, one has got to do one’s best to keep one’s own heart free and clean, because it will eventually show up on the outside. One cannot keep it buried. It will come out and begin to affect one’s personality. One will be hard to get alone with, easily offended, uptight, and negative. “You are to deliver this human over to Satan for physical discipline [to destroy carnal lusts which prompted one to incest], that [one’s] spirit may [yet] one saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ,” reports I Corinthians 5.5. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
That is why the Scripture instructs us to put on a fresh new attitude every morning. Each morning, forgive the people who hurt you. Every morning, let go of your disappointments and setbacks. Each new morning, receive God’s mercy and forgiveness for the mistakes one has made, and forgive others for the hurts they have inflicted on one. Today focus on one’s possibilities; focus on what one can change rather than what one cannot change. What is done is done. If somebody offended, disappointed, or mistreated one yesterday, either one can get bitter or one can forgive them and move on. Remember, if one refuses to forgive others, God will not forgive one. If one lost one’s temper (went off) yesterday, quit dwelling on it. One cannot undo that. One needs to ask for forgiveness and then do better today. Was your boss, Dr. Blake, rude to you and jumped down your throat? Let it go. Maybe she sees great potential in you and expects you to put in 110 percent so you can excel. Do not go to work tomorrow with a chip on your shoulder. It is a new day. If things did not workout in a situation the way you thought they would, that is okay, God has something better for you. Press on and know that all things work out for the best for those who love God. However, do not take the easy way out and evade responsibility for your words or actions. If you have done wrong, offended someone or hurt somebody, you should seek that person’s forgiveness. However, if you are trying to fix something that you know there is no way to fix, and you have done everything you can do, you must simply leave that up to God. Receive His mercy and go out to live a successful life now. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
In obedience to the revelation commanding the New York Saints to move to Ohio, all those living in New York who belonged to the church prepared to leave as soon as spring arrived. Early in the spring of 1831 many gathered at a house on the Erie Canal, which had been rented by Joseph’s father, Joseph Smith, Sr. The Erie Canal crossed the state of New York and was actually only a large ditch. It was scarcely wider than a present-day city street, and the water in it was about four feet deep. The boats were pulled along the canal by horses which walked along a pathway at the edge of the canal. It was quite expensive to travel by canal, but the Saints considered this the best way to travel with their women and children. They rented a boat to save expenses. This boat would take them by canal to Buffalo, and there they would take a lake boat on Lake Erie to a point near Kirtland. The prospects of traveling so far caused much excitement among the people, for most of the had not been farther than a few miles from their homes. About eighty of them gathered together. Each brought one’s personal belongings and as much food as was considered necessary for the trip. A friend gave Joseph’s mother, Lucy Smith, seventeen dollars (2021 adjusted for inflation $540.46), which she later used to buy food for those who had not brought enough. One day while they were traveling on the canal, there was a breakdown and they had to wait until the canal was repaired. That evening some of the men preached to a large number of people who gathered. These people asked them to return and preach again the next night, but they breakdown had been repaired and by morning the Saints were on their way again. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
They were met at Buffalo by another group of Saints who were going to Ohio. They all were anxious to be on their way to Kirtland, but there was four feet of ice on the lake and boats could leave. Food and money were so limited that the Saints were faced with the problem of where to stay. Mother Smith remembered that her brother’s former partner was now a lack-boat captain, and she had no trouble finding him. When she explained their trouble, he suggested that she and all her friends come on board his ship to wait until the ice broke so they could sail. After boarding the boat the little band of pilgrims knelt in prayer on the deck to thank God this this pressing problem had been solved. Almost immediately the ice broke, opened up a channel, and they were able to sail. The ice closed behind them and it was three weeks before another boat left the port. The trip was long and stormy. The boat was reported lost and their Kirtland friends feared they might never see them again. At last, weary with the storms, the boatload of Saints landed about eleven miles from Kirtland. Two young men walked to Kirtland, and soon the Kirtland Saints were taking them home. The reunion was a happy one and everyone enjoyed the breakfast at the Edward Partridge Home. For many of them it was the first real meal they had eaten in weeks. In the Early months of 1831 Orson Pratt walked from New York to Kirtland (about three hundred miles) preaching as he traveled. His missionary efforts were very successful and he baptized many people. Lyman Wight traveled about six hundred miles through Ohio and Pennsylvania, preaching as he went. He baptized 393 people. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Many of these newly baptized Saints obeyed God’s instructions to father to Kirtland. As summer neared practically all those who belonged to the church, with the exception of the little band in Missouri, were living in Kirtland. It was a strain on the small community to care for so many people. Some were very poor. Others were families of missionaries who were away preaching, and were thus unable to earn a livelihood for their families. All who came to Kirtland needed homes, and many were without sufficient food and clothing. God wished His people to be equal and to have their need supplied. To help the Saints know how to care for so many people, a revelation was given through Joseph Smith in May 1831, in which Edward Partridge was given the responsibility of organizing the people. Instructions given at the time have formed the basis for the law of the church which teaches people to be unselfish and to have consideration one for another. God instructed His Saints to build a storehouse. All things, both money and food which were more than was needful for the want of the people, were to be brought to the storehouse to be kept in the hands of the bishop. Those who were in need could then go to the storehouse and receive their needs. According to this law they were to be given help in accordance with the size of their families and the amount of help they required. In this revelation a promise was given to those who would be obedient to this law and contribute to the storehouse: “Behold, this shall be an example unto my servant Edward Partridge, in other places, in all churches. And whoso is found a faithful, a just, and a wise steward, shall enter into the joy of one’s Lord, and shall inherit eternal life.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
