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I am Expecting a Beautiful Miracle
I want to life a full and abundant life that God has promised. As colors should be as good as nothing if there were no eyes to behold them, so is beauty nothing without the eyes of love to behold it. The hearts asks pleasure first, and then, excuse from pain. Beauty is an objective property of perception by the senses that demands a heightening of consciousness. We often speak of an autumn afternoon, of a landscape as beautiful. It is right of nature to work unwitting effects of wonder. The common quality in the word beautiful will be almost as remote and elusive as those of the word good. Beauty comes from love, and it maintains a glorious elasticity in its own ecstasies of hope, provided you do not crush it with a doubt of its own purity. A thing of beauty is an immortal joy. Its loveliness increases and is full of sweet dreams. Beauty grows upon us every time we see it; that leaves room for something to be found out to its advantage, made for our searching. An endless fountain of immortal drink, pouring unto us from the Heaven’s brink, beauty is God’s wine, with which he recompenses the souls that love him; he makes them drunk. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
Every life has its natural burden; it is therefore a blessing for mortals if they can lay all the weight of future days on the beginning of their career, in order to exempt thereby the evening of their journey from the pressure of sorrow. Beauty is a form of genius—is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the World, like Sunlight, or Springtime, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it. Human beliefs, like all other natural growths, elude the barriers of a system. Outside, the new moon shines bright all around, but the lonely lamp on my desk is dim. How I wish this small piece of paper would take to you my restless yearning. With you in my memory, there is no end to pleasure. Memorable events cherished in my hearts, sweet memories will last. Open your heart, and dreams comes out from it. Dusk brings your eyes and the Sun throws my missing away. Tears of departure comfort the pains in my heart. The best wishes you leave me turn to the foundation for my dream. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
You have got to believe a thing before you can put any heart in it. Benevolence is the duty of one who aspires to wisdom. Virtue, therefore, manifests itself in action. More explicitly, an action counts as virtuous, when one holds oneself in a stable equilibrium of the soul, in order to choose the action knowingly and for its own sake. This stable equilibrium of the soul is what constitutes character. Virtue is a mean. The mean is a state of clarification and apprehension in the midst of pleasures and pains that allows one to judge what seems most truly pleasant or painful. This active state of the soul is the condition in which all the powers of the soul are at work in concert. Achieving good character is a process of clearing away the obstacles that stand in the way of the full efficacy of the soul. Moral virtue is the only practical road to effective action. What the person of good character loves with right desire and things of as an end with right reason must first be perceived as beautiful. Yearning is more perpetual than the Universe, higher than the Heavenly palaces, and more beautiful than the realm of fantasy, for an anxious heart is more unfathomable than the ocean. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
It is impossible, indeed, to separate works from faith, just as it is impossible to separate heat and light from fire. The virtuous person sees truly and judges rightly. The brain is wider than the sky, for, put them side by side, the one the other will include with ease, and you beside. The brain is deeper than the sea, for, hold them, blue to blue, the one the other will absorb, as the Sun lights up the sky and the Moon brightens the darkness. The brain is just the weight of God since beautiful things appear as they truly are only to a person of good character. It is the middle ground between habits of acting and principles of action that the soul can allow right desire and right reason to take their appearance, as the direct and natural response of a free human being to the sight of the beautiful. Get over what wrongs have been done to you. Do not let bitter feelings settle in your foundation. Have the attitude that no one owes me anything and I have a great advantage. Know that God has equipped his people with beauty, harmony, and empowered us with love. All the forces of darkness cannot keep the people of God from their destiny. Beauty is a means of approaching God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
I am expecting a miracle. Beauty exists in the here and now and are the elements of symmetry, harmony, and definiteness. Beauty exists in nature or, the created order. For the believer, as humans are created in the image and likeness of God, we derive pleasure from the infinitely complex but ordered work of the Creator and turn to him in praise. God is beautiful of himself and the source of all beauty. Nothing can be added to or taken away from a perfect work of art. Beauty is intimately tied to knowledge, and we form our judgments according to what pleases us. As such, carnal people love carnal beauty and spiritual people love spiritual beauty. The divine brings out delight and praise. Beauty is the glow of the true and the good that shines forth from every ordered state of being. God is looking for people who have faith that he can see, a faith that is demonstrated. God, I pray that you light our hearts and light and let the Sun shine in our souls. Consume my life, my God, for it is yours. I seek not a long life, but a full one. God never belittles those who attempt to follow him, but he does chasten those who refuse to attempt anything from him. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
Unending Existence—Not Dead, but Sleeping
The word individual, as applied here on Earth, is a misuse of language. It is absurd to call that an individual which every hour divides. The Earthly stage of the human life is so small that there is room for but one of the persons of an individual upon it at one time. The past and future selves have to wait in the side scenes. Immortality is eternal life, the ability to live forever, a state of condition free from both death and decay. The Bible affirms that only God by nature had immortality. It is also a potential state for human beings, as long as they follow the divine laws. Human beings failed to obtain this state because of sin, the wages of sin is death, but immortality is given to righteous persons. To make everlasting life available is at the heart of Jesus’ mission: “I have come that they may have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” John 10.10. Some people believe that death will not be our terminus, but the beginning of a new journey. However, scientists are trying to achieve life extension, retroactive immortality, and regeneration of the body that allows it to heal any injuries, even fatal ones, preventing one from dying. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Some scientists believe that in the near future, because of ongoing research being done into repairing the effects of ageing, we can produce preventative treatments that would allow humans to live as long as 1,000 years. Health insurance provides important financial protection in case you have a serious accident or sickness. Though great progress has been made in medicine, current evidence-based and palliative treatments are increasingly unable to keep pace with patients’ needs, especially given our aging population, and health insurance is very expensive. There are few effective ways to treat the root causes of many diseases, injuries, and congenital conditions. In many cases, doctors and nurses are only able to manage patients’ symptoms using medications or devices. However, we should not simply be looking at treating sickness and injuries, but do more research on preventing ageing. Ageing is the World’s most important problem. The human body is a machine and it accumulates damages throughout life as a consequence of normal operation. The damage makes our bodies frail, and contribute to the rising degradation and ill-health. