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He Covenanted with the Devil Until He Should Arrive to the Age of Sixty Years!
He might be living, or he might be dead. There came no word of him, or from him. I was fond enough of her to be satisfied with this—he never disturbed us. While there were many individual acts of witchcraft in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, there was never an attempt or plot to make witchcraft a formal religion which would supplant Christianity. Yet we need not conclude that William Baker and his fellow-confessors were lying. It is probable that they, like the afflicted girls, were hysterics subject to hallucination. Certainly that is the conclusion to be drawn from Thomas Brattle’s opinion of them in his “Letter”: “my faith is strong concerning them that they are deluded, imposed upon, and under the influence of some evil spirit, and therefore unfit to be evidences either against themselves or anyone else.” Mr. Brattle wrote this in October 1692, when Massachusetts was retuning to stability. However, at the height of the excitement confessions like Mr. Baker’s seemed convincing enough. For one thing, they had a curious precision: he did not say there were about three hundred witches in the country but “about three hundred and sever”; he did not say there were about a hundred young wizards at the mustering of the Satanic militia but “about an hundred five.” However, what made these confessions most believable was that they offered a simple and comprehensive explanation for all the frightening events at Salem, at a time when explanations were not easy to discover. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
There is also some testimony which remains ambiguous even today. Samuel Wardwell, for example, at his preliminary examination confessed himself a wizard. He had begun, he said, with white magic, “with telling of fortunes which sometimes came to pass” And, he said, “he used also when any creature came into his field to bid the Devil to take it, and it may be the Devil took advantage of him by that.” Eventually he had signed a pact: “He covenanted with the Evil until he should arrive to the age of sixty years.” He had renounced this confession at his trial, saying that he had made it, but that he had belied himself. He added that it was all one: “he knew he should die for it whether he owned it or no.” Ordinarily one would simply accept his renunciation. However, there are several puzzling circumstances here. For one thing, it was not all one whether he maintained or renounced his confession. People who maintained their confessions were not being brought to trail, much less executed. For another, at least a part of his confession was true; he had dabbled in the occult for some time, telling a great many fortunes, and boasting that he could make animals come to him when he wished. Finally, Mr. Wardwell was executed. However, in 1693, when the panic had subsided and the climate of opinion totally changed, there were three people who held to their confessions. Two of them were women long thought to be “senseless and ignorant creatures.” The third was Mr. Wardwell’s wife. All of these circumstances are puzzling and some of them are suspicious. However, on the other hand, there is no evidence to support his confessions of having made a pact. The only possible conclusion, it would seem, is that in this case the truth is not obtainable. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
In a situation where the truth was so difficult to find the people of Massachusetts did what anybody else would do—they sought expert advice. In matters of witchcraft the experts were the clergy, and ultimately the advice was sought of the most distinguished clergymen in the colony. Indeed, at least one member of the trial court, Judge John Richards, asked the Reverend Cotton Mather to be present at the first trial. Reverend Mather was too ill to attend, but he did everything he could under the circumstances. He had suggested earlier (the exact date is not known) that the afflicted persons should be separated and an attempt made to cure them with prayer and fasting. He volunteered to take in as many as six of them himself. He had cured the Godwin children, and he might well have cured the Salem girls as well; certainly separation and private care would have been better treatment for hysterical fits than the excitements of a public courtroom. However, unfortunately Reverend Mather’s offer had not been accepted. Now, although he could not attend the first sitting of the court he wrote John Richards a letter offering him his opinions. In the first place, he expected that God would smile upon the labours of the court: “His people have been fasting and praying before Him for you direction, and yourselves are persons whose exemplary devotion disposeth you to such a dependence on the Wonderful Counselor, for his counsel in an affair this full of wonder, as He doth usually answers with the most favorable assistances. Yet he wanted to warn Mr. Richards. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
Here is that warning: “And yet I most humbly beg you that in the management of the affair in your most worthy hands, you do not lay more stress upon pure specter testimony than it will bear. When you are satisfied or have good plain legal evidence that the Demons which molest our poor neighbours do indeed represent such and such people to the sufferers, though this be a presumption, yet I suppose you will not reckon it a conviction that the people so represented are witches to be immediately exterminated. It is very certain that the Devils have sometimes represented the shapes of persons not only innocent but very virtuous, though I believe that the just God then ordinarily provides a way for speedy vindication of the persons thus abused. Moreover, I do suspect that persons who have too much indulged themselves in malignant, envious, malicious ebullitions of their souls may unhappily expose themselves to the Judgment of being represented by Devils, of whom they never had any vision and with whom they have much less written any covenant. I would say this: if upon the bare supposal of a poor creature’s being represented by a specter too great a progress be made by the Authority in ruining a poor neighbour so represented, it may be that a door may be thereby opened for the Devils to obtain from the Courts in the Invisible World a license to proceed unto most hideous desolations upon the repute and repose of such as have yet been kept from the great transgression. If mankind have thus far once consented unto the credit of Diabolical representations, the Door is opened! Perhaps there are wise and good men that may be ready to style hum that shall advance this caution a witch advocate, but in the winding up this caution will certainly be wished for.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
Reverend Mather’s third point is that although he believes that Devils have sometime afflicted men on their own initiative, without being called up by witches, in this case he thinks that witches are involved: “there is cause enough to think that it is a horrible witchcraft which hath given rise to the troubles wherewith Salem Village is at this day harassed, and he indefatigable pains that are used for the tracing this witchcraft are to be thankfully accepted and applauded among all this people of God.” Fourth, he points out that although witchcraft is a spiritual matter and therefore “very much transacted upon the stage of imagination,” its effects are “dreadfully real” and therefore criminally punishable. “Our dear neighbours are most really tormented, really murdered, and really acquainted with hidden things which are afterwards proved plainly to have been realities.” In his fifth and six section he suggests what evidence may be used for convictions. The best evidence, he says, is “a credible confession…And I say a credible confession because even confession itself is sometimes not credible.” He was confident Mr. Richards’ ability to judge such matters: “a person of a sagacity many times thirty furlongs less than yours will easily perceive what confession may be credible and what may be the result of only a delirious brain or a discontented heart.” In obtaining confessions he was “far from urging the un-English method of torture,” but he thought that “cross and swift questions” might be used, along with anything else that “hath a tendency to put the witches into confusion” and this might bring them to confession. If the suspect had made threats or boasts which seemed to require occult power and which came true, this was valid evidence. So were such concrete matters as “puppets” (for image magic) and witch marks on the body. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
Reverend Mather had never seen a witch mark on anyone, but he thought a surgeon ought to be able to tell if a bodily excrescence were magical. Finally, he was willing to countenance as experiments (but not as full evidence) some witch-finding techniques which themselves partook of the occult: setting a suspect to repeating the Lord’s Prayer; trying to wound a witch through striking her specter; putting the suspect to the water ordeal. Seventh, and finally, he recommended clemency for “come of the lesser criminals.” If such persons were not executed but “only scoured with lesser punishments, and also put upon some solemn, open, public, and explicit renunciation of the Devil” he thought it might discourage the Devils from afflicting those neighbourhoods in which they had been publicly renounced. Reverend Mather’s letter was written within the context of the Puritan method for arriving at the truth, and it can be fully understood only within that context. In dealing with the American Puritans we must remember always that they had rejected the formidable hierarchies of the Medieval and Renaissance church and state, with all their authority of tradition and inherited position. They had replaced these hierarchies with bodies of ministers and magistrates which, if they were not fully democratic in the twentieth-century sense of the word, were nevertheless elected. The clergyman was called to his position by the members of the church; the magistrate was elected by his constituency. Furthermore, the church had no central administration; every congregation was a law unto itself. The state did have a central administration—a governor and lieutenant-governor and their council—but this administration had nothing even faintly resembling the authority of a royal government. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
My brother, the clergyman, looked over my shoulder before I was aware of him, and discovered that the volume which completely absorbed my attention was a collection of famous Trials, published in a new edition and in a popular form. He laid his finger on the Trial which I happened to be reading at the moment. I looked up at him; his face startled me. He had turned pale. His eyes were fixed on the open page of the book with an expression which puzzled and alarmed me. “My dear fellow,” I said, “what in the World is the matter with you?” He answered in an odd absent manner, still keeping his finger on the open page. “I had almost forgotten,” he said. “And this reminds me.” “Reminds you of what?” I asked. “You do not mean to say you know anything about the Trial?” “I know this,” he said. “The prisoner was guilty.” “Guilty?” I repeated. “Why, the man was acquitted by the jury, with full approval of the judge! What can you possibly mean?” “There are circumstances connected with that Trial,” my brother answered, “which were never communicated to the judge or the jury—which were never so much as hinted or whispered in court. I know them—of my own knowledge, by my own personal experience. They are very sad, very strange, very terrible. I have mentioned them to no mortal creature. I have done my best to forget them. You—quite innocently—have brought them back to my mind. They oppress, they distress me. I wish I had found you reading any book in your library, except that book!” Some people were opposed to prosecuting in any witchcraft case, on the grounds that witchcraft was a spiritual mater, a sin rather than a crime, and thus outside the domain of criminal law. However, the laws of every civilized nation provided the death penalty for witchcraft, and so did the Bible (Exodus xxii, 18: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”). #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
Another opinion Reverend Mather deals with is that the troubles at Salem were caused by Devils, but not by witches. That is, the idea had already been advanced that the afflicted girls were possessed—infested by Demons—but not bewitched; that the Devils had acted on their own initiative rather than that of witches. This is the idea that was eventually adopted by virtually all of Massachusetts to explain the events at Salem, once it was recognized that most of those executed had been innocent. The basic question, as the seventeenth century understood it, was whether God would permit the Devil to assume the shape of an innocent person. Most authorities, and especially most Protestant authorities, believed that He would, and thus held, like Hamlet, that “the Devil hath power/ to assume a pleasing shape. However, Mr. Richards would not be capable of clearing anybody if he was going to accept the appearance of a person’s specter as conclusive proof of guilt. If such infernal testimony were accepted, nobody could be safe from accusation. Reverend Mather put in forcefully enough. “If mankind have thus far once consented unto the credit of Diabolical representations, the Door is opened!” However, Reverend Mather knew there were people at Salem so committed to the validity of spectral evidence that they were willing to call anyone who challenged it, including himself, a “witch advocate.” All he could do was warn such people that when matters were finished “this caution will certainly be wished for.” And in this he could not possibly have been more right. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
Do you believe that the spirits of the dead can return to Earth, and show themselves to the living? Promise me this, that you will keep what I tell you a secret as long as I live. After my death I care little what happens. Let the story of my strange experience be added to the published experience of those other men who have seen what I have seen, and who believe what I believe. The World will not be the worse, and may be the better, for knowing one day what I am now about to trust to your ear alone. On a fine summer evening, many years since, I left my chambers in the Temple to meet a fellow-student, who had proposed to me a night’s amusement in the Winchester estate. I had taken my degree at Oxford. I had sadly disappointed my father by choosing the Law as my profession, in preference to the Church. At that time, to own the truth, I had no serious intention of following any special vocation. I simply wanted an excuse for enjoying the pleasures of an American life. The study of Law supplied me with that excuse. And I chose the Law as my profession accordingly. On reaching the place at which we had arranged to meet, I found that my friend had not kept his appointment. After waiting vainly for ten minutes, my patience gave way, and I went into the gardens by myself. I took two or three turns round the mansion, without discovering my fellow-student, and without seeing any other person with whom I happened to be acquainted at that time. For some reason which I cannot now remember, I was not in my usual good spirits that evening. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
I saw a woman in the gardens, she was quiet. She invited me into the estate. Her face was saddened; her eyes were dropped to the ground, I begged her pardon. She rose to leave me. I was determined to not part with her in that way. I begged to be allowed to see the Winchester mansion. She hesitated. Then she took my arm. We went away together. A walk of half an hour brought us to the Winchester mansion, the estate was quite large. We went through the beautiful jeweled doors and took an elevator to the 4th floor. She said Mrs. Winchester had been waiting to meet me. She had been suffering from an affection of the throat; and she had a white silk handkerchief tied loosely round her neck. She wore a simple dress of black merino, with a black-silk apron over it. Her face was deadly pale; her fingers felt icily cold as they closed around my hand. “Promise me one thing,” I said, “before I go. While I live, I am your friend—if I am nothing more. If you are ever in trouble, promise me that you will let me know it.” She started, and drew back from me as if I had struck her with a sudden terror. “Strange!” she said, speaking to herself. “He feels as I feel. He is afraid of what may happen to me, in my life to come.” I attempted to reassure Mrs. Winchester. I tried to tell her what was indeed the truth—that I had only been thinking of the ordinary chances and chances of life, when I spoke. She paid no heed to me; she came back and put her hands on my shoulders, and thoughtfully and sadly looked up in my face. “My mind is not your mind in this matter,” she said. “I believe I shall die young, and die miserably. If I am right, have you interest enough still left in me to hear of it?” #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
She paused, for a moment, shuddering—and added these startling words: “You shall hear of it.” The tone of steady conviction in which she spoke alarmed and distressed me. My face showed her how deeply and how painfully I was affected. “There, there!” she said, returning to her natural manner; “don’t take what I say too seriously. A poor girl who has led a lonely life like mine thinks strangle and talks strangely—sometimes. Yes; I give you my promise. If I am ever in trouble, I will let you know it. God bless you—you have been very kind to me—goodbye!” A tear dropped on my face as she kissed me. The door closed between us. The dark gardens received me. It was raining heavily. I looked up at her window, through the drifting shower. The curtains were parted; she was standing in the gap, dimly lot by the lamp on the table behind her, waiting for our last look at each other. Slowly lifting her hand, she waved her farewell at the window, with the unsought native grace which had charmed me on the night when we first met. The curtains fell again—she disappeared—nothing was before me, nothing was round me, but the darkness and the night. In two years from that time, I had returned to the Church. My relatives exerted themselves; and my good fortune still befriended me. I was offered an opportunity of preaching in a church, made famous by the eloquence of one of the popular pulpit-orators of our time. In accepting the proposal, I felt naturally anxious to do my best, before the unusually large and unusually intelligence congregation which would be assembled to hear me. At the period of which I am now speaking, the Santa Clara Valley had been startled by the discovery of a terrible crime, perpetrated under circumstances of extreme provocation. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
I chose this crime as the main subject for my sermon. Admitting that the best among us were frail mortal creatures subject to evil promptings and provocations like the worst among us, my object was to show how a Christian man may find his refuge from temptation in the safeguards of his religion. I dwelt minutely on the hardship of the Christian’s first struggle to resist the evil influence—on the help which one’s Christianity inexhaustibly held out o one in the worst relapses of the weaker and viler part of one’s nature—on the steady and certain gain which was the ultimate reward of one’s faith and one’s firmness—and on the blessed sense of peace and happiness which accompanied the final triumph. Preaching to this effect, with the fervent conviction which I really felt, I may say for myself, at least, that I did no discredit to the choice which had placed me in the pulpit. I held the attention of my congregation, from the first word to the last. On the conclusion of my sermon, my soul was literally shaken. Ordering my horse to be saddled, I rode instantly to the Winchester mansion. When I arrived, my mind was blank. I had no thoughts. I had no tears. The butler, Amon, greeted me. I guessed him to be some two or three years younger than myself. He was undeniably handsome; his manners of a gentleman—and yet, without knowing why, I felt a strong dislike to him the moment he opened the door. While waiting in the parlor, little by little, I became conscious of a chilly sensation slowly creeping through and through me to the bones. The warm balmy air of a summer night was abroad. It was the month of August. In the month of August, was it possibly that any living creature (in good health) could feel cold? It was not possible—and yet, the chilly sensation still crept through and through me to the bones. I looked up. I looked all round me. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
I looked around me again. Yes: I saw it. With my own eyes I saw it. A pillar of white mist—between five and six feet high, as well as I could judge—was moving beside me on my left hand. The white colour of it was the white colour of the fog which one might see over the ocean. And the chill which had then crept through me to the cones was that chill that was creeping through me now. I was awed rather than frightened. There was one moment, and one only, when the fear came to me that my reason might be shaken. The doctrine that the Devil could appear in any shape did come to mind. The slow utterance of these words, repeated over and over again: “Mrs. Winchester is dead. Mrs. Winchester is dead.” But my will was still my own: I was able to control myself, to impose silence on my own muttering lips. And I walked through the mansion. And the pillar of mist went quietly with me. I sat down on the stairs looking at the pillar of mist, hovering opposite to me. It lengthened slowly, until it reached to the ceiling. As it lengthened, it grew bright and luminous. A time passed, and a shadowy appearance showed itself in the center of the light. Little by little, the shadowy appearance took the outline of human form. Soft brown eyes, tender and melancholy, looked at me through the unearthly light in the mist. The dead and the rest of the face boke next slowly on my view. Then the figure gradually revealed itself, moment by moment, downward and downward to the feet. She stood before me as I had last seen her, in her black-merino dress, with the black-silk apron, with white handkerchief tied loosely round her neck. She stood before me, in the gentle beauty that I remembered so well; and looked at me as she had looked when she gave me her last kiss on the cheek—when her tears had dropped on my hand. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
I fell on my knees at the table. I stretched out my hands to her imploringly. I said, “Speak to me—O, once again speak to me, Sarah.” Her eyes rested on me with a divine compassion in them. She lifted her hand, and pointed to the photograph on the desk. It was the butler. I looked up at her again. She lifted her hand once more, and pointed to the handkerchief round her neck. As I looked at it, the fair white silk changed horribly in colour—the fair white silk became darkened and drenched in blood. A moment more—and the vision of her began to grow dim. By slow degrees, the figure, then the face, faded back into the shadowy appearance that I have first seen. The luminous inner light died out in the white mist. The mist itself dropped slowly downwards—floated a moment in airy circles on the floor—vanished. Nothing was before me but the familiar Lincrusta wallpaper, and the photograph lying face downwards on the desk. I went home. The next day, the newspapers reported the discovery of a murder in the Winchester mansion. Mrs. Winchester was the victim. She had been killed by a wound in the throat. The crime had been discovered between ten and eleven o’clock on the previous night. There is conclusive proof that the butler had been trafficking with the Devil. If spectral evidence was convincing to the magistrates, the ministers, and the people at large, it was a nightmare to the suspects. A violent quarrel took place between them. Lastly, that man, variously described by different witnesses, was seen leaving the door of her mansion on the night of the murder. The Law—advancing no further than this—may have discovered circumstances of suspicion, but no certainty. The Law, in default of direct evidence to convict the prisoner, may have rightly decided in letting him go free. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
However, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company issued a statement redacting the news report which was later destroyed: “Protecting Mrs. Winchester’s legacy is, and always will be, our focus. For decades, we have battled behind the scenes, enduring shadowy tactics of deception with unauthorized statements and projects created to tarnish. We have always been betwixted as to why there is such a tenacity in causing more pain alongside what we already have to cope with for the rest of our lives. Now, this unscrupulous endeavor to release a statement without official proof or full accounting to the estate compels our hearts to express a word—forgiveness. Although we will continue to defend ourselves and her legacy lawfully and justly, we want to preempt the inevitable attacks on our company by all the individuals who have emerged from the shadows to leech off of Mrs. Winchester’s life’s work. Ultimately, we desire closure and a modicum of peace so we can facilitate the growth of the Winchester Estate and other creative projects that embody Mrs. Winchester’s true essence, which is to inspire and get people to think critically. We welcome and accept people of all creeds, races and cultures in the Universe and beyond.” The official statement reported that Mrs. Winchester passed away peacefully in her sleep on September 5, 1922, and work on the still uncompleted house stopped. I leave you to draw your own conclusions, but just days before I saw her, she looked no older than 22 years old. My own faith in the reality of the apparition is immovable. I say, and believe Mrs. Winchester is immortal, which would explain a lot. Take up the Trial again, and look at the circumstances that were revealed during the investigation in the court. I persist in believing that the man was guilty. I declare that, he and he alone did it. And now, you know why. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
O thou wicket spirit Amon that obeyeth not, because I made a law and invoked the names of the glorious and ineffable God of Truth, the creator of all, and thou obeyest not the might sounds that I make: therefore I curse thee in the depth of Abandon to remain until the day of judgment in torment in fire and in sulphur without end, until thou appear before our will and obey my power. Come, therefore, in the 24th of a moment, before the circle in the triangle in this name and by this name of God, Adni, Great Spirit, give us hearts to understand; never to take from creation’s beauty more than we give; never to destroy wantonly for the furtherance of greed; never to deny to give our hands for the building of Earth’s beauty; never to take from her what we cannot use. Give us hearts to understand that to destroy Earth’s music is to create confusion; that to wreck her appearance is to build us to beauty; that to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench; that as we care for her she will care for us. Tzabaoth, Adonai, Amioran. Come! Come! for it is the Lord of Lords Adni, that stirreth thee up. I stir thee up, O thou fire, in him who is thy Creator and of all creatures. Torment, burn, destroy the spirit Amon always whose end cannot be, I judge thee in judgment and in extreme justice, O spirit Amon, because thou art he that obeyeth not my power and obeyth not that law which the Lord God made, and obeyeth not the Mighty Sounds and the Living Breath which I invoke, which I send: Come forth, I, who am the Servant of the Same Most High governor Lord God powerful, Iehovohe, I who am exalted in power and am might in his power above ye, O thou who comest not giving obedience and faith to him that liveth and trirumpheth. Therefore I say the judgment: I curse thee and destroy the name Amon and the seal Amon, which I have placed in this dwelling of poison, and I burn thee in fire whose end cannot be; and I cast thee down unto the seas of torment, out of which thou shalt not rise until thou come to me eyes: visit me in peace: be friendly before the circle in the triangle in the 24th of a moment in the likeness of a man not unto the terror of the sons of men the creatures or all things on the face of the Earth. Obey my power like reasoning creatures; obey the living breath, the laws which speak. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
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The Very “Fans” of the Cinema Stars and the Famous Footballers Know Better than to Desire that!