A General Conference was held at Kirtland on June 6, 1831. All the elders who could attend were there, for Joseph had written them telling them God had instructed all who possibly could to attend this Conference. By revelation God commanded Joseph and Oliver Cowdery to ordain each other to the office of the high priest. They then ordained sixteen other men to this same office. The office of high priest is the highest office in the Melchisedec priesthood. It is the office held by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. During this conference a revelation was given through Joseph Smith, Jr., which indicated the future location of Zion: “I, the Lord, will make known unto you what I will that ye shall do from this time until the next Conference, which shall be held in Missouri, upon the land which I will consecrate unto my people.” This caused much excitement because Missouri was far away on the edge of the Indian country. Father, I dare to forgive others, because I know You have forgiven me. Help me each day to be tenderhearted, to forgive those people who have hurt me, used me, or otherwise brought pain into my life. Prayer tries to imitate the death of cry of dying creatures, the vocal expression of their fear of death. Such an imitation of the physical side of dying should being with it, momentarily, the associated death fear whose gravity and importance naturally swallow up all lesser fears. If this exercise is done twice daily, these lesser fears gradually become weaker, while the fear of death is itself overcome. If the Kingdom of Heaven is atmospheric, then why should we trouble to become unselfish, disciplined, and intelligent? Why bother to improve our character at all? No! the wise student does not think like this. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
The power of good behaviour and payer augment the body’s energy. A heavy weight which one could hardly lift ordinarily can be lifted much more easily if a deep, long prayer is first taken. A long forward leap or a high jump can be more successfully achieved by following the same method. Health and strength are restored to an extend as long as one believes. When a faithful prayer is united to keen thought, and when the fused result is driven upwards physically to the brain and mentally in lofty aspirations to the Soul, the visitant will know by a beautiful change of consciousness that it is welcome. The importance of prayer is not only a physical one, because prayer enables us to get the full manifestation of the lifeforce in the body, but also because it allows for a fuller and freer manifestation of the mind. The danger of developing the skills of prayer for the sake of developing personal powers is that if the powers are finally gained, the spiritual path may be lost. You know we have sung that song, “When we all get to Heaven, we will sing and shout the victory.” We have to put victory off until then; but if we would learn to act on the Word, we could shout the victory here on Earth. Jesus said we are to pray, Thy will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven. It is God’s will that we have victory here and that we shout it here on Earth. However, this does not come overnight. I drive a car, but I did not learn to drive a car in one day. It took me months (or years because I am still learning) of study and practice. The first few lessons I thought I would never learn, but each time it became easier. The first I saw one of those big BMW’s, I wanted to drive it, but was nervous. I thought it is so beautiful. I will have to learn how to drive. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
If you say, “Well, I believe in prayer, then prayer ought to work for me,” in the same way you could say, “I believe in driving, therefore I ought to be able to drive.” Just because you believe in driving does not mean you can get in that BMW M760Li XDrive sedan and drive it. You might not know how to operate it. You might push the wrong button! Well, what makes us think the Word of God is any different? If we are going to operate in the Word accurately, we will have to spend time learning. It is the same with the law of electricity. If you do not understand the laws that govern electricity, you are liable to get into trouble. If you violate the laws that govern it, the same power that will wash your clothes and cook your food and heat your house will kill you. The Word of God is no less powerful. It operates on laws that will work when applied by whosoever will. If I got in an airplane and said, “Well, I know that the book says if you are going to climb over a 50-foot obstacle in 1200 feet, you must use 20-degree flaps, but I just do not feel like it. It looks to me like it ought to clear the hanger without flaps.” It does not matter how I feel or how it looks, I better go by what the book says or I am going to be in trouble. So are our prayers in trouble when we do not use God’s rulebook. When you do thing accurately according to the Word of God, you have all Heaven behind you and the Word will work for you. God’s Word is the Answer. We could sum it up by saying that prayer is not telling God the problem. Whatever you desire is what you should pray, not the problems. Turn loose of the problem. Take hold of the answer and make it your prayer and your confession of faith. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