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Regenerative medicine is a life changing area of medicine with potential to fully heal damaged tissues and organs, offering solutions and promise for people who have conditions that are currently beyond repair. If we are able to apply regenerative medicines to repair the damage of aging at the level where it occurs, we can remove, restore, replace, or render harmless the cellular and molecular damage that has accumulated in our body, organs, and mind with time. Regenerative medicine is not new. In the 1970s, liver transplants were not yet possible, but now they are, along with other solid-organ transplants and bone marrow transplants. Rejuvenation is the ability to increase the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Much like after you cut your skin, it heals within a few days, the goal is to get the specialized cells constituting the heart, lungs, nerves, and other organs to remodel and possess the same ability to self-heal. Stem cells are a key component of regenerative medicine as they have the ability to develop through a process called differentiation into many different types of cells, such as skin cells, brain cells, lung cells, and could possible help to heal the body. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
The unfolding of God’s plan is revealed in stages. The resurrection of the dead is listed in Scripture as one of the basic doctrines of true Christianity. Someday, everyone who has ever lived will come to life again. Self-resurrection is the ability to completely heal fatal injuries and resurrect upon death if they body is not entirely destroyed. Through regenerative medicine, organ transplants would no longer be required. Your own cells, in the future, could be collected and reprogramed in a laboratory, then delivered back to your body to treat your disease. A lot of people may be wondering will they also look younger if stem cell treatment can be used to regenerate their organs and cure illnesses? Yes. The skin is your largest organ, so when scientists are able to heal or cure you through stem cell treatments, it will also regenerate your skin to keep it youthful. Regenerative medicine is working in vivo and in vito procedures. In vivo means studies and trails performed inside the living body in order to stimulate previously irreparable organs to heal themselves. In vito treatments are applied to the body through implantation of a therapy studied inside the laboratory. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
By reconstructing the composition of the living machinery of our tissues and organs, these rejuvenation biotechnologies will restore the normal functioning of the body’s cells and essential biomolecules, retuning aging tissues to health and bringing back the body’s youthful vigor, and restoring normal function. A small percentage of people all over the World have a condition called Spina Bifida, which is a birth defect. Some patients must manually empty their bladder by compressing it with their hands from the exterior,which will eventually case the bladder to harden and basically die. And while some people may think it is funny, it is not. Imagine if you could not urinate at will, or even regulate the buildup of urine, the backup of urine into the kidneys could cause a ripping infection, creating life-threatening damage, and it could also cause your bladder to fill until it ruptures. However, a series of child and teenage patients have received urinary bladders grown from their own cells. The laboratory-grown organ transplant placed into a human was all made possible by regenerative medicine. This powerful new technology is being used to create new body parts from a patient’s own cells and tissues, and the success of these efforts will eliminate the concept of tissues rejection from transplants. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Regenerative medicine has already successfully grown heart valves from human cells. In the past, heart valves were taken from the heart of pigs and transplanted into humans. Well, with new technology, the need to test on animals and prematurely end the life of an animal to extend a human life is no longer required. With the use of biomaterials to create a mold, scientists engineer the cells to grow in the form of a heart valve. Once mastered in clinical trials, any transplant patient will be able to receive a heart valve that is essentially their own. And with the advancement of regenerative medicine, we will be able to repair these valves without even having to perform surgery. Stem cells can even be used to treat leukemia. The umbilical cord, usually discarded at birth, holds blood vessels that contain about a half cup of blood that belongs to a newborn child. That blood contains many stem cells and our body uses stem cells as one way of repairing itself. By collecting and storing that blood, there is a possibility that those cells might be used in the future to help your body remain healthy. Regenerative medicine has the potential to cure other conditions like heart disease, valvular disease, and diabetes, which will save lives and billions of dollars. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Regenerative medicine has the potential to heal or replace tissues and organs damaged by age, disease, or trauma, as well as to normalize congenital defects. Regenerative medicine can abet maladies occurring across a wide array of organ systems and context, including dermal wounds, cardiovascular disease and traumas, treatment for certain types of cancer, and more. There will no longer be a need to wait for an organ donor and possibly face severe immune complications with regenerative medicine. The human body will have an innate healing and advanced repair mechanisms that will extend life, keep us youthful and healthy and lower medical costs. And with the cost of living being so high, people do need more time to generate wealth and enjoy life. We are essentially composite beings. Besides the more familiar corporeal element, the body, there is also something else, different in kind—the incorporeal soul. For the duration of a life the soul is somehow attached to—incorporated into or imprisoned in—its body. Perhaps the substance of the soul is stem cells. Essentially, in the future self-resurrection will be possible. “There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away,” Revelation 21.4. RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Surprise is an Emotion that Enfeebles Not Invigorates
There is no bent of heart or turn of thought which any person holds by virtue of an unalterable nature or will. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that one may know what is the hope of one’s calling, and what the riches of the glory of one’s inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us who believe, according to the omnipotence of his mighty energy, which he wrought in Christ, when God raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places, far above all principality, and regency, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this World, but also that which is to come. We are at once the creatures and the arbiters of destiny. Redemption is the process of grace rising above sin, the conscious choosing of the better options. When faith and reason work harmoniously, the providence of quantum grace is sufficient to redeem the deficits of original sin. It symbolizes the search for healing and restorations of body and soul, enlightenment, repose, and salvation. The path is the way back to purity and innocence. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