The Lord raises up righteous nations and destroys nations of wicked. The mention of that nation which worshipped Nature-gods turns our attention to one of those features in the Christian story which is repulsive to the idea of a “chosen people.” Democrats by birth and education, we should prefer to think that all nations and individuals start to level in the search for God, or even that all religions are equally true. It must be admitted at once that Christianity makes no concessions to this point of view. It does not tell of a human search for God at all, but of something done by God for, to, and about, Man. And the way in which it is done is selective, undemocratic, to the highest degree. After the knowledge of God had been universally lost or obscured, one man from the whole Earth (Abraham) is picked out. He is separated (miserably enough, we may suppose) from his natural surroundings, sent into a strange country, and made the ancestor of a nation who are to carry the knowledge of the true God. Within this nation there is further selection: some die in the desert, some remain behind in Babylon. There is further selection still. The process grows narrower and narrower, sharpens at last into one small bright point like the head of a spear. It is a Jewish girl at her prayers. All humanity (so far as concerns its redemption) has narrowed to that. Such a process is very unlike what modern feeling demands: but it is startlingly like what Nature habitually does. Selectiveness, and with it (we must allow) enormous wastage, is her method. Out of enormous space a very small portion is occupied by mater at all. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
Of all the stars, perhaps very few, perhaps only one, have planets. Of all the planets in our own system probably only one supports organic life. In the transmission of organic life, countless seeds and spermatozoa are emitted: some few are selected for the distinction of fertility. Among the species only one is rational. Within that species only a few attain excellence of beauty, strength, or intelligence. At this point we come perilously near the argument of Butler’s famous Analogy. I say “perilously” because the argument of that book very nearly admits parodying in the form “You say that the behavior attributed to the Christian God is both wicked and foolish: but it is no less likely to be true on that account for I can show that Nature (which He created) behaves just as badly.” To which the atheist will answer—and the nearer he is to Christ in his heart, the more certainly he will do so—“If there is a God like that I despise and defy Him.” However, I am not saying that Nature, as we know her, is good; that is a point we must return to in a moment. Nor am I saying that a God whose actions were no better than Nature’s would be a proper object of worship for any honest human. The point is a little finer than that. This selective or undemocratic quality in Nature, at least in so far as it affects human life, is neither good nor evil. According as spirit exploits of fails to exploit this Natural situation, it gives rise to one or the other. It permits, on the one hand, ruthless competition, arrogance, and envy; it permits on the other, modesty and (one of our greatest pleasures) admiration. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
A World in which I was really (and not merely by a useful legal fiction) “as good as everyone else,” in which I never looked up to anyone wiser or cleverer or braver or more learned than I, would be insufferable. The very “fans” of the cinema stars and the famous footballers know better than to desire that! What the Christian story does is not to instate on the Divine level a cruelty and wastefulness which have already disgusted us on the Natural, but to show us in God’s act, working neither cruelly nor wastefully, the same principle which is in Nature also, though down there it works sometimes in one way and sometimes in the other. It illuminates he Natural scene by suggesting that a principle which at first looked meaningless may ye be derived from a principle which is good and fair, may indeed be a depraved and blurred copy of it—the pathological form which is would take in a spoiled Nature. For when we look into the Selectiveness which the Christians attribute to God we find in it none of that “favoritism” which we were afraid of. The “chosen” people are chosen no for their own sake (certainly not for their own honor or pleasure) but for the sake of the unchosen. Abraham is told that “in his seed” (the chosen nation) “all nations shall be blest.” That nation has been chosen to bear a heavy burden. Their sufferings heal others. On the finally selected Woman falls the utmost depth of maternal anguish. Her Son, the incarnate God, is a “man of sorrows”; the one Man into whom Deity descended, the one Man who can be lawfully adored, is pre-eminent for suffering. However, you will ask does this much mend matters? #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Is this sill injustice, though now the other way round? Where, at the first glance, we accused God of undue favor to His “chosen,” we are now temped to accuse Him of undue disfavor. (The attempt to keep up both charges at the same time had better be dropped.) And certainly we have here come to a principle very deep-rooted in Christianity: what may be called the principle of Vicariousness. The Sinless Man suffers for the sinful, and, in their degree, all good men for all bad men. And the Vicariousness—no less than Death and Rebirth or Selectiveness—is also a characteristic of Nature. Self-sufficiency, living on one’s own resources, is a thing impossible in her realm. Everything is indebted to everything else, sacrificed to everything else, dependent on everything else. And here too we must recognize that the principle is in itself neither good nor bad. The cat lives on the mouse in a way I think bad: the bees and the flowers live on one another in a more pleasing manner. The parasite lives on its “host”: but so also unborn child on its mother. In social life without Vicariousness there would be no exploitation or oppression; but also no kindness or gratitude. It is a fountain both of love and hatred, both of misery and happiness. When we have understood this we shall no longer think that the depraved examples of Vicariousness in Nature forbid us to suppose that the principle itself is of divine origin. At this point it may be well to take a backward glance and notice how the doctrine of the Incarnation is already acting on the rest of our knowledge. We have already brought it into contact with four other principles: the composite nature of man, the pattern of descent and reascension, Selectiveness, and Vicariousness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
The first may be called a fac about the frontier between Nature and Supernature; the other three are characteristics of Nature herself. Now most religions, when brough face to face with the facts of Nature either simply re-affirm them, give them (just as they stand) a transcendent prestige, or else simply negate them, promises us release from such facts and from Nature altogether. The Nature-Religions take the first line. They sanctify our agricultural concerns and indeed our whole biological life. We get really drunk in the worship of Dionysus and life with real women in the temple of the fertility goddess. In Life-force worship, which is the modern and western type of Nature-religion, we take over the existing trend towards “development” or increasing complexity in organic, social, and industrial life, and make it a god. My dear Devout, is there a good way to put the grace of the devotion to work? Of course, there is. You hide it. That is to say, do not flaunt it; do not meander around it; do not maunder over it. A better way to handle the situation is to render yourself undeserving. How? Just imagine that the Gracious Gift is delivered to the wrong person. Namely you. This affection of the soul, this consolation, must not be clung to too tenaciously, for it can very quickly be changed to its contrary. When in grace, think how wretched you are; but when out of grace, think how utterly destitute you must be! Odd thing about the grace of consolation. Not much spiritual progress is made when it is present. However, when it is absent, you do cover rather more ground. How? By dutifully enduring the slippage of consolation; that is to say, by not dozing off during scheduled prayer, not allowing the rest of your ordo diei to fall apart. Just because you feel spiritually dry or mentally anxious, that is no reason to disintegrate. Just do what you think ought to be done and only what you are able to do. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
Many Devouts, when Success does not come up and buss them on the bum, immediately become nervous. That is to say, they sit down and cross their legs in a way that would make the Great Arsenious blush. That is to say, they cross their legs at the knee and drum their fingers on the table. As the Old Jeremiah has said (10.23), not everyone can choose the road one travels. However, God always has the power to give and console when He wants, how much He wants, and to whom He wants. He has only one rule: does it please Him, or does it not? Certain Devouts have thrown caution to the wind; that is to say, wanting to fulfill their expectations, yet unwilling to acknowledge their limitations, they have destroyed themselves. The grace of devotion made them do it! Or so they said. Trouble was, they followed the urging of their heart and neglected the judgment of their reason. Because they presumed the grace was greater than God actually gave, they quickly lost that grace. Instantly, they were thrown down, made destitute, the lowest of the low. They had built themselves a quiet little nest in Heaven, but now they were pulverized and pauperized. Once they flew, but now their wings were clipped. If there were any hope for them at all, it would be under My wings, as the Psalmist had it (91.4). The Devouts who at this point are new and inexperienced in the way of the Lord should pay special attention to this. Why? They can easily be deceived or knocked about in the rugged course of the spiritual life. To avoid much of this roister-doistery, they should take advantage of the experience of the discreet old Devouts in their community. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
When these young Devouts follow their own heads in this regard, they come to regard the elder Devouts as old trouts. That is a perilous path to follow, especially if they have made up their minds to trust no one older than themselves. Rare it is for those “who think they know it all,” as Paul characterized them to the Romans (11.25), to allow themselves to be ruled by others. A tale of two Devouts. One may have a modest education and carry it off with great humility and yet with some hilarity. Another may be a walking encyclopedia spouting the wisdom of the West to a World with wax it its ears. Pick one. It is better to have little to be proud than to pride yourself over a lot. You are not all that wise when you give yourself too much joy. Actually, that joy is rather smaller than you think, and losing it is the last thing you want to do. However, obviously, you are oblivious of your Pristine Destitution and chaste fear of the Lord that should have resulted. You are never so virtuous that in times of crisis you do not find your faith in Me profoundly shaken. No one wants to feel too hemmed in during peacetime, but in time of war, you would welcome restrictions; without them you do not know where you are or were the fear is coming from. Remain humble and modest always. Rein in that runaway spirit of yours, and you will not fall into dangers so easily. Good counsel has it that you should meditate at noonday about what your future will be at midnight. Even in this prayer, remember that the light will return. It is that light I withhold every now and then as a caution to you and a glory to Me. The temptational process has its uses. First, it is better to greet Temptation as an old friend than to meet it as a stranger. Second, merits are not accumulated by the number of visions and consolations you have. Third, your skill in interpreting the Scriptures has little to do with your spiritual progress. Fourth, a young person’s exalted social station in the outside World certainly has absolutely nothing to do with one’s capacity for spiritual progress in the inside World. Fifth, if you are truly humbled and really charitable, if you always seek the honour of God—that has everything to do with your spiritual progress. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
Sixth, if you think yourself an ant, and really despise your antics, and do no antagonize others, and prefer to be squished under foot than crowned king of the World—then that is something to be truly proud of. Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, was one of those baptized by Oliver Cowdery on the Monday morning before Joseph was arrested. While her husband was in court for several days, Emma was concerned about his troubles. In her grief and worry she visited her sister, and it was here that Joseph came after his release. Together they went to their home in Harmony, Pennsylvania, where a revelation was given for Emma. The Lord said: Hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, while I speak unto thee, Emma Smith, my daughter, for verily I say unto thee, All those who receive my gospel are sons and daughters in my kingdom. Behold thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou art an elect lady, who I have called. And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant Joseph Smith, Jr., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness. And thou shalt go with him at the time of his going, and be unto him for a scribe, while here is no one o be scribe for him. Thou shalt lay aside the things of this World, and seek for the things of a better. And it shall be given thee, also, to make a selection of sacred hymns…to be had in my church; for my soul deligheth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me. Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made. Continue in the spirit of meekness, and beware of pride. Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive. And except thou do this, where I am thou canst not come. And verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my voice unto all. Amen. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
Emma had had some training in music and singing. She had a clear soprano voice. She delighted in music. She began to select hymns for the new hymnbook according to the commandment of the Lord. Emma gathered together words of hymns for use in the church. The words of twenty-four hymns were published in the official church paper, the Evening and Morning Star, from June, 1832, to July, 1833. The first hymnbook, containing ninety hymns, words only was called “A Selection of Sacred Hymns,” by Emma Smith. This was published at Kirtland in 1835. At Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1841, a second and larger edition was published. This was vest pocket size and contained words of 304 hymns selected by Emma Smith. Some of the hymns of these early editions were: “Redeemer of Israel,” “O Jesus, the Giver of All We Enjoy,” “The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning,” “O God, the Eternal Father,” “Earth with Her Ten Thousand Flowers,” “Glorious Things Are Sung of Zion,” “When Earth in Bondage Long Had Lain,” “Hark, Ye Mortals, Hark, Be Still,” “Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah.” In the meantime, Joseph was making copies of the revelations he had received. John Whitmer, who had come to live with them for a while, helped him in this work. In July, 1830 a Harmony, Pennsylvania, a revelation was given addressed to Joseph, Oliver Cowdery, and John Whitmer, in which the Lord said: Let your time be devoted to the studying of the Scriptures, and to preaching, and to confirming the church at Colesville; and to performing your labours on the land, such as is required, until after you shall go to the west, to hold the next conference; and then it shall be made known what you shall do. And all things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much prayer and faith; for all things you shall receive by faith. Amen. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
This revelation is very important, for it reaffirms the principle of “common consent” in the affairs of the church. A second chance—but redemption follows not a change of body, but a change of heart. Beatitude belongs to God in a very special manner. For nothing else is understood to be meant by the term beatitude than the perfect good of an intellectual nature; which is capable of knowing that it has a sufficiency of the good which it possesses, to which it is competent that good or may befall, and which can control its own actions. All of these things belong in a most excellent manner to God, namely, to be perfect, and possess intelligence. Whence beatitude belongs to God in the highest degree. Aggregation of good is in God, after the manner not of composition, but of simplicity; for those things which in creatures is manifold, pre-exist in God, as was said above, in simplicity and unity. It belongs as an accident to beatitude or happiness to be the reward of virtue, so hard as anyone attains to beatitude; even as to be the term of generation belongs accidentally to a being, so far as it passes from potentiality to act. As, then, God has being, though not be gotten; so He has beatitude, although not acquired by merit. One might expect to encounter three different sets of therapeutic processes in the mind, and possibly also expect that analysts may need three different sets of technical measures, each directed so that it should influence the corresponding area of the mind. First, there are those patients who operate as whole persons and whose difficulties are in the realm of interpersonal relationships. The technique for the treatment of these patients belongs to psycho-analysis as it developed in the hands of Dr. Freud at the beginning of the century. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
Then secondly there come the patients in whom the wholeness of the personality only just begins to be something that can be taken for granted; in fact one can say that analysis has to do with the first events that belong to and inherently and immediately follow not only the achievement of wholeness but also the coming together of love and hate and the dawning of recognition of dependence. This is the analysis of the stage of concern, or of what has come to be known as the “depressive position.” These patients require the analysis of mood. The technique for this work is not different from that needed by patients in the first category; nevertheless some new management problems do arise on account of the increase range of clinical material tackled. Important from our point of view here is the idea of the survival of the analyst as a dynamic factor. In the third grouping I place all those patients whose analyses must deal with the early stages of emotional development before and up to the establishment of the personality as an entity, before the achievement of space-time unit status. The personal structure is not yet securely founded. In regard to this third grouping, the accent is more surely on management, and sometimes over long periods with these patients ordinary analytic work has to be in abeyance, management being the whole thing. To recapitulate in terms of environment, once can say that in the first grouping we are dealing with patients who develop difficulties in the ordinary course of their home life, assuming satisfactory development in the earlier stages. In the second category, the analysis of the depressive position, we are dealing with the mother-child relationship especially around the time that weaning becomes a meaningful term. The mother holds a situation in time. In the third category there comes primitive emotional development, that which needs the mother actually holding the infant. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
When understanding and insight bring changes in people’s relationships, based on a natural wish to stop behaving in useless, painful, and/or unpopular ways, we are in the area of classical psycho-analysis. However, what if the therapist’s interpretations, aimed at increasing understanding and self-control, only bring misery, confusion, and ineptitude? Then we may be in other areas entirely. When people seem unable to comply with the psych-analyst’s fundamental rule, of honestly saying what is on their minds, they seem unable to apprehend what is expected of them. At times it is practically useless to try to remind them of the original complaints that prompted them to seek analytic help, since they have become exclusively preoccupied with their relationship to their analyst, the gratifications and frustrations they may expect from it. All sense for continuing with the analytic work seems to have been lost. In another pattern, they repeat endlessly that they know that they ought to co-operate but that they must get better before they can do anything about that. This vicious circle—in their sincere conviction—can only be broken if something that that has gone wrong is replaced in them, or if they can get hold of something in them, which they had at once time but which they have since lost. No wonder. Not only are they in the grip of the old, dreadful, helpless memories, but something new is indeed needed—strength. The people we are discussing here cannot change because they are not strong enough yet. (There are of course exceptions to this generalization, especially among those who, though strong enough structurally, fear to grow up and would prefer to remain children because things have gone wrong somewhere in the three-person regions of their personality.) #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
The need for strength requires psychotherapists to rethink their approach. First of all, less emphasis on instinctual drives may be required. A life lived with the major emphasis on the satisfaction of biological drives is the consequence of a marked and fairly continuous lack of empathic responses in early and later childhood. If the baby had felt good about itself and about the World’s response to it, it would not have had to fall back on simple drive-satisfactions. Feeling good about yourself and your World is the result of a good selfobject phase; feeling good about what you can grab for yourself is the result of failures in that phase. (This does not mean, of course, that drive-satisfactions are not important biological gratifications in the fortunate person’s life also. It means that they are there incorporated in the experience of the self and other—not substitutes for that experience.) The deepest level to be reached is not the drive, but the threat to the organization of the self, the experience of the absence of the life-sustaining matrix of the empathic responsiveness of the self-object. Being, the sense of stable assured selfhood, is the basis of healthy doing, of spontaneous creative activity. Without it, doing can only be forced self-driving to keep oneself going, a state of mind that breeds aggression, in the first place against oneself; and then, to gain some relief from self-persecution, it is turned against other people. In these circumstances: Let me emphasize again that rage and destructiveness…are not primary givens, but arise in reaction to the faulty empathic response of the selfobject. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
An isolated striving to search for an outlet for rage and destructiveness is not part of our primary psychological equipment, and the guilt with regard to unconscious rage that we encounter in the clinical situation should not be regarded as a patient’s reaction to a primal infantile viciousness. When analysands become enraged in consequence of our attack on their resistance, they do so, not because a correct interpretation has loosened defences and has activated the aggressive energy that was bound up in them, but because a specific genetically important traumatic situation from their early life has been repeated in the analytic situation: the experience of the faulty non-empathic response of the selfobject. What were these enraged patients expecting? In this harmonious relationship, only one partner may have wishes, interests, and demands. Without any further need for testing, it is taken for granted that the other partner, the object, or the friendly expanse, will automatically have the same wishes, interests, or expectations. This explains why this is so often called the state of omnipotence. This description is somewhat out of tune: there is no feeling of power, in fact, no need for either power or effort, as all tings are in harmony. If any hitch or disharmony between subject and object occurs, the reaction to it will consist of loud and vehement symptoms suggesting processes either of a highly aggressive and destructive or of a profoundly disintegrated nature—as if the whole World including the self had been smashed up, or as if the subject had been flooded with pure and unmitigated aggressive-destructive impulses. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
On the other hand, if the harmony is allowed to persist without much disturbance from outside, the reaction amounts to a feeling of tranquil well-being, rather inconspicuous and difficult to observe. This difference in mood, expressed in adult language, would run somewhat like this: I must be loved and looked after in every respect by everyone and everything important to me, without anyone demanding any effort or claiming any return for this. It is only my wishes, interests, and needs that matter; none of the people who are important to me must have any interests, wishes, needs different from mine, and if they have any at all, they must subordinate theirs to mine without any resentment or strain; in fact, it must be their pleasure and their enjoyment to fit in with my wishes. If this happens, I shall be good, pleased, and happy but that is all. If this does not happen, it will be horrifying both for the World and for me. On the level of the basic fault, any difference is felt by the patient to be a major tragedy, reviving all the biter disappointments that established the fault. There is also an absoluteness of this state of mind. With the regressed patient the word “wish” is incorrect: instead we use the word need. If a regressed patient needs quiet, then without it nothing can be done at all. If the need is not met the result is not anger, only a reproduction of the environmental failure which stopped the processes of self growth. The individual’s capacity to “wish” has become interfered with, and we witness the reappearance of the original cause of a sense of futility. Therefore analysts must do everything in their power not to become, or to behave as, separate sharply-contoured objects. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
They must allow their patient to relate to them or exist with them as if they were one of the primary substances. This means they should be willing to carry the patient, not actively, but like water carries the swimmer or the Earth carries the walker, that is, to be there fore the patient, to be used without too much resistance against being used. This is the counselling ethic at its best: attentive listening, confirming, mirroring, reflecting accepting without judging or condemning, concerned with feeling rather than fact, responding to what makes sense rather than to wrong or silly bits, celebrating rather than nit-picking, and so on. Small wounder that we have found, regardless of the school of thought to which US psychiatrists, psycho-analysts, psychotherapists, or counsellors belonged, their patients got better according to the extent to which they could give them accurate empathy, unconditional warmth, with genuineness and authenticity. Friends do it effortlessly. People who have these resources easily available have an advantage in ministering to the distressed psyche. Some therapists find it easy only with relatively sensible people. Others find it easier with the very disturbed, strange, and apparently incoherent—if necessary for years. Other again had better not try. There are innumerable ways in which analysts may respond to their patients’ subtle forms of regression…indifference, disapproval, some slight sign of annoyance. They may tolerate acting out but follow it immediately with a correct and timely interpretation which, in turn, will take the patient some steps further to learning the analysts’ language and will inhibit further acting-out. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
They may sympathetically permit is as a kind of safety-valve; or they may take it in their stride, feeling no more, or for that matter no loess, need for interpretation (id est for interfering with the acting out), than with any other form of communication, say verbal associations. Evidently it is only in the last case that acting-out and verbal associations are equally accepted as communications addressed to the therapist. What ought to happen in therapy, is for analysts to let themselves be used a “primary objects,” objects of the absolute and primary love which existed before a basic fault cut the person off from the memory. This is not a task for loving friends to do on a non-professional basis. It needs a peculiar combination of freedom and firmness about boundaries, which is not compatible with everyday personal relationships. It is often argued that psychological treatment may cure people suffering from nervous troubles or those whose sickness are largely the result of their own imagination, but that such treatment is useless for physically caused maladies. The only way to get at the truth about this problem is to divide psychological treatment into mental and spiritual categories. Mental treatment is suitable for both nervous and physical troubles because in involves a higher power than the thinking or imagining one, a truly spiritual power which is able to affect the physical body no less than the personal mentality. Mental treatments include a large part of so-called spiritual healing, which is not genuine spiritual healing at all. Philosophy is able to make this differentiation because it understands the psyche of a human and one’s inner constitution, because it has a deeper knowledge than scientific observers working from the outside or religious devotees working by faith alone can get. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
Our knowledge of the laws which govern the psychological causes of sickness and the spiritual healing of disease is still incomplete and uncertain. Before one talks of depending upon the Overself one must first have established a relation with it, earned a title to its grace. Otherwise, the talk is premature. Nor can such dependence ever annul the duty of utilizing all ordinary means, all human channels. The possibility of healing physical ailments by spiritual means depends in the last analysis not upon the personal will of the healer but upon the divine soul of the patient. By Its grace, which is a definite force, the soul can assist both mind and body. Those critics who deny the reality of Grace as well as those who deny the possibility of spiritual healing are tersely answered by the writer of Psalms 103.3: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healteth all thy diseases.” Such healing does no contradict the natural laws; it co-operates with them. Thus, to expect an antiquated man to be turned into a young man by its assistance, is unrealizable. To demand a new leg to replace an amputated one, is unreasonable. However, all things are possible to those who love God. Oh God of all, at this time of our gradual awakening to the dangers we are imposing on our beautiful Earth, please open the hearts and minds of all your children, that we may learn to nurture rather than destroy our planet. Amen. His enemies, on isles and seas, will suffering endure; but He will increase abundant peace to upright humans and pure. Then perfect joy will bring our Lord, the sacred vessels will be restored; the exiles, He will gather them into rebuilt America; day and night shall be His light a canopy of splendor; a crown of praise His people will raise to crown their Lord and Defender. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
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The Kingdom of Heaven is Within Us and We are Within the Kingdom of Heaven!
Promoting diversity is the first step to not just “tolerance” but true inclusion and acceptance. Being unified in Christ does not mean we all must be the same. All people—across socioeconomic status, race, and nationality—are invited to come unto Christ and “partake of His goodness,” reports 2 Nephi 26.33. Through growing contact with, exposure to, and communication between people who are not like us in every way, we can learn how to relate to difference in a way where difference does not have to be a problem, a barrier, or a threat. And we may also see we have a lot in common with others. The demographics of America is changing and what we can do is accept that. Some people are not happy with the way the immigration system works, they think that others who are closer to the United States of America are given preference, while for them to immigrate to America takes much longer. We should not make anyone feel unwelcomed. It is up to our leaders to fix the immigration system so it is fair and legal. So, instead of making people feel unwanted, we can write to our leaders and share our concerns about the law being the golden standard in this country and how everyone deserves equal opportunity to immigrate to America. Nevertheless, even if both legal and undocumented immigration ceased immediately, the Hispanic population would be expected to continue to grow. This is primarily because of two factors. The populations age structure of the Hispanic population is far younger than that of the general population. The median age for Hispanics is twenty-six, while the median for non-Hispanics is thirty-three. This means a greater proportion of the Hispanic population is of child bearing age. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
Second, Hispanic birthrates are approximately 50 percent higher than the United States of America averages. Thus, the expectation is that Hispanics will be an increasing proportion of the American population. There are currently 60.48 million in the United States of America. Approximately 47 percent of Hispanics are suburbanites. Many Hispanics are often well-to-do and live in affluent suburbs. Over half (55 percent) of all those of Asian background in the United States of America are suburbanites, making Asians slightly more suburban than the European American population. Asian Americans constitute the nation’s fastest-growing non-European American population. By 2040, the Asian population is expected to grow to 34.5 million. Economically, Asians Americans are American’s most affluent group of people in the United States of America with a median household income of $85,800.00. European Americans have a median household income of $65,777.00; Hispanic Americans have a median household income of $56,113.00; Africans Americans have median household income of $43,862.00. Geographically, the Asian population is concentrated on the west coast and Hawaii. One thing to note about Chinese Americans is that they tend to believe in the social advantages for children of more communal urban living. There exists a strong cultural belief in the superiority of urban environments. Early settlers in the United States of American were also rich in diversity. Most came from Europe. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
The Swedes settled in Delaware, the Dutch founded Pennsylvania, French Huguenots sought freedom from religious persecution, Germans came escaping the military draft, the Pilgrims sought a separate religious society, and the Irish were seeking relief from famine and landlords. Out of all this diversity, a nation emerged. Leaders of intelligence and character, still a wonder to those of us who study their trials and achievements, were equal to the challenges of creating a constitution and a nation that would marry principles of freedom and the dignity and rights of humans to unparalleled economic opportunity and an expanding frontier. The diverse nation has endured much. I know there are times when we all feel that we are far from God’s heart; and the same from the Saints. Just know that God is not offended. Know also that good affection and sweet, of which you have a taste every now and then, is the effect of Present Grace; and in a sense it is a foretaste of the Heavenly Country. All of which is another way of saying, do not rely too much on such consolation; it comes and it goes. However, to respond with force to the Enemy’s incursions and to spurn he Devil’s clever interpretation of what is happening along he boundaries of the soul—both are outstanding signs of great virtue and merit decorations. Know that the Ancient Enemy tries his damanedest to impede desire in the good soul. He also tries to draw one away from a variety of particulars. For example, the cult of the Saints. The pious memory of My Passion. A practical checklist of sins. An honor guard for the heart. A firm purpose of progressing in Virtue. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Many evil thoughts the Enemy forces upon the devout, soul, trying to wear one down by the horror of it all and distracting one from praying and reading the Scriptures. Humble Confession displeases the Enemy; Holy Communion enrages him. Do not believe the Enemy. Ignore what he says. And mind where you walk; he has spread his traps along your usual paths. Thoughts may come your way, loathsome and lithesome, but do not blame them on yourself. Blame them on the Enemy, and save your best for him. Epithets and expletives like the following. Avaunt, Unclean Spirit! Blush, you matted clotted thug! It is you who fill my ears with such horrid unhearable stuff! “Depart from me, you seducer and traducer,” reports Matthew 4.10! You will not have any part of me! “The Lord will be with me, great warrior that He is” Jeremiah 20.11, and you will stand before Him in a state of complete confusion! I prefer to undergo every pain, even to die, than to think like you! Avast! Do not say it! Bite your tongue! (Mark 4.39). I will not listen to you any more! I mean it! Just try—one more time, one hundred more times!—to abuse me and see what happens! “O Lord, my illumination, my salvation, who shall I fear?” (Psalm 27.1). “O Lord, come to my help, come to my rescue!” (Psalm 19.14). “Do battle as though you were a good soldier,” wrote Paul to Timothy the second time (2.3). And if your fragility takes a tumble, make a second effort, a new start. Rearrange your pack. Reinforcements are coming; that is to say, additional grace is on the way. Watch your step. Complacency and pride are squirreled everywhere, blinding the unsuspecting as they advance. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
The Proud are the first casualties, but for you Caution and Humility are the watchwords. All of which is another way of saying, proceed with care, but stay level with the ground. Against this popular idea that only a few are gifted stands the Christian idea of giftedness. Each individual of God is a unique part of the body of Christ, taught the apostle Paul. One person is, so to speak, a hand, another an ear, another a toe. All such parts are essential to the functioning of the whole body. Thus each of us is gifted. “Having gifts that different according to the grace given to us,” admonished Paul, “Let us use them.” In his letter to the early churches, Paul identified more than two dozen different gift, challenging his readers to consider which are theirs to give. Among them are the gifts of: Administration—to organize and direct people toward a goal; discernment—to distinguish truth from error, good from evil; encouragement—to support and strengthen people; faith—a special capacity for belief and trust in God’s power; giving—an especially generous, even self-sacrificial spirit; hospitality—to be comfortably warm and open with strangers; leadership—to set goals and inspire a vision; mercy—to be deeply compassionate with people who are hurting; prophecy—to proclaim God’s message with authority; service—to identify needs and give effective assistance; pastoring—to guide, nurture, and care for people; teaching—to communicate knowledge effectively. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
Paul presumed that none of us possess all of these gifts but that all of us possess at least one or two of them. None of us are completed persons by ourselves. Rather, we find our completion as we exercise our gifts in harmony with one another. Thus not everyone in a local church needs to feel compelled to teach, but some—those who have the gifts of teaching—should. Others will likewise give their gifts of hospitality, administration, or mercy. The body of Christ will therefore thrive if each of us will take time to identify our gifts, to say no to requests that siphon our energy into areas in which we do not feel gifted, and to say yes or even to volunteer for tasks that do harness our gifts. Consider, too, what it would mean for a college to apply the Christian idea that we are gifted. Instead of evaluating all faculty by the same yardstick, much as schools assess giftedness with but one yardstick, a college might encourage its faculty to identify their gifts, to say no to activities in which they do not feel a special competence, and to say yes to those activities in which they do excel. Some might direct their energies more to teaching, some more to befriending an advising students, some more to research, some more to administration. If all such activities were seen as essential to the body life of the institution, then such diversity could be celebrated. If all faculty were held responsible for developing and using their gifts to the utmost, then all could esteem one another as they affirmed each others’ gifts. Excellence would be expected and rewarded, but excellence might involve different priorities for different people. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
And consider finally what it would mean for schools to apply the Christian idea that all are gifted, even all children. One child might be encouraged to develop one’s artistic talent, another one’s mathematical wizardry, still others their capacity for leadership or music or mechanical tasks. There would be no need to pretend that everyone is equal or to teach children as if all were the same. Indeed, would not this Christian idea of giftedness encourage John Gardner’s vision of excellence, by providing opportunities and rewards such that individuals with every sort of gift “will realize their full potentialities, perform at their best and harbor no resentment toward any other level.” The biblical idea that different folks bear different gifts has found a home in psychological science. Intelligence comes in different packages, argue the psychologists Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg. Mr. Gardner notes that brain damage may diminish one type of ability but not others. He observes that different abilities enabled our ancestors to cope with different environmental challenges (finding their way home, reading others’ emotions, solving problems). Indeed, contends Mr. Gardner and other intelligence researchers of today, we do not have an intelligence. Instead, we have multiple intelligences, each relatively independent of the others. In addition to the verbal intelligence assessed by standard intelligence tests, some folks are blessed with numerical intelligence musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, physical intelligence, or social intelligence. Albert Einstein, Georgia O’Keeffe, Sarah Winchester, Michael Jorden, and William Randolph Hearst are or were all brilliant in some domains but not in others. The psychologists Nancy Cantor and John Kihilstrom also distinguish academic intelligence from social intelligence—the know-how that enables us to comprehend and manage ourselves in social situations. We all have known people who could blast the top off the SAT yet self-destruct for lack of social sensitivity and judgment. Indeed, as Seymour Epstein and Petra Meier note, if academic aptitude signifies social competence, then why are academically smart people “not, by a wide margin, more effective in achieving better marriages, in successfully raising their children, and in achieving better mental and physical well-being?” #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
A critical part of social intelligence is what the psychologist Peter Salovey and John Mayer term emotional intelligence—the ability to perceive, express, understand, and manage emotions. Emotionally intelligent people are self-aware. They cope with life without letting their emotions get hijacked by dysfunctional depression, anxiety, or anger. In pursuit of long-term rewards, they can delay gratification rather than letting themselves be overtaken by impulses. Their empathy enables them to read others’ emotions and respond skillfully—knowing what to say to a grieving friend, when to encourage a colleague, how to manage conflicts. They are emotionally astute, and thus often more successful in careers, marriages, and parenting than are those academically smarter but emotionally denser. In extreme cases, some people display stunning gifs in one domain while utterly lacking them in another. Those with savant syndrome display some island of brilliance—say, in drawing, remembering music, or calculating numbers or dates—while scoring low on intelligence tests and being incapable of living independently. Others have suffered brain damage that destroys one dimension of intelligence but not another. Consider Elliot, a man with normal intelligence and memory, descried by the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Since removal of a brain tumor, Elliot has lived without emotion. “I never saw a tinge of emotion in my many hours of conversation with him,” Damasio reports, “no sadness, no impatience, no frustration.” Shown disturbing pictures of injured people, destroyed communities, and natural disasters, Elliot shows—and he realizes he feels—no emotion. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
Like Mr. Spock of Star Trek, and the human appearing android Data of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Elliot knows but he cannot feel. And since he lacked emotional signals, Elliot’s social intelligence plummeted. Unable to intuitively adjust his behavior in response to others’ feelings, he lost his job. He went bankrupt. His marriage collapsed. He remarried and divorced again. At last report, he was dependent on custodial care from a sibling and a disability check. So, the New Testament idea that people come bearing different gifts challenges the popular idea that some are gifted, others not, but finds support in psychological research on the multidimensional nature of giftedness. “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” We may have been unable to integrate certain experiences because they happened at a time when we lacked the strength to do so. In the present day, we are therefore “unconscious” that they happened—they happened before we were organized enough to be either conscious or unconscious. They happened in our pre-history, certainly in pre-conceptual history, when we did not have a structure strong enough to hold in one frame the knowledge of both acceptable and unacceptable aspects of existence. The question is, are we now strong enough to do so? The idea that the strength to integrate is not always available, and that something more is required than bringing into consciousness what has been kept unconscious, has interested psychoanalysts and psychotherapists increasingly in recent decades. With some people—melancholics and obsessionals, one can always count on a reliable and intelligent ego that is able to take in words and then allow them to influence itself. The ego is able to perform what Dr. Freud called “working through.” Such people are strong enough already. They have a coherent self; they have reasonably well-developed ego-functions; their trouble is that they have repressed (by means of horizontal “lids”) things that were unacceptable to their imagery of themselves or of the World. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
If the need therapy, they need help mainly in talking about, accepting, and recognizing what they are doing and saying, until they are able to recognize themselves—the hitherto unconscious bits included. However, other people find it hard or impossible to reflect on themselves and their World, but because they cannot accept this or that, but because the excluded feelings really do not belong to the self that is judging whether to accept them or not: there have been vertical splits. These are splits which weaken the structure of the personality—a person’s strength depends on the existence of organizing and integrating processes. These need not be too tremendously powerful or consistent, but they do need to be sufficient no o leave out great areas of experience. To put this the other way round, the strength of a person’s personality depends on having a sufficiently integrated structure to be able to see life as it is without too much distortion or denial. A person with too many splits—a person who really lacks integration—does not have a reliable and intelligent ego that is able to take in words and allow them to influence itself. An infantile ego has been rejected and repressed. It remains therefore undeveloped and weak, and deep maturing comes to a standstill. Such strength also requires “indwelling”—the sense of being based in one’s body. People dwelling in their body know what feels good and what feels bad, and can seek the former and avoid the latter without having to think about it. On the other hand, a split between body and mind erodes one’s sense of being. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