As an example, let us say you have a financial need. You would pray: Father, in the name of Jesus, Your Word says that You will supply all my need according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Your Word says that whatsoever things I desire when I pray to believe that I received them. Therefore I believe that my needs are supplied according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I have given; therefore, it is given to me—good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. I have abundance and there is no lack. I sow bountifully; therefore, I reap bountifully. Father, You make all grace abound toward me and I, having all sufficiency in all things, do abound to every good work. For the Lord is my Shepherd and I do not want. The Word of God is the answer. Pray the Word—it works! Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. You have been given a glimpse of the goal. Now you must strive to attain that goal. The glimpse itself has enabled you to understand the consciousness and the characteristics to strive for. Both are so subtle that words merely hint at them and may be meaningless. In receiving an experience beyond words, you have therefore been so fortunate as to be favoured with the Overself’s Grace. Merely to enjoy such a glimpse is not enough. It must be turned to use, made into a standard for thought and living, applied to every situation in which one finds oneself. One must let its beneficent memory shed peace, goodwill, and kindliness on all around. The illuminatory experience may come to one who is without previous preparation, seeking, effort, or self-discipline. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
However, if it comes so unexpectedly it leaves just as unexpectedly. The visitant is transient. The effects are permanent. If it be asked why it should come to such a person, who neither desired nor strove for it, when others are unable to secure it despite years of seeking it, the answer must be that one worked for it in earlier lives. One has forgotten oneself for an interval but the illumination recalls one to the quest even though it passes away: hence the permanency of its moral and mystical results. What one see in that sudden flash is to be slowly worked out in one’s character and conduct during the hours and months of subsequent years. Indeed, every minute offers the chance to transform oneself by the smallest of degrees. What one feels during those moments one has to become during the years that follow. All one’s life has to converge upon this divine focus, all one’s experience has to draw its supreme significance from it. Jonah the Old Testament prophet had the same problem of many modern-day Christians: he ran away from his own great calling. The nonactualizing Christian may not be swallowed by a whale, but probably God will arrange some modern kind of encounter that will awaken us to our greatness and unique mission in life. Jesus showed the ability to jar people into an awareness of their potential for fulfillment. According to the Gospel narratives, Jesus moved fancy women and men, tax collectors, religious workers, fishermen, shepherds, soldiers—anyone. Ironically, in surrendering to personal encounter with Jesus, they discovered how valuable and great they themselves were! #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
Yet in the church today, there are often messages given to people that say: “Do not think too highly of yourself”; “There is nothing great about you; only God is great”; “Pride goes before the fall.” This can lead to a false sense of humility or even a self-hatred. The individual who has difficulty accepting one’s genuine and God-given strengths often discounts compliments instead of graciously receiving and appreciating them. One probably has difficulty complimenting or praising others too. The Scriptures present a different picture of the believer. Just as God gives his glory to Christ, Jesus gives His glory to the Christian (John 17.22). The actualizing Christian discovers this and feels gratitude, strength, and joy. One can vernalize one’s feelings by such phrases as “I am adequate,” “I am capable,” “I am strong,” and “I am powerful.”” The awareness of one’s strengths, gifts, and talents is an important part of healthy self-love and self-esteem. The actualizing alternative to an overbearing strength is personal power. When one does not need to use absolute control over others or oneself, but rather feels that one is a vessel through which the power of the Holy Spirit is expressed, then one can say with Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” reports Galatians 2.20. When this happens, relationships cease to be authoritarian, controlling, or manipulative, but rather emphasize cooperation and give maximum space to be. Sensing one’s strengths is reflected in an unpretentious kind of self-confidence. Because the actualizing Christian’s strength is rooted in the grace of God, one shares in God’s serenity. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Psalmist expressed it this way: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers,” reports Psalm 1.3. This is not the manipulative form of strength that we saw in the past; the striving Christian was rigid, tense, and compulsive. Rather, this genuine type of strength is a quiet, relaxed flow of power from the presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. The actualizing Christian can do great things in the World, but the way that these things are done does not come across to others as arrogant, self-conscious, or forced. The actualizing Christian experiences firsthand the biblical principle, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord,” reports Zechariah 4.6. O our Father, thy Sky, hear us and please make us strong. O our Mother the Earth, please hear us and give us support. O spirit of the East, send us your Wisdom. O Spirit of the South, may we tread your path of life. O Spirit of the West, may we always be ready for the long journey. O Spirit of the North, please purify us with your cleansing winds. 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 ye, Amen. May His great name be blessed for ever and ever. Exalted be honoured be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, whose glory transcends, yes, us beyond all praises, hymns, and blessings that humans can render unto Him; and say ye, Amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life for us and for all America; and say ye, Amen. May He who establisheth peace in the Heavens, grant peace unto us and unto all America; and say ye, Amen. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
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Nothing Ever Turns Out Right! Somebody Take Care of Me! God, Why Not Make Everything O.K.?