God conceived of things and created them, and hence they were thought of as existing in the mind of God. Perhaps the marker of adulthood is the ability to create an effective and independent life. Whereas children and adolescents are generally supported by parents, adults must make their own living and must start their own families. Furthermore, the needs of adults are different from those of younger persons. Although the timing of the major life events that occur in early and middle adulthood vary substantially across individuals, they nevertheless tend to follow a general sequence, known as a social clock. The social clock refers to the culturally preferred “right time” for major life events, such as moving out of the childhood house, getting married, having children. People who do not appear to be following the social clock (e.g. young adults who still live with their parents, individuals who never marry, and couples who choose not to have children) may be seen as unusual or deviant, and they may be stigmatized by others. A person born blind being made to see, would at first, have no idea of distance by sight; the Sun and stars, the remotest objects as well as the hearer, would all seem to be in one’s eye, or rather in one’s mind. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
The object intromitted by sight, would seem to one (as in truth they are) no other than a new set of thoughts or sensation, each whereof is as near to one as the perceptions of pain or pleasure, or the most inward passions of the soul. This thing we call existence; is not a something which has its foundation far down below in the dark, and its branches stretching out into the immensity above, which we among the branches cannot see? Not a change jumble: a living thing, a One. The thought gives us intense satisfaction, we cannot tell why. Despite the challenges of early and middle adulthood, the majority of middle-aged adults are not unhappy. These years are often very satisfying, as families have been established, careers have been entered into, and some percentage of life goals has been realized. Even the most extreme ancient skeptics admitted that we must live; and since reason cannot tell us how to live, they recommended that we follow nature, under which appearances of things, and the traditions of one’s city. Civilization is the beginning and end of social development and political organizations. Human beings are born naturally sociable. Society rises through a person’s ability to cooperate with other beings for the satisfaction of their natural needs. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Country people or nomads in primitive or tribal societies seek the satisfaction of their elementary need for food; town’s people in urban and more complex societies pursue higher economic, intellectual, and spiritual needs. Pain has an element of blank; it cannot recollect when it began, or if there were a day when it was not. It has no future itself, it has infinite realms containing, it is past, enlightened to perceive new periods of pain. It is impossible even to think without a mental picture. The effects of illusion point beyond themselves to the causal and psychological processes that underlie perception and constitute its most serious theoretical problem. When someone imagines the face of an absent friend, one is supposing that the friend is present to the individual, which ex hypothesi the friend is not. A person who forgets that one is imagining, that one’s thought is supposal, not fact, is creating their own reality. There is no mistaking the expression of a death-wound on the human countenance, when the effect is direct and not remote. Nature appears to admonish the victim of one’s fate. Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the sense but the soul. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
To understand the nature of consciousness makes enlightenment possible. This essentially entails the realization of the difference between duality and nonduality and how to transcend the realm of duality. Duality is the product of perception, which itself is limited. Intellection and perception can be refined and perfected to the level of genius. Qualities of experience which are of crucial importance to human life, such as love, inspiration, respect, joy, happiness, peace, satisfaction, completion, and fulfillment, have been relegated by science to emotions that feel good, but are questionable realities. The visible World is therefore the World of effects and the interactions of forces. It is out of inspiration and volition that actions arise by assent of the will, which has the capacity to activate possibilities or options. We have great opportunities at the university of knowing human nature from books, the calm result of the wise people’s wisdom. Is the soul a shadow seated in the house of sin? Or is the body really in the soul? The separation of spirit from matter is a mystery, and the union of spirit with matter is a mystery also. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
One Wants His Heart and the Other Wants His Soul
If the great Sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in Heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By Heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this World, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the weapon. Some men are cowards and run from their responsibilities. Others sit back and complain. However, you have no right to dispose of your future destiny whilst there is the least probable chance you may be reclaimed. While weak souls are crushed by fortune, the brave mind makes the fickle deity afraid of it. It is not what is done to us, but what is made of us, that wrongs us. No man can be really injured but by what modifies himself. Existence is a great pot, and the old Fate who stirs it round cares nothing what rises to the top and what goes down, and laughs when the bubbles burst. The privilege of free action belongs to no mortal man. In doing and suffering, we play but the part allotted by Destiny. Amidst his most swift and easy pace the rider must guard himself against a fall, and it is when prosperity is at the highest that our prudence should be awake and vigilant to prevent misfortune. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
The freedom crucial to human existence is untenable if the individual is dependent for his existence upon any other being. Look far into eternity, with those bright eyes, and tell me what you see. Being the son and the grandson of veterans gives me a sense of honor. They eyes are the casements at which the heart generally looks out. Knowing that I am a descendant of two generations of men who essentially gave their lives for our country and our freedom provides me with a sense of pride that some may not be able to understand. My family did not sit around protesting nor complaining, they served their country. Real men, who stood up for what they believe in, while others sit around crying and complaining about why they deserve hand outs and freebies. My father and grandfather provided me with hope, Heaven’s own gift to struggling mortals; pervading, like some subtle essence from the skies. People may heckle me because my father served in the army and gave his life for his country, and because of the price he paid, I live with an eternal reminder of his service. However, I have the honor of knowing my father is a real man. At one time, I regretted the fact that he died, and I miss him, but to me, he is a titian. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
When enough good deeds are accumulated to constitute a high virtue, spiritual enlightenment naturally arrives and the heart of the warrior is there at hand. I see my father as a one hundred foot all marble statue, a God, and will always remember his smile, kind heart, and the fact that he was always happy and a nice guy. What we know as nature and evolution is the product of the various kinds of self-active beings, moved ultimately by the final causes of their inner beings toward a common goal. The employment and harnessing of Heaven for the advancement of human welfare. It feels good to come from a line of warriors. Reality is a republic of self-active, self-defining spirits, each moving toward the Ideal exemplified by God, changelessly attentive to every other mind, rationally sympathetic with all experiences, and bent on its spiritual success. The exaltation of freedom should be exercised in nature and society. All the material and spiritual goods to which man can aspire (from daily nourishment to truth) derive from the order to which he belongs, the hierarchies which are the interpreters and custodians of the cosmic order. In exalting freedom, man exalts his capacity to form his World, to vary it, ad to better it absolutely. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