There are no fears worse or deeper than those which arise out of having to cope with life when one feels that one just is not a real person at all. Without such strength, we do not have the integrity to live life as it is without distorting or denying—we dread and resist the possibility of re-experiencing the deep feelings which were too unacceptable to be integrated when we first experienced them. If our integrative processes are not strong enough, we need help to gain strength first, so that we can bear the process of integration. The first task, then, is to become strong enough. And what is “strong enough”? I intend it to mean the possession of enough well-being and self-esteem to be able to accept (integrate) and live with out own imperfections and those of the World. A person who lacks this strength, and whom luck has failed in other ways, may have to work with a psychotherapist until the time when the nuclear self is consolidated, and the talents and skills that are correlated to the nuclear self are revitalized. In what regions of the personality is strength to be found? We do not yet understand perfectly just what it is, when a therapist works with people with this kind of weakness, that helps them get stronger. However, it is clear that the processes involved do not take place in the three-person region of classical psycho-analysis, the area in which Oedipal relationships find a place and in which feelings (instinctual ones in the view of classical psycho-analytic theory) are in conflict with considerations of good sense or good conduct. The area of the Oedipus conflict is characterized by the presence of all least two objects, apart from the person. The area of the Basic Fault is characterized by a very peculiar exclusively two-person relationship. A third area is characterized by the fact that there are no external objects in it. Here people are on their own and their main concern is to produce something out of themselves; this something to be produced may be an object, but is not necessarily so. I propose to call this the level or area of creation. The most often-discussed example is of course artistic creation, but other phenomena belong to the same group, among them mathematics and philosophy, gaining insight, understanding somebody or something. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
At this third level, there is no “other.” It is the level at which something or someone is being recognized and given shape and form for the first time. Something or someone is in the process of becoming conceptualized, but is not yet clearly “mapped.” At this level, although there are no others, there is a sense of connectedness. We know that there are no “objects” in the regions where certain takes place, butt we know also that for some of the time at least, the person is not entirely alone there. Here we are reaching for the concept of ego-relatedness. Our idea of what does on at these levels is still very tentative, but is still uncertain. However, we do now have more hints. The therapeutic side of meditation practices can be competently studied only by one who both practices them form the inside as well as observes them from the outside. The scientists and the medical physician, who can do the later only, are not even half-competent: they miss the essence of the subject in missing the power at work. Their intellects may logically theorize or imaginatively guess at it but that does not bring them into touch with the reality of it. The very scepticism with which they usually confront the record of these unorthodox healings and often reject their genuineness, unfits them for such investigation. The proper openness of mind, neither credulous nor cynical, is hard for them to establish. Spiritual healing must be separated from mental healing, as the former workers by a descent of divine grace but the latter by a power-concentration of mind. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
A cure in the firs case will not only be permanent but also affect the character of the patient, whereas in the second case a cure may be and often if (especially when hypnotic methods are used) transient whilst the character remains untouched. A genuine spiritual healing of the physical body will always produce spiritual results. That is, it will produce an inner change in the character of the person healed. However, when this happens in means that some kind of wrong thinking or wrong feeling is the real cause of one’s physical sickness. For instance, thoughts of bitterness, resentment, criticism, and condemnation strongly held and long sustained against other persons can and very often do easily produce liver trouble. So long as that kind of thinking and feeling continues, so long will the liver trouble continue. The proper way to heal it, therefore, is to get at the psychological seat of trouble—that is, effect inner change. Where spiritual healing treatment influences a human to give up the wrong thinking, so it leaves one utterly, the physical effects of the change may show themselves suddenly and miraculously or slowly and gradually. Although they show themselves as a cure of a physical malady, note that it first began as a mental malady or as an emotional malady. And if the inner change is an enduring one, the following cure will be an enduring one too. This is the only type of healing which can be truly called spiritual. All other kinds of so-called spiritual healing are merely mental healing or hypnotic healing, and the cure can never be equal in quality or durability. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
Quite often, they have only temporary results and the sickness reappears because the inner human has been left with all one’s psychological neuroses uncured. Mental healing and hypnotic healing are no, strictly speaking, healing at all. They are suppression of symptoms, and at the cost of retention of the hidden causes of these symptoms. In the cause of mental healing there is not necessarily any change at all in the character of the patient. One’s angers, one’s hostilities, or one’s resentments may remain as active as before. One’s cure simply illustrates the power of mind over body—one’s own or someone else’s mind. It is achieved by faith or concentration or suggestion. However, in the case of spiritual healing there is an inner change along with bodily cure. Why is it wrong to seek the cure of physical ailments by nonphysical remedies, and particularly by spiritual ones? To argue that the inner healing of bad character is more important—which may be granted-does not do away with the necessity of the outer healing. It is not the true spiritual healing if it laves the character and outlook untouched, unimproved. There are other kinds of healing which may relieve or cure one kind of ailment while leaving the person still open to make one’s fate later bring on another kind of ailment. One who sees in everything only matter and beyond it only nothing, who looks to physics and physiology for sufficient explanation of our existence and chemical actions for sufficient explanation of our loftiest emotions, will be sceptical of mentalists principles and distrustful of spiritual healing. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
So much noxious material is eliminated through the ski that three processes of cleansing are needed to counteract it. First, the warm bath. Many persons are not tough enough to stand the weakening effects of a too hot bath. It is better to be prudent and be satisfied with a moderately warm one. Second, the friction rub. Third, the frequent change of underclothing. It is a physiological fact that a part of this material can be re-absorbed into the body if these processes are neglected. When that happens, this rancid and poisonous stuff will open the way to disease. The friction rub may be done with a small coarse rough face cloth or with a loofah sponge. The entire body should be vigorously scrubbed, but especially the feet. A cool—not cold—shower at the end will close the pores and stimulate circulation. Some religions consider a twice-daily shower bath to be an essential part of spirituality. The moderns says that cleanliness is next to godliness. It is also recommended to keep the colon cleans and advisable to keep the breathing passages clear from mucous, especially the thick, gummy kind which adheres to the membranes. This can be done by gargling the throat and washing the nostrils and nasal passages with water which has been purified and slightly dissolved with salt and is comfortably lukewarm. If the eye muscles are overworked by too much desk work, regular resting at intervals during this work will enable them to recuperate their strength and efficiency. In this connection remember the advice given by my occultist that when using any eye drop medicine take care not to touch the eyes themselves with the eye cup or the dropper. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
If one eye gets infected with, say, conjunctivitis in this way one avoids passing the infection to the other eye. The same care should be used with the small towel used for wiping the eyes after washing. Separate towels reserved for this purpose should be used or rather separate face cloths. As planets derive much more substance from air and water for their sustenance than they do from the Earth, it happens that when they rot they return to the Earth more than they have derived from it. Moreover, a forest determines the amount of rainwater by stopping vapors. Thus, in a wooded area that was preserved for a long time without being touched, the bed of Earth that serves for vegetation would increase considerably. However, since animals return to the soil less than they derive from it, and since humans take in huge quantities of wood for plants for fire an other uses, it follows that the bed of vegetative Earth of an inhabited country must always diminish and finally become like the terrain of Arabia Petraea, and like that of so many other provinces of the Old World (which in fact is the region that has been inhabited from the most ancient times), where only salt and sand are found. For the fixed salt of plants and animals remains, while all the other parts are volatized. To this can be added the factual proof based on the quantity of trees and plants of every sort, which filled almost all the uninhabited islands that have been discovered in the last few centuries, and on what history teaches us about the immense forests all over the Earth that had to be cut down to the degree that it was populated or civilized. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
Furthermore, if there is kind of a vegetation that can make up for the loss of vegetative matter which was occasioned by animals, according to M. de Buffon’s reasoning, it is above all the wooded areas, where the treetops and the leaves gather and appropriate more water and vapor than do other plants. Second, the destruction of the soil, that is, the loss of the substance that is appropriate for vegetation, should accelerate in proporion as the Earth is more cultivated and as the more industrious inhabitant consumer in greater abundance its products of every sort. My third and most important remark is that the fruits of trees supply animals with more abundant nourishment than is possible for other forms of vegetation: an experiment I made myself, by comparing the products of two land masses of equal size and quality, the one covered with chestnut trees and the other sown with wheat. Among the quadrupeds, the two most universal distinguishing traits of voracious species are derived, on the one hand, from the shape of teeth, and, on the other, from the conformation of the intestines. Animals that live solely on vegetation have al flat teeth, like the horse, ox, sheep and hare, but voracious animals have pointed teeth, like the cat, dog, wolf and fox. And as for the intestines, the frugivorous ones have some, such as the colon, which are not found in voracious animals. It appears therefore that humans, having teeth and intestines like frugivorous animals, should naturally be placed in that class. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
And not only do anatomical observations confirm this opinion, but the monuments of antiquity are also very favorable to it. “Dicaearcuhs,” says St. Jerome, “relates in his books on Greek antiquities that under the reign of Saturn, when the Earth was still fertile by itself, no humans ate flesh, but that all lived on fruits and vegetables that grew naturally.” [This opinion can also be supported by the reports of several modern travelers. Francois Correal, among others, testifies that the majority of inhabitants of the Lucayes, whom the Spaniards transported to the islands of Cuba, Santo Domingo, and elsewhere, died from having eaten flesh.] From this, one can see that I am neglecting several advantageous considerations that I could turn to account. For since prey is nearly the exclusive subject of fighting among carnivorous animals, and since frugivorous animals live among themselves in continual peace, if the human species were of this later genus, it is clear that it would have had a much easier time subsisting in the state of nature, and much less need and occasion to leave it. Brother of the sea, look at the stars, look at the deep blue, and set the World free. Our right is to live and be free; freedom will not come from outside. It is only in ourselves united. How fairer wilt thou be to sight, if thou with us in faith unite; Thy favor we shall always seek. However, American’s sons with wisdom speak: “O ye, who are wise in your own eyes, how can your trumpery at all compare with our great share when God proclaims us free.” And shines on us in glorious light, while you are wrapped in gloom of night? His glory then will shine and gleam—Almightly God, over all Supreme! Almighty God, who are mother and father to us all, look upon your planet Earth divided: Help us to know that we are all your children; that all nations belong to one great family, and all of our religions lead to you. Please multiply our prayers in every land until the whole Earth becomes your congregation, united in your love. Please sustain our vision of a peaceful future and please give us strength to work unceasingly to make that vision real. Amen. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
Get ready to be impressed! This charming Cresleigh neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mission, Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, and Contemporary Farmhouse.
A Family Down the Block Has One and So do Several of Our Colleagues!
Take a moment to make a list of your closet friends. What do they have in common (other than the joy of knowing you)? It is likely that most are similar to you in age and the same gender and race as you. There will be exceptions, of course. However, similarity on these three dimensions is the general rule for friendships. Ninety percent of all people in Western society marry at some point. What, beyond attraction, determines how people pair up? The answer is that we tend to marry someone who is like us in almost every way, a pattern called homogamy. In case you are wondering, homogamy also applies to unmarried couples who are living together. Studies show that married and cohabiting couples are highly similar in age, education, race, religion, and ethnic background. In general, you are far more likely to choose someone similar to yourself as a mate than someone very different. This is probably a good thing. Personality traits tend to be closely matches in the most stable marriages. Conversely, this risk of divorce is highest among couples with sizable differences in age and education. Most dangerous of all are “fatal attractions,” in which qualities that originally made a partner appealing are later disliked. Fatal attractions are likely when an individual is drawn to someone who seems “different,” “unique,” or “extreme.” When two people are similar, disenchantment is less likely to occur. Do people look for specific traits in a potential mate? Yes, in the United States of America, both men and women agree that the most important qualities are kindness and understanding, intelligence, exciting personality, good health, adaptability, and physical attractiveness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
Love is a great thing, My monastic, monotheistic friend, altogether a great good. “It makes every burden light,” as Matthew has recorded My saying in his Gospel (11.30), and manages to carry every load, no matter how slip-sliding it may be. What is more, it makes every tart and bitter thing taste sweet and juicy. My love is noble and provides the energy for doing great things; it encourages the desiring of even greater things. Love wants to rise, does not want to be tied down. Love wants to walk free, not to be told where to go. However, sadly, it loses its sense of direction. That is to say, it cannot sustain anything in time of consolation; it succumbs in time of desolation. There is nothing sweeter than Love; nothing stronger, higher, broader, happier, fuller, better in Heaven and on Earth. That is because Love is born of God, as the Beloved John has written in his First Letter (4.7), and cannot rest except in God, who is above all created things. Some wonderful effects of Love. First, one who knows how to love runs and rejoices; one is a free human and has no restraints. Second, one gives everything and in return receives everything; in a manner of speaking, one may be said to have everything. That is because one rests in the Great One, who has everything and from whom every good fountain flows. Third, one does not look for gifts for oneself, but love turns one into the giver of all goods. Fourth, Love is not measured out in small packets; more often than not, it spills all over. Fifth, Love is not seen as a load, does not have a reputation as a chore; it is more in the area of motivation than in the exercise of strength. Sixth, Love does not rise out of impossibility; that is because it comes out of possibility and permission. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
All things considered, whoever knows how to love has the strength for everything, fills to overflowing, causes every effect. The one who has not learned to love merely flops to the floor in heap. Some more effects of Love. Love stands the night watch, yet sleeps with one eye open. Exhausted, it nonetheless does not nod off. Shoved, it shoves back. Terrified, it does not pass the terror down the line, but like a flickering flame, a smoking torch, it flares up and burns brighter than before. If you know how to love, then you can make out the words of this riotous shout. It is a burning affection of the soul clamoring in the ears of the Lord, echoing the Song of Songs (2.16): “Mine? You are all mine! Yours? I am all Yours!” Speech can accomplish more than an organizing function, in that it reminds us of imagery which we can hold on to at need—it keeps reverberations alive. The very action of saying things has consequences of a steadying kind. Speech enables people to reassess what has happened to them, to reconsider past events in the light of later experience and even, at a very deep level, to reorganize their understanding of themselves and of their World. It can even help to change the very structure of the personality. Talking puts experience into words. Sometimes talking allows us to connect experiences with words for the first time. This means that, sometimes for the first time ever, we are able to “give an account” of those experiences—we are conscious of them for the first time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
Once the experiences are conscious, there are the experiences, and there is a narrator who is talking about them. Here we see a benign aspect of the process of depersonalizing and distancing. “I” am for the first time consciously distanced from what happened to me. I can get some perspective: “I then did this” or “Such and such happened to me next.” Moreover, the “I” and the “me” in these accounts have a curious status. There is continuity and identity: these experiences were not someone else’s but “mine” (the speaker’s), they belong to my self-regions. However, at the same time, the “I” who is doing the talking now is ten or twenty or more years older than “I” in the account. There is a distance between the self-structures-from-then and the self-structures-of-now, a gap of time. This allows for a new perspective and a new meaning. Meaning depends on context. I am not in a different context from then. If myself-structures today are more mature, more complex, with better ego-functions and capacities for respect and recognition, they may be able to hold and integrate the self-structures for then. Talking, and being understood, changes the nature of the connections between “I then” and “I now,” weakening them in some respects (“Because this happened to me twenty-four years ago, I need not be afraid of thunderstorms now”) and strengthening them in other respects (“I do not need to despise myself for having feared thunderstorms twenty-four years ago. I can stop despising myself and I can love myself.”) If I try to talk honestly to others about my past life, it comes up for review. The relation between my semantic self and my episodic self may also be challenged and changed when they confront one another. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Sympathetic listening, and the knowledge that what happened when I was little, weak, and ignorant cannot happen to me now, give me the strength to try and remember how it was with me then. Between us, we can hold “me then.” Held, I dare given an account of hitherto hidden parts of my self. I can integrate them. This is one reason why friends are so important for our well-being, and why people who for some reason have been unable to make friends or to keep them may find psychotherapeutic groups useful. Sometimes with professionals who help people suffer misfortune and it leads them into difficulties where friends cannot help. However, in more fortunate circumstances, our friends can do a god deal of our organizing and ego-functioning with and for us. They do so anyway in the normal course of life, as we pass the time of day with hem, gossip about others, or explore the meaning of the Universe. They let us talk and blow off steam. They are patient while we talk nonsense. They talk a load of rubbish themselves. They relax us when we get too desperately tense, and amuse us. However, more particularly, good friends strengthen and diversify our ego-functioning: they produce speculations, explanations, and suggestions of their own for us to consider, and much else. Thus the passage which follows may be read in terms of friends or in terms of ego-functioning or in terms of organizing processes. They help us toward increasing knowledge of our selves: they produce new ideas, and they surprise us by changing and developing and expecting us to welcome the changes. Though they may be tolerant they will not put up with our nonsense indefinitely without protest. They love us and accept us and warm us and make us feel worth while. They help us sand firm under pressure. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
In times of crisis friends are especially important, sustaining us while we encounter and explore new things, encouraging us to carry on, holding us when we temporarily lose our footing in the stress of reorganizing our concepts. They take care of us and step in when, in the course of the temporary disorganization which new developments may bring, we are about to do something permanently detrimental to our interests. Some people are able to give sense and direction to their lives by commitment to a cause or a task. There are many who can put something non-personal into the center of their lives. I may have got no foundation for self-love from the love of others, but by being part of something admirable, I can make my life worthwhile. Some people who take this second chance will come to have a deep and rich identity, in terms of which they organize their lives. However, others will not integrate in this organized way, and yet feel held by a sense of purpose and coherence because they know what they are doing and that it is worth while. Such people present quite a range. At one end are those who are contained within an ordered social system such as traditional societies are said to afford, or religious orders or other ideologically committed groups; these will be exercising individual judgment only in narrowly restricted areas. At the other extreme are people in the fragmented societies with which most readers will be familiar. Yet even here, those of us who have no solid sense of who we are, independent of what we do, may find significance in what we are doing and feel held by it. Many creative people belong in this category. As one creation is accomplished, hey suffer a kind of “post-coital depression,” but this when the next project begins to define itself. At a less elevated level are many of us who can always cheer ourselves up by the accomplishment of small tasks well done: shoes shined, cakes baked, lawns mown, letters written. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
What gives a person the sense of being well and “together”? There are many indications that if I am to have a deep, east, and steady sense of well-being and identity, I must not have had any experiences so bad that they have cut me off from my bodily self. If they have, I must make a new beginning. Secondly, I must have been experienced as a whole person to unconscious matter, but it is not mystical. It is neurological. Neurologically the infant forms a set of conceptual structures which are either closely interconnected or nor, depending on whether those who relate to the infant regard it as a baby or as a set of tasks requiring to be done. The baby who is regarded as a loud yell at one end and a bad smell at the other will carry that knowledge through life. Experiencing myself as loveable strengthens the basis for a sense of well-being and self-esteem yet further. This lovability must depend on having been valued for being myself rather than for anything I do. The value of something we cherish or that nourishes us must lie exactly in not being exciting and not having to work or be worked for. A poorly cathected self is one which has experienced relatively little love, relatively little respect for its manifestations, relatively little empathy; lacking feelings of value and power, there are no deep roots for later self-esteem to develop from. The baby who is recognized as a person from the start is able to use this experience of recognition as a validation of itself, and can let the consequent imagery of itself perform holding functions. This in turn creates the right conditions for further integrating processes. The changes that a long-established habit of walking on two feet could have brough about in the conformation of humans, the relations that are still observed between one’s arms and the forelegs of quadrupeds, and the induction drawn from their manner of walking, could have given rise to doubts about the manner that must have been the most natural to us. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
All children begin by walking on all fours, and need our example and our lessons to learn to stand upright. There are even savage nations, such as Hottentots, who, greatly neglecting their children, allow them to walk on their hands for so long that they then have a great deal of trouble getting them to straighten up. The children of the Caribs of the Antilles do the same thing. There are various examples of quadruped men, and I could cite among others that of the child who was found in 1344 near Hesse, where he had been raised by wolves, and who said afterward at the court of Prince Henry that, had the decision been left exclusively to him, he would have preferred to return to the wolves than to live among men. He had embraced to such an extent the habit of walking like those animals, that wooden boards had to be attached to him to force him to stand upright and maintain his balance on two feet. It was the same with the child who was found in 1694, in the forests of Lithuania, and who lived among bears. He did not give rise, says M. de Condillac, any sign of reason, walked on his hands and feet, had no language, and formed sounds that bore no resemblance whatever to those of a man. The little savage of Hanover, who was brought to the court of England several years ago, had all sorts of trouble getting himself to walk on two feet. And in 1719, two other savages, who were found in the Pyrenees, ran about the mountains in the manner of quadrupeds. As for the objection one might make that this deprives one of the use of one’s hands from which we derive so many advantages, over and above the fact that the example of monkeys shows that the hand can be used quite well in both ways, this would prove only that man can give one’s limbs a destination more congenial than that of nature, and not that nature has destined man to walk otherwise than it teaches one. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
However, there are, it seems to me, much better reasons to state in support of the claim that humans are bidped. First, if it were shown that they could have originally been formed otherwise than we see one and yet finally become what one is, this would not suffice to conclude that this is how it happened; for, after having shown the possibility of these changes, it would still be necessary, prior to granting them, t demonstrate at least their probability. Moreover, if humans’ arms seem as if they could have served as legs when needed, it is the sole observation favorable to that system, out of a great number of others which are contrary to it. The chief ones are that the manner in which humans’ head is attached to one’s body, instead of directing one’s view horizontally (as is the case for all other animals and for humans themselves when one walks upright), would have kept one, while walking on all fours, with one’s eyes fixed directly on the ground, a situation hardly conducive to the preservation of the individual; that the tail one is lacking, and for which one has no use when walking on two feet, is useful to quadrupeds, and none of them is deprived of one; that the breast of a woman, very well located for a biped who holds her child in her arms, is so poorly located for a quadruped that none has it located in that way; that, since the hind part is of an excessive height in proportion to the forelegs (which causes us to crawl on our knees when walking on all fours), the whole would have made an animal that was poorly proportioned and that walked comfortably; that if one has places one’s foot as well as one’s hand down flat, one would have had one less articulation in the hind leg than do other animals, namely the one that joins canon to the tibia; and that by setting down only the tip of the foot, as doubtlessly one would have been forced to do, the tarsus (not to mention the plurality of bones that make it up) appears too large to take the place of the canon, and its articulations with the metatarsus and the tibia too close together to give the human leg in this situation the same flexibility as those of quadrupeds. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
Since the example of children is taken from an age when natural forces are not yet developed nor the members strengthened, it proves nothing whatever. I might just as well say that dogs are not destined to walk because several weeks after their birth they merely crawl. Particular facts also have little force against the universal practice of all humans; even nations that have had no communication with others could not have imitated anything about them. A child abandoned in a forest before one is able to walk, and nourished by some beast, will have followed the example of one’s nurse in training oneself to walk like the figure of dependence. Habit could have given one capabilities one did not have from nature and just as one-armed humans are successful, by dint of exercise, at doing with their feet whatever we do with our hands, one will finally have succeeded in using one’s hands as feet. Psychology receives much criticism, but it can be used to complement Christian faith. In celebrating the complementary relationships that exist between psychology and religion we must not, however, delude ourselves into thinking that there are no conflicts. As when we build a tunnel between two territories, it sometimes happens that the two ends of the tunnel simply do not connect. The two tunnels of psychology and religion may fail to connect because the two disciplines start off guided by different underlying values. The two fields may also fail to connect because they approach a subject with two utterly different conceptions of it. A case in point is the idea of giftedness. Consider the concept of giftedness as found in an older educational psychology and then in the New Testament. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
A family down the block has one. So do several of our colleagues. One family we know has two of them. And each of these families knowns of other families who have one: a gifted child. All across America a great hunt is on to find more gifted children. A promotional letter from the Gifted Children Newsletter solicited subscriptions from parents who “have the sneaking suspicion your child is special in some way.” And how many are special? Dorothy Sisk, former director of the U.S. Office of Gifted and Talented, estimate that “approximately 3 to 5 percent of the school age-population could be considered gifted and talented.” The implication is that the other 95 percent are not gifted. And that explains why, despite the lobbying of the mostly European American, upper-middle-class parents of these children, most school districts find “there generally are not enough gifted children” in their town to justify special programs for their gifted children. Nevertheless, the psychology and education of a gifted few has become something approaching a social movement. Several national associations for the gifted have sprung up, as have journals and magazines. Nearly every state now as a coordinator of programs for the gifted. Virtually everyone agrees that the gifted-child movement will serve a valuable purpose if it pushes schools to treat children as individuals. Not every third-grader should be taking the same spelling test and working the same math problems. Better if we can find ways to individualize instructions so that no child is bored by work that is too easy or frustrated by tasks too hard. The challenge is to provide opportunities and rewards for individuals of every degree of ability so that students at every level will realize their full potentialities, perform at their best and harbor n resentment toward any other level. However, the problem with the gifted-child movement, says its critics, is that it does not affirm and stimulate individuals of every ability level and, worse, may provoke resentment or self-disparagement among those implicitly labeled “not gifted or talented.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
The gifted may get to visit computer centers, do special art and science projects, visit museums, and hear guest speakers, while the nongifted remain in their classrooms, wondering why they are excluded. Moreover, labels such as “gifted” and “not gifted” can be self-confirming. In experiments, teachers who are told that certain children fit such labels, or students who are led to feel competent or incompetent by receiving such labels, sometimes act in ways that make the label into a reality. In all the hoopla over giftedness, what most people miss is the arbitrariness of the concept. We forget that giftedness is only a concept, artificially defined by scores among the top 3 or 4 percent of some test of aptitude or intelligence. We begin to assume that giftedness really exists out there somewhere. We come to believe it is like a red hair: children either have it of they do not. Actually, giftedness is a decision made in the minds of those who use the word. Nothing is gifted until someone names it that. Nature has no clustered children into well-defined groups corresponding to our value-laden labels. We, not nature, decide what is a flower and what is a weed. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, a weed is but a flower that someone decides does not belong in the garden. The arbitrariness of designating what is and what is not gifted becomes apparent when we try to agree on a practical definition. To the Yanomamo Indians of South America, giftedness is possession of the skills of a great hunter and warrior. To Suzuki violin teachers, it is musical talent. In middle-class America, one finds almost as many definitions of the term as articles on gifted children. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
However, in order to pigeon-hold children as gifted or not gifted, we must somehow measure their giftedness. Thus we often reduce it to a score on a one-dimensional device that measures not artistic talent or leadership skill or physical prowess or any other gift that a particular child may have, but IQ score. Several other quite extraordinary advances are taking place in society and transforming the way we make things. As some industries move from mass to small batch production, others are already moving beyond that toward full customization on a continuous-flow basis. Instead of starting and stopping production at the beginning and end of each short run, they are advancing to the point at which the machines can continuously reset themselves, so that he units of output—each one different from the next—stream from the machines in an unbroken flow. In a nutshell, we are racing toward the machine customization on a round-the-clock, continuous basis. Another significant change, as we shall shortly see, brings the customer more directly than ever before into the manufacturing process. In some industries we are only a step removed from a situation in which a customer-company pipes its specifications directly into the manufacturer’s computers, which will in turn control the production lines. As this practice becomes widespread, the customer will become so integrated into the production process that we will find it more and more difficult to tell just who is actually the consumer and who the producer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Finally, while Second Wave manufacture was Cartesian in the sense that products were broken into pieces, then painstakingly reassembled, Third Wave manufacture is post-Cartesian or “wholistic.” This is illustrated by what has happened to common manufactured products like the wristwatch. Whereas watches once had hundreds of moving parts, we are now able to make solid-state watches that are more accurate and reliable—with no moving parts at all. Similarly, today’s Panasonic TV set is more of a computer than TV made just ten years ago. They are thinner, more stylish, have higher quality digital signage and a much more vibrant and enhanced picture. As tiny microprocessors—those tiny miracle chips again—turn up in more and more products making them more efficient, better quality, and more enthralling. These new electronics certainly are gifted. And of course with technology, not only is everything becoming more stylish, devices are also becoming more compact and reliable. Computers have made it where watches can be used as telephones, lightweight laptops have replaced bulk desktops, and cameras can function perfectly underwater or catch moving objects clearly (as long as that is what they are designed for). By intervening at the molecular level, by using computer-assisted design or other advanced manufacturing tools, we integrate more and more functions into fewer and fewer parts, substituting “wholes” for many discrete components. What is occurring can be compared to the rise of computers in residential agriculture. Instead of simply setting a program or watering the yard by hand, new tools now allow your sprinkler system to analyze moisture content, types of vegetation, and the weather to decide how much water is needed and when. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
There are even small robots that can weed your garden for you on a constant basis so one never sees a weed sprouting. We are also beginning to see this “presto effect” in construction and manufacturing. The question is with things becoming more automated, more expensive, and more efficient, will the human population respond by decreasing because they will not be as needed as in the past, and it would not be wise to have a population of people, who cannot afford to live, overcrowding our communities and sitting idle. The pattern becomes clear, therefore. Vast changes in the techno-sphere and the info-sphere have converged to change the way we make goods. We are moving rapidly beyond traditional mass production to a sophisticated mix of mass and de-massified products. The ultimate goal of this effort is now apparent: completely customized goods, made with wholistic, continuous-flow processes, increasingly under the direct control of the consumer. In brief, we are revolutionizing the deep structure of production, sending currents of change through every layer of society. However, this transformation, which will affect the student planning a career, the business planning an investment, or the nation planning a development strategy, cannot und understood in isolation. It must be seen in direct relationship to yet another revolution—this one in the office. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Artificial intelligence will raise humanity to the heights of power and immortality many have envisioned. Throughout the World, hundred of people are making a difference in their neighborhoods, their communities, and their country. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
In the public service arena, God loving people are changing laws, shaping school curricula, working for peace, laboring against bad habits, and helping elect good men and women to public office—or running for office themselves. The alternative to the succession model in the suburbs is the parallel growth model. What this suggests is that suburbs show both European American growth, as well as growth of other races and/or cultures. This appears to have been the more common pattern for recent decades, with comparatively less racial turnover when compared to the patten in central cities. Even thirty to four years ago, when non-dominate culture groups rates of suburbanization were already exceeding European American rates, there was no major pattern of succession of suburbs from European American to non-European America. However, we have seen European Americans move totally out of some areas, and that is mostly due to an increase in wealth. They can afford other neighborhoods usually because they have seen growth in equity in their homes, they are more established in their careers, and have been left an inheritance. This is also because America is a country that allows immigration, so as new people move in, they tend to inhabit costal communities, which can cause them to become more populated and increase prices. However, costal communities are also where more business hubs are because back in the days when things traveled by ships, that is where they docked and most commerce took place. Many suburbs are not turning over racially because European Americans make up 60.1 percent of the population. So rapid displacement of European Americans is not occurring everywhere, but is starting to happen as our nation diversifies. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
African Americans in the suburbs tend to have a higher income than those in central cities. In metropolitan areas with a population of at least a million, African American suburban families had an average income of $66.840.83. That is 55 percent higher than the average income of central-city African Americans in the same metropolitan areas. It is interesting, however, that not all non-Europeans are open to integration and diversity. In seeking that suburban dream, some middle-class non-European American families are deliberately forgoing the American dream of an integrated society. For instance, many Asian American moved to Greenhaven/Pocket in South Sacramento, which is an upper-middle class suburb. Serval African Americans moved to suburbs such as Rolling Oaks in the Miami area and Brook Glen and Wyndham Park outside Atlanta, which represents for many middle-class African Americas an affirmative decision to live in predominately African American suburbs. Race is still a core variable in American society, but class is more important than race in determining one’s neighbors. For much of the middle class, race is increasingly being supplanted by the social-class variables of income, education, and occupations. As we are well into the new century, the variables of social class are affecting housing decisions. While middle-class neighbors of any race are becoming increasingly acceptable, lower-class neighbors are not. People tend to want peace and quiet in their neighborhoods. They want to feel safe. They want their kids to be able to play in their backyards and they do not want their property vandalized or stolen. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Believe it or not, there are still some communities in America where people live their doors unlocked and their keys in their cars. And it is not because they are forgetful, but because their communities are just that safe and peaceful. Overall the pattern of housing in America is one of optimism and some discouragement. The 1968 Fair Housing Act has displaced most government or illegal segregation in America. Many European Americas accept open housing principal. Neighborhood or suburban racial changeover is no longer triggered by the presence of non-European America residents, but European Americans and others still exhibit reluctance to move into predominantly non-European American areas. The old racial segregation is largely becoming history, and because many people are driven by money and sales, racial steering by real estate agents and discrimination against non-European Americans by banks and financial institutions is less common. There are even loans for people who have income, but cannot verify that income, called non-prime loans. These people can afford expensive houses, but may not be able to prove where their money is coming from, and the banks want to accommodate them because cash is king! Over the decades suburbs have taken much criticism as being the recipients of white flight and the last bastion of the lace front curtain, white shoe law firm community. However, as indicated, the data shows a much more complex racial mosaic. Suburbs are becoming more multiracial and multiethnic. Ironically, as we enter the new century, the suburbs have the opportunity to achieve what the cities largely have failed to accomplish: truly racially integrated communities. To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gentle, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never—in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to by my symphony. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
I have come to terms with the future. From this day onward I will walk easy on the Earth. Plant trees. Kill no living things. Live in harmony with all creatures. I will restore the Earth where I am. Use no more of its resources than I need. And listen, listen to what it is telling me. Were the sky of parchment made, a quill each reed, each twig, and blade o, could we with ink the oceans fill, were every human a scribe of skill, the marvelous story of God’s greatest glory would still remain untold; for He, Most High, the Earth and sky created alone of old. Without fatigue or weary hand, He spoke the word, He breathed command; the World and all that therein dwell, field and meadow, fen and fell, mount and sea, in six days He with life did then inspire; the work when ended, His glory ascended upon His throne of fire. Before Him myriads angels flash, to praise the Mighty One, Ancient of Days; six-winged hosts stand at their posts—the flaming Seraphim—in hushed awe together draw to chant their morning hymn. The angels, together, without delay, call one to another in rapturous lay: “Thrice holy He whose majesty fills Earth from end to end.” The Cherubim soar, like the ocean’s roar, on celestial spheres, ascend, to gaze upon the Light on high, which, like the bow in cloudy sky, is iris-colored, silver-lined; while hasting on their assigned, in every tongue they utter song and bless and praise the Lord, whose secret and source, whose light and force can never be explored. There is the peace which comes from having a well-filled stomach. There is the peace of the graveyard. However, a glimpse gives us the highest peace, the Shanti of Indian sages, that which passeth understanding of the New Testament. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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At His Preliminary Examination He Testified that He Has Been in the Snare of the Devil!