Such great devotion was in vogue in the days the Ark of God was being built, as was remembrance of divine praise at the Ark of the Covenant. However, that was then, and this is now. Should I not, and indeed the rest of the Christian population, have more reverence, more devotion, in the presence of the Mystery and in the reception of Sacrament? Every year, any number of Christians go to great pains to visit as many shrines as they can, there to ay respects to the relics of the Saints and to hear of the wonders worked through the Saints’ intercession. Of course, the pilgrims reverence with their lips the holy bones resting on silk and cased in gold, but they also gawk at the sumptuousness of the churches housing the shrines. You know what is wrong with this picture? Right in front of one, on this very altar, without one’s having to lift a finger, let alone a foot, God is alive and well. That is to say, God, Holy of Holies, Creator of Humankind, and Lord of Angels. However, if I wonder what the dearest Lord and Friend has against pilgrimage? Perhaps this flurry of activity seems holy at first, but in reality it is a curiosity that plagues all Humankind. That is to say, there is a certain freshness that comes with hithering and thithering, with seeing new things in toxic places. However, when people tally up the expense of pilgrimaging, they have paid too much for too little. That is to say, the fruit of a pilgrimage is conversion, reform of life. However, that seems to have taken a back seat in their minds, if not their souls; they have preferred happy times in holy places to the True Contrition they could find at home, at the Winchester, the shrine where their soul resides. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
Here and now, in the Sacrament of the Altar, He is totally present, Jesus, Man and Christ. Right here, within one’s grasp, Eternal Salvation awaits, to be harvested just as often one undertake Communion with dignity and devotion. Pilgrims, beware! The paths to this shrine are rocky, and slippery are the pavers marked Levity, Curiosity, and Sensuality; for true cobbles, rely only on Firm Faith, Devout Hope, and Sincere Charity. O God, Invisible Creator of the World, how wondrously You treat us! How sweetly and graciously You carry on with Your chosen—these are the people You have invited to join you in Your Sacrament! Yes, I know You low opinion of Us Devouts, but I just have to say that the Sacrament has a special appeal to our hearts. We are truly faithful friends of Yours, and we have planned our whole lives around reformation of soul. As a result, we frequently receive this Most Worthy Sacrament, and from it we derive the great grace of devotion and the love of virtue. O admirable yet hidden grace of the Sacramento, only the faithful of Christ have known it well! The faithless and the sinful, however, have no experience to match it. Every relation is based either on quantity, a double and half; or on action and passion, as the doer and the deed, the father and the son, the master and the servant, and the like. Now as there is no quantity in God, for He is great without quantity, as Augustine says (De Trin. I, !) it follows that a real relation in God can be based only on action. Such relations are not based on the actions of God according to any extrinsic procession, forasmuch as the relations in God can be understood only in regard to those actions according to which there are internal, and not external, processions in God. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
These processions are two only, as above explained, one derived from the action of the intellect, the procession of the Word; and the other from the action of the will, the procession of love. In respect of each of these processions two opposite relations arise; one of which is the relation of the person proceeding from the principle; the other is the relation of the principle Himself. The procession of the Word is called generation in the proper sense of the term, whereby it is applied to living things. Now the relation of the principle of generation in perfect living beings is called paternity; and the relation of the one proceeding from the principle is called filiation. However, the procession of Love has no proper name of its own; and so neither have the ensuing relations a proper name of their own. The relation of the principle of this procession is called spiration; and the relation of the person proceeding is called procession: although these two names belong to the processions or origins themselves, and not to the relations. In those things in which there is a difference between the intellect and its object, and the will and its object, there can be a real relation, both of science to its object, and of the willer to the object willed. In God, however, the intellect and its object are one and the same; because by understanding Himself, God understands all other things; and the same applies to His will and the object that He wills. Hence, it follows that in God these kinds of relations are not real; as neither is the relation of a thing to itself. Nevertheless, the relation to the word is a real relation; because the word is understood as proceeding by an intelligible action; and not as a thing understood. For when we understand a stone; that which the intellect conceives from the thing understood, is called the word. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
Intelligible relations in ourselves are infinitely multiplied, because a human understands a stone by one act, and by another act understands that one understands the stone, and again by another, understands that one understands this; thus the acts of understanding are infinitely multiplied, and consequently also the relations understood. This does not apply to God, inasmuch as He understand all things by one act alone. Ideal relations exist as understood by God. Hence it does not follow from their plurality that there are many relations in God; but that God knows these many relations. Equality and similitude in God are not real relations; but are only logical relations. The way from one term to another and conversely in the same; nevertheless the mutual relations are not the same. Hence, we cannot conclude that the relation of the father to the son is the same as that of the son to the father; but we conclude this of something absolute, if there were such between them. “Let one gives one’s cheek to the One Who smites one [even through His human agents]; let one be filled [full] with [men’s] reproach [in meekness]. For the Lord will not cast off forever!,” reports Lamentations 3.30-31. What are the signs whereby one shall know that this is an authentic glimpse of reality? First, it is and shall remain ever present. There is no future in it and no past. Second, the pure spiritual experience comes without excitement, is reported without exaggeration, and needs no external authority to authenticate it. The glimpse also does in part for a human what initiation did in some ancient mystical institutions. It sets one on the road of a new life, a life more earnestly and more consciously devoted to the quest of Overself. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