There are limitations through your own decision and choice. You shall determine your own nature without constraint from any barrier, by means of the freedom to whose power you have been entrusted with. God has placed us at the center of the World so that from that pint one might see better what is in the World. We have been made neither Heavenly nor Earthly, neither mortal nor immortal so that, like a free and sovereign artificer, we might mold and fashion ourselves into the form one oneself shall have chosen. Wisdom confers on human beings’ powers which prefect one’s nature. The only thing left is for hecklers to swallow their insults in silence. Mockers are derided as careless and thoughtless persons who become comical because the truth escapes their lips automatically, as it were. The humanists exalted the soul of man for its powers of freedom. Humans are a part of nature—that nature is our realm, the features which tie us to nature (our bodies, our needs, our sensations) are essential to us to the point that we cannot abstract from them or ignore them. If the best people do not draw great prizes in life, we know it has been so settled by the Ordainer of the lottery. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The life of Christ is not followed only by those who belong to religious orders but by all those, inside and outside of clerical circles, dedicate their activities to God. Moral philosophy is our territory. Those who betray it, and give themselves over to physics, seem in a way to occupy themselves with foreign affairs and to neglect their own. Never give your neighbor you last. The value of money is an indispensable item for the well-being of the individual and for the life of the society, and those who have a contempt for money are expressing a manifestation of the medieval asceticism which is based on ignorance of human nature. In the interesting of defending the value and freedom of humans draws us into discussion of the traditional problems of God and providence and of the soul, its immortality, and its freedom—these discussions frequently lead us to recognize the basis of the correspondence between the Heavenly and Earthly city. The Heavenly city is the norm or the ideal of man’s civil life; and precisely because it is such, its recognition means the commitment of humans to realize, as much as possible, its characteristic in the Earthly city. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
In our own hearts, we mould the whole World’s hereafters; and in our own hearts, we fashion our own Gods. The Good Book (Christian Bible) is not only the proclamation of superterrestrial happiness but also of Earthly happiness. Religion is the confidence in the value of humans being able to work, and in the success of this work, and in the reward that we will find in the future life. Those which are the forces of the outer World are as shadows to the power we have created within us. The fundamental function of religion is to support people in the work of civil life, in political work and activity. The inalienable value of the individual—the goal is the highest and most proportional development of our powers to a complete and consistent whole. Reason must guide this development, as true knowledge of humanity depends on the cultivation not of pure analytical reason, but of deep-lying intuitive faculties. Christianity simply brings to fulfillment the wisdom that ancient philosophy has elaborated, because reason, which has supported and guided this philosophy, is the same which became incarnate in the Word. Do your children think highly of you? The broadening of our existence and of our knowledge the soul is infinitely precious and possess information of the manifold intellectual, sentient, and moral human powers. Although we may suffer several material setbacks in the course of our travels, it is actually a driving faculty, as we make spiritual advance and will triumph over adversity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
In Youth, as at the Opera, Everything Seems Possible
People who are of a well-bred culture cannot defend themselves in the same manner as a common, ill-bred person would do. They have to try to conceal any problems and pretend all is well, which could be why some of them end up dead. Since our individual childhood and the childhood of human civilization, our hostile impulses towards our fellow-beings have been subjected to the same restrictions and the same progressive repressions as our sexual strivings. We have not yet progressed so far as to love our enemies, or to extend to them our left cheek after we are smitten on the right. Furthermore, all moral codes about the subjection of active hatred bear even today the clearest indications that they were originally meant for a small community of clansmen. As we all may consider ourselves members of some nation, we permit ourselves for the most part to forget these restrictions in matters touching international people. America is considered the best country in the World, but the masses of immigrants are making it less of a dream World for the people who have been in the country for several generations. Within our own circles we have nevertheless made progress in the mastery of hostile emotions. Nowadays one says, “I beg your pardon,” formerly one had recourse to a cuff on the ear. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
Violent hostility, no longer tolerated by the law, has been replaced by verbal invectives, and the better understanding of the concatenation of human emotion robs us, through its consequential “Tout comprendre, c’est tout pardoner,” more and more of the capacity to become angry at our fellow human who is in our way. The gorgeous Martha Sharp Crawford von Bulow (1 September 1932- 6 December 2008), was an American heiress and socialite, she was worth over $75 million. She married Claus von Bulow, who ran with the elite, but was not rich. He lived off her money and after a year of marriage had started having an affair and allegedly wanted out of the marriage, after falling in love with Dark Shadows soap opera actress, the raven-haired beauty Alexandra Isles. So, Claus needed money and allegedly injected his wife with insulin and she went into a coma, but recovered 8 hours later. Claus really wanted the 14 million he was to inherit upon the death of this wife. She was rich, they lived in real mansions, the kind that are 22,000 square feet, with 18th century paintings, Waterford crystal chandeliers, and antique furniture. The second time his wife went into an insulin induced coma, he was charged with murder. Martha had no history of diabetes. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Claus von Bulow was convicted of attempting Martha’s murder by insulin overdose, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. A second trial found him not guilty. Martha lived for 28 years in a persistent vegetative state until her death in a New York nursing him on 6 December 2008. When on trial as a witness, Alexandra Isles was asked if she still loved Claus and she replied, “I don’t know?” The lawyer went on to ask her was she aware of what was going on, she replied, “I had some idea, but I was in love. Have you ever been in love? It is hard to believe the person you love is a killer.” The relationship ended shortly after. Then Claus started dating another woman, and they moved into Martha’s 5th avenue apartment and she wore Martha’s jewelry and clothes and lived like royalty. Claus could have got a job, but he wanted to life like the rich and famous. Society, whose interest is to safeguard personal safety, prevents us from expressing our hostile feelings in action; and hence, as in sexual aggression, there has developed a new technique of invectives, the aim of which is to enlist this third person against our enemy. By belittling and humbling our enemy, by scorning and ridiculing the individual, we directly obtain the pleasure of that person’s defeat by the laughter of the third person, the inactive spectator. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