A weary and secretive darkness crept into her face, a distraction, as though her soul had traveled out of doors towards Heaven, and the she looked down sadly. When I came in sight of the house where John Procter live, there was a very hard blow struck on my breast which caused great pain in my stomach and amazement in my head. However, I did see no person near me, only my wife behind me on the same horse. And when I cam against said Mr. Procter’s house, according to my understanding, I did see John Procter and his wife at the said house. [They were, remember, in prison at this time.] Mr. Procter himself looked out of the window and his wife did stand just without the door. I told my wife of it, and she did look that way and could see nothing but a little maid at the door. I saw no maid there, but Mr. Procter’s wife according to my understanding did stand at the door. Afterwards, about half a mile from the aforesaid house, I was taken speechless for some short time. My wife did ask me several questions and desired me that if I could not speak I should hold up my hand, which I did. And immediately I could speak as well as ever. [Notice again that the fit was broken when the subject is able to move or speak.] And when we came to the way where Salem Road cometh into Ispwich Road, here I received another blow on my breast which caused much pain, so that I could not sit on my horse. And when I did alight off my horse, to my understanding I saw a woman coming towards us about sixteen or twenty pole from us, but did not know who it was. My wife could not see her. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
When I did get up on my horse again, to my understanding there stood a cow where I saw the woman. [Witches were thought capable of transforming their shapes.] After that we went to Boston without any further molestation, but after I came home again to Newbury I was pinched and nipped by something invisible for some time. However, now through God’s goodness to me I am well again. That was testimony from Joseph Bailey of what he and his wife encountered. Testimony like this is careful and honest, and historians have been wrong in refusing to take it seriously. Mr. Baily was quite aware that he had been ill, and that the illness had created a difference between his perceptions and those of his wife. However, the fatal distinction between his understandings of the event and ours is that his culture led him to attribute his illness to witchcraft whereas ours permits us to attribute it to his fear of witchcraft. There are many similar instances of the specters of innocent people appearing to afflict the citizenry once they were suspected of witchcraft. One of the more interesting involves John Willard, who had at first been a deputy-constable employed in arresting persons who had been complained of. According to Robert Calef, an American author who wrote a book on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-93, he became dissatisfied after being sent to arrest persons he believed innocent, and resigned his position. This immediately brought him under suspicion, and soon the afflicted girls were crying out against him. Shortly thereafter his grandfathers, Bray Wilkins, was ready for dinner when John Willard came into the house with my son Henry Wilkins, before I sat down, and said Mr. Willard to my apprehension looked after such a sort upon me as I never before discerned in any. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
That is, Mr. Wilkins thought Mr. Willard had “overlooked” him—given him the evil eye. I did but step into the next room and I was presently taken so that I could not dine nor eat anything. I cannot express the misery I was in, for my water was suddenly stopped and I had no benefit of nature, but was like a man in a rock. And I told my wife immediately that I was afraid that Mr. Willard had done me wrong. My pain continuing and finding no relief my jealousy [id es, suspicion] continued. Mr. Lawson and others there were all amazed and knew not what to do for me. There was a woman accounted skillful [who] came hoping to help me, and after she had used means she asked me whether none of those evil persons had done me damage. I said I could not say they had but I was sore afraid they had. She answered, she did fear so too. As near as I remember I lay in this case three or four days at Boston, and afterwards, with the jeopardy of my life (as I though), I cam home. And then some of my friends coming to see me (and at this time John Willard was run away) one of the afflicted persons, Mercy Lewis, came in with them, and they asked whether she saw anything. She said, “Yes, they are looking for Jon Willard but here he is on his grandfather’s belly.” (And at that time I was in grievous pain in the small of my belly.) I continued so in grievous pain and my water much stopped till said Mr. Willard was in chains. And then as near as I can guess I have considerable ease. However, on the other hand, in the room of a stoppage I was vexed with a flowing of water so that it was hard to keep myself dry. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
On the fifth [of] July last, talking with some friends about John Willard, some pleading his innocency and myself and some others arguing the contrary, within about one-quarter of an hour after that I was taken in the sorest distress and misery, my water being turned into real blood, or of a bloody color, and the old pain returned excessively as before, which continued for about twenty-four hours together. In this testimony, we come to understand the hysterical loss of appetite which was Mr. Wilkins’ first symptom we have seen before and shall see again. The inability to urinate we have seen in Mrs. Simms as a result of Manny Redd’s curse. However, there was clearly something organic as well as psychosomatic wrong with Bray Wilkins. The blood in the urine coupled with the extreme pain of relatively short duration suggests that it may have been a kidney stone. However, whatever it was, both Mr. Wilkins and the community at large were by this time ready to attribute it to witchcraft. William Baker’s confessions provide an excellent example that the Salem Witch Trials were carried in chiefly by the complaints and accusations of the afflicted and by the confessions of the accused, condemning themselves and others. Nothing is a first sight more surprising than the number of the confessors and the character of their confessions. There were about fifty of them, and the statements which they made far exceed in color and detail the simple statements of personal guilt that were necessary to save their lives. According to Mr. Baker, at his preliminary examination he testified that he has been in the snare of the Devil three years. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
That the Devil first appeared to him like a black man, and he perceived he had a cloven foot; that the Devil demanded of him to give up himself soul and body unto him, which he promised to do. [The Devil promised in return to pay Mr. Baker’s debts and see that he lived comfortably. Mr. Baker signed the contract in blood.] Satan’s design was to set up his own worship, abolish all churches in the land (which some say politicians are currently doing), to fall next [id est, first] upon Salem and so go through the country. He saith the Devil promised that all his people should be equal, that there should be n day of resurrection or of judgment, and neither punishment nor shame for sin. That explains why people are trying to banish God and they church. They know they are bad people and believe they can avoid being held responsible for their crimes and sins by raising hell on Earth and raising the Devil. Mr. Baker said that the demonic “Grandess” had told him there were about “307 witches in the country” and he volunteered his opinion that all the persons arrested and imprisoned to date (August 29, 1692) were guilty. However, an oral confession was not enough for him. Mr. Hale prints another “which he wore himself in prison, and sent to the magistrate to confirm his former confession.” However, an oral confession was not enough for him. Mr. Hale prints another “which he wrote himself in prison, and sent to the magistrates to confirm his former confession.” Here is his testimony: God having called me to confess my sins and apostasy in that fall in giving the Devil advantage over me, appearing to me like a Black, in the evening, to set my hand to his book, as I have owned to my shame. He told me that I should not want [in] so doing. At Salem Village, there being a little off the Meeting-House about an hundred five blades [id est, young bucks], some with rapiers by their sides, which was called (and might be more for ought I know) by Bishop and Burroughs. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
And the trumpet sounded, and [there was] bread and beverage which they called Sacrament, but I had none, being carried over all on a stick, never being at any other meeting. I being at carting a Saturday last, all the day of hay and English corn, the Devil brought my shape to Salem and did afflict Martha Sprague and Rose Foster by clitching my hand. And a Sabbath day my shape afflicted Abigail Martin. Elizabeth Johnson and Abigail Faulkner have been my enticers to this great abomination, as one have owned and charged her to her sister with the same. And the design was to destroy Salem Village, and to begin at the minister’s house, and to destroy the Church of God, and to set up Satan’s kingdom, and then all will be well. And now I hope God in some measure has made me something sensible of my sin and apostasy, begging pardon of God, and of the Honorable Magistrates and all God’s People, hoping and promising by the help of God to set to my heart and hand to do what in me leith to destroy such wicked worship, humbly begging the prayers of all God’s People for me [that] I may walk humbly under this great affliction and that I may procure to myself he sure mercies of David and the blessing of Abraham. Such testimony sheds light on the centuries long plot of some to remove God from America. Pray I must, my Lordly Friend, but what should I pray? Bless You, Heavenly Father, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, for remembering me, pauper that I am? O Father of mercies and God of consolations, as Paul began his Second Letter to the Corinthians (1.3), I give You thanks, unworthy as I am of Your every consolation? #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
I bless You always, and I glorify You, with You Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, for ever and ever? O Lord God, my Holy Loving Friend, when You come into my heart, You make my blood dance? “You are my glory,” thrummed the Psalmist (3.3) and “the exaltation of my heart” (119.111)? You are my hope and—thrumming again—“my refuge in the day of my tribulation” (59.16)? I ask again, O Lord, what should I pray? At this point in my life, I find myself not only a little long in the tooth, but also a little short in the hoof; that is to say, a little short of breath in the pursuit of Love and Virtue. I have no one to turn to. You are the only One who can help me. Do not be surprised, then, when I ask You to visit me more often. I need to know more about the holy disciplines. Will they free my body from the itch, cure my heart from the worm? Cleanse me on the inside, scrub me on the outside, and I will be ready enough to love, strong enough to suffer, stable enough to preserve. And you say that these blood drinkers are worshiped in the hills. It was the spring of 1880, I had lost my way, and could not tell how far I might be from my destination. I was very tired and had a heavy knapsack on my shoulders, packed with stones and relics from the ruins of the Old Pelasgic fortress which I had been exploring, besides a number of old coins and a lamp or two which I had purchased there. I could discern no signs of any human habitation, and the hills, covered with wood, seemed to shut me in on every side. I was beginning to think seriously of looking out for some sheltered spot under a thicket in which to pass the night. I was so excited to get back to the Winchester estate. The mansion was a large rambling place, and was tolerably comfortable within. My room was situated at the end of a long passage; there were two rooms on the right side of this passage, and a window on the left, which looked out upon the garden. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
Having taken a survey of the outside of the house while getting some fresh air after dinner, when the moon was up, I remembered exactly the position of my chamber—the end room of a long narrow wing, projecting at right angles from the main building, with which it was connected only by the passage and two side rooms already mentioned. Please to bear this description carefully in mind while I proceed. Before getting into bed, I drove into the floor close to the door a small gimlet which formed part of a complicated Winchester pocket-knife which I always carried with me, so that it would be impossible for any one to enter the room without my knowledge; there was a lock to the door, but the key would not turn in it; there was also a bolt, but it would not enter the hole intended for it, the door having sunk apparently from its proper level. I satisfied, myself, however, that the door was securely fastened by my gimlet, and soon fell asleep. How can I describe the strange and horrible sensation which oppressed me as I woke out of my slumber? I had been sleeping soundly, and before I quite recovered consciousness I had instinctively risen from my pillow, and was crouching forward, my knees drawn up, my hands clasped before my face, and my whole frame quivering with horror. I saw nothing, felt nothing; but a sound was ringing in my ears which seemed to make my blood run cold. I could not have supposed it possible that any mere sound, whatever might be its nature, could have produced such a revulsion of feeling or inspired such intense horror as I then experienced. It was not a cry of terror that I heard—that would have roused me to action—nor the moaning of one in pain—that would have distressed me, and called forth sympathy rather than aversion. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
True, it was like the groaning of one in anguish and despair, but not like any mortal voice: it seemed too dreadful, too intense, for human utterance. The sound had begun while I was fast asleep—close to the head of my bed—close to my very pillow; it continued after I was wide awake—a long, hollow, protracted groan, making the midnight air reverberate, and then dying gradually away until it ceased entirely. It was some minutes before I could at all recover from the terrible impression which seemed to stop my breath and paralyse my limbs. At length I began to look about me, for the night was not entirely dark, and I could discern the outlines of the room and the several pieces of furniture in it. I then got out of bed, and called aloud, “Who is there? What is the matter? Is anyone ill?” I repeated these enquiries in Italian, German, and French, but there was none that answered. Fortunately I had some matches in my pocket and was able to light my candle. I then examined every part of the room carefully, and especially the wall at the head of my bed, sounding it with my knuckles; it was firm and solid there, as in all other places. I unfastened my door, and explored the passage and the two adjoining rooms, which were unoccupied and almost destitute of furniture; they had evidently not been used for some time. Search as I would, I could gain no clue to the mystery. Returning to my room I sat down upon the bed in great perplexity, and began to turn over in my mind whether it was possible I could have been deceived—whether the sounds which caused me such distress might be the offspring of some dream or nightmare; but to that conclusion I could not bring myself at all, much as I wished it, for the groaning had continued ringing in my ears long after I was wide away and conscious. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
While I was thus reflecting, having neglected to close the door which was opposite to the side of my bed where I was sitting, I heard a soft footstep at a distance, and presently a light appeared at the further end of the passage. Then I saw the shadow of a man cast upon the opposite wall; it moved very slowly, and presently stopped. I saw the hand raised, as if making a sign to someone, an I knew from the fact of the shadow being thrown in advance that there must be a second person in the rear by whom the light was carried. After a short pause they seemed to retrace their steps, without my having had a glimpse of either of them, but only of the shadow which had come before and which followed them as they withdrew. It was then a little after one o’clock, and I concluded they were retiring late to rest, and anxious to avoid disturbing me, though I have since thought that it was the light from my room which caused their retreat. I felt half inclined to call to them, but I shrank, without knowing why, from making known what had disturbed me, and while I hesitated they were gone; so I fastened my door again, and resolved to sit up and watch a little longer by myself. However, now my candle was beginning to burn low, and I found myself in this dilemma: either I must extinguish it at once, or I should be left without the means of procuring a light in case I should be again disturbed. I regretted that I had not called for another candle while there were people yet moving in the house, but I could not do so now without making explanations; so I grasped my box of matches, put out my light, and lay down, not without a shudder, in the bed. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
For an hour more I lay awake thinking over what had occurred, and by that time I had almost persuaded myself that I had nothing but my own morbid imagination to thank for the alarm which I had suffered. “It is an outer wall,” I said to myself; “they are all outer walls, and the house 9-inch-thick walls; it is impossible that sound could be heard through such a thickness. Besides, it seemed to be in my room, close to my ear. What an idiot I must be, to be excited an alarmed about nothing; I will think no more about it.” So I turned on my side, with a smile (rather a forced one) at my own foolishness, and composed myself to sleep. At that instant I heard, with more distinctness than I ever heard any other sound in my life, a gasp, a voiceless gasp, as if someone were in agony for breath, biting at the air, or trying with desperate efforts to cry out or speak. It was repeated a second and a third time; then there was a pause; then again that horrible gasping; and then a long-drawn breath, an audible drawing up of air into the throat, such as one would make in heaving a deep sigh. Such sounds as these could not possibly have been heard unless they had been close to my ear; they seemed to come from the wall at my heard, or to rise up out of my pillow. That fearful gasping, and that drawing in of the breath, in darkness and silence of the night, seemed to make every nerve in my body thrill with dreadful expectation. Unconsciously I shrank away from it, crouching down as before, with my face upon my knees. It ceased, and immediately a moaning sound began, which lengthened out into an awful, protracted groan waxing louder and louder, as if under an increasing agony, and then dying away slowly and gradually into silence; yet painfully and distinctly audible even to the last. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
As soon as I could rouse myself from the freezing horror which seemed to penetrate even to my joints and marrow, I crept away from the bed, and in the further corner of the room lighted with shaking hand of my candle, looking anxiously about me as I did so, expecting some dreadful revelation as the light flashed up. Yet, if you will believe me, I did not feel alarmed or frightened; but rather oppressed, and penetrated wit an unnatural, overpowering, sentiment of awe. I seemed to be in the presence of some great and horrible mystery, some bottomless depth of woe, or misery, or crime. I shrank from it with a sensation of intolerable loathing and suspense. It was a feeling akin to this which prevented me from calling Mrs. Winchester. I could not bring myself to speak to her of what had passed; not knowing how nearly she might be involved in the mystery. I was only anxious to escape as quietly as possible from the room and from the house. The candle was now beginning to flicker in its socket, but the stars were shining outside, and there was space and air to breathe there, which seemed to be wanting in my room; so I hastily opened my window, tied the bedclothes together for a rope, and lowered myself silently and safely to the ground. There was a light still burning in the lower part of the house; but I crept noiselessly along, feeling my way carefully among the trees, and in due time came upon a beaten track which led me to a road, the same which I had been travelling on the previous night. I walked on, scarcely knowing whither, anxious only to increase my distance from the accursed house, until day began to break, when almost the first object I could see distinctly was a small body of men approaching me. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
The men asked me what was wrong? “I was disturbed in the night. I could not sleep. I made my escape from the Winchester mansion, and here I am I cannot tell you more.” “But you must tell me more, dear sir; forgive me; you must tell me everything. I must know all that passed in that mansion. We have had in under our surveillance for a long time, and when I heard in what direction you had gone yesterday, and had not returned, I feared you had got into some mischief there, and we were even now upon our way to look for you. The mansion is so large that people seem to get lost inside and disappear.” I could not enter into particulars, but I told him I had heard strange sounds, and at his respect I went back with him to the mansion. He told me by the way that the mansion was haunted; that Mrs. Winchester e mansion, he placed his men about the premises and instituted a strict search, and Mrs. Winchester and the man who was found in the house being compelled to accompany him. The room in which I had slept was carefully examined; the wall was of plaster or cement, so that no sound could have passed through it; the walls were sound and solid, and there was nothing to be seen that could in any way account for the strange disturbance I had experienced. The room on the ground-floor underneath my bedroom was inspected; it contained a quantity of straw, hay, firewood, and lumber. It was paved with thick wooden slaps, and it was observed that the floors were uneven, as if they had been recently disturbed. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
“Ply the board loose,” said the officer, “we shall find something hidden here, I reckon.” Mrs. Winchester was evidently much disturbed. “Stop,” she cried. “I will tell you what lies there; come away out of doors, and you shall know all about it.” “Dig, I say. We will find out for ourselves.” “Let the dead rest,” cried Mrs. Winchester, with a trembling voice. “For the love of Heaven come away, and hear what I shall tell you. It is the body of my son, my only son—let him rest, if rest he can. He was wounded in a quarrel, and brought home to die. I thought he would recover, but there was neither doctor nor priest at hand, an in spite of all that would could do for him he died. Let him alone now, or let a priest first be sent for; he died unconfessed and unacknowledged. No one ever knew of his existence. I had hope to spare him of the Winchester cruse that Annie and his father had succumbed to. He was buried here because I did not want to make a stir about it. Nobody knew of his death nor his existence, and we laid him down quietly; once place I thought was as good as another when once the life was out of him. We could not bare a scandal. That gasping attempt to speak, and that awful groaning—whence did they proceed? It was no living voice. Beyond that I will express no opinion on the subject. I will only say it was the means of saving my life, and at the same time putting an end to the series of bloody deeds which had been committed under my family’s name. Every year, I go to the edge of my estate and drop a pound of silver in a grave, and my prayers go up to Heaven in all sincerity!” #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
I invoke thee, and move thee, and stir thee up O Spirit Berith appear unto my eyes before the circle in the likeness of a man in the names and by the name Iah and Vau, which Adam spake and in the name of God, Agla, which Lot spake: and it was as pleasant deliverers unto him and his house and in the name Ioth which Iacob spake in the voice of the Holy ones who cast one down, and it was also as pleasant deliverers in the anger of his brother and in the name Anaphaxeton, which Aaron spake and it was as the Secret Wisdom and in the name Asher Ehyeh Oriston, which Mosheh spake, and all waters were brining forth creatures who wax strong, which lifted up unto the houses, which destroyed all things and in the name of Elion which Mosheh spake, and it was as stones from the firmament of wrath, such as was not in the ages of Time the beginning of the Earth and in the name of Adni, which Mosheh spake and there appeared creatures of Earth who destroyed what the big stones did not: and in the name Schema Amathia, which Ioshua invoked, and the Sun remained over ye, O ye hills the seats of Gibeon, and in the names Alpha and Omega which Daniel spake, and destoyed Bel and the Dragon: and in the nae Emmanuel which the sons of God sang praises in the midst of the burning plain, and flourished in conquest: and in the name Hagios, and by the Throne of Adni, and in Ischyros, Athanatos, Paracletos: and in O Theos, Ictros, Athanatos. And in these names of the secret truth, Agla, On, Tetragrammaton, do I invoke and move thee. And in these names, and all things that are the names of the God of Secret Truth who liveth for ever, the All-Powerful. I invoke and stie thee up, O’ spirit Berith. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
Even by him who spake it was, to whom all creatures are obedient and in the Extreme Justice and Anger of God; and by the veil that is before the glory of God, mighty; and by the creatures of living breath before the Throne whose eyes are east and west; by the fire in the fire of just Glory of the Throne; by the Holy ones of Heaven; and by the secret wisdom of God, I, exalted in power, stir three up. Appear before this circle; obey in all things that I say; in the seal Basdathea Baldachia; and in this Name Primeumaton, which Mosheh spake and the Earth was divided, and Korah, Dathan, and Abiram fell in the depth. Therefore obey in all things, O Spirit Berith, obey thy creation. Come thou forth: appear into my eyes; visit us in peace, be friendly; come forth in the 24th of a moment; obey my power, speaking the secrets of Truth in voice and in understanding! I stir thee up, O Spirit Berith, in all things that are the names of glory and power of God the Great One who is greater than understanding, Adni Ihvh Tzabaoth, come forth in the 24th of a moment, let Thy dwelling-place be empty; apply thyself unto the secret truth and obey my power: appear unto my eyes, visit us in peace, speaking the secrets of truth in voice and understanding. I stir thee up and move thee, O spirit Berith, in all the names that I have said, and I add these one and sic names wherein Solomon, the lord of the secret wisdom, placed yourselves, spirits of wrath, in a vessel, Adonai, Preyai Tetragrammaton, Anaphaxeton Ineddenfatoal, Pathtomon and Itemon: appear before this circle; obey in all things my power. And as thou art he that obeys not and comes not I shall be in thy power, O God Most High that liveth for ever, who is the creator of all things n six days, Eie, Saraye, and in my power in the name Prieumaton that ruleth over the palaces of Heaven, Curse Thee, and destroy thy seat, joy, and power; and I bind thee in the depth of Abaddon, to remain until the day of judgment whose end cannot be. And I being thee in the fire of sulphur mingled with poison and the seas of fire and sulphur: come forth, therefore, obey my power and appear before this circle. Therefore come forth, therefore, obey my power and appear before this circle. Therefore come forth in the name of the Holy Ones Zabaoth, Adonia, Amioran. Come! For I am Adonai who stir thee up. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
Winchester Mystery House
The attic spaces can get quite dark, but the lights shine through those beautiful glass panes! Come see this and more on the Explore More Tour!
Explore More Tour:
🗝️ Link in bio. winchestermysteryhouse.com
A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻
🗝 winchestermysteryhouse.com
I am a Simple Doctor–All I Wanted to do Here Was to Found a Small Hospital!
Dear friend, you need to do two things. First, “Walk with Me,” as My Father in Heaven told the decrepit Abraham in Genesis, “and let Truth come with us” (12.1). Second, “Seek Me always in the sincerity of your heart,” as the Wisdom of Solomon said right at the beginning (1.1). Do these two things, and you will be protected from the bandit horde. Punishment calls for “retributive suffering.” However, discipline is “training that corrects, molds, or perfects.” Punishment is directed at the child oneself. Discipline is directed more at the objectionable behavior of the child; it is something we do for our children, not to them. The common goal is to establish a home where harmony, respect, and love abound. However, as we attempt to teach our children to “walk uprightly before the Lord,” Doctrine and Covenants 68.28, our methods will strongly influence our children’s behavior and self-image—and these either encourage or impede the results we are seeking. The heart of child management is the relationship between parents and their children. There are four basic ingredients of positive parent-child interactions. First of all, mutual respect is very important. Effective parents try to avoid nagging, hitting, debating, and talking down to their children. They also avoid doing things for their children that children can do for themselves. (Constantly stripping children of opportunities to learn and take responsibility prevents them from becoming independent and developing self-esteem.) Second come shared enjoyment. Effective parents spend some time each day with their children, doing something that both the parent and child enjoy. Third comes love. This goes almost without saying, but many parents assume their children know that they are loved. It is important to show them you care—in words and by actions such as hugging. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
The fourth tool in the child management program is encouragement. Children who get frequent encouragement come to believe in themselves. Effective parents do not just praise their children for success, winning, or good behavior. They also recognize a child’s progress and attempts to improve. Show you have faith in children by letting them try things on their own and by encouraging their efforts. Creative communication is another important ingredient of successful child management. Making a distinction between feelings and behavior is the key to clear communication. Since children (and parents, too) do not choose how they feel, it is important to allow free expression of feelings. The child who learns to regard some feelings as “bad,” or unacceptable, is being asked to deny a very real part of one’s experience. Parents are encouraged to teach their children that all feelings are appropriate; it is only actions that are subject to disapproval. Many parents are unaware of just how often they block communication and the expression of feelings in their children. Consider this typical conversation:
Son: I am stupid, and I know it. Look at my grades in school.