The glimpse silently bids one dedicate, or rededicate anew, the remainder of one’s life on Earth to this undertaking. It is a baptism with inner light more far-reaching than the baptism with physical water. The motives and reactions of a spiritually intuitive human will necessarily be on a higher level than those of a human driven by animal and Worldly compulsions only. And once you are reborn in the heart, life will become what it should be—the realization that you are outworking a higher destiny than the merely personal one. Another noteworthy mark of the true glimpse is its purificatory effect. This is usually temporary but in a few cases it has been permanent. When one has this first unprecedented experience, when one knows and feels that one is a part of divine being, one is born “in Christ.” However, it is not for one to stand at street corners and announce to the multitude that one has had this glimpse. The sustained consciousness of the Overself puts its mark upon a human’s face. They are humans with “the shine” on their faces, like the one who descended from Sinai. One emerges from the old human that one was, from the ego-ridden nature, as a snake emerges from its old skin. The old self which one has left behind and which once so occupied one’s interest now seems ugly, bad, and dull. So great is the change in one that it also seems like a stranger, not entitled to bear one’s name. However synical and blasé may have been one’s attitude in earlier days, it will yield to and melt in the sunny light of this second birth. Those who have experienced a glimpse of this blessed Reality or, better, established themselves in it, may share its atmosphere with others in silent communion. However, on a lesser level, they may also share with the in phrased speech the thoughts it provokes. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
The more one becomes familiar with this experience, the easier one can describe it. One who has been touched by the goodness comes out of one’s sleep, says the Old World wisdom. For one has a knowledge which appears as a special and unusual kind of awareness that escapes most other people. There comes a time when out of the silence within oneself there comes the spiritual guidance which one needs for one’s further course. It comes sometimes as a delicate feeling, sometimes as a strong one, sometimes in a clearly formulated message, and sometimes out of the circumstances and happenings themselves. Not only does it tell one and teach one, but sometimes it does the same for others. Such is the effect of the Divine Life now working increasingly within one. You are saved the moment this divine power takes possession of you, but not otherwise. The dictionary defines an eccentric as a person who deviates from common behaviour patterns or displays odd or whimsical behaviour. However, how can we separate a psychologically healthy person who has unusual habits from a person whose oddness is a symptom of psychopathology? For years, little research was done on eccentrics, but some recent studies and reviews seem to have started the ball rolling. For example, the researcher David Weeks studied 1,000 eccentrics over a 10-year period and was able to pin-point 15 characteristic common to them. Altogether, he estimates that as many as 1 in 5,000 persons may be “classic, full-time eccentrics.” Men and women seem equally prone to such patterns. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
Weeks suggests that eccentrics do not typically suffer from mental disorders. Whereas the unusual behaviour of persons with mental disorders is thrust upon them and usually causes them suffering, eccentricity is chosen freely and provides pleasure. In short, eccentrics know they are different and glory in it. Similarly, the thought process of eccentrics are not severely disrupted, and they do not leave the person dysfunctional. In fact, it was also discovered the eccentrics actually had fewer emotional problems than the general population. Perhaps being an “original” is good for mental health. The eccentrics in his study also seemed physically healthier than others, visiting a doctor only once every eight years on average. Weeks concludes that most eccentrics, despite their deviant behaviour—perhaps even because of it—are happy, well-adjusted, and joyful people. According to Weeks, the following 15 qualities (in descending order of importance) are characteristic of eccentrics. The first 5 are the most definitive, but possessing any 10 may qualify a person as an eccentric: Nonconforming, creative, strongly curious, idealistic, happily obsessed with a hobby (often more than one), aware from early childhood of being different from others, intelligence, opinionated and outspoken, noncompetitive, unusual eating or living habits, not interested in the opinions or company of others, mischievous sense of humour, single, eldest or only child, bad speller. Are you eccentric? #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
Once clinicians decide that a person is indeed suffering from some form of psychological abnormality, they seek to treat it. Treatment, or therapy is a procedure designed to change abnormal behaviour into more normal behaviour; it, too, requires careful definition. For clinical scientists, the problem is closely related to defining abnormality. Therapy has three essential features: A sufferer who seeks relief from the healer. A trained, socially accepted healer, whose expertise is accepted by sufferer and one’s social group. A series of contact between the healer and the sufferer, through which the healer, often with the assistance of a group, tries to produce certain changes in the sufferer’s emotional state, and behaviour. Some clinicians view abnormality as an illness and so consider therapy a procedure that helps cure the illness. Others see abnormality as a problem in living and therapists as teachers of more functional behavior and thought. Clinicians even differ on what to call the person undergoing therapy: those who see abnormality as an illness speak of the “patient,” while those who view it as a problem in living refer to the “client.” Because both terms are so common, many use them interchangeably. Despite their differences, most clinicians do agree that large numbers of people need therapy of one kind or another. People with histrionic personality disorder (hereafter abbreviated as HPD) exhibit a pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking. Their social interactions are characterized by inappropriately seductive or provocative behaviour, rapidly shifting and shallow emotions, excessively impressionistic speech that is lacking in detail, and self-dramatization. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