We have all much to learn: let us try and teach one another as kindly as we can. A weaver who finds hard words in his hymn-book knows nothing of abstractions; as the little child knows nothing of parental love, but only knows one face and one lap towards which it stretches its arms for refuge and nurture. Learning is perhaps the most important human capacity. Were we to believe nothing but what we can comprehend, every person upon the face of the Earth would be an atheist. Learning allows us to create effective lives by being able to respond to changes. We learn to avoid touching hot stoves, to find our back to the house from school, and remember which people have helped us in the past and which people have been unkind. Without the ability to learn from our experiences, our lives would be remarkably dangerous and inefficient. To find right remedies and right methods, here is the great function of knowledge. The principles of learning can also be used to explain a wide variety of social interactions, including social dilemmas in which people make important, and often selfish, decisions about how to behave by calculating the costs and benefits of the outcomes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
Youth is a good subject for a physician to work upon. Thoughts, opinions, knowledge, are only a sensibility to facts and ideas. Who can prove that the enjoyment of the moment also is the purpose of the existence of that moment? Conditioning is evolutionarily beneficial because it allows organisms to develop expectations that help them prepare for both good and bad events. The brain is self-organizing and self-repairing, but computers are not. If a person suffers a stroke, neural plasticity will help him or her to recover. If we drop our laptop and it breaks, it cannot fix itself. The brain is significantly bigger than any current computer. The brain is estimated to have 25,000,000,000,000,000 (25 million billion) interactions among axons, dendrites, neurons, and neurotransmitters, and that does not include the approximately 1 trillion glial cells that may also be important for information processing and memory. Our memories allow us to do relatively simple things, such as remembering where we parked our car or the name of the current president of the United States of America, but also allow us to form complex memories, such as how to fly a plane or write a computer program. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Moreover, our memories define us as individual—they are our experiences, our relationships, our successes, and our failures. Without our memories, we would not have a life. A cause is a great abstraction, and fit only for students; embodied in a party, it stirs people to action; but place at the head of that party a leader who can inspire enthusiasm, one commands the World. However, our memories are far from perfect. The errors that we make are due to the fact that our memories are not simply recording devices that input, store, and retrieve the World around us. Rather, we actively process and interpret information as we remember and recollect it, and these cognitive processes influence what we remember and how we remember it. Because memories are constructed, not recorded, when we remember events we do not reproduce exact replicas of those events. The cognitive processes lead us to distort our judgments or misremember information. Prior knowledge can influence our memory. People who are long before they see a thing, when once it strikes them, see it in the strongest light. Knowledge is one of the means of pleasure, as is confessed by the natural desire which every mind feels of increasing its ideas. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Open your heart to the influence of the light which from time to time breaks in upon you. You always learn something new from educated people. It is the iron rule in our day to require an object and purpose in life. We go all wrong, by too strenuous a resolution to go all right. Everything has a moral, if only you can find it. Some people actually look forward to aging because with age comes knowledge and experience, which generally help one enjoy life more. Also, in real-life working conditions, antiquated workers are apparently less vulnerable from lack of sleep. However, disabilities such as loss of vision, hearing or taste produce greater restrictions in performance. These restrictions are even more true when a person gets older, because information-processing resources generally reduce with age. Unraveling the mysteries of the brain begins with neurons. A single neuron is not very smart. Yet, when neurons join in vast networks, they produce the magic of intelligence and consciousness. Stem cells in the brain could be the key to extending life and slowing ageing. These cells—which are located in the hypothalamus, a kind of master control center for emotion and many basic motives. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Much of the knowledge we seek, already we have in our cores. Yet so simple it is, we despite it; so bold, we fear it. The hypothalamus affects behaviors as diverse as sex, rage, temperature control, hormone release, eating, drinking, sleep, walking, and emotion. The hypothalamus can reinvigorate declining brain functions and muscle strength in middle-aged test subjects. The hypothalamus is a critical juncture that connects with many areas of the cortex and subcortex. As such, it acts as a final path for many kinds of behavior leaving the brain. You might think of the hypothalamus as the last area where many behaviors are organized or decided on. Previous studies have suggested that the hypothalamus is involved in ageing, but the latest research shows that stem cells in this region can slow the process by ten to fifteen percent. That makes sense, because the hypothalamus is involved in many bodily function, including inflammation and appetite. A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study. Nothing like preserving in adulthood the fraternal familiarities of youth. It proves the heart a rosy gem to the last. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
In the study, it was discovered that stem cells in the hypothalamus disappear as the test subjects grow older. When the researcher injected them with viruses that destroy these cells, the subjects seemed to grow older faster, experiencing declines in memory, muscle strength, endurance, and coordination. They also died sooner than untreated subjects of the same age. Next, the team injected stem cells taken from the hypothalamic of newborn test subjects into the brains of middle-aged test subjects. After four months, these individuals had better cognitive and muscular function than untreated subjects of the same age. They also lived ten to fifteen percent longer, on average. The researcher found that these stem cells release molecules called microRNAs, which help to regulate gene expression, into the cerebrospinal fluid. When the team injected these microRNAs into the brains of middle-aged mice, they found that the molecules slowed cognitive decline and muscle degeneration. These cells may have a role in regulating the neurons that release a hormone called GnRH, which is secreted by the hypothalamus and is associated with ageing. It is possible that the microRNAs from the cells can pass into the bloodstream, which would carry the, throughout the body. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
All of us, in our very bodies, outlive our own selves. Anti-ageing therapies targeting the hypothalamus would need to be administered in the middle age, before a person’s muscles and metabolism have degenerated beyond a point that could be reversed. Therapy could extend a human lifespan, but slowing the effects of ageing is the more important goal. Living a longer and healthy life is important. In sin, like sorrow, merely an element of human education, through which we struggle to a higher and purer state than we could otherwise have attained? Did Adam fall, that we might ultimately rise to a far loftier paradise than his? The older I get, the more empowered I feel. Each life experience brings us a more comprehensive perspective, and greater clarity about people, life, and resolution. We are able to more efficiently navigate life’s challenges, and use this knowledge to help others. God is transcendent as well as immanent. And as a consequence, not an absorption into the Godhead, but union of love and will in which the distinction between the Creator and the creature is permanently retained. The gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is remembered. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Enlightening Misery—God is in Control of the Storm!