Father: You just have to work harder.
Son: I already work harder and it does not help. I have no brains.
Father: You are smart, I know it.
Son: I am stupid, I know it.
Father: (loudly) You are not stupid!
Son: Yes, I am!
Father: You are not just good. You are the best!
#RandolphHarris 2 of 19
By debating with the child, the father misses the point that his son feels stupid. It would be far more helpful for the father to encourage the boy to talk about his feelings. How could he do that? He might say, “You really feel that you are not as smart as others, do you not? Do you feel this way often? Are you feeling bad at school?” In this way, the child is given a chance to express his emotions and to feel understood. The father might conclude by saying, “Look, son, in my eyes you area fine person. However, I understand how you feel. Everyone feels inadequate at times.” Again, it is valuable to remember that supportive parents encourage their children. In order for any organization to run effectively, it must establish a set of bylaws. A family also needs bylaws to prescribe boundaries for behavior. If parents do not have a specific, deliberate plan for discipline, they are likely to rely simply on instinct and react emotionally. At our weekly family council, we mutually agree upon rules which all must abide by. We also establish consequences for disobedience. In this way, everyone is aware of the rules and the consequences; there are no surprises. And the consequences are predicable and consistent. As a family, we have come to recognize that certain behaviors are “love destroying acts” and therefore cannot be tolerated. These include such things as sassing, teasing, and name-calling. “Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 132.8. Order is an eternal principle—an important characteristic of the kingdom of God. We are instructed to follow the pattern and set our own houses in order. “And now a commandment I give unto you—if you will be delivered you shall set in order your own house,” Doctrine and Covenants 93.43. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
An orderly home depends upon well-defined and well-understood rules. One way the Lord maintains order in His kingdom is to bless those who obey certain laws. “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this World, upon which all blessings are predicated—and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 130.20, 21. An orderly home also operates on this important principle. Family rules must be established and observed before the blessing of family harmony can be attained. Truth will free you—as I said to the Jewish people who believed in Me, and as the Beloved Disciple recorded in his Gospel (8.32)—from the seductions and detractions of those who hunt you down. Yes, Truth has freed you already; and when you are truly free, you do no care what epithets the vain World slings at you. “A light that shone from behind the sun; the sun was not so fierce as to pierce where that light could,” reports Charles Williams. The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment of Nature’s total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation. There is no question in Christianity of arbitrary interferences just scattered about. It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion—an invasion which intends complete conquest and “occupation.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
The fitness, and therefore credibility, of the particular miracles depends on their relation to the Grand Miracle; all discussion of then is isolated from it is futile. The fitness or credibility of the Grand Miracle itself cannot, obviously, be judged by the same standard. And let us admit at once that it is very difficult to find a standard by which it can be judged. If the thing happened, it was he central event in the history of the Earth—the very thing that the whole story has been about. Since it happened only once, it is by Hume’s standards infinitely improbable. However, then the whole history of the Earth has also happened only once; is it therefore incredible? Hence the difficulty, which weighs upon Christian and atheist alike, of estimating the probability of the Incarnation. It is like asking whether the existence of Nature herself is intrinsically probable. That is why it is easier to argue, on historical grounds, that the Incarnation actually occurred than to show, on philosophical grounds, the probability of its occurrence. The historical difficulty of giving for the life, sayings and influence of Jesus any explanation that is not harder than the Christian explanation, is very great. The discrepancy between the depth and sanity and (let me add) shrewdness of His moral teaching and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind His theological teaching unless He is indeed God, has never been satisfactorily got over. Hence the non-Christian hypotheses succeed one another with the restless fertility of bewilderment. Today we are asked to regard all the theological elements as later accretions to the story of a “historical” and merely human Jesus: yesterday we were asked to believe that the whole thing began with vegetation myths and mystery religions and that the pseudo-historical Man was only fadged up at a later date. However, this historical inquiry is outside the scope of my book. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
Since the Incarnation, if it is a fact, holds this central position, and since we are assuming that we do not yet know it to have happened on historical grounds, we are in a position which may be illustrated by the following analogy. Let us suppose we possess parts of a novel or a symphony. Someone now brings us a newly discovered piece of manuscript and says, “This is the missing part of the work. This is the chapter on which the whole plot of the novel really turned. This is the main theme of the symphony.” Our business would be to see whether new passage, if admitted to the central place which the discoverer claimed for it, did actually illuminate all the parts we had already seen and “pull them together.” Nor should we be likely to go very far wrong. The new passage, if spurious, however, attractive it looked at the first glance, would become harder and harder to reconcile with the rest of the work the longer we considered the matter. However, if it were genuine, then at every fresh hearing of the music or every fresh reading of the book, we should find it settling down, making itself more at home, and eliciting significance from all sorts of details in the whole work which we had hitherto neglected. Even though the new central chapter or main theme contained great difficulties in itself, we should still think it genuine provided that it continually removed difficulties elsewhere. Something like this we must do with the doctrines of the Incarnation. Here, instead of a symphony or a novel, we have the whole mass of our knowledge. The credibility will depend on the extent to which the doctrine, if accepted, can illuminate and integrate that whole mass. It is much less important that the doctrine itself should be fully comprehensible. We believe that the sun is in the sky at midday in summer no because we can clearly see the sun (in fact, we cannot) but because we can see everything else. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
The first difficulty that occurs to any critic of the doctrine lies in the very center of it. What can be meant by “God becoming man”? In what sense is it conceivable that eternal self-existent Spirit, basic Fact-hood, should be so combined with a natural human organism as to make one person? And this would be a fatal stumbling-block if we had not already discovered that in every human being a more than natural activity (the fact of reasoning) and therefore presumably a more than natural agent is thus united with a part of Nature: so united that the composite creature calls itself “I” and “Me.” I am not, of course, suggesting that what happened when God became Man was simply another instance of this process. In other men a supernatural creature thus becomes, in union with the natural creature, one human being. In Jesus, it is held, the Supernatural Creator Himself did so. I do not think anything we can do will enable us to imagine the mode of consciousness of the incarnate God. That is where the doctrine is not fully comprehensible. However, the difficulty which we felt in the mere idea of the Supernatural descending into the Natural is apparently non-existent, or is at least overcome in the person of every human. If we did not know by experience what it feels like to be a rational terrestrial being—how all these natural facts, all this biochemistry and instinctive affection or repulsion and sensuous perception, can become the medium of rational thought and moral will which understand necessary relations and acknowledge mode of behavior as universally binding, we could not conceive, much less imagine, the thing happening. The discrepancy between a movement of atoms in an astronomer’s cortex and one’s understanding that there must be s till unobserved planet beyond Uranus, is already so immense that the Incarnation of God Himself is, in one sense, scarcely more startling. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
We cannot conceive how the Divine Spirit dwelled within the created and human spirit of Jesus: but neither can we conceive how His human spirit, or that of any human, dwells within one’s natural organism. What we can understand, if the Christian doctrine is true, is that our own composite existence is not sheer anomaly it might seem to be but a faint image of the Divine Incarnation itself—the same theme in a very minor key. We can understand that if God so descends into a human spirit, and human spirit so descends into Nature, and our thoughts into our senses and passions, and if adult minds (but only the best of them) can descend into sympathy with children, and men into sympathy with beasts, then everything hands together and the total reality, both Natural and Supernatural, in which we are living is more multifariously and subtly harmonious than we had suspected. We catch sight of a new key principle—the power of the Higher, just in so far as it truly Higher, to come down, the power of the greater to include the less. Thus solid bodies exemplify many truths of plane geometry, but plane figures no truths of solid geometry: many inorganic propositions are true of organisms but no organic propositions are true of minerals; Montaigne became kittenish with his kitten but she never talked philosophy to him. Everywhere the great enters the little—its power to do so is almost the test of its greatness. In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human phases of life; down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
However, He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined World up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. One must stoop in order to lift, one must almost disappear under the load before one incredibly straightens one’s back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on one’s shoulders. Or one may think of a diver, first reducing oneself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and of decay; then up again, back to color and light, one’s lungs almost bursting, till suddenly one breaks surface again, holding in one’s hand the dripping, precious thing that one went down to recover. One and it are both colored now that they have come up into the light: down below, where it lay colorless in the dark, one lost one’s color too. In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognize a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the World. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends. It is the pattern of all animal generation too. There is descent from the full and perfect organisms into the spermatozoon and ovum, and in the dark womb a life at first inferior in kind to that of the species which is being reproduced: then the slow ascent to the perfect embryo, to the living, conscious baby, and finally to the adult. So it is also in our moral and emotional life. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial: but from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and Re-birth—go down to go up—it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies. The doctrine of the Incarnation, if accepted, puts this principle even more emphatically at the center. The pattern is there in Nature because it was first there in God. All the instances of which I have mentioned turn out to be but transpositions of the Divine theme into a minor key. I am not now referring simply to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. The total pattern, of which they are only the turning point, is the real Death and Re-birth: for certainly no seed ever fell from so fair a tree into so dark and cold a soil as would furnish more than a faint analogy to this huge descent and re-ascension in which God dredged the salt and oozy bottom Creation. From this point of view the Christian doctrine makes itself so quickly at home amid the deepest apprehension of reality which we have from other sources, that doubt may spring up in a new direction. Is it not fitting in too well? So well that it must have come into humans’ minds from seeing this pattern elsewhere, particularly in the annual death and resurrection of the corn? For there have, of course, been many religions in which that annual drama (so important for life of the tribe) was almost admittedly the central theme, and the deity—Adonis, Osiris, or another—almost undisguisedly a personification of the corn, a “corn-king” who died and rose again each year. Is not Christ simply another corn-king? #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
All words are pegs to hang ideas on. One of psychology’s perennial chicken-and-egg questions is, Which comes first, thoughts or words? Do ideas arise first and await words to name them? Or are thoughts born of words and inconceivable without them? As usually happens with such either/or questions, the answer seems to be both: thinking shapes language, which shapes thought. Some thoughts precede the words used to express them. Consider: to tighten a screw, which direction do you turn it? Very likely, you first visualize the answer without words and only then expressed your thought in words such as “clockwise,” or “to the right.” Likewise, many artists, composers, poets, mathematicians, and scientists achieve creative insights as images. Peak religious moments, too, are sometimes experienced inarticulately; later the person struggles to express the mystical experience within the confines of language but finds it, as the apostle Paul reported, “inexpressible.” If words are sometimes the mere containers of ideas, they are nevertheless containers that shape the thoughts poured into them. Indeed, argued the linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf, “Language itself shapes a human’s basic ideas.” As evidence of the power of language to shape thought Whorf pointed to the differing conceptions of reality in those who speak different languages. Because Eskimos have a variety of words that describe snow, he argued, they can more readily perceive differences in snow that often go unnoticed by English speakers. Because the Hopi Indian language has no past tense for verbs, the Hopi people cannot so readily think about the past. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
Likewise, people who are bilingual will readily testify that certain concepts are available to them in one language but not the other. The language-thought relationship is why so much of education is devoted to enlarging students’ vocabularies. It pays to increase your word power. As Henry Ward Beecher realized, words are pegs to hang ideas on. When trained in sign language, even chimpanzees behave with an enlarged thinking power. Because our words influence how we think, we do well to choose our words carefully. Our labels for things affect our thoughts about them. Whether a space weapons program is termed “Star Wars” or “The Peace Shield” can subtly affect people’s thoughts and feelings about it. Liberation movements recognize this power of words to shape thought. When African American men were called “boys” or “buddy” and when women were called “girls” and “dolls” it was easy to think of them as unequal to European American men. Recognizing that racist and sexist language undergirds racist and sexist thought, a liberation movement may choose as one of its first goals that of changing the way people talk. What is true in other realms of life is also true of religion. Our words influence our thoughts. For example, some words reflect and reinforce our tendency to think of reality as dualistic (divided into distinct categories) rather than as a unified whole. We dichotomize supernatural and natural forces, sacred and secular truths, mental and bodily realms, spiritual and material needs. Such dualisms, which as we noted in the past are more congenial with platonic than biblical assumptions, depend on certain religious words, such as soul. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Praying about another’s soul surely reflects a concern for the person’s ultimate welfare, which can only be applauded. However, concern for another’s soul can easily degenerate into concern for an imaginary person inside the person, while one ignores the needs of the very real person who is depressed, hurting, hungry, or lonely. If we were to expunge words such as soul from our vocabulary, it would become harder to think in dualistic terms. Similarly, we may talk of Christian life. The very words enable us to think of the Christian life as but one aspect of life, separate from one’s school life, life involving pleasures of the flesh, vocational life, or family life. The result is a compartmentalized view of life that assigns a corner of religion—that concerning prayer, worship, and the like—as distinct from one’s studies, one’s dating and family relationships, or one’s aspirations. To rid oneself of such dualistic thinking, a simple first step to avoid phrases such as Christian Life or spiritual life. Even in the struggle to find alternative words, one begins to view life more as a whole, no corner of which is irrelevant to being Christian. For the Christian, all vocations can be ministry, all learning is exploration of the Creator’s World, all human relations are opportunities for embodying God’s love. Or consider the adjectives that people are fond of piling up before the word Christian. It is not enough to be simply a Christian. One must be an evangelical Christian, a mainline Christian, a Bible-believing Christian, a born-again Christian, or even a really truly born-again Christian. One scores additional points, it seems, by piling the adjectives in top of one another. Thus we have Bible-believing, Bible-teaching Christians, and even a few really truly born-again, Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, evangelical Christians. Such words describe but also divine. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
The tendency of Christians (or Muslims or any other religious groups) to focus on the differences rather than their kinship with others illustrates a powerful phenomenon: people’s self-concepts center on their distinctiveness. For example, William McGuire and his Yale University colleagues report that when children are asked to tell about themselves, they spontaneously mention how they differ from others. Children born in countries not native to the one they live in or are visiting are more likely than others to mention their birthplace; redheads are more likely than black- and brown-haired children to volunteer their hair color; below average weight and above average weight children are more likely to refer to their body weight; non-dominate culture children are the most likely to mention their race or culture/ The principle, says McGuire, is that “one is conscious of oneself insofar as, and in the ways that, one is different.” Thus: “If I am an African American man in a group of European American men, I tend to think of myself as an African American; if I move to a group of African American women, my African Americaness loses salience and I become more conscious of being a man.” This insight helps us understand why Christians so often label themselves as distinct from other Christians, especially in predominately Christian cultures. In India, Christians are more likely to see themselves simply as “Christian” (as distinct from Hindu or Muslim) and to feel a kindship with other Christians. In the United States of America, where a majority of the population claims to be Christian, one’s distinctive identity is more likely to be a subcategory of Christian. The result is that one begins to see most fellow Christians and certainly most fellow humans as “they” and only those within one’s faction as “we.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
Social psychologists have also become intrigued by a subtle but reliable in–group bias phenomenon. Merely assigning people an arbitrary label that they share with certain others triggers a tendency to favor one’s own group and to disparage those assigned a different label. In his novel Slapstick, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. illustrated the phenomenon: computers gave everyone a new middle name, whereupon all “Daffodil-11s” felt kinship with one another and distance from “Raspberry-13s.” It is a point worth remembering: the labeling of who we are—our race, gender, religious denomination, and the like—also implies a definition of who we are not. The circle that defines “us” excludes “them.” Devotion to and pride in one’s own ethic heritage or school or nation—or religious group—often creates a devaluation of other ethnic groups or schools or nations or religious groups. To label oneself as one of “Paul’s people” or “Apollo’s people,” or as fundamentalist, evangelical, mainline, or liberal, can be descriptive. However, it can also be divisive and a source of a spiritual pride that negates Jesus’ prayer “that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the World may believe that you have sent me.” Other words, and the images they carry, are more helpful. To say, as the apostle Paul did, that all Christians are members of one body acknowledges and accepts differences, yet encourages us to view other parts of the body as complementary to ourselves. Each part is unique and yet all work together—unity without uniformity. The moral: let us consider our words, for powerful ideas are hung upon them. There is an old proverb that say—be careful what you wish for, for you wish may come true. And if your wish is for immortality, it is something you will have to live with for a very long time. Did changes in the number of suburbanizing African Americans represent increasing housing integration, or merely the growth of all African American suburban areas? A related issue is whether the government’s goal should be racially integrated neighborhoods or freedom of choice for African Americans to live where they choose. Some non-dominant culture scholars suggest that the latter, rather than the former, has always been the African American priority. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Researchers refer to suburbs where one racial group replaces another as “displacement” or “succession” suburbs. The northern version of succession typically involves African Americans overflowing in substantial numbers from the central city into older and les desirable inner-ring suburbs. European American residents then, in turn, depart for newer suburbs further out. This type of central-to-periphery racial movement fits the ecological invasion-succession model of urban change first proposed by Chicago School sociologists in the 1920s. African American suburbanization of this type does not indicate racial integration, but rather the expansion of high-risk neighborhoods across city lines. The period of integration this type of suburbanization encompasses is only the interval between the arrival of the first African Americans and the departure of the last European Americans. Research examining the period before the 1980s indicates that the pattern of African American spillover into older and less desirable inner-ring suburban housing has empirical validity. Areas that were most prone to turn over racially where those in close proximity to all African American areas thus, a HUD studying interviewing African Americans and European Americans confirmed that lite actual residential integration had occurred. European Americans continued to show reluctance to move into areas they viewed likely to be incorporated into high-risk neighborhoods. A real fear was that inner-ring suburbs into which African Americans disproportionately were flowing would undergo the same economic difficulties and population declines that plague central cities. The assumption was that African Americans would remain concentrated in the inner suburbs abutting central-city high-risk neighborhoods. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
The first holding which infants know about is an embrace which is physical. For the lucky ones this develops almost imperceptibly into understanding, respect, and validation, in the process of being taken care of—a more psychological sort of embrace. Embrace turns into recognition. At first, someone else has to hold me. Gradually I am able to do my share in taking care of my self. Fortunate people can embrace themselves: they can understand and accept themselves, respect and love themselves, and see to it they get their share of good things. However, still someone else has had to do it for them first. The same is true for ego-functioning—thinking, understanding, making connections, planning ahead, thinking back, comparing, taking into consideration, giving an account of, making sense of life. Ego-functioning is only one aspect of holding, but it is an important part. And I must have had a mother or someone who was my self and did my ego-functioning for me, before I can have a self of my own and do my own ego-functioning. Some people have had the blessings of natural integration more or less from their beginnings, and hold together effortlessly. Others will always have to give some attention to staying integrated. In conditions of stress, their integration will also be under stress. They always have to devote at least some small amount of energy to keeping the connections between parts of themselves intact, lest they find themselves acting on the basis of only part of who they are or what they know or what they want. How may this more effortful integration be maintained? For this we need the rationality which comes from highly developed ego-functioning. I do not mean that this must be a cold and unfeeling reasonableness. I mean the ability to take care of things intelligently and to take enough factors into account so that we need not regret our impulsive actions afterwards. However, even cold unfeeling rationality has a lot to commend it, when we contrast it with hot emotional irrationality. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Ego-functioning, even when divested of attractive social values, can integrate and hold together what would otherwise be a jumble of impulses and responses ungoverned by any principle. We need only look at the lives of those whose ego-functioning is suppressed by disease, distress, or the misuse of drugs, to be persuaded of this. We should not belittle the uses of the intellect. Ego-functioning can strengthen the integrating process. It is ego-functioning which strengthens the bonds between a valued self-imagery and other aspects of living. There are times when we need to remind ourselves who we are and how we wish to be. It is ego-functioning that enables us to say: “Although these people treat me like dirt, I know who I am and I am not dirt.” A number of writers have noticed how many of those who survived in extreme conditions, as Japanese prisoners of war, in German concentration camps, or during natural disasters, said afterwards that they had had important values or ideas which they exerted themselves to hold on to. Those of us who have fortunately not had to survive in such extreme circumstances, also know how to hold on to ideas which in turn hold us: “I do not want to be embarrassed or ashamed, as I would be if I were untrue to myself and did not keep this promise, which turns out hard to keep, so I had better get on and do what I said I would do.” Learning social skills takes practice. There is nothing “innate” about knowing how to meet people or start a conversation. Social skills can be directly practiced in a variety of ways. It can be helpful, for instance, to get a tape reorder and listen to several of your conversations. You may be surprised by the way your pause, interrupt, miss cues, or seem disinterested. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Similarly, it can be useful to look at yourself in a mirror and exaggerate facial expressions of surprise, interest, dislike, pleasure, and so forth. By such methods, most people can learn to put more animation and skill into their self-presentation. Let the trees be consulted before you take any action, every time you breathe in, thank a tree. Let treeroots crack parking lots at the World bank headquarters, let loggers be druids, specially trained and rewarded to sacrifice trees at auspicious times let carpenters be master artisans. Let lumber be treasured like gold, let chainsaws be played like saxophones, and let soldiers on maneuvers plant trees. Give police and criminals a shovel and a thousand seedlings. Let businessmen carry pocketfuls of acorns. Let newlyweds honeymoon in the woods. Walk, do not drive, stop reading newspapers, stop writing poetry, squat under a tree and tell stories. The day the saved of God traversed the deep dryshod, then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. Lo, sunken in deceit the Egyptian daughter’s feet, but lo, the Shulamite went shod in fair delight. Then a new song sang Thy redeemed thong. Thy banners Thou wilt set o’er those remaining yet, and gather those forlorn as gatherings ears of corn. Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. Those that have come to Thee under Thy seal to be, they from the birth are Thine bound by a holy sign. Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. Their token show to all whose eyes upon them fall: Lo, on their garments’ hem the fringe ordained for them! Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. For whom then are they sealed? Let truth be now revealed. Whose is the seal, and who shall claim the thread of blue? Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. Ah, take her as of yore, and cast her forth no more. Let sunlight crown her day and shadows flee away. Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. For Thy beloved throng still come to Thee with song, singing with one accord: “Now who is like Thee ‘mid the gods, O Lord?” Still Thy redeemed throng sing a new song. For the fathers’ sake Thou wilt save the children, yea, and bring redemption unto their children’s children. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who has redeemed America. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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What a Lovely Day for a Bit of Mystery!