Persons with HPD tend to use physical appearances to draw attention to themselves, consider relationships to be more intimate than they really are, and are rather easily influenced by other people. These persons are resistant to being pushed into the background, and want to be made to feel special, with a tendency toward anger and jealousy when not acknowledged. Using a Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour, it has been discovered that people with HPD wish for active love and protection while harbouring a fear of being ignored by others. Unquestionably, the interpersonal theatrics of these people are cries for attention, and most of their symptoms are in the service of this primary goal. A distinctive quality of HPD is its inherent interpersonal quality: Interaction with others is required for expression of the disorder. Obviously something is seriously awry on the interpersonal terrain of persons with HPD. Although such people are often judged to be more physically attractive than their nondisordered peers, this physical attractiveness is associated with a greater reliance on immature defense mechanisms, such as projection and regression. These findings suggest a pattern of superficial relations based on gaining attention through physical attractiveness, in the absence of any well-developed interpersonal coping and problem-solving skills. Compared to healthy controls, persons with HPD score lower in assertiveness involving pleasures of the flesh despite their flirtations, and exhibit more phobic attitudes toward pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
Expectedly, the subjects with HPD in this study also reported lower martial satisfactions than controls. These same respondents indicated relatively high levels of preoccupation with pleasures of the flesh, along with boredom and dysfunction with pleasures of the flesh. In a unique study with gay men, Johnson et al. (2000) found that symptoms of HPD were negatively correlated with receiving social support, and positively correlated with interpersonal conflict and loneliness. In an epidemiological study, it would found that the prevalence rate of HPD was about five times higher in divorced and separated persons than in people who were married. Looking back at the early interpersonal experiences of people with HPD, one sees a pattern of turmoil. For example, sexual abuse is often evident in the early home environments of such individuals. In a similar study, people with Cluster B (dramatic-emotional”) personality disorders (id est, antisocial personality disorder, BPD, HPD, and NDP) indicated that they experienced a pattern of parental overprotection coupled with lower parental care. Although parental overprotection and sexual abuse may appear antithetical at first glance, each is indicative of poor boundary regulation. Other family-of-origin processes that are related to HPD include high achievement orientation, an intellectual/cultural orientation, and high levels of parental control. What cases HPD? Undoubtedly this disorder, like other personality disorders, grows out of an amalgamation of temperament (which comes from genetic predisposition) and character (which is the developing aspect of one’s personality that is shaped by experience). #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
The character of people with HPD may be strongly tied to interpersonal interactions. Experts believe that this disorder is often preceded by rare parental punishment and unpredictable parental rewarding, resulting in the creation of behaviours that are directed toward securing rewards, developing a sense of personal competence, and seeking approval for approval’s sake. In developing this social learning hypothesis, it has been noted that when parents offer approval on a variable schedule, the child who will later develop HPD becomes frustrated, and learns to exaggerate one’s behaviours in the service of obtaining compliments and affection. Unless the parents recognize this conduct for what it is worthy, a vicious cycle is established in which the child performs increasingly dramatic and caricatured behaviours to secure positive responses from one’s parents. Like other old habits the die heard, this pattern of conduct is carried over beyond the childhood home to adult interpersonal relations. Psychodynamic theories of HPD originally characterized the disorder as hysterical personality. It was believed that the symptoms are the results of childhood sexual abuse. Traumatic memories of the abuse were assumed to be repressed. The strong tendencies toward repression were thought to explain the vague and shallow cognitive pattern that is so characteristic of people with HPD. From the psychodynamic perspective, the sexualization of social interactions in HPD is a defense against the fear of sexual aggression and victimization. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
By summoning that which is feared, persons with HPD may develop a sense of mastery over this fear by replacing it with attraction. This psychodynamic perspective, notwithstanding its dubious falsifiability, clearly locates the origin and consequences of the disorder in interpersonal experiences. Somewhere in between the social learning and psychodynamic hypothesis, is the pathogenic hypothesis, based on the Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour. There are three identifiable early interpersonal experiences that figure prominently in the pathogenesis of HPD. First, these people were often loved for their good looks and entertainment value as children. Second, as children, these people quickly learned that physical appearance and charm were functional for getting what they wanted from others. Finally, their early family environments were unpredictable and chaotic. However, it was this very chaos that kindled a sense of drama in their families, in which these children could play a role. People with HPD conduct their lives in a frantic search for attention, trapped between the exploitation of sexuality and flirtation to gain this attention, and fear of its eventuality. Their interpersonal theatrics, emotional flightiness, and shallow cognitive style may have their origins in early family experiences. Proponents of both social learning and psychodynamic hypotheses converge on the belief that family dynamics such as parental boundary violation (manifested in sexual abuse and overportectivness) and inconsistent parental reinforcement set in motion the patterns of emotion, cognition, and social behaviour that are characteristic of HPD. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