To lose one’s faith surpasses the loss of an estate, because estates can be replenished—faith cannot. Inherited with life, belief but once can be annihilated in a single clause, and begins beggary. One difficulty that people face when trying to improve their happiness is that they may not always know what will make them happy. As one example, many of us think that if we just had more money we would be happier. While it is true that we do need money to afford food and adequate shelter for ourselves and our families, after this minimum level of wealth is reached, more money does not generally buy more happiness. You do not really pay for things with money. You pay for them with time. In five years, I will have put away enough to buy that Victorian mansion I want and then I will slow down. That means the house will cost me five years—one-twelfth of my adult life. Translate the dollar value of the house, car, or anything else into time, and then see if it is still worth it. The phrase spending your time is not a metaphor. It is how life works. What do you spend most of your time doing? #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
Are you a happy person? Can you think of ways to increase you good emotions? Even though income and material success has improved dramatically in many countries over the past decades, happiness has not. Despite tremendous economic growth around the World from 1946 to 2017, there is no increase in reports of well-being by the citizens of the World. Americans today have about three times the buying power they had in the 1950s, and yet overall happiness has not increased. The problem seems to be that we never seem to have enough money to make us “really” happy. People who earn $30,000.00 USD a year feel that they would be happier if they made $50,000.00 USD each year. In addition, people who earn $100,000.00 a year reported that they would need $250,000.00 annually to make them happy. Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed. To comprehend a nectar requires sorest need. Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. A door just opened on street—I, lost, was passing by—lost doubly, but by contrast most, enlightening misery. We all know that God opens door (provides us with opportunities). We have seen God give us favor, good opportunities, and promotions. That is the power of God opening the doors, but the same God who opens doors will close the doors. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
God can see the comprehensive view of your life, he can see all of time in one eternal glance. God knows where every opportunity, choice, decision, and consequence is leading. He knows when things are not right for us. All reason knows is that God is the eternal, ever-present, and creative source of anything that does (or can) exist. Creation and preservation are identical. Somethings things that seem like opportunities or promotions to us will make us work hard for years only to end up right back where we started, never making any progress. God acts on people by grace (through the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit). While various attempts have been made to separate divine human action so that, for example, the human will is left wholly autonomous in a strictly moral choice, on the grounds of Scripture and experience, only the divine and human wills act simultaneously throughout the Christian life. The manner of their interactions is a paradox, or mystery, that cannot be unraveled by the intellect. If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; if I can ease one life the aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting cockatiel unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Somewhere in my soul, I know I have been through this before; it just reminded me a big part of faith is trusting God when I do not understand why things happen the way they do. God may have closed a door because you are more valuable than what you are pursuing. If God opened the door you want him to when it is not right for you, it would limit the great things he wants to do in your life, you would not get the experiences you need and meet the people who you are supposed to show the love of God to and they would not get to express their mutual love of God with you. Whatever opportunity that is blocked that you want so badly might be that way because it is not the right time, or there are other people involved and they are not ready yet. If God opened that door at the wrong time, it might leave you miserable and distraught. God has your best interests at heart. God is fully personal, both in himself and in his dealings with humankind. Such primary images as Father, King, and Friend mediate a knowledge that cannot be surpassed by abstract speculation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
There are three main routes to God: reason, revelation, and religious experience. Reason can obtain a certain knowledge of God’s existence and nature. Human intellect by nature participates in eternal Truth. God’s existence is proved. Since World War I, natural theology has been vigorously attacked, and notice that the World is in more chaos now than it was in the past. People are afraid to go to concerts or even drive to the supermarket. When one door closes, you do not know what God is saving you from. At least you are no longer commuting to work and pulling over on the side of the highway to feed your brand-new baby, who is crying because he is hungry, wet, or scared. If your prayers are not answered the way you want, instead of being discouraged or feelings like God let you down, why do you not have a bigger perspective? The reason the door closed is because God has something better in store. In addition to a natural knowledge of God, there is a supernatural knowledge revealed by Christ and received through faith. These findings might lead us to conclude that we do not always know what does or what might make us happy, and this seems to be at least partially true. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Do you know what will make you happy? Psychologist have found that people’s ability to predict their future emotional states is not very accurate. For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then fact to face. Right now, you may not see all clearly, but one day it will come into focus, and you will look back and say, “Thank you, God! You are the best and had it figured out. You closed that door on purpose so your perfect will can manifest in my life.” People tend to overestimate their emotional reactions to events. Although individuals think that optimistic and melancholy events that might occur to them will make a huge difference in their lives, and although these changes do make at least some difference in life satisfaction, they tend to be less influential than we think they are going to be. Hopeful events tend to make us feel good, but their effects wear off pretty quickly, and the same is true of negative events. For example, individuals who won more than $50,000.00 in the lottery were interviewed and researchers discovered that they were not happier than they had been in the past, and were also not happier than a control group of similar people who had not won the lottery. On the other hand, the researcher found that individuals who lost some functions or mobility as a result of accidents were not as unhappy as might be expected. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
How can this possibly be? There are several reasons. The Scripture says, “God’s ways are not our ways. They are better than our ways.” There will be times when a door closes and you cannot understand why. You may be experiencing that right now. Here is the question: Will you stay in faith while you wait to see what God is up to? People are resilient; they bring their coping skills to play when negative events occur, and this makes them feel better. Most people do not continually experience the very best or the very worse, affect over a long period of time, but rather adapt to their current circumstances. Just as we enjoy the second Fraiche Nutrition cool vegan tropical Nice Cream Sandwich made with almond breeze, we eat less than we enjoy, as we experience more and more and more beneficial outcomes in our daily lives we habituate to them and our life satisfaction returns to a more moderate level. What God opens no one can shut, and what God shuts no one can open. God knows our deeds. He has placed before us an open door that no one can shut. As the Heavens are higher than the Earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts. Believer, God overrules all things for your good. Do you believe that material wealth is not as important as you might have thought it would be? #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God’s motives, but understanding his character, in trusting in his promise and leaning on him and resting in him as the Sovereign who knows what he is doing and does all things well. Another reason that we may mispredict our happiness is that our social comparisons change when our own status changes as a result of new events. People who are wealthy compare themselves to other wealthy people, people who are poor tend to compare with other poor people, and people who are ill tend to compare with other ill people. When our comparisons change, our happiness levels are correspondingly influenced. And when people are asked to predict their future emotions, they may focus only on the beneficial or pessimistic event they are asked about, and forget all the other things that will not change. When people are asked to focus on all the more regular things that they will still be doing in the future (working, gardening, decorating, designing architecture, going to church, socializing with family and friends, and so forth), their predictions about how something really good or bad would influence them is less extreme. God is wonderful in his design and excellent in his working. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