It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves. I hear your words, My dear Devout; now you hear Mine. You will find them not only suasive, but also persuasive. In fact, they exceed in wisdom all the accumulated knowledge of Philosophy since the World began. My particular words for you today are “spirit and life.” My Beloved Disciple recorded them in his Gospel (6.63), but Humanity cannot seem to make any sense out of them. Important words, they should not be exegeted smugly, if I may allude to that hoary Preacher of Ecclesiastes (9.17), but listened to respectfully. That is to say, they should be received with all humility and yet great affection. Our seventeenth-century ancestors differed from us in most ways, but in nothing did they differ more than in their attitude toward the truth. In this they were closer to the Middle Ages than to us. For them a lie—a breaking of one’s faith—was the worst of sins. Today, many do not regard lying as a serious moral wrong. If the word “morality” is mentioned we think immediately of our bodily appetites, especially of pleasures of the flesh, barbiturates, paraphernalia, liquor and contraband. If the word “morality” is mentioned we think immediately of our bodily appetites very seriously—perhaps too seriously—but we do not regard lying as a mortal sin. We are one of the few civilizations in which entire professions (TV news media, for example, and public relations) are seriously devoted to bending the truth. Dante, in his Divine Comedy, divided sins into three kinds: those of lust, those of violence, and those of fraud. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
The sins of lust—those we tend to take most seriously—were those that Dante thought most trivial; the sins of fraud—which we take lightly—were for Dante the worst of all. To create a “credibility gap” as our revealing phrase has it (as though the only relevant issue is whether a statement will compel belief), to lie, was for the medieval humans to break one’s faith, and it was faith which constituted the bonds between humans and their fellow humans, between humans and the state, between humans and God. To lie was to reduce all the most valuable relationships of life to chaos. And the seventeenth-century Puritan, like Dante, was still living by his faith. Just how important the truth was to the seventeenth-century Puritan may be gathered from the fact that all of the innocent persons who were executed—and the majority of those executed were innocent—could have saved themselves by lying. After the first execution—that of Bridget Bishop—took place in June it became obvious to everyone that persons who confessed, like Tituba and Dorcas Good, were not being brought to trial. Thus any suspected person might have one’s life by confessing. Twenty people died, nineteen of them hanged and one pressed for refusing to plead. Bridget Bishop, Mammy Redd, and George Burroughs were three of these. One cannot be at all certain of the guilt or innocence of several more. However, at least a dozen now seem to be clearly innocent. Twelve people, and probably more, chose to die rather than belie themselves. It is impressive evidence of the Puritan’s attachment to the truth. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
Yet it was not really so simple as that, because the truth was not easy to find in Salem in 1692. The greatest difficulty was created by the genuineness of the afflicted persons’ fits. Their sufferings were so convincing that they often shook the confidence of the accused. One example is William Hobbes, who began by stoutly denying that he had anything to do with the afflicted girls’ convulsions. When he looked at them they fell down in fits, and Hathorne accused him of overlooking them (id est, of he evil eye), yet still he denied it. Abigail Williams cried out that she saw his specter going to hunt Mercy Lewis “and immediately said Mercy fell into a fit and diverse others.” “Can you now deny it?” said Hathorne. “I can deny it to my dying day,” said William Hobbes. However, he did not. Here, after all, were people in hideous convulsions, and saying that his specter was the cause. How could this be? Hathorne suggested that the Devil might be able to use Hobbes’ specter because of Hobbes’ sins; he had not observed either public or private worship. Might not the Devil have taken advantage of that? Hobbes “was silent a considerable space—then said yes.” The girls’ fits shook not only Hobbes’ confidence in himself, but also his confidence in his daughter Abigail, the wild young girl who had boasted that she had sold herself “body and soul to the Old Boy.” Hathorne wanted to know whether Hobbes had not known for a long time that his daughter was a witch. “No, sir,” was the reply. “Do you think she is a witch now?” asked Hathorne. And all that Hobbes could say was, “I do no know.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
Abigail Faulkner’s experience was similar. At her first examination, on August 11, she firmly denied that she had anything to do with the girls’ afflictions. When she looked at them they fell down in fits, and Hathorne asked her, “Do you not see?” Yes, she saw. However, she had nothing to do with it. Yet she would not doubt that the girls were suffering, and saw no reason to doubt their word that it was her specter afflicting them. Therefore the Devil must be appearing in her form: “It is the Devil does it in my shape.” However, by August 30 she was no longer so sure of her innocence. It was true, she said, that she had been angry at what people said when her cousin, Elizabeth Johnson, had been arrested. She had felt malice toward the afflicted persons then because they were the cause of her cousin’s arrest. She has wished them ill, and “her spirit being raised she did pinch her hands together.” Perhaps the Devil had taken advantage of that to pinch the girls, thus exploiting her malice. Even those whose confidence was not shaken bore testimony to the impressiveness of the fits. Mary Easty knew that has had not bewitched the girls, and she was confident as well of the innocence of her sisters, Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyse. Yet she had to grant that there was something preternatural in the girls’ behaviour. “It is an evil spirit,” she said, “but whether it be witchcraft I do not know.” Even George Burroughs, who had been audacious enough to boast of occult powers, found himself stunned by the girls’ behaviour. “Being asked what he thought of these things he answered it was an amazing and humbling Providence, but he understood nothing of it.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
Indeed, these courtroom fits were so convincing that most of the indictments were for witchcraft committed during the preliminary examination rather than for the offenses named in the original complain. The typical order of events in the Salem witchcraft cases was: the swearing out of a complaint for acts of witchcraft; a preliminary examination during which the afflicted persons had convulsive fits; an indictment for acts of witchcraft performed during the preliminary examination; and the trial. The direct cause of these fits, in the courtroom or out of it, was, of course, not witchcraft itself, but the afflicted person’s fear of witchcraft. If fits were occasioned by fear of someone like Bridget Bishop, who was actually practicing witchcraft, they might also be occasioned by fear of someone who was only suspected of practicing it. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! The Winchester Estate had belonged to the family ever since the reign of George Washington, and there was a curious old wing and a cloistered quadrangle still remaining of the original edifice, and in excellent preservation. The rooms at the end of the house were ornate, and somewhat darksome and gloomy, it is true; but, though rarely used they were perfectly habitable, and were of service on great occasions when the Winchester was crowded with guests. The central portion of the Winchester had been rebuilt in the reign James K. Polk, and was of noble and palatial proportions. The southern wing, and a long music-room with thirteen tall narrow daisy-stained glass windows added on to it, were as modern as the time. Altogether, the Winchester was a very splendid mansion with 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, and even once had a nine-story tower. It was one of the chief glories of our country. All the land in the Winchester estate, and for a long way beyond its boundaries, belonged to the Winchester family. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
The Winchester estate grounds actually expanded all the way down to Steven’s Creek Boulevard. The community church was once within the park walls. The former estate was actually much larger than it is today, it was composed of 500 to 600 rooms at one time, but the 1906 Earthquake brought down the nine-story tower and much of the fourth floor with it. The death of William Wirt Winchester left his son, William Wirt Winchester II, unprovided for, and he was fain to go out into the bleak unknown World, and earn his living in a position of dependence—a dreadful thing for a Winchester to be obliged to do. Out of respect for the traditions and prejudices of his race, he made it his business to seek employment abroad, where the degradation of one solitary Winchester was not so likely to inflict shame upon the ancient house to which he belonged. Happily for himself, he had been carefully educated, and had industriously cultivated the usual modern accomplishments in the calm retirement of the University of Cambridge. He was so fortunate as to obtain a situation at Vienna, in a German family of high rank; and remained there for seven years, laying aside year by year a considerable portion of his liberal salary. When his pupils had grown up, his kind mistress procured for him a still more profitable position at St. Petersburg, where he remained for five more years, at the end of which time he yielded to a yearning that had been long growing upon him—an ardent desire to see his dear old country home once more. He loved the soil from which he had sprung. In all of her letter for some time past, his mother, Mrs. Winchester begged that whenever he felt himself justified in coming home, he would pay a long visit to the Winchester Estate. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
“I wish you could come home at Christmas,” she wrote, in the autumn of the year of which I am speaking. “We shall be very gay, and I expect all kinds of pleasant people at the Winchester. When he arrived there, the Old Winchester was in its glory, at about nine o’clock on a clear starlit night. A light frost whitened the broad sweeping lawns, 12,000 boxwood hedges that were winding through the garden, and the other 1,500 plants, trees and shrubs. From the music room at the end of the southern wing, to the heavily framed gothic windows of the old rooms on the north, there shone one blaze of light. The scene was reminiscent of some unusual place in a German legend; and young William half expected to see the lights fade out all in a moment, and long shingled façade wrapped in sudden darkness. The old butler, whom he remembered from his very infancy, and who did not seem to have grown a day older during his twelve years’ exile, came out of the dining-room as the footman opened the hall-door for him, and gave him a cordial welcome, nay insisted upon helping to bring in his portmanteau with his own hands, an act of unusual condescension, the full force of which was felt by his subordinates. “It is a real treat to see your pleasant face once more, William,” said this faithful retainer, as he assisted William to take off his travelling-cloak. “You have not aged a day since you used to live at the Winchester twelve year ago, and you are looking uncommon well; and, Lord love your heart, sir, how pleased they all will be to see you!” They arrived at last at a very comfortable room—a square tapes-tried chamber, with high ceiling support by a great mahogany beam. The room looked cheery enough, with a bright fire roaring in the wide chimney; but it had a somewhat ancient aspect, which the superstitiously inclined might have associated with possible ghosts. “We are in the East Wing, are we not?” young William asked. “This room seems quite strange to me. if I have ever been here before, I doubt it.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
“Very likely not, sir. Yes, this is the old East Wing that your mother once had boarded up. Your window looks out into the old stable-yard, where the kennel used to be in the time of your grandfather, when the Winchester was even a finer place than it is now. We are so full of company this winter, you see, sir, that we are obliged to make use of all these rooms. You will have no need to feel lonesome. There is Captain and Mrs. Foster in the next room to this, and the two Miss Griffins in the blue room opposite.” (Some believe that reopening the East Wing is what upset the spirits and caused the 1906 Earthquake.) Young William admired the perfect comfort of his chamber. Every modern appliance had been added to the ornate and ponderous furniture of an age gone by, and the combination produced a very pleasant effect. As he awoke in the morning and opened the door, Mrs. Winchester sailed in, looking radiant in a dark-green velvet dress richly trimmed with old point lace. Above her beauty, she had a charm of expression which was to most more rare and delightful than her beauty of feature and complexion. She put her arms around her son, and hugged him. “I have only this moment been told of your arrival, my dear William,” she said; “you look just like your father. My dear child, I have been looking forward so anxiously to your coming, and I should not have liked to see you for the first time before all those people. Welcome home. Remember, William, this house is always to be your home, whenever you have need of one.” William, being a hunting man. Had, indeed, a secret horror of the sport; for more than one scion of the house had perished untimely in the hunting-field. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
The family had not been altogether a lucky one, in spite of its wealth and prosperity. It was not often that goodly heritage had descended to the Winchesters or their only son, William. Death in some form or other—on too many occasions a violent death—had come between the heir and his inheritance. And when one pondered on the dark pages in the story of the house, many wonder if Mrs. Winchester was ever troubled by morbid forebodings about her only and fondly loved son. Was there a ghost at the Winchester—that spectral visitant without which the state and plendour of a grand old house seem scarcely complete? Yes, many have heard vague hints of some shadowy presence that had been seen on rare occasions within the precincts of the Winchester mansion. Those whom were questioned were prompt to assure investigators that they had seen nothing. They had heard stories of the past—foolish legends, most likely, not worth listening to. On the property, there was once a stable-yard, a spacious quadrangle, surrounded by the closed doors of stable and dog-kennels: low massive buildings of grey stones, with the ivy creeping over them here and there, and with an ancient moss-grown look, that gave them a weird kind of interest. This range of stabling must have been disguised for a long time. The stables that were more recently used were a pile of handsome red-brick buildings at the other extremity of the house, to the rear of the music room, and forming a striking feature in the back view of the Winchester. According to legend, some believed that spectral entities, had been haunting the Winchester estate for centuries. Several large black dogs, with eyes large as saucers, or something flaming, appear and disappear, often without a trace. In many of the legends, the dogs are malevolent: assaulting guests, frightening livestock to death, attacking other dogs, and heralding death or disaster. Perhaps that is why the heirs of Winchester who have come to an untimely end have all died tragically. Oliver Winchester was killed in a dual. William Winchester I was murdered; and William Winchester II broke his back on his return home to the Winchester Estate. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The butler concealed the death of William Winchester II from Sarah, telling her simply that he was called away and said he would never return. Her heart was so broken that she wrote him out of existence, as if her had never been born. After the heartbreaking news that her only son has abandoned her, Mrs. Winchester was sitting in her blue séance room; half meditating, half dozing, mixing broken snatches of thought with brief glimpses of dreaming, when she was startled into wakefulness by a sound that was strange to her. It was a huntsman’s horn—a few low plaintive noes on a huntsman’s horn—notes which had a strange far-away sound, that was more unearthly than anything her ears ever heard. She thought of the music in Der Freischutz; but the weirdest snatch of melody Weber ever wrote had not so ghastly a sound as these few simple noes conveyed to her ear. She stood transfixed, listening to that awful music. It had grown dusk, her fire was almost out, and the room in shadow. As she listened, a light suddenly flashed on the wall before her. The light was as unearthly as the sound—a light that never shone from Earth or Sky. She ran to the window; for his ghastly shimmer flashed through the window upon the opposite wall. The great gates of the stable-yard were open, and men in scarlet coats were riding in, a pack of hounds crowding in before them, obedient to the huntsman’s whip. The whole scene was gleams of a lantern carried by one of the men. It was this lantern which had shone upon the tapestried wall. She saw the stable doors opened one after another; gentlemen and grooms alighting from their horses; the dogs driven into their kennel; the helpers hurrying to and fro; and that strange wan lantern-light glimmering hither and tither was the gathering dusk. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
However, there was no sound of horse’s hoof or of human voices—not one yelp or cry from the vicious looking hounds with flaming eyes. Since those faint far-away sounds of the horn had died out in the distance, the ghastly silence had been unbroken. As Mrs. Winchester stood at her window quite calmly and watched while the group of men and animals in the yard below noiselessly dispersed. There was nothing supernatural in the manner of their disappearance. The figures did not vanish nor melt into empty air. One by one she saw the horses led into their separate quarters; one by one the redcoats strolled out of the gates, and the grooms departed, some one way, some another. The scene, but for its noiselessness, was natural enough; and had she been a stranger in her own home, she might have fancied that those figures were real—those stables in full occupation. However, she knew that stable-yard and all its range of building to have been disused for more than half a century. Could she believe that, without an hour’s warning, the long-deserted quadrangle could be filled—the empty stalls tenanted? Had some hunting-party from the neighbourhood sought shelter there, glad to escape the pitiless rain? That was impossible, she thought. And yet the noiselessness, the awful sound of that horn—the strange unearthly gleam of that lantern! A cold sweat broke out on her forehead, and she trembled in every limb. Mrs. Winchester was pale as a ghost and trembling. Mrs. Winchester had kept the secret. That evening, the butler came to her. “Mrs. Winchester, there is no use in trying to hide it from you any longer. Your son was killed in the hunting-field, brought home dead one December night, an hour after his father and the rest of the party had come home to the Winchester. He was found by a labouring-man, poor lad, lying in a ditch with his back broken, and his horse beside him staked.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
Shortly after Mr. Winchester Sr. never rode to hounds again, though he was passionately fond of hunting. Dogs and horses were sold, and the north quadrangle had been empty from that day. Some evil have come upon the Winchester mansion, it was not in human power to prevent its coming. Some had beheld the shadows of the dead. Sudden terror overcomes some visitors, even to this day. There are reports of an ominous danger, as people’s hearts grow cold while on tour. Staff have been startled by seeing a man, with is hat in his hand not in evening costume; a man with a pale anxious-looking face, peering cautiously into the room. Their first thought is of evil; but in the next moment than man disappears, and they see no more of him. Sometimes when flowers are placed in the house, people see the drooping moments later and lights dying out one by one in the brass sconces against the walls. It is no wonder Mrs. Winchester shut herself from the outer World, burying herself almost as completely as a hermit in its cell. While great wealth brings some people joy, there is some times a hefty fee. Be careful what you wish for, you never know who or what you might invite in your doors. I invoke and move thee, O thou Spirit Gusion and being exalted above ye in the power of the Most High, I say unto thee, Obey! in the name Beralensis, Baldachinesis, Paumachia, and Apologiae Sedes: and of the mighty ones who govern, spirits, Liachidae and ministers of the House of Death: and by the Chief Prince of the seat of Apologia in the Ninth Legion, I do invoke thee and by invoking conjure thee. And being exalted above ye in the power of the Most High, I say unto thee, Obey! in the name of him who spake and it was, to whom all creatures and things obey. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
Moreover I, whom God made in the likeness of God, who is the creator according to his living breath, stir thee up in the name which is the voice of wonder of the mighty God, El, strong and unspeakable, O thou Spirit Gusion. And I say to thee obey, in the name of him who spake and it was; and in every one ye, O ye names of God! Moreover in the names Adonai, El, Elohim, Elohi, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, Zabaoth, Elion, Iah, Tetragrammaton, Shaddai, Lord God Most High, I stir thee up; and in our strength I say Obey! O Spirit Gusion. Appear unto His servants in a moment; before the circle in the likeness of man; and visit me in peace. And in the ineffable name Tetragrammaton Iehovah, I say, Obey! whose mighty sound being exalted in power the pillars are divided, the winds of the firmament groan aloud; the sire burns not; the Earth moves in Earthquakes; and all things of the house of Heaven and Earth and the dwelling-place of darkness are as Earthquakes, and are in torment, and are confounded in thunder. Come forth, O Spirit Gusion, in a moment: let thy dwelling-place be empty, apply unto us the secrets of Truth and obey my power. Come forth, visit us in peace, appear unto my eyes; be friendly: Obey the living breath! For I stir thee up in the name of God of Truth who liveth for ever, Helioren. Obey the living breath, therefore continually unto the end as my thoughts appear to my eyes: therefore be friendly: speaking the secrets of Truth in voice and in understanding. Let it be so, Truefold, whatever ill news has come to us we will hear it together. He put is arm round his wife’s waist. Both were pale as marble, both stood in stony stillness waiting for the bow that was to fall upon them. It is said that perhaps you will see a glimpse of Mrs. Winchester and Mr. Winchester, Sr., while on tour, if you repeat the invocation thirteen times before your visit. Life is broken for her, there hah passed a glory from Earth, and that upon all pleasures and joys of this World she looks with the solemn calm of one for whom all things are dark with the shadow of a great sorrow. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
Winchester Mystery House
A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻
We’re one week away from Friday the 13th! Missed out on tickets for Flashlight Tours? Don’t worry, we have ghoulishly fun plans All Hallows’ Eve 👻🎃🍿🏠
All Hallows’ Eve:
👉 link in bio. 🗝 winchestermysteryhouse.com
Without Your Inspiration Their Words Would Not Set My Heart on Fire!
Be careful what well you drink of—bitter waters will contaminate you! You are surrounded by sights, sounds, odors, tastes, and touch sensations. Which are you aware of? The first stage of perception is attention. Selective attention refers to the fact that we give some messages priority and put others on hold. You might find it helpful to think of selective attention as a bottleneck, or narrowing in the information channel linking the senses to perception. When one message enters the bottleneck, it seems to prevent others from passing through. How should I pray, O Lord? There are so many ways. Like he Psalmist? “I am Your servant” too, and I cry out. “Give me mind enough to know what You are talking about,” as the Psalmist sang (119.125). Or “Draw my heart closer so that I will hear Your words better,” as the Psalmist and (78.1). Like the Deuteronomist? “Do flutter your utterances as the dew droppeth,” sand Moses in prayer with the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan into Canaan (32.2). Like the Exodist? “Do speak to us, and we will listen!” exclaimed the sons of Israel to the Great Moses long, long ago. “Do not let the Lord talk to us, for fear that we will die at the sound of His voice,” (20.19). Like Samuel, the great prophet who ruled Israel so long ago? Yes, yes, O Lord, that is the way I want to pray. That is the way Samuel prayed when he was a young boy; that is to say, with all humility, and yet with some hilarity. “Speak, O Lord, that Your servant may hear.” By the bye, my Distant if Divine Friend, it is not Moses I want to converse with, nor any of the other Prophets. No, Inspirer and Illuminator of all Prophets, it is You I want to talk with. You do not need their help to tell me what I need to know; they, on the other hand, cannot utter a word without Your help. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
The Prophets can certainly mouth the words of prophecy, or so I have been given to understand, but they do not confer the spirit. Their pronunciation may be beautiful, remarkably so, like the sound silver tinkling, but without Your inspiration their words would not set my heart on fire. Their enunciation may be perfect, each letter receiving a single stress, but You, O Lord, stress the meaning. The Prophets give voice to the mysteries, but You make clear the meaning. They promulgate Your commands, but You help their observance. They show the way, but You walk with those on the way. They instruct crowds, but You tutor hearts. They provide the humidity; You, the fecundity; Paul wrote something similar in First Corinthians (3.7). To sum up then, the Prophets just shout the words, but the crowd gets the gist from You. I know You have a list of “will nots,” my Willful Friend, but I have this list of “do nots.” Do not send Moses to speak to me; it is You, O Lord God, Eternal Truth, that I want to hear, and it is You I want to listen to. Do not let me die before my tree is borne fruit! Do not let me hear the truth preached abroad and not put it into action within. Do not let me come before the Final Judge having heard the word and not done anything about it, having learned it but not loved it, even believed it but not observed it. And so I return to where I began, crying out with the boy Samuel. “Speak, Lord, that Your servant may hear” (3.10). Why? “You have the words of eternal life,” as Peter pleaded with the Lord in the Gospel of John (6.68). Speak to me, console me, correct me, my Lord and Friend, and may glory galore be Yours for evermore! #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
Many different peoples of the World believed—and some still do—that behind the immediate physical reality of things lie spirits, that even seemingly dead objects, rocks, or Earth, have a living force within them: mana. The Sioux Indians called it wakan. The Algonkians, manitou. The Iroquois, orenda. For such people the entire environment is alive. Today, as we construct new info-sphere for a Third Wave civilization, we are imparting to the “dead” environment around us not life but intelligence. The key to this evolutionary advance is, of course, the computer. A combination of electronic memory with programs that tell the machine how to process the stored data, computers were still a scientific curiosity in the early 1950s. By the year 2022, we have reached the ultimate manifestation of machine age thinking. It is the crowning achievement—a large super-computer buried hundreds of feet beneath the center [in a] bombproof antiseptic environment…manned by a bunch of super-technocrats. So impressive are these centralized giants underground in in outer space that they have become a standard part of social mythology. Movie makers, cartoonists, and science fiction writers, using them to symbolize the future, routinely pictured the computer as an all-powerful brain—a massive concentration of superhuman intelligence. Computers control so much of everything we do. From managing our homes, cars, bodies, and environment. So many computers have appeared, in fact, that companies sometimes lose track of how many they have. “The “brainpower” of the computer is no longer concentrated at a single point; it is “distributed.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
There are more than ten connected devices in the average household. People have access to more than two computers on average and more than two mobile phones in the evaluated period. We are also “smartening” our work environment. Outside the confines of industry and government, moreover, a parallel process is under way based on that soon-to-be ubiquitous gadget: the home computer. Today, many American homes are controlled by computers, from computerized door locks, climate control, entertainment, surveillance, to pest control and agriculture. These cleaver machines are also being used for everything from doing the family taxes to monitoring energy use in the home, playing games, keeping a file of recipes, remaindering their owners of upcoming appointments, and serving as “smart typewriters.” This, however, offers only a tiny glimpse of their full potential. Telecomputing Corporation of America offers a service called simply “The Source,” which for minuscule costs provides the computer user with instant access to the United Press International news wire; a vast array of stock and commodity market data; educational programs to teach children arithmetic, spelling, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Latin, Greek Mandarin Chinese, Arabic or Italian; membership in a computerized discount shoppers’ club; instant hotel or travel reservations, and more. The Source also makes it possible for anyone with a computer terminal to communicate with anyone else in the system. Bridge, chess, football, baseball, basketball, tennis, target practice, or backgammon players who so desire can play games with someone a thousand miles distant. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
User can send private messages to one another or to large numbers of people all at once, and store all correspondence in electronic memory. The Source will even facilitate the creation of what might be called “electronic communities”—groups of people with shared interests. A dozen photo buffs in a dozen cities, brought together electronically by The Source, can converse to their heart’s delight about camera, equipment, darkroom techniques, lighting, or colour film. Months later they can retrieve their comments from The Source’s electronic memory, by subject, date, or other category. The spread of machine intelligence has reached another level altogether with the microprocessors and microcomputers, those tiny chips of congealed intelligence have become part of nearly all the things we make and use. Apart from their applications in manufacturing processes and business generally, they re already embedded in everything from air-conditioners and automobiles to sewing machines and scales. They monitor and minimize the waste of energy in the home. They adjust them amount of detergent and the water temperature for each washing machine load. They fine-tune the car’s system and some cars by BMW can even make some repairs to themselves. These microchips flag us when something needs repair. They flick on the clock radio, lock the doors, adjust the lights, turn on the music, operate the toaster, the coffee maker, and the shower in the morning. They warm the garage and the car, and perform a vertiginous variety of other humble and not-so-humble tasks. Home computers can talk, interpret speech, and control appliances. And with a few sensors, their modest vocabular, the Internet and Bell Telephone system, and you house can now talk to anyone or anything in the World. Although many obstacles still lie ahead, the direction of change is clear. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
Imagine you are at work, the phone rings. It is Donnie, your house. While monitoring police scanners and home surveillance and traffic cameras, Donnie picked up a story of recent burglaries and a weather bulletin warning of pending heavy rain. This jogged Donnie’s bubble memories to run a routine roof maintenance check. A potential leak was found. Before calling you, Donnie phoned Cresleigh’s maintenance department for advice. Cresleigh’s maintenance department evaluated the evidence from a virtual inspection. You have learned to trust Donnie’s judgment, as you have lived in this house for ninety years, and approve the repairs. The rest is rather straight forward, Cresleigh dispatches their maintenance team and within no time, everything is back to normal. That is the reality of the pending intelligent environment. We have intelligence and imagination we have not yet begun to use. What is inescapably clear, however, whatever we choose to believe, is that we are altering our info-sphere fundamentally. The Third Wave info-sphere make that of the Second Wave era-dominated by its mass media, traffic jams, and the telephone—seem hopelessly primitive by contrast. The 1968 Housing and Urban Development Act was important for its implementation set for decades the attitudes and beliefs of citizens and policymakers regarding the feasibility of the federal government assisting the working and welfare poor to purchase their own housing. The assumption was that most of those assisted by the act would be less affluent non-European Americans, and this the act would foster integration. The Housing and Urban Development Act was designed to turn the economically marginal into responsible, tax-paying homeowners. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
It had a rehabilitation section that applied largely to the cities, and a new-housing section that had a more suburban application. The purpose of the act was not so much to open the suburbs to the African American middle class but to make home ownership open to all, regardless of income. The Housing and Urban Development Act was, in many respects, a response to the urban riots that racked American cities in the late 1960s. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968, rioting broke out in some one hundred and twenty-five cities, and the period that followed came to be known as “the long hot summer.” The Urban Development Act was rapidly passed, with the expectation that by providing the hope of home ownership it would relieve urban pressure. The emphasis was on immediate action, with less attention given to careful monitoring of the program. There was considerable political pressure from the Johnson White House to get the program going. It was thought that problems could be corrected later. The beneficial side of this fast start-up was that for the first time, the weight of government attention was focused on the housing needs of poor urban non-European Americans. Particular attention was directed at rapidly expanding the number of low-income marginalized population home purchasers. Integration per se received less attention than using federal subsidies to turn the urban poor into homeowners with a stake in the system. The downside of the fast start-up was that no one was monitoring the effects of the program and controlling the cash flow. In hindsight, what occurred was quite predictable. The program was exploited, often criminally, by those who knew how it could be manipulated—not the poor, but the private-sector banking and real estate professionals, who saw the program as a money tree. As expressed by the director of HUD’s Chicago office: “Every unethical, unscrupulous real estate broker and lender, many of them so slimy they crawled out from under a rock, looked at this program and said, ‘What a gold mine out there’.” As usual, the poor were the victims. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
Basically, what occurred was criminal collusion between real estate speculators, banks, and FHA employees to sell supposedly rehabilitated properties at high prices to marginally qualified low-income non-Europeans and women purchasers, with the expectation that the buyers would default so the FHA would have to take back the loan and the unsalable property. The scheme worked as follows. A real estate speculator bought a run-down home at a low price and then put in a few cosmetic repairs such as a cheap paint job. A low-income buyer who marginally qualified for the program was then found, and the appraiser was paid to considerably overestimate the value of the property. The bank then authorized the loan; the FHA or VA insured the mortgage at the inflated price; and the speculator made a fast profit minus the bribe. The new homeowner soon found the property was unlivable and defaulted on the mortgage. The ideal purchaser from the speculator’s and banker’s viewpoint was someone so economically marginal that one was likely to default. (Until almost the final days of the program, even those with no income but welfare qualified as purchaser.) The bank then foreclosed and turned he property over to the FHA, who paid off the overpriced mortgage. Since the more properties sold, the greater the profits, federal monies were, in fact, used not to provide housing, but to provide real estate speculators and bans subsidies for destabilizing neighbourhoods. The majority of the supposedly rehabilitated 235 properties were eventually abandoned by their low-income purchasers, and thee deteriorating properties greatly added to the stock of abandoned city housing. As a consequence, the federal government found itself by the mid-1970s to be the nation’s largest holder of foreclosed and unsalable slum properties. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
The federal government, in effect, found itself financing the creation of urban wastelands. Callous greed destroyed what was potentially a good program. The suburban version of the program involved not rehabilitation of existing properties, but the building of new-homes program had problems similar to the urban program. Homes were built at high cost to the taxpayers but with a quality of construction often below industry standards. There was little monitoring of the performance of developers. Since the new subsidized homes were of a clearly identifiable style and almost always of poorer construction than other homes in the neighbourhood, existing homeowners almost always saw the building of subsidized homes nearby as a threat to their property values. Unfortunately, they were correct in this belief. Shortsightedly, the program did not budget funds for garages or landscaping. More importantly, the low-income buyers were marginal purchasers with no financial cushion. To qualify for the program, the buyer had to have a very low income or be on public assistance. Such purchasers soon found themselves saddled with money pits requiring considerable expensive work. (A student of mine who purchased one of these homes in suburban Milwaukee County found, among other things, that his kitchen drainpipes had been installed with an upward tilt.) Non-European American buyers, low-income women, and the poor found that their new suburban homes were located in areas far from services or employment. Physical isolation compounded social isolation. The houses were distant from established African American neighbourhoods, African American churches, African American stores, and African American friends. Subdivisions in which the new housing was constructed invariably did not have public transportation and rarely had stores within walking distance. Low-income residents quickly discovered that car ownership was essential for their survival. Without at least one dependable auto, they were stranded miles from friends and services. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
As the physical problems with the homes became more evident, and the economic and social costs of living became clearer, the political support within the African American community for constructing additional suburban subsidized housing rapidly declined. A companion piece of legislation, the Title 236 program, provided rent subsidies for the poor so they could move out of public housing. The suburban effects of this program, were minimal, however, because of the scarcity of suburban rental housing for which low-income African Americans could qualify. By 1974, when President Nixon, with the connivance of Congress, terminated support for the subsidy programs, there were few voices raised in protest. Only the construction companies and a handful of die-hard supporters felt the program deserved to survive. The tragedy was that a well-meaning program to turn low-income renters into homeowners died, not because it was misused by the recipients, but because the program had become a bureaucratic disaster that exploited the poor to enrich banks, builders, and speculators. One consequence of the failure of these housing programs was that the African American community would become increasingly divided between the suburbanizing middle-class African Americans and central-city African Americans, who became more isolated in the old core neighbourhoods of economically weakening central cities. The 1970s ended the African American exodus from the south and initiated the middle-class African American exodus from the cities. As African American middle-class role models began to exit the city, the social fabric of central-city life began to deteriorate. Those leaving also took with them stable mainstream institutions and the informal job network. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
During the 1970s the South Bronx lost 37 percent of its population, and the once vibrant southside high risk neighbourhood (HRN) of Chicago lost 38 percent of its population. With the suburbanization of successful role models and jobs, the result was a growing economic and social marginalization of those left behind. William Julius Wilson argues that: “Social isolation deprives residents of certain inner-city neighbourhoods not only of the resources and conventional role models, whose former presence buffered the effects of neighbourhood joblessness, but also of cultural learning from mainstream social networks that facilitate social and economic advancement in modern industrial society.” Thus, the central city has had to cope not just with shift from an industrial-based to an information-based economy, but also with the resultant loss of entry-level blue-collars jobs. The inner city also has lost its middle-class roe models and their important informal job networks. Whether a True or a False Self be he center from which a person acts, self-imagery operates gyroscopically once it is established. Once there are coherent self-representations on the map, feedback processes will ensure that people feel discomfort or pain when expectations arise which go against that imagery. The self can be regarded as a set of interlinking feedback systems. More central systems monitor the more peripheral ones, rather as, in hierarchical human organizations, managers higher up (nearer the center) delegate quite complex operations to others down the line, on whom they keep an eye in case things go wrong. Self-imagery controls the plans that are made at each level in somewhat the same way. Our image of ourselves, and our preferred self-imagery, influence what we do. “I am a person who gets up early.” “I am a person who runs towards trouble and not away from it. This is continually confirmed when I behave “like myself.” The more I can do so, the more pleased I am to think of myself in particular ways. Whenever there is incongruity between what I am doing and the person I imagine myself to be (or prefer myself to be), I am under tension to reduce the incongruity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
Self-imagery has a strong organization, function, keeping us coherent, consistent, and unfragmented, provided that we are able to call on it at need. Fortunate people have relatively strong self-images which reverberate easily and are therefore easily part of the working models of self-in-the-World, the models by which their actions are governed. Less fortunate people have more tenuous self-imagery, or are more tenuously in touch with it. Or they may lack the sense that their identity is rooted in solid experiences and memory-traces of experiences—they do not feel defined by a bodily self at the core. Something may have gone wrong at the mirroring stage. They do not retain an image of themselves for any length of time, let alone an image of themselves for any length of time, let alone an image of themselves as good and loveable, and worth living up to. They are often not in touch with how they feel or what suits them. They can be told by others, defined by them as it were, but the image easily disappears again because remembering what you have been told about yourself is different from actually remembering the experiences in which you have been involved and which made you what you are. Characteristically, though, if they are ever to have the strength to hold it for themselves, such people’s imagery of themselves needs to be held for a while by others. To the extent that people have a False Self, they have a false imagery of themselves. They may be quite normally self-aware and self-conscious and vernal about their thoughts and feelings, memories and plans, but they lack some of the strong roots which connect their life now to the beginning of their World. If so, they will at times feel a falsity or unreality in what they do. They sense that they are sometimes living up to an image of themselves which is not connected to the experiences which would make this image a basic neurological reality. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Some people have practically no coherent self-imagery at all, true or false, to which they can refer at need to keep a check on themselves. Not surprisingly, they are liable to behave irrationally and impulsively; they lack some important monitoring or steering or organizing structure. They also have little help in putting up with frustration, even in order to gain a benefit they know they desire. They cannot postpose gratification now for the sake of a later good. Unable to go to the zoo because the rain, they cannot enjoy a visit to the Natural History Museum. It is “not the same.” Substitutes will not gratify. The imagery which would hold these things together in the same frame is not there. The frame is not there. The various forms of government take their origin from the greater or lesser differences that were found among private individuals at the moment of institution. If the humans were eminent in power, virtue, wealth of prestige, one alone was elected magistrate, and the state became monarchial. If several humans, more or less equal among themselves, stood out over all the others, they were elected jointly, and there was an aristocracy. Those whose fortune or talents were less disproportionate, and who least departed from the state of nature, kept the supreme administration and formed a democracy Time made evident which of these forms was the most advantageous to humans. Some remained in subjection only to the laws; the others soon obeyed masters. Citizens wanted to keep their liberty; the subjects thought only of in taking it away from their neighbours, since they could not endure others enjoying a good they themselves no longer enjoyed. In a word, on the one hand were riches and conquests, and on the other were happiness and virtue. In these various forms of government all the magistratures were at first elective; and when wealth did not prevail, preference was given to merit, which gives a natural ascendancy, and to age, which gives experience in conducting business and cool-headedness in deliberation. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
The elders of the Hebrews, the gerontes of Sparta, the senate of Rome, and even the etymology of our word seigneur show how much age was respected in former times. The more elections fell upon humans advanced age, the more frequent elections became, and the more their difficulties were made to be felt. Intrigues were introduced; factions were formed; parties became embittered; civil wars flared up. Finally, the blood of citizens was sacrificed to the alleged happiness of the state, and people were on the verge of falling back into the anarchy of earlier times. The ambition of the leaders profited from these circumstances to perpetuate their offices within their families. The people, already accustomed to dependence, tranquility and the conveniences of life, and already incapable of breaking their chains, consented to let their servitude increase in order to secure their tranquility. Thus it was that the leaders, having become hereditary, grew accustomed to regard their magistratures as family property, to regard themselves as the proprietors of the state (of which at first they were but the officers), to call their fellow citizens their slaves, to count them like cattle in the number of things that belonged to them, and to call themselves equals of the gods and kings of kings. If we follow the progress of inequality in these various revolutions, we will find that the first stage was the establishment of the law and of the right of property, the second stage was the institution of the magistracy, and the third and final stage was the transformation of legitimate power into arbitrary power. Thus the class of the rich and poor was authorized by the first epoch, that of the strong and the weak by the second, and that of the master and slave by the third: the ultimate degree of inequality and the limit to which all other finally lead, until new revolutions completely dissolve the government or bring it nearer to its legitimate institution. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
To grasp the necessity of this progress, we must consider less the motives for the establishment of the body politic than the form it takes in its execution and the disadvantages that follow in its wake. For the vices that make social institutions necessary are the same ones that make their abuses inevitable. And with the sole exception of Sparta, where the law kept watch chiefly over the education of children, and where Lycurgus established mores that nearly dispensed with having to add laws to them, since laws are generally less strong than passions and restrain humans without changing them, it would be easy to prove that any government that always moved forward in conformity with the purpose for which it was founded without being corrupted or altered, would have been needlessly instituted, and that a country where no one eluded the laws and abused the magistrature would need neither magistracy nor laws. What will become of a World that outlaws all the tools it looked to for solutions? The Internet is being used to strip governments of their secrets and making them vulnerable to attack. “No word shall be impossible with God,” reports Luke 1.37. All confess that God is omnipotent; but it seems difficult to explain in what His omnipotence precisely consists: for there may be doubt as to the precise meaning of the word “all” when we say that God can do all things. If, however, we consider the matter aright, since power is said in reference to possible things, this phrase, “God can do all things,” is rightly understood to mean that God can do all things that are possible; and for this reason He is said to be omnipotent. Now according to the Philosopher (Metaph. V, 17) a thing is said to be possible in two ways. First in relation to some power, thus whatever is subject to human power is said to be possible to humans. Secondly absolutely, on account of the relation in which the very terms stand to each other. Now God cannot be said to be omnipotent through being able to do all things that are possible to created nature; for the divine power extends father than that. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
If, however, we were to say that God is omnipotent because He can do all things that are possible to His power, there would be a vicious circle of explaining the nature of His power. For this would be saying nothing else but that God is called omnipotent because He can do all things that are possible absolutely; which is the second way of saying a thing is possible. For a thing is said to be possible or impossible absolutely, according to the relation in which the very terms stand to one another, possible if the predicate is not incompatible with the subject, as that Socrates sits; and absolutely impossible when the predicate is altogether incompatible with subject, as, for instance, that a human is a donkey. It must, however, be remembered that since every agent produces an effect like itself, to each active power there corresponds a thing possible as its proper object according to the nature of that act on which its active power is founded; for instance, the power of giving warmth is related as to its proper object to the being capable of being warmed. The divine existence, however, upon which the nature of power is God is founded, is infinite, and its not limited to any genus of being; but possesses within itself the perfection of all being. Whence, whatsoever has or can have the nature of being, is numbered among the absolutely possible things, in respect of which God is called omnipotent. Now nothing is opposed to the idea of being except non-being. Therefore, that which implies being and non-being at the same time is repugnant to the idea of an absolutely possible thing, within the scope of the divine omnipotence. For such cannot come under the divine omnipotence, not because of any defect in the power of God, but because it has not the nature of a feasible or possible thing. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Therefore, everything that does not imply a contradiction in terms, is numbered amongst those possible things, in respect of which God is called omnipotent: whereas whatever implies contradiction does not come within the scope of divine omnipotence, because it cannot have the aspect of possibility. Hence it is better to say that such things cannot be done, than that God cannot do them. Nor is this contrary to the word of the Angel, saying: “No word shall be impossible with God.” For whatever implies a contradiction cannot be a word, because no intellect can possibly conceive such a thing. God is said to be omnipotent in respect to His active power, not to passive power, as was shown above. Whence the fact that He is immovable or impassible is not repugnant to His omnipotence. To sin is to fall short of a perfect action; hence to be able to sin is to be able to fall short in action, which is repugnant to omnipotence. Therefore it is that God cannot sin, because of His omnipotence. Nevertheless, Philosophers says (Topic. Iv, 3) that God can deliberately do what is evil. However, this must be understood either on a condition, the antecedent of which is impossible—as, for instance, if we were to say that God can do evil things if He will. For there is no reason why a conditional proposition should not be true, though both the antecedent and consequent are impossible: as if one were to say: “If a human is a donkey, one has four feet.” Or one may be understood to mean that God can do some things which now seem to be evil: which, however, if He did them, would then be god. Or he is, perhaps, speaking after the common manner of the heathen, who thought that men became gods, like Jupiter or Mercury. God’s omnipotence is particularly show in a sparing and having mercy, because in this is it made manifest that God has supreme power, that He freely forgives sins. For it is not for one who is bound by laws of a superior to forgive sins of his own free will. Or, because by sparing and having mercy upon humans, He leads them on to the participation of an infinite good; which is the ultimate effect of divine power. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Or because, as was said above, the effect of the divine mercy is the foundation of all the divine works. For nothing is due to anyone, except on account of something already given him gratuitously by God. In this way the divine omnipotence is particularly made manifest, because it pertains the first foundation of all good things. The absolute possible is not so called in reference either to higher causes, or to inferior causes, but in reference to itself. However, the possible in reference to some power is named possible in reference to its proximate cause. Hence those things which it belongs to God alone to do immediately—as, for example, to create, to justify, and the like—are said to be possible in reference to a higher cause. Those things, however, which are of such kind as to be done by inferior causes are said to be possible in reference to those inferior causes. For it is according to the condition of the proximate cause that the effect has contingency or necessity, as was shown above. Thus is it that the wisdom of the World is deemed foolish, because what is impossible to nature, it judged to be impossible to God. So it is clear that the omnipotence of Goes does not take away from things their impossibility and necessity. When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego, and when we escape like squirrels turning in the cages of our personality and get into the forests again, we shall shiver with cold and fright but things will happen to us so that we do not know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in, and passion will make our bodies taunt with power, we shall stamp our feet with new power and old things will fall down, we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like burnt paper. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy Law is truth. Thy righteousness, O God, is highly exalted; Thou who doest great things, O God, who is like unto Thee? They righteousness is like the eternal mountains; Thy judgments, fathomless depts; both man and beast dost Thou save, O Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
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Thou Hast Been Delivered from the Powers of Satan–He Was Declared “Not Guilty” and Set Free!