People become more psychologically healthy (fully functioning, self-actualizing), they become more tolerant of “opposites” within themselves, and become more able to accept others with all their uniqueness. Others may have mistreated you, somebody may have walked out on you, or maybe you prayed fervently, yet God did not answer your prayer the way you had anticipated. That is over and done. You cannot change the past; there is nothing you can do about it now. However, you must make a decision. Are you going to relive all those painful memories, or are you going to stay in an attitude of faith? You must walk out of any emotional bondage in which you have been living. Nobody can do it for you. You must rise up out of those ashes. You must forgive the people who have hurt you. You have to release all those hurts and pains. Leave the past behind. When you go through situations you do not understand, do not become bitter. Do not question God. Learn to just wash your face, keep a good attitude, and move on. Get ready for the new things God has in store for you. If you will stay in an attitude of faith and success, God has promised that He will turn those emotional wounds around. He will use them to your advantage, and you will come out better than you would have had they not happened to you. Humans alone, of all the creatures of the Earth, can change their own pattern. Humans alone are the architect of their destiny. The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
Christians often think in terms of opposites—right/wrong, good/bad, sinful/goodness—instead of the principle of transcendence of opposites. The actualizing Christian learns to transcend these opposites. Openness to experience all that one is can be expressed as follows: I am neither good nor bad, I am both. I am neither spiritual nor sensual, I am both. I am neither generous nor selfish, I am both. I am neither honest nor dishonest, I am both. I am neither a saint nor a sinner, I am both. However, God accepts me, forgives me, and loves me just as I am. And I can accept, forgive, and love myself and others. The testimony of the actualizing Christian is not that one is perfect, but rather that one is being perfected by the healing love and power of God. The process of being made whole involves gradual transformation of one’s entire being. Every polarity has both manipulative and actualizing alternatives. To be consistently actualizing, a person must learn to transform manipulative behaviours into actualizing counterparts. On the strength polarity, the egocentric manipulative tactics of striving and achieving need to be transformed into interpersonal qualities of cooperating and contributing. The latter two actualizing qualities have a respect and sensitivity that the manipulative forms do not possess. Cooperating with others in a sharing way allows us to express our own strengths while at the same time seeking the common good. Contributing is not something that is grasped at or forced, but rather is a reflection of our true capabilities. Our attitude becomes cooperative rather than competitive. We give up the attempt to be omniscient and omnipotent. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
When we function in this way, we do not feel threatened by someone else’s contributions or accomplishments. We are also quick to admit our deficiencies and to integrate our strengths with the contributions of others. This is the basis for the virtue of courage or realistic self-confidence. On the weakness polarity, withdrawing and avoiding need to be transformed into feeling vulnerable and empathizing. The actualizing Christian learns that one can honestly share feelings of inadequacy, fear, or helplessness. In sharing feelings of vulnerability, a person becomes more accepting and tolerant of others, and hence more empathetic. Herein lies the virtue of humility. Some years ago, my great grandmother went back home to Sweden for the first time in thirty years. Late one night we received a concerned phone call from her during which she said that the Gripsholm, the boat she was supposed to return on, had collided in New York Harbor with the Andrea Dorea, an Italian ship. We discussed her alternatives, and it seemed the only things she could do would be to take her first airplane trip. This may not seem like a large accomplishment these days, but for my mother, who was over seventy years old, this was a fearful and difficult task. The next day she bravely climbed the steps of the huge 707, turned the corner, and sat down in her seat—which happened to be next to Eleanor Roosevelt! Eleanor Roosevelt was an empathetic woman who herself had suffered much in her life. So immediately her empathy expressed itself to my great grandmother, who obviously was somewhat shaken at being on her first plane trip. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
The Worldly, yet gentle woman pulled a rose from the bouquet the Swedish government had given her on departure—and gave it to my great grandmother. Great grandmother was deeply moved by this gesture and immediately felt vulnerable and open to this beautifully warm woman. During the next five hours on their journey to America, the two of the chattered together like neighbours over the back fence, as my great grandmother often did with her friends in Rockford, Illinois. Elanor Roosevelt is an example of a truly humble person. Since she was genuinely away of her own feelings of vulnerability, she could reach out to others, including my mother, with a special warmth and sensitivity. On the love polarity, the manipulative patterns of pleasing and placating are transformed into the actualizing traits of affirming and caring. There is a freedom to praise and nurture both oneself and others. Built into the combination of affirming and caring the firmness and warmth. From these qualities emerge the virtue of compassion, a sure mark of the actualizing Christian. From the anger polarity arise asserting and expressing, the actualizing counterparts of blaming and attacking. The person who expressed anger graciously and diplomatically exhibits the virtue of confrontation with caring, or “speaking the truth in love.” There is a real wisdom built into the warp and woof of human nature. It is as though God intended a sensitive set of checks and balances in order to create a reliable source of guidance and inspiration within each person. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
Love that is expressed fully bring qualities of tenderness, caring, and nurturing into the World. However, to find its finest balance, love must be offset with a certain firmness and power that is captured in the feeling of anger. Anger provides the energy for confronting the World in a caring way. Likewise, the feelings of strength and weakness both balance and check each other. From strength a person derives a certain air of confidence, boldness, and dignity. However, with the balancing effect of weakness, the virtue of humility is added; so one can express strength in gentle and humble ways. It is our belief that as one becomes more balanced in expressing these behavioural opposites, one will experience a connectedness to others and to God in a warmhearted, open and sharing way. Connectedness if the key to understanding others and growing with them in mutually supportive ways. Heavenly Father, I admit that sometimes I am more surprised when You do answer my prayers than when You do not. I know that I do not deserve Your kindness, that like Prince Lestat, I have made some bad decisions, done wrong, and deserve nothing. However, thank You for loving me even through my mistakes, failures, and wrong choices. Please help me, Father, to trust You through my disappointments. The practice of prayer, when done as an exercise can harmonize cosmic energies, so that the will of God will manifest in your life naturally. While praying for good things and thanking God, mentally direct the energy towards your general surrounding so you can mentally connect it with the cosmic life-force. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