The needs-be for all that you have suffered has been most accurately determined by God. If pleasure is fleeting, at least misery shares some of the same quality. Your course is all mapped out by your Lord. Nothing will take him by surprise. There will be no novelties to God. There will be no occurrences which God did not foresee, and for which, therefore, he has not provided. We might think we cannot be happy if something terrible, such as the loss of a partner or beloved family member, were to happen to us, but after a period of adjustment most people find that happiness levels return to prior levels. God has arranged all, and you have but to patiently wait, and you shall sing a song of deliverance. Health concerns tend to put a damper on our feeling of well-being, and those with serious disability or illness show slightly lowered mood levels. However, even when health is compromised, levels of misery are lower than most people expect. When a plane goes through turbulence and it gets dark, you do not throw away the ticket and jump out. You still and trust the engineer. For instance, although disabled individuals have more concern about health, safety, and acceptance in the community, they still experience overall beneficial happiness levels. Taken together, it has been estimated that our wealth, health, and life circumstances account for only 20 percent of life satisfactions scores. Clearly the main ingredient in happiness lies beyond, or perhaps beneath, external factors. God is in control in the tough times, as he is in control in the good times. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
God will deliver you from the hard times. Other times God will prevent hardships from occurring in your life altogether. Cherish is the word I use to describe all the feeling that I have hidden here for you inside. You do not know how many times I have wished that I had told you. You do not know how many times I wished that I could hold you. You do not know how many times I have wished that I could mold you into someone who could cherish me as much as I cherish you. Perish is the word that more than applies to the hope in my heart each time I realize that I am not going to be the one to share your dreams. That I am not going to be the one to share your schemes. That I am not going to be the one to share what seems to be the life that you could cherish as much as I do yours. I wish I could say that I need you, but then you would realize that I want you just like a thousand other guys who would say they loved you with all the rest of their lies when all they wanted was to touch your face, your hands, and gaze into your eyes. Cherish is the word I use to describe all the feeling that I have hiding for you inside. “Diabolical forces are formidable. These forces are eternal, and they exist today. The fairy tale is true. The Devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow,” reports Ed Warren. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Housing is High, Food is Expensive and People getting Rich on Blood Money
A paranoid is someone who knows little of what is going on. Despite the fact that young people have experimented with cigarettes, alcohol, and other dangerous drugs for many generations, it would be better that they did not. All recreational drug use is associated with at least some risks, and those who begin using drugs earlier are also more likely to use dangerous drugs later. The most commonly used of the depressants is alcohol, a colorless liquid, produced by the fermentation of sugar or starch, that is the intoxicating agent in fermented drinks. Alcohol is the oldest and most widely used drug of abuse in the World. Alcohol use is highly costly to societies because so many people abuse alcohol and because judgment after drinking can be substantially impaired. It is estimated that 50 percent of automobile fatalities are caused by alcohol use, and excessive alcohol consumption is involved in a majority of violent crimes, including unwanted physical sexual activity and murder. Alcohol increases the likelihood that people will respond aggressively to provocations. Even people who are not normally aggressive may react with aggression when they are intoxicated. Alcohol use also leads to rioting, unprotected sex, and other negative outcomes. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
A single deed of violence and cruelty affects our nerves more than when these are exercised on a more extended scale. Alcohol increases aggression in part because it reduces the ability of the person who has consumed it to inhibit his or her aggression. When people are intoxicated, they become more self-focused and less aware of the social situation. As a result, they become less likely to notice the social constraints that normally prevent them from engaging aggressively, and are less likely to use those social constraints to guide them. Cannabis (marijuana) is the most widely used hallucinogen. Until it was banned in the United States of American under the Marijuana Tax Act of 1938, it was widely used for medical purposes. In recent years, cannabis has again been frequently prescribed for the treatment of pain and nausea, particularly for cancer sufferers, as well as for a wide variety of other physical and psychological disorders. While medical marijuana is now legal in several American states, it is still banned under federal law, putting those states in conflict with the federal government, Marijuana also acts as a stimulant producing giggling, laughing, and mild intoxication. It acts to enhance perception of sights, sounds, smells, and many produce the sensation of slowing down. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Because drug and alcohol abuse is a behavior that has such negative consequences for so many people, researchers have tried to understand what leads people to use drugs. Individual ambitions, expectations, and values influence drug use. College students who expressed optimistic academic values and strong ambitions have less alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, and cigarette smoke has declined more among youth from wealthier and more educated homes than among those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Drug use is in part the result of socialization. Children try drugs when their friends convince them to do it, and these decisions are based on social norms about the risks and benefits of various drugs. The use of marijuana among 12th-graders (high school seniors, generally 16-18 years of age) rose to 39 percent. And students binge drink in part when they see that many other people around them also binging. That is why stores used to always provide bags for people who bought liquor, so kids would not see it and become curious about drinking alcohol. The longer an addiction lasts, the more stress and strain it puts on the individual. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