The Level is a symbol of fraternal equality recognizing the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. It is a tragic fact that there are many psychoneurotic individuals and others suffering from mental disorders, who are under malign psychic influence. Whatever treatment is given such individuals, including those who are now receiving institutional care, might be more successful by having the patients take up residence at an altitude of not less than five thousand feet. The electric shock and deep-freeze therapies used by several psychiatric institutions may achieve temporary success, but the price will be extracted later. Where a thought of fear constantly recurs and plunges one into anxiety or even despair against all the evidence of fact and reason, one is no longer normal but is the sufferer of a phobia. Sufferers from the manic phase of mental disorders are unstable in temperament and soon change their aims, policies, or goals, for none of these is clear enough. In our studies, the term “the unconscious” is not used in the narrow meaning of certain arbitrarily selected innate trends, a meaning given it by the psychoanalysts, but in a broadly scientific sense, as containing in potential latency all the possibilities gained in the conscious life and all the deposits of former Earth lives, and not only the personal possibilities, but also the super-personal or cosmic ones. It may be that the patients who are advised by their analysts to take up painting pictures as a form of therapy benefit by the concentration involved in the work, as well as by the relaxation of transferring their thoughts for a while from their own self-affairs. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
There are different ways of escape for those who have problems. Some of them, such as inebriation, contraband, barbiturates and other paraphernalia, prophylactics and pleasures of the flesh, are frankly acknowledged to be so; others are less easily recognized as such and these include art and religion. Professor Stefan de Schill, psychoanalyst: A compulsion neurosis, of which there are several kinds, is caused by a person (technically called “a compulsive”) feeling guilty over unclean thoughts. One’s dry washing of hands is an outer symbol of one’s attempt or wish to get rid of them. Or one’s feet swinging, fingers tapping the table, and ear-pulling are nervous habits which betray tension. (2) Any good standard work on psychiatry deals with these habit patterns, these neuroses, which annoy or irritate others. In the catatonic state, the whole force of the person is turned inward and concentrated upon an idea or a picture or a happening which may be of a purely mental kind. They may or may not be aware of what is happening around them but they are unable to leave the condition at will; it must pass away of its own accord. What has the person who is obsessed, insane, paranoic, or hysterical really done? One has fixed one’s attention on a particular thought, idea, belief, or mental picture and one will not let it go. If the thought contradicts reality, we call one insane. In changing thought for the better, one of the first activities is to cleanse it of undesirable attributes, to wash them away by beneficial energetic willed control, immediately reacting to their appearance with a very definite mental exclamation of “No!” A mind filled with negative qualities cannot possibly be a healthy mind and is certainly unsuitable for high spiritual flights. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
Neurotics talk about their quest but too often fail to apply its disciplinary principles, live in a perpetual muddle because they consider reasoning and planning to be anti-spiritual, and remain indecisive and unsettled because they are swaying from one emotion to another. They are easily excited, elated, or depressed. The fact is too often ignored that they have to go through a first stage in which they simply prepare themselves as grown-up human beings before trying higher flights. This is as much in their own interests as in society’s, for they will then be better able to deal with others and help themselves. Surely it is more prudent to take up an ideal which is not too far off, which may be an intermediate one that seems reachable and realizable. However, the must recognize this situation for what it is, practice a humble patience, and not try to put the burden of duty elsewhere. They are really looking for someone to nurse them out of their neurotic condition which, of course, mean a passage from emotional adolescence to adult responsibility. Too often the emotionally sick are excessively possessive and will no let go of someone. The neurotic turns minor situations into great crises. Dr. Freud thought that giving emotional support to distressed persons would probably come through forms of hypnosis or self-hypnosis. Today more and more use is made of methods of relaxation, imaging, suggestion, meditation, optimistic thinking, and kindred ways of countering stress or improving healing. “Let me hear what the Lord God is saying in me!” That was the cry of the Psalmist (85.8). However, just as piercing are my own humble cries, My Holy Friend. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
As the boy Samuel found out to his joy, and as the author of First Samuel noted, blessed is the soul that hears the Lord jabbering and chartering within (1 Samuel 3.9). Let me see if I can recall the particulars. Let us continue out chatsworth, O Lord. That is to say, let us pick up our conversation where it left off, at Chatsworth, our secret rendezvous, the little room within my soul that can be reached only inside my cell. Blessed are the ears that pick up the Godly Whispering, if I may borrow an expression from 1 Kings (19.12), and at the same time block out the Worldly Whisperer! Blessed are the ears that listen, not to Untruth mouthing off out in the street, but to Truth instructing inside the monastery! Blessed are the eyes that blink in distress at the World outside, but stare unblinkingly at the World inside! Blessed are those who get beyond the entrance of the interior life and strive daily to grasp what is hidden in Deepest Heaven! Blessed are those who make time for God of the ages and at the same time cut themselves off from all the distractions of the age! O my soul, take note of these beatitudes and bar the gates before your sensuality charges in! Only then can you hear what your Lord God is saying in you. “I am your salvation!” That is what the psalmist wanted the Lord to say (35.3). And that is what I, your Beloved Lord, am saying to you, My dear friend. I am your peace, I am your life, and what is more, I have many things to say to you. First, be on your best behaviour when we have our chats, and you will soon learn to enjoy them. Second, let the eely Transitoriness slip—grasp the eternal things only. Third, they are sweet, they are nice, all those petty yet pretty Temporalities, but they will drag you under the bushes every time. Fourth, all those creatures in the World, what help would they be if you were deserted by the Creator? #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
To sum up, dear friend of Mine, unclench your fists, and let everything you have fly out of your hands. Clean yourself up nicely and stay faithful to your Creator. Then you will begin to behold Beatitude. God’s power is immeasurable. He is the living mighty one. Now everything that is immeasurable is infinite. Therefore the power of God is infinite. Active power exists in God according to the measure in which He is actual. Now His existence is infinite, inasmuch as it is not limited by anything that receives it, as is clear from what has been said, when we discussed the infinity of the divine essence. Wherefore, it is necessary that active power in God should be infinite. For in every agent is it found that the more perfectly an agent has the form by which it acts the greater its power to act. For instance, the hotter a thing is, the greater the power has it to give heat; and it would have infinite power to give heat, were its own heat infinite. Whence, since divine essence, through which God acts, is infinite, as was shown above, it follows that His power likewise is infinite. The Philosopher is here speaking of an infinity in regard to matter not limited by any form; and such infinite belongs to quantity. However, the divine essence is otherwise, as was shown above; and consequently so also His power. It does not follow, therefore, that it is imperfect. The power of a univocal agent is wholly manifested in its effect. The generative power of humans, for example, is not able to do more than beget humans. However, the power of a non-univocal agent does not wholly manifest itself in the production of its effect: as, for example, the power of the sun does not wholly manifest itself in the production of an animal generated from putrefaction. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
Now it is clear that God is not a univocal agent. For nothing agrees with Him either in species or in genus, as was shown above. Whence it follows that His effect is always less than His power. It is not necessary, therefore, that the infinite power of God should be manifested so as to produce an infinite effect. Yet even if it were to produce no effect, the power of God would not be ineffectual; because a thing is ineffectual which is ordained towards an end to which it does not attain. However, the power of God is not ordered toward its effect as towards an end; rather, it is the end of the effect produced by it. The Philosopher (Phys. Viii, 79) proves that if a body had infinite power, it would cause a non-temporal movement. And one shows that the power of the mover of Heaven is infinite, because it can move in an infinite time. It remains, therefore, according to one’s reckoning, that the infinite power of a body, if such existed, would move without time; not, however, the power of an incorporeal mover. The reason of this is that one body moving another is an unvocal agent; wherefore it follows that the whole power of the agent is made known in its motion. Since then the greater the power of a moving body, the more quickly does it move; the necessary conclusion is that if its power were infinite, it would move beyond comparison, fasters, and this is to move without time. An incorporeal mover, however, is not a univocal agent; whence it is not necessary that the whole of its power should be manifested in motion, so as to move without time; and especially since it moves in accordance with the disposition of its will. The Overself takes over one’s identity not by obliterating it but by including it through its surrender. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
The glimpse state my come on in different ways. Sometimes it disinclines the human from moving. However, if one must attend to some matter which requires one to go across a room or out of the house, one’s feet will seem to move of themselves, but very, very slowly. Before the glimpse can occur, the aspirant may have to pass through a major crisis of one’s inner life, sometimes of one’s outer life too. The mental pressure and emotional strain may leave one feeling utterly confused, perhaps even utterly forlorn. However, its sudden culmination in the glimpse will replace darkness by light, chaos by direction, and blindness by sight. It comes unexpectedly in relaxed moments, when enhanced physical or mental ease suspends the ego’s activity. Caught by the grace, and drawn into its stillness, one may find the physical body reproducing the same conditions by becoming quite immobile. If not of the heart, it may give one a catch of breath when the stillness is first felt if it comes unexpectedly and abruptly. The Divine Power is without shape, is pure Spirit; so the worshipper who accepts or creates any concept of it, or who sees it in spectral celestial vision, oneself furnishes a vehicle for it. In the cause of the concept, it arises from association of ideas: in the case of the vision, by expectancy or familiarity. In both cases, mind speaks whatever language, assumes whatever aspect appeals to the human thinking about God! The idea, ideal person, inspired prophet, or human redeemer whose image is best established in a person’s mind by custom and familiarity is in most cases the channel used by the Overself when bestowing the glimpse. Little by little the stress dissolves, the clamant duties to do this or that fall away as the recognition that this is a benedictory visitation comes closer. The glimpse may move so gently into awareness that the beginning is hardly noticed. Or it may move in with a rush that overwhelms one. With it, knowledge, understanding, meaning, nobility, and divinity fill the aura around one at the moment. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
It is the awareness of a Presence, a felt but hushed benignity, which signals this kind of entry, this glimpse; but there are other kinds, more forceful yet not more superior. If the glimpse comes unexpectedly in most cases, it comes unaccountedly in others. In the beginning of what one really wants to happen, this feeling of an inward-drawing presence. This awareness is a new experience so it flickers on and off, unadjusted. Who knows? It may come to you so quietly, so devoid of sounds and expectation, that so many smile at what begins to happen to you. However, then it may come like a cloudburst. The glimpse may come in the depth of meditation where expectancy places it. However, it may also come at unexpected moments. Either gently and slowly the ego is taken over or violently and quickly the “I” is seized. This may happen during meditation or at any time when one is somewhat relaced, out of it. And then the long looked-for event will happen. A presence, nay a power, will suddenly make itself felt and control one out of oneself by an irresistible impetus moving like a tidal wave. It will come to one as quietly as the moon comes into the sky. The glimpses are not controllable. They come or go without consulting us. The glimpse may come only once or twice in a lifetime to one quester yet repeat itself twentyfold to another person. There are scattered moments of inner rapture underived from Earthly things, although they may be started off by Earthly things. The beauty of these glimpses is heightened by the delight of their unexpectedness. The coming of a glimpse is not predictable, although it may be encouraged by contact with Nature, appreciation of art, or practice of meditation. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
It is less predictable than the clearing of haze which so often hovers over the nearby Swiss lake. “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” said Jesus in this connection. There are moments when all one’s acutest thought-movement is stilled and one finds oneself bereft of power, forced into utter submission to the divine Overself. If it starts with a faint awareness of being caught in a still moment, it ends in a full experience. The glimpse shows up something of one’s higher identity. What is interesting also is that its advent is unpredictable, its form changeable: but it is always fascinating. I do not know the name of the ancient Chinese poet who write these lines but they refer to the glimpse: “For about thirty years I wandered, searching for the real Tao everywhere…but at this moment, seeing the peach blossoms, I am suddenly enlightened, and have no more doubts.” They come in their own mysterious seasons, stay with us in all their brief beauty, and depart as mysteriously and as elusively as they came. A man hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He begins to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels oneself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his own physical body…and sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a kind he has never encountered before—a being of light—appears before him…He is overwhelmed by intense feelings of joy, love, and peace. Despite his attitude, though, he somehow reunited with his physical body and lives. This passage from Raymond Moody’s best-selling book Life After Life is a composite near-death experience. Near-death experiences are more common than you might suspect. Several investigators each interviewed a hundred or more people who had come close to death through physical traumas such as cardiac arrest. In each study, 30 to 40 percent of such patients recalled a near-death experience. When George Gallup Jr. interviewed a national sample of Americans, 15 percent reported having experiences a close brush with death. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
One-third of these people (representing some 8 million people by Gallup’s estimate) reported an accompanying mystical experience. Some claimed to recall things said while they lay unconscious and near death. (However, then, anesthetized surgical patients in a “controlled coma” are sometimes not as out for the count as surgical teams might suppose. Occasionally, they can later recall operating-room conversation or obscure facts or words presented over headphones.) Mr. Moody’s description of the “complete” near-death experience sounds peculiarly like the psychiatric researcher Ronald Siegel’s description of the typical hallucinogenic experience. Both offer a replay of old memories, out-of-body sensations, and visions of tunnels or funnels and bright lights or beings of light. Patients who have experienced temporal-lobe seizures have also reported profound mystical experiences, as have solitary sailors and polar explorers while enduring monotony, isolation, and cold. Oxygen deprivation can produce such hallucinations. As oxygen deprivation turns off the brain’s inhibitory cells, neural activity increases in the visual cortex, notes Susan Blackmore. The result is a growing patch of light, which looks so much like what you would see while moving through a tunnel. Perhaps, then, the bored or stressed brain manufactures the near-death experience. The near-death experience, argued Siegel, is best understood as “hallucinatory activity of the brain.” It is like gazing out a window at dusk: we begin to see the reflected interior of the room as if it were outside, either because the light from outside is dimming (as in the near-death experience) or because the inside light is being amplified (as with barbiturates). #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
Some near-death investigators object. They say that those who have experienced both hallucinations and near-death phenomenon typically deny their similarity. Moreover, a near-death experience may change people in way that a drug trip does not. Those who have been “embraced by the light” may become kinder, more spiritual, more believing in life after death. And even if the near-death experience is hallucinatory, might it not also be genuinely mystical, an authentic and rare opportunity for spiritual insight? Skeptics reply that these effects stem from the death-related context of the experience. When near death, people Worldwide sometimes report intuitions of another World, though their content varies with the culture. Under stress, the brain draws on what it knows. Prayer cannot guarantee against a return of any troubles which it succeeds in eliminating when their cause still remains uneliminated. Although prayer will unquestionably contribute to purification of feelings and liberation from passions, it is not usually enough by itself to give more than temporary success; moreover it is beset with psychic dangers. Not all persons can undergo it safely. Yet it is worth consideration. As the purificatory regime begins to show its effect, there will be clearly visible or strongly pronounced evidence of the stirring up discharges of unpleasant impurities from the body through skin, bowels, urine, and mouth. Prayer throughout its course and an unfired regime only in its early stages, eliminates so much waste toxins that it may be like taking a diuretic. The cleansing effects of prayer follow only after the disturbing effects. For when the waste matter and excess mucous is stirred up (so that they can be carried away and thrown away), there results unpleasant physical symptoms and unhappy mental ones. However, all this vanishes within two or three days in the case of long fasts, or certainly as soon as eating is resumed in the case of short ones. The purifying process of an unfired prayer works in the same way as that of medication sometimes. It does not make a single effort with a single result but rather a series of efforts with a series of results. Hence the distressing elimination symptoms are periodic and recurring, being successive and deepening stages of cleansing. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
The inner urge in its favour is needed to sanction prayer; the instructive incentive must be felt before embarking on it. Otherwise, it will merely be forced concentration. Everyone, except the persons whose physical constitution unfits them for it, should mark their entry upon the path of purification starting with a short prayer. If one has never prayed before, it may be modified prayer during which one abstains from all negative information, comments, and words but takes well comedies, uplifting music, pleasant environments, or a safe vacation Two to four days is sufficiently log for this purpose. Otherwise the best time to pray is at the opening of the seasons of spring and summer. Spring marks the beginning of the ancient new year, he real new year, around March 21. The more an aspirant purifies oneself by using this simple method of physical praying, the more will one be able to obtain a corresponding mental purification. After the first year or two, one will find it possible to go on to a fuller mode of praying, during which nothing be praise of the Lord and optimistic thoughts should be communicated. Oliver Cowdery preached the firs sermon delivered by an elder of the new church on Sunday, April 11, 1830. Large numbers of people came to hear him and several were baptized that day. Joseph then went to Colesville, New York, held meetings here, and others were baptized. Some who believed wanted to come to church without being baptized, saying other minsters had already baptized them. A revelation was given on this subject in which the Lord said: This is a new and everlasting covenant; even that which was from the beginning. Wherefore, although a human should be baptized an hundred times, it availeth one nothing; for you can not enter in at the strait gate by the Law of Moses, neither by your dead works. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
For it is because of your dead works, have caused this last covenant, and this church to be built up uno me; even as in days of old. Wherefore, enter ye in at the gate, as I have commanded. Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum and Samuel Smith, Joseph Knight, and Joseph Smith, Sr., were instructed as to their duties in the church and were warned to be faithful in their work in a revelation given through Joseph Smith, Jr., in April. Two gems of wisdom were included in this revelation. The Lord said: Beware of pride, lest thou shouldst enter into temptation. You must take up your cross, in which you must pray vocally before the World, as well as in secret, and in your family, and among your friends, and in all places. In June Joseph received a revelation from God about things which had happened many hundreds of years before when Moses lived on the Earth. God told Joseph many things that happened to Moses, records of which had been lost or left out of the Bible when it was compiled. These helped Joseph understand more about the World and God’s purposes. The first conference of the church was held in June, 1830. The meeting was opened with prayer and singing, and the members partook of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Those who had been baptized recently were confirmed, and other were ordained to the priesthood. God’s Spirit was with these people in mighty power. Many saw wonderful visions and knew what God wanted them to do to help in the work. They were happy to know God needed them as he had the disciples who lived in Jesus’ day. The Lord blessed His people. Many of the sick were healed, and other miracles were performed. While they enjoyed these wonderful blessings, the new church began to have its troubles. Many people in the World did not believe the wonderful story told by Joseph and his friends. They did not believe the Lord would speak to people in that day or that Angels visited the Earth. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
The unbelievers hated the men who taught these things and gathered together in groups, or mobs, to express their feelings. They did everything they could think of to break up the meetings and keep God’s servants from preaching and baptizing. One Saturday the church people built a dam across a little stream of water in order that there might be water deep enough to baptize on the next day. The mob of unbelievers broke down the dam so there could be no baptism on Sunday. However, early Monday morning the men of the church rebuilt the dam and a number of the people were baptized before the mob realized what was happening. At a meeting that evening the new members were to be confirmed by the laying on of hands, but before the meeting began the mob had a constable arrest Joseph for preaching about the Book of Mormon. After talking with Joseph, the constable discovered that he was not the evil man the mob had said he was. The officer confided in Joseph that the mob planned to kill him, and suggested that Joseph go with him to escape trouble. When the mob saw that Joseph was escaping, they chased him and the constable. The horse was going as fast as it could when a wheel came off the wagon. Joseph was fearful lest the mob should catch up with them, but they hurriedly put the wheel back on the wagon and escaped. That night, while Joseph slept on a bed in the corner of the room where they found refuge, the constable slept on the floor with his feet against the door and a loaded gun at his side in order that one might protect his new friend. Joseph was brought into court the next day. Many false charges were made against him. His enemies brought people who swore that Joseph had done all sorts of evil things, but they were so hopelessly mixed up in their stories that the judge did not believe them. After several attempts to prove him guilty of something—just anything—he was released. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
No sooner was he released than he was again arrested and taken to another country to appear before another court. Here he was badly mistreated. Men spat on him and abused him. They gave him nothing to eat except crusts of bread and water. Again he was brought before the court and his enemies tried to find some fault with him, but they could not. He was declared “not guilty” and set free. Joseph regrated that the people he so much wanted to help had mistreated him. He prayed for strength. As he prayed he knew that no matter what men did to him he would have to go on preaching the wonderful message of Jesus. The Lord comforted Joseph by a revelation given in July, 1830, saying: Thou hast been delivered from all thine enemies, and thou hast been delivered from the power of Satan, and from darkness! Thou shalt continue in calling upon God in my name, and writing the things which shall be given thee by the Comforter, and expounding all scripters unto the church, and it shall be given thee, in the very moment, what thou shalt speak and write. Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for lo, I am with you, even unto the end of thy days. Perhaps Joseph thought how the apostles of Jesus’ day were persecuted. Perhaps he remembered that some of the men who made it possible for everyone to have the Bible gave their lives for the cause. Other humans who have tried to help God in ways that were new and different in all periods of the World’s history have suffered at the hands of those who did not want to see changes made. Joseph knew he had been called to help Jesus Christ restore His church again to Earth. He knew that even though he was to suffer as had other men before him, he would continue to serve the Lord in whatever work he was instructed to do. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
Instructions were given Joseph in this same revelation. Jesus Christ, the Lord, continued, saying: Attend to thy calling and thou shalt have wherewith to magnify thine office, and to expound all Scriptures. Thou shalt take no purse, nor scrip, neither staves, neither two coats, for the church shall give unto thee in the very hour what thou needest for food, and for raiment, and for shoes, for money, and for scrip. Yea, and also, all those whom thou hast ordained. And they shall do even according to his pattern. Amen. You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to le the soft soul of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mind. Meanwhile the World goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the World offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—over and over announcing your place in the family of things. May the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be acceptable unto Thee, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Thou who establishes peace in the Heaven, grant peace unto all America. Amen. May it be Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, to grant our portion in Thy Torah, and may the Temple be rebuilt in our day. There we will serve Thee with awe as in the days of old. As long as an enemy is judged solely by one’s appearance, one’s victory is assured. It the end, it may be our certainty that we are infallible, which may prove our downfall. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
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The Earth Remains Jagged and Broken Only to One Who Remains Jagged and Broken!