Remember that the purpose of this lengthened prayer is not only to empty your temple of negative energy, but also to empty your environmental of bad energy. It will help to empty the mind of its tumult and the nerves of their agitation, and focus on your prayer as deeply as possible. Until you learn to build your faith, you may want to repeat your prayer, in different ways, until you learn how to expand your conversations with God and Jesus. Imagine a steam of golden-white energy being drawn from the Holy Trinity and radiated throughout the body. This enables one to better receive cosmic current of life-force. It also strengthens the power of self-control, of disciplining the body. “Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; for consider how great are the things He has done for you. However, if you still do wickedly, both you and your king shall be swept away,” reports 1 Samuel 12.24-25. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” reports Matthew 6.13. Most people believe that the Lord sends the trials, tests, and temptations of life. If the trails and temptations come from God, I wonder why Jesus said to pray that you enter not into? If God knows everything and we know the Word says God has all knowledge, then I wonder why God would have to try and test us to find out what we would do in a certain situation. The Word also says that Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12.2.) Now since Jesus has authored our faith, God does not need to try it. He knows it will work. The enemy is the one trying our faith. Jesus said, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
What evil is Jesus Christ talking about? The evil and trials and temptations. We can rise to a new level of faith when we realize that it is the thief that steals, kills and destroys. It is Jesus that gives life abundantly. When you draw the battle line, you will have 50 percent of the battle won. This will set you at liberty in your prayer life. You can use your faith shield to quench every fiery dart of the adversary. However, if God put it on you, until you determine the cause, you cannot use your faith. You cannot believe the thing will go away. The enemy suggests that God might be using this to perfect you. It sounds logical, but it is stronghold of the adversary. Now let me refresh your memory in this area. In the 8th chapter of Luke, verse 22, Jesus said to the disciples, Let us go over unto the other side, then He fell asleep in the back of the ship. A storm of wind arouse on the lake and waves were lapping into the boat. The disciples began to say, Master, we perish. Jesus Christ arose and rebuked the wind and the sea. Then He asked them, “Where is your faith?” Was that storm sent of God to try their faith? No. That storm was designed by the adversary to get the Word out of them and it worked well. “The ones alone the path are those who have the Word sown [in their hearts], but when they hear, the adversary comes at once and [by force] takes away the message which is sown in them,” reports Mark 4.15. They told Jesus what the devil said. The devil had told them that they would all drown. However, Jesus said, “We are going to the other side.” His Words did not abide in them. In 1 John 3.8, we find that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. If the storm was of God, then Jesus came to undo everything that the enemy was doing. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
Jesus Christ rebuked the wind because the storm had been caused by the enemy. He has perverted nature and used the atmosphere to bring floods, storms and tornadoes. However, headlines proclaim, God Visited Our City Last Night With a Tornado. No greater lie has ever been told! When lightning struck a certain plant in Arkansas, it blew up, killing several people and injuring many others. The newspapers called it an act of God. No bigger lie has ever been told. Those things are perversions of nature. The Enemy has perverted the things God created for good. Genesis 1.31 says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Lightning was what killed Job’s cattle. The King James calls it “fire from Heaven.” One translation says “lightning.” In other words, the enemy used the elements of the Earth and atmosphere to destroy Job’s cattle. However, Job said The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, which is actually recorded in the Bible. However, Job was not under the anointing when he said it. He was deceived. He thought it was God but you can plainly read in Job, chapter 1, that it was the adversary who had caused Job’s problems. If you believe that God brings these things on you, you cannot use your faith to get rid of them. There is no place in the Bible where it says, “Take the shield of faith and quench all the fiery darts of God!” You would not dare pray for deliverance from something God is using to perfect you. However, when you get the battle line drawn and see that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy and that Jesus came to give us abundant life, then you can use your faith. You will be able to pray accurately. You can come against the evil forces and prevail. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked (Ephesians 6.16). #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
When we have financial problems, most of the time it is the enemy’s work. Sometimes it is our own fault. It is not God, trying to teach us something! When we have problems in areas of the physical body, it is an attack of the enemy, because Jesus said for us to pray, Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven. God’s will is that we walk in health on this Earth and that is the way we should pray. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as they soul prospereth (3 John 2). O Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all the World, hear me! I am small and weak, I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy—myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me besides the still waters. He restoreth my soul; He guideth me in straight paths for His name’s sake. Ye, though I walk through the Sacramento valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
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Randolph Harris II International Institute 