Faith is the bedrock of our religious foundation. However, what happens when it is shaken to its core? A thinker who suddenly solves a problem has usually experienced insight. Most insights are so rapid and clear that we wonder why we did not see the solution sooner. Insight is based on reorganizing a problem. This allows us to see problems in new ways and makes their solutions seem obvious. What, really, does it mean to have insight? Insight involves three abilities. The first is selective encoding, which refers to selecting information that is relevant to a problem, while ignoring distractions. Insight also relies on selective combination, or bringing together seemingly unrelated bits of useful information. A third source of insight is selective comparison. This is the ability to compare new problems with old information or with problems already solved. How do we avoid being swept along in the strong currents of the adversary’s wind and waves? Let us be grateful for the beautiful Ancient Ship America, for without it we are cast adrift, alone, and powerless, swept along without rudder or oar, swirling with strong currents of the adversary’s wind and waves. Hold tight, brothers and sisters, and sail on within the glorious ship, The Church of Jesus Christ, and we will reach our eternal destination. “Hard saying, all this stuff about Jesus!” wrote the Evangelist John in his Gospel (6.61). “For just once in your life forge yourself, lose yourself, leave yourself behind!” wrote Evangelist Matthew in his Gospel (16.24). “Go on, get on with it. Pick you that cross and follow Jesus.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Yes, har saying these, and harder still, they are not going to go away. Hardest of all will be the words of the Final Sentence, as it is recorded in Matthew (25.41). “Yes, you ended up as moral felons, malefactors and maledictors, and yes, you will depart from this place of judgment for the Eternal Bonfire, where you will spend the rest of your supernatural life!” These words, if I may echo the Psalmist (112.7), will go unheard by those who already follow the word of the Cross, as Paul put it so felicitously to the First Corinthians (1.18). When the Lord comes to pass the Final Judgment, the finger of God will draw the sign of a cross across the Heavenly Vault. A the Endtime all who had planked themselves down on their own crosses during their own lifetimes, at least according to Romans (8.29), will be able to approach Christ the Judge with good humour and happy tread. New Devouts facing the Cross for the first time often toss their victuals right on the spot. They see only death and destruction, theirs and their friends’, and they tend to faint dead away. But why? The Way of the Cross, or so the Great Bernard has it in his Second Sermon for the Feast of St. Andrew, is the most direct route to the Kingdom of Heaven. However, apparently, for a queasy Devout, that is not much of a reason. So let me list, in no particular order, a few of the good things that may be found in the Cross. Life in this World and life in the next. Sanctuary from enemies, natural as well as supernatural. Health of mind, joy of spirit, sweetness of breath. Sanctity at its most attractive. Hope of eternal life and faith in salvation. Do any of these make a difference in your attitude toward the Cross? They should. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
And that is why I am going to say to you now, in the words of the Evangelist Matthew (16.24), “Take up the cross, your cross, and begin to follow Jesus.” The destinations? According to Matthew (25.46), the Heavenly City. It is not that hard, you know. Jesus has already cut the path with His own cross. Just follow His steps, one by one, one after the other, and you are on your way. The cross He carried, according to the Evangelist John (19.17), was the one He died on for you. He wants you to carry on and, eventually, to die on your own cross as He did on His. If you die as He did, at least according to Romans (6.8), so you will rise as He did and enjoy the fruits of the Long Haul. The moral? If you share His ghastly, if you share His ghostly pain, you will share His glorious gain. Behold everything is the Cross! That is to say, the Way of the Cross and the daily task of dying to self. Whether you like it or not, that is the secret of life and genuine peace of mind and soul. Read the map, ask for directions, but you will not find a more smoothly surfaced, bandit-free road than the Way of the Cross. Put your own welfare first, and you will still find you have to suffer in this World, whether you wan to or not. Which is another way of saying, no matter which way you turn, you will always confront the Cross. What is the moral? Inevitably, pain will come to your limbs, and your soul will be stretched to the breaking point, but in the end you will be able to bear up pretty well under the stress. When God stops bothering you, it is your neighbour’s turn, and one will torment you till one gives you the hives. And the latter is usually worse than the former. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Try what remedies or potions you want, but your skill will continue to weep. You will just have to bear up until God sends blessed relief. Why is this so? God wants you to learn to do without, to endure tribulation without consolation. No one feels the Passion of Christ so deeply in one’s hear as the one who is committed oneself to the same holy path as one’s Fair Lord. What is the moral? The Cross is always waiting. No matter which way you turn in the dark, it is there. Run where you will. Flee toward a safe street, search for a safe house, and the Cross will follow. Blithely, it will be there to greet you when you arrive. What is the moral? Change your ways, give yourself a fresh coat of paint, convert yourself. Do all this, and you will find the Cross before it finds you. Internal Peace and Perpetual Crown—that is who you want to come, but when? They will come when they will come. In the meantime, as always, patience. Carry the Cross willingly, and it will carry you all the way to Sufferings’ End. Soon? You ask. Not on this Earth, I reply. Some reasonable advice. Trudge and grudge the Cross in your heart, and you will just make it heavier for yourself. Shake the Cross off, and I know you will try, but you cannot get rid of it. If by some extraordinary circumstance you are able to get that Cross off your back, guess what? You will stumble onto another—and indeed a heavier one—almost immediately. The moral? Flee the Cross, and it only gets worse. Sometimes novices are cunning. They think they can evade the Cross and still remain in good odor. How addled can one get! No other mortal has been able to live without cross and stress. Jesus Christ Himself, our Fair Lord, never spent an hour on this Earth without feeling the pain of His Passion. Why? Luke had an explanation. “It was necessary,” he said in his Gospel (24.46, 26), “that Christ suffer so that He could rise from the dead and enter into His glory.” Seems plain enough to me. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
So why are you new novices, so swift of mind and yet so slow of spirit, spending so much time devising evasive actions? Why are you not out there now on the Way of the Cross with the jubilarians? Christ had to travel it. So did we. And so do you! If the life of Christ means anything at all, it means the cross of martyrs. Yet you New Devout novices seek out a life of quiet amusement in the monastery. What a mistake! If you seek anything but suffering tribulations, what a colossal mistake! Why? you ask for the hundredth time. Because, as Job moaned for the hundredth time (14.1), all of life on this planet Earth is full of misery and wretchedness. That is to say, everything bears the sign of the Cross. The moral? If your cross gets heavier as you go along, know that you are making a modicum of spiritual progress. However, if, after some hours, it weighs about the same, look down. Why? You are standing still. Sometimes there is a soul who enjoys one’s multiple afflictions; that is to say, the more one suffers on one’s own cross, the lighter one’s load seems to become. Every ripple of pain he coverts to one’s spiritual advantage. As much as one’s flesh is torn with the thorn of affliction, one’s spirit is stiffened with grace. I have seen it happen—although I have never encouraged it—that an afflicted soul has received so much consolation from one’s suffering that one never wants the suffering to end; if anything, one wants it increased because it is from and for God. When I see this happen—and thank God it happens rarely—I realize that it is neither virtue nor virility that keeps one going; it is the grace of Christ. The moral? When you are repelled by the grubbiness of the Cross, you should swallow hard, then step up, grab hold with your bare hands, and embrace that holy piece of timber. Carrying the Cross—it is not the sort of thing a novice wants to get mixed up with. That, and some other unpleasantnesses. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
Embracing the Cross. Castigating the flesh. Subjecting oneself to servitude. Fleeing honours. Enduring disgrace with a smile. Despising oneself, and desiring to be despised by others. Suffering the tortures of the Damned. Desiring nothing that smacks of prosperity on this side of the Final Veil. Soberly reflect on yourself as others as see you—that should sober you up. You will quickly see that you are not a pretty sight. All these rigorous practices are beyond your natural powers. What should you do? Confide in the Lord, and He will send your reinforcements from Heaven. The result? You should be able to hold your ground against the assaults of the World and the Flesh. As for that Hound of Hell, that old war dog of a Devil, you really will not have to fear one as an enemy. Armed with the shield of faith and wearing the emblem of the Cross, you will still find one a threat, but no more so than a warm puppy shitting in your lap. Position yourself as a good and faithful servant of Jesus Christ. Wear the cross of your Lord proudly both for your own good and out of a love for the Crucifix as a symbol. Prepare yourself to withstand a whole range of adversities and inconveniences in this wretched campaign. Why all the fuss and bother? Because the miseries never end, at least in this life; you will find them wherever you lay your head. All these evils and pains you suffer for Christ there is really no Earthly remedy for. No matter how bitter the draft of the Lord tastes, down it without making a face, says Matthew (20.23); that is to say, if you want to be a friend of His and fight the good fight besides Him, says John (13.8). Accept what few consolations He has to offer under these battle conditions. What more do you have to do? It is enough to put yourself in harm’s way. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
Hold your ground against the repeated onslaughts of adversity and consider each attack a great honour. Why? Because “the present sufferings,” even if you were man enough to handle them without Christ’s help, “cannot be compared with the future glories”; at least that is what Paul said to the Romans (8.18). When you reach that point in the fray when you and Jesus are fighting as one, the bitter turns to sweet; victory is in the air; the Hellhound turns to a lap dog; it is Paradise right before your very eyes. However, when you lose sight of Jesus in the din and smoke of battle, then your wounds weigh heavily upon you, fear invades your vitals, and tribulation tracks you down. If you are where you are supposed to be on the battlefield—that is to say, where the suffering and the dying are—then the tide begins to turn. That is to say, amid the scourge of war, you will find a ray of inner peace. Even if you were rapt all the way to Third Heaven—Paul described the phenomenon in the Second Letter to the Corinthians (12.2)—you still would not be able o escape the wounds of war. “I have not told one yet,” Luke quoted Jesus as saying in Acts (9.16), “how much he will have to bear for My name’s sake.” Apparently, a great deal of suffering remains to be done. What is the moral? Suffering—hat is what a soldier of Christ signs up for; that, and to love Jesus and serve Him forever. Do you have the stuff to do as Acts suggests (5.41), that is to say, suffer for the name of Jesus? I do not really think so. However, fortunately for you, He thinks so. And so do the Saints; they think such behaviour would magnify the Lord. And so do your neighbour on Earth; they might just follow your good example. Why do I raise the question? Everyone, it seems, wants to slow the spiritual life down. Few, sad to say, want to endure the grunt and the grind of the Cross. What is the moral? By rights, considering the Goals of goals, you deserve to suffer a little for Jesus, so why do you squawk at the prospect? Many of your peers in the World are already straining their groins to achieve grubbier goals. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
If I may paraphrase and condense a line from Romans (6.8), as you die to self, so you will live to God—that is for certain. No one really likes being stiffed for Christ, but once that happens, one can begin to make a habit of it. Joining Christ in His suffering has some value not only in the next World, but also in this one. Which would you rather choose, to suffer nasty desolations for Christ or just to mess about with recreational consolations? I hope you choose the former. You are a little like Christ, but a lot like the Saints; in either instance, you are living reproach to the laggard. It is not the levities you enjoy that inch your forward in the spiritual life; it is the gravities you suffer. Is there anything better than suffering for the salvation of Humankind? If there were, Christ would have shown us by word or example. For veterans as well as recruits, therefore, Jesus makes it perfectly clear that the Cross must be carried. “If anyone wants to come after Me,” He was quoted as saying in the Gospels pf Matthew (16.24), Mark (8.34), and Luke (9.23), “let one lean into the cross and follow Me.” Yes, on Earth for the sake of Christ you gave up your pleasure, and now the Kingdom of Heaven awaits your pleasure. Power is twofold—namely, passive, which exists not at all in God; an active, which we must assign to Him in the highest degree. For it is manifest that everything, according as it is in act and is perfect, is the active principle of something: whereas everything is passive according as it is deficient and imperfect. God is pure act, simply and in all ways perfect, nor in Him does any imperfection find place. Whence it most fittingly belongs to Him to be an active principle, and in no way whatsoever to be passive. On the other hand, the notion of active principle is consistent with active power. For active power is the principle of acting upon something else; whereas passive power is the principle of being acted upon by something else. It remains, therefore, that in God there is active power in the highest degree. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
Active power is not contrary to act, but is founded upon it, for everything acts according as it is actual: but passive power is contrary to act; for a thing is passive according as it is potential. Whence this potentiality is not in God, but only active power. Whenever act is distinct from power, act must be nobler than power. However, God’s action is not distinct from His power, for both are His divine essence; neither is His existence distinct from His essence. Hence it does not follow that there should be anything in God nobler than His power. In creatures, power is the principle not only of action, but likewise of effect. Thus in God the idea of power is retained, inasmuch as it is the principle of an effect; not, however, as it is a principle of action, for this is the divine essence itself; except, perchance, after our manner of understanding, inasmuch as the divine essence, which pre-contains in itself all perfection that exists in created things, can be understood either under the notion of action, or under that of power; as also it is understood under the notion of “suppositum” possessing nature, and under that of nature. Accordingly the notion of power is retained in God in so far as it is the principle of an effect. Power is predicated of God not as something really distinct from His knowledge and will, but as differing from them logically; inasmuch as power implies a notion of a principle putting into execution what the will commands, and what knowledge directs, which three things in God are identified. Or we may say, that the knowledge or will of God, according as it is the effective principle, has the notion of power contained in it. Hence the consideration of the knowledge and will of God precedes the consideration of His power, as the cause precedes the operation and effect. The glimpse often comes unexpectedly and suddenly. If it comes while one is outdoors and walking a city street, one will automatically and consciously slow one’s pace and sometimes even come to a complete standstill. They may come quite abruptly, those intensely lived moments of true vision, those spasmodic glimpses of a beauty and truth above the vest which Earthly life offers. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
The mind then rests and there is a gap in its usual activities, a Void out of which these Heavenly experiences come to life as they overcome our ordinary feelings. The neurotic, whose habitual reaction is entirely impulsive and quite unreasoned, may yet be intellectual or cultured or artistic. However, in this matter of reaction one is too dangerously close to the animal level of evolution, with its instinctive passional response to stimulus. The day of the all-powerful centralized network that controls image production is waning. Indeed, a former president of NBC, charging the three main U.S. television networks with strategic “stupidity,” has predicted their share of the primetime viewing public will drop to 50 percent by the end of the decade. For there is a spiritual enlightenment and Third Wave communications media are subverting the dominance of the Second Wave media lords on a broad front with digital streaming and Internet materials. Video games are a hot time. Millions of Americans have discovered a passion for gadgets that turn them into the orthodox political or social analyst. Many are learning to play with the television set, to talk back to it, and to interact with it. In the process they are changing from passive receivers to message senders as well. They are manipulating the set rather than merely letting the set manipulate them. This new generation feels a suppressed rage at the news media. As a result, insatiable readers of disposable paperbacks and special-interest magazines and blogs are gulping huge amounts of information from their preferred source in short takes. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Instead of merely receiving our mental model of reality, we are now compelled to invent it continually reinvent it. This places an enormous burden on us. However, it also leads toward greater individuality, a de-massification of personality as well as culture. Some of us crack under the new pressure or withdraw into apathy or anger. Others emerge as well formed, continually growing, competent individuals able to operate, as it were, on a higher level. (In either case, whether the strain proves too great or not, the result is a far cry from the uniform, standardized, easily regimented robots foreseen by so many sociologists and science fiction writers of the Second Wave era.) Above all this, the de-massification of the civilization, which the media both reflects and intensifies, brings with it an enormous jump in the amount of information we all exchange with one another. And it is this increase that explains why we are becoming an “information society.” For the more diverse the civilization—the more differentiated its technology, energy forms, and people—the more information must flow between is constituent parts if the entirety is to hold together, particularly under the stress of high change. If it is to plan its own moves sensibly, an organization, for example, must be able to predict (more or less) how other organizations will respond to change. The more uniform we are, the less we need to know about each other in order to predict one another’s behaviour. As the people around us grow more individualized or de-massified, we need more information—signals and cues—to predict, even roughly, how they are going to behave toward us. And unless we can make such forecasts we cannot work or even live together. As a result, people and organizations continually crave more information and the entire system begins to pulse with higher and higher flows of data. By forcing up the amount of information needed for the social system to cohere, and the speeds at which it must be exchanged, the Third Wave shatters the framework of the obsolete, overloaded Second Wave info-sphere and constructs a new one to take its place. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
The 1950s and 1960 may have seen an emptying out of the cities, but this pattern was largely restricted to European American families. Numerous forms of institutional discrimination insured that racial segregation would persist. Real estate practices, lending policies of banks and savings and loan institutions, governmental policies, and the beliefs of individual homeowners all contributed to practices of legalized segregation in the south and de facto segregation in the south. As African Americans seeking employment moved to metropolitan areas, they were segregated within selected areas and neigbourhoods within the central cities. As European Americans departed the city, more previously European American neighbourhoods were opened to African American occupancy, but although the high-risk neighbourhoods expanded their borders, it remained a segregated area. Government policies also directly encouraged racially restrictive areas. In the suburbs the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) proposed racially restrictive protective covenants that stopped racial integration in order to prevent “declining property values.” The 1947 FHA manual stated that: If a mixture of user groups is founded to exist, it must be determined whether the mixture will render the neighbourhood less desirable to present and prospective occupants. Protective covenants are essential to sound development of proposed residential areas, since they regulate the use of the land and provide a basis for the development of harmonious, attractive neighbourhoods. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Blind faith can lead us toward the light or plunge us into eternal darkness. The elimination of these legal barriers made no difference to the lives of most African Americans. In 1948 the Supreme Court, in Shelley v. Kraemer, ruled that racially restrictive covenants were not unconstitutional, but that they were no longer enforceable through the courts. This had little practical impact, and until 1968 the FHA continued to accept written and unwritten restrictive covenants. The FHA and VA subsidization of mass suburbanization was almost exclusively for European Americans; there were only a handful of postwar suburban African American housing developments. Institutional housing discrimination remained. Realtors would not show suburban housing to African Americans, and homeowners would not sell to them. Additionally, even without explicit racially restrictive covenants, there were a host of exclusionary zoning practices. These included density controls on the number of units on a piece of land, minimum lot and housing sizes, housing codes, prohibitions of trailers, and other policies that were intended to exclude low-income populations in general and African Americans in particular. African Americans did not suburbanize during the 1950s and 1960s generally had as their destinations either long-standing working-class African American suburban communities or spillover communities that occurred when African American high-risk neighbourhoods expanded beyond city boundaries into aging inner-ring suburbs. Prior to the 1970s African American suburbanization occurred overwhelmingly within already African American communities. In effect, the United States of America had a dual housing market in which realtors and financial institutions steered African Americans into suburbs that were no longer desirable to European Americans. The dual housing market was used to contain and control African American suburbanization within less suitable areas. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Further, African Americans purchasing homes in African American suburbs paid a “race tax” that ranged from 10 percent to 25 percent. This was the additional amount African Americans had to pay for comparable housing over what European Americans would pay. Not surprisingly, under these disabilities embedded in the system, the rate of African American suburbanization increased only minimally in the immediate postwar period. As of 1960, census figures indicated that suburbs were 4.6 percent African American; for 1970s, the rate barely changed to 4.7 percent. Moreover, most African American suburbs were far from being the promised land. According to John R. Logan, “The average African American suburb is poor, fiscally stressed, and crime-ridden, compared to other suburbs.” The postwar years were difficult ones for the civil rights movements Civil rights activists of 1940s and 1950s were still battling against lynchings and trying to get African American children access to equal education. The movement did not have the luxury of concerning itself with opening suburban housing. Metropolitan African Americans overwhelmingly worked and lived in the central city, and urban African Americans had more practical survival concerns than seeking to more to affluent, lace curtain, white shoe law firm suburbs. Moreover, with European Americans leaving the cities, more and better-quality urban housing was opened for African Americans. For the average urban African American worker who lived every day with racial discrimination, what happened in the suburbs was more of a theoretical than a practical matter. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
It is said the great conflicts are not settled by words, but iron and blood. But what is we could revisit those situations, would we still make the same decisions? The civil rights focus on obtaining equal access to education culminated with the landmark 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ruling. A decade later followed the passage of these acts, the attention of the civil rights movements shifted from education and personal civil rights to a concern over housing discrimination. The 1968 Civil Rights Act, more commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, for the first time, threw the weight of the federal government behind equal housing access. While there is a general consensus that as a result of the act, the level of discrimination against women, poor European Americans, the disabled, and non-European Americans has declined, there is far less agreement that this had been accompanied by substantial reductions in racial segregation. The year 1968 also saw federal attempts to move poverty-level families into the private housing market. The Housing and Urban Development Act provided direct home ownership subsidies to low-income home buyers. Thus, as the 1970s dawned, the possibility of racial minorities achieving suburban home ownership for the first time became a real option. Before experience has shown or knowledge of the human heart had made humans foresee the inevitable abuses of such a constitution, it must have seemed all the better because those who were charged with watching over its preservation were themselves the ones who had the greatest interest in it. For since the magistracy and its rights were established exclusively on fundamental laws, were they to be destroyed, the magistracy would immediately cease to be legitimate; the people would no longer be bound to obey them. And since it was not the magistrate but the law that had constituted the essence of state, everyone would rightfully return to one’s natural liberty. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
The slightest attentive reflection on this point would confirm this by new reasons, and by the nature of the contract it would be seen that it could not be irrevocable. For were there no superior power that could guarantee the fidelity of the contacting parties or force them to fulfill their reciprocal commitments, the parties would remain sole judges in their own case, and each of them would always have the right to renounce the contract as soon as one should find that the other party violated the conditions of the contract, or as soon as the conditions should cease to suit one. It is on this principle that it appears the right to abdicate can be founded. Now to consider, as we are doing, only what is of human institution, if the magistrate, who has all the power in one’s hands and who appropriates to oneself all the advantages of the contract, nevertheless had the right to renounce the authority, a fortiori the populace, which pays for all the faults of the leaders, should have the right to renounce their dependence. However, the horrible dissensions, the infinite disorders that this dangerous power would necessarily bring it its wake, demonstrate more than anything else how much need human governments had for a basis more solid than reason alone, and how necessary it was for public tranquility that the divine will intervened to give to sovereign authority a sacred and inviolable character which took from the subjects the fatal right to dispose of it. If religion had brought about this for good humans, it would be enough to oblige them to cherish and adopt it, even with its abuses, since it spares even more blood than fanaticism causes to be shed. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
Psychic intuition examines some of the spiritual intuitions, including claims of communicating with immortal loved ones now living on the other side. Other claims also lend themselves to empirical scrutiny. One set of studies used hypnosis in efforts to “regress” people into intuitions of past lives. These experiments are akin to the “age regression” experiments that invite hypnotized adults to relive their childhood. Alas, age-regressed people act as they believe children would, but they typically miss the mark by outperforming real children of the specified age. How believable are claims of hypnotic regression to past lives? Can the 25 percent of Americans who believe in reincarnation find support in such reports? Were 36 percent of university students correct to agree, in a survey by Scott Brown and others, that certain people can be age-regressed to recall past lives? The late Nicholas Spanos reported that, when hypnotized, fantasy-proned people who believe in reincarnation will offer vivid details of “past lives.” However, they nearly always report being their same race—unless the researcher had informed them that different races are common. They often report being someone famous rather than one of the more numerous “nobodies.” Some contradict one another by claiming to have been the same person, such as King Henry VIII. Moreover, they typically do not know things that any person of that time would have known. One subject would “regressed” to a “previous life” as a Japanese fighter pilot in 1940 could not name the emperor of Japan and did not know that Japan was already at war. The bottom line: intuitions of reincarnation have collided against reality. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
The mother is the child’s first skin. In general, the mother is also the first person to participate in processing and organizing and integrating the child’s experiences, deeply influencing the meaning which events have for the child. At first, she does this by facilitating the selfobject state, in which the child’s needs and wishes are taken care of in such a way that the child has an experience of what it feels like to take care of yourself and be an organized person doing things for yourself. Good parenting is the foundation and center of this experience. The mother’s capacity to identity with her baby allows her to fulfil the function of life. Holding is the basis for what gradually becomes a self-experiencing being. The conscious ego is the ego of separation, of doing, of acting, and being acted upon…it must derive its strength from the deepest unconscious core of the self that has never lost the feeling of being-at-one-with the maternal source of its life. The establishment of a strong personality-structure depends in the first place on the extent of which there has been called “indwelling”: the close integration of the most primitive bodily self-regions (the homunculi) and later psychic developments. This integration forms a central core which is potentially dynamic since the biological drives are incorporated there, as are other needs with a bodily base. If a child’s needs are met when it expresses them, then the connections between need and consciousness of need and expression of need and need-satisfaction will be strengthened thereby. Self-imagery will then also be rooted in this central core, and the True Self will be involved in the earliest homunculus-based self-representations. From this point on, the self-image and the True Self can become influential in how later experiences shall be met and organized. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
The best chance of maintaining a personality capable of happiness, altruism, and energy comes from having a central core which has not had to split off unacceptable experiences, and which can therefore integrate distress without too much distortion or denial. Such personalities will be able to integrate later distresses without inevitably involving them in the distortions and denials which earlier splits would impose on experience. Lucky people—for them, later experiences connect straightforwardly with earlier ones, right back to the days when the very earliest body-imagery was being established. There is the central core, the center of True Self. People lucky in these respects must not be assumed to be lucky in every other way. We may imagine a range of people, all able to draw on the strength of a True-Self central core which organizes their experiences. At one extreme are those who had quite simple straightforward relations between their needs and their satisfactions. At the other extreme are those with much more stressful experiences, whose needs got satisfied only after long delays, or only in part, or after great distress. There is quite a range, from bliss to pain, of what people can bear without major distortion, or denial, or splitting. Of course, if there are many painful associations to this early core, quite a lot of good things would also have to happen if a person is to preserve some sense of inner goodness and not be overwhelmed by a sense of misery and worthlessness. It is also possible for a False Self to act as a core. A child may have been disappointed when its expression of what it wanted was not followed by fulfilment. Yet its needs were eventually me. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
The question is, to what extent were its needs met on its terms and to what extent was it subject to other people’s? On this criterion depend differences in the extent to which a person’s core hold True and False components. When the mother cannot adapt well enough, the infant gets seduced into a compliance, and a complaint False Self reacts to environmental demands and the infant seems to accept them. Through this False Self, the infant builds up a false set of relationships, and by means of introjections evens attains a show of being real so that the child may grow up to be just like mother, aunt, brother or whoever at the time dominates the scene. I swear the Earth surely be complete to one who shall be complete, the Earth remains jagged and broken only to one who remains broken and jagged. I swear there is no greatness or power that does not emulate those of the Earth, there can be no theory of any account unless it corroborate the theory of the Earth, no politics, song, religion, behavior, or what not, is of account, unless it compare with the amplitude of Earth, unless it face the exactness, vitality, impartiality, rectitude of the Earth. O Lord, please guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile, and to those who slander me, please let me give no heed. May my soul be humble and forgiving unto all. Open Thou my heart, O Lord unto Thy sacred Law, that Thy statues I may know and all Thy truths pursue. Please bring to naught designs of those who seek to do me ill; speedily defeat their aims and thwart their purposes for Thine own sake, for Thine own power, for Thy holiness and Law. That Thy loved ones be delivered, please answer us, O Lord, and save with Thy redeeming power. Despite everything we do, we may never free ourselves from the bonds of fate. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
CRESLEIGH HOMES
Lincoln, CA |
Coming Soom!
Residence One is the smallest of the floor plans offered at Cresleigh Havenwood but at 2,293 square feet, there is plenty of space in this single story home.
With three bedrooms, two bathrooms, den, great room, and dining room, there is enough room for all members of the family to have their corner of the house.
The two car garage boasts ample storage and a covered patio comes included in the home. The den can easily be transformed into a fourth bedroom if needed. https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/residence-one/
Randolph Harris II International Institute 