There are a number of long-term physical and emotional effects of addiction that can easily turn a healthy man or woman into a frail shadow of their former self. The human kidney can be damaged by habitual drug use over a period of many years. Kidney failure is not uncommon among long-time users of crystal meth, heroin, and other dangerous drugs. Liver failure is a well-known consequence of alcoholism, but it can also occur with individuals using Vicodin, and OxyContin habitually over many years. Cocaine abusers and stimulant users are doing significant damage to their heart each time they use the drug. The most common conditions among addicted individuals are heart disease and heart failure. The lungs of any individual who is putting drugs they are addicted into their lungs is putting their lungs in jeopardy. Smoking crack cocaine or crystal meth damages the lungs, and so does smoking marijuana. Also, long-term drug abusers will begin to build a tolerance to drugs. Tolerance is dangerous as it causes the individual to use more and more of the drug in order to achieve the desired euphoric or stimulated states, which puts the individual at a constant risk for overdose and even death. Much of these drugs are coming from the Middle East and Mexico. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
Nothing bears so many stains of blood as gold. In Oakland, California USA so many people have built up a tolerance to drugs that they are looking for an even more potent drug to get a high from. Producers have started mixing cocaine and heroin together and they call it a “Belushi” or “Paris Hilton.” And if people overdose from the drugs you are selling, it actually makes you more popular because people are looking to overcome their tolerance. They live to get high. Because of this desire to get high, foreign drug cartels are operating in Northern California and wreaking havoc on the environment and producing marijuana tainted with toxic chemicals. Drugs are not cool. Because of the gun violence between drug dealers, people are afraid to visit the city of Oakland, California. There are so many drug related murders that no one can keep track. Homicide is the number one killer of African American men 15-34. In 2016, there were 88 homicides in Oakland. And 32 homicides as of late June 2017. The forensic anthropologist in the morgues are saying that gun violence is getting more serious, too. Instead of seeing people with one fatal gunshot, they are now coming into morgue in bullet proof vests with 12 bullets in one body, and usually end up with several people from the same gang in the morgue in the same night. These people have military style weapons. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Violence is a symptom of an unhealthy community. In Oakland’s drug wars, fire as well as firepower is a weapon. The Oakland fire department attributes more than 180 cases of arson to warfare between drug gangs and reprisals against slow-paying customers or residents who complained publicly about the city’s wide-open commerce in crack, a cheaper, potent form of cocaine. In Oakland, California, drugs are sold on more than 150 street corners. When people cannot pay their drug debts, and the dealer cannot find you, they will go after your next of kin. A woman who owed $50.00 to a crack dealer was dragged from her house, and thrown into the trunk of a car. After breaking one of her legs and the bones in one hand with a baseball bat, detectives report the attackers poured gasoline over her and set her on fire. With those cost of living so high in Oakland, California scientists are saying this is contributing to continuing violent crimes in parts of the city. There is a 19 percent unemployment rate in these communities, and the economy is not lifting the poor up. There is a large group of people living below the poverty line. The average household income in East Oakland is $47,318.50 and the citywide average is $80,758.00. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Is there such depravity in humans as that one should injure another without benefit to oneself? The lack of education, jobs, drugs, and no affordable housing is leading to the increase in violence and crime. And that is why so many people have turned to drugs and drug dealing. People who are abusing drugs feel hopeless and depressed and they have tried to succeed, but have not been able to because they come from an unstable home, live in a violent community, do not have the resources to go to school, or suffer from a cognitive disability. So, they hustle and turn to drugs to get by and forget about life and to feel good. On the other hand, people find drug dealing lucrative and can make $50,000.00 in one weekend, so they do not want to work for $12.00 an hour when they are making more than a doctor does. However, it is very dangerous because it creates super predators. You now have cartels and drug dealers praying on other drug dealers. In places like Oakland Hills, where my father came from, people have a college degree and average household incomes of $188,000.00. However, because there is so much profit being made in the flatlands by dealers, you have to solve this problem with the youth by encouraging them to stay in school and just say no to drugs and drinking. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
There are no devils but those which are begotten upon selfishness and reared by cunning. The bloody drug warfare has caused people in Oakland to promote this urban comeback and improve its reputation. However, just feet away from these revitalized neighborhoods, crack and other drugs can be bought in board daylight just about anywhere. The killings and the sound of gunfire are now a constant in the life of many people who live in Oakland. People are getting rich on the blood money and ruining the lives of men, women, children, animals and the environment. Bears, deer, mountain lions, and rivers are being poisoned by the marijuana grows and many of them are drying. Also, in Oakland, California, there are ten-year old kids with guns in their underwear drawers. People fear that with the rising rent in Sacramento, lack of affordable housing, increase of breweries, and all the legal marijuana for recreational use that Sacramento, California will face the same fate as Oakland, California. Housing is high, food is expensive, and gas is outrageous. People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Aging alone causes people to lose brain cells and mental processing speed, but there are several other causes that you have more control over. There are some adults who seems to be dumber than tar, but they are still working and the work they produce is awful, and yet they continue to still be employed. When these adults, who did drugs in their youth and have clearly lost their cognitive abilities, are hired on as partners or major parts of the firm, the level of productivity and quality of work seriously declines, and many people sit around wondering why these individuals are still employed, why do they not retire? While we cannot recognize a change in brain speed, many people do know that something has changed with their thinking. And if you sense that you are not as smart or quick as you used to be, you know it is an uncomfortable feeling. Some refer to it as “brain fog,” because they know that they used to feel smarter but the thoughts are just not coming together as quickly. What is happening is that when brain processing seed declines, you are literally thinking slower and remembering less. New information that you are presented with is not as easy to understand, and older memories are harder to recall. At the same time, a decline in brain chemical production causes brain cell death. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
People who seem to enjoy their ill temper have a way of keeping it in fine condition by inflicting privations on themselves. Fewer neurons mean an additional decrease in the capacity to retain information. What is more, not only does an aging brain sometimes think slower, but drug use will also accelerate the deterioration of your brain. There is a separation between thinking and then doing. You know that you have things you need to do but you cannot quite figure out how to get them done, or you forget to take care of them. Once you experience these problems repeatedly, you need to start rebalancing your brain. Aging is the number one cause of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). As you get older, your brain develops chemical imbalances. If you do not act to fix them, you are actually leaving your brain and your body open to get sicker. Any type of addiction, including to alcohol, streets drugs (marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth, heroin, Ecstasy, nexus, ketamine, crack, hallucinogens), overeating, gambling, or even excessive shopping can cause an imbalance. One that is shipped with the devil must sail with the devil. However, mutual toleration and forbearance, in our sentiments, with regard to the legality, or expedience of measures, is the soul of democracy. Consistent, sincere prayer helps us to grow spiritually, shape our character, and strengthen our love for our Father in Heaven. Prayer is among the most valuable gifts we receive as spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
A Person is a Certain Sort of Living Organism
A person is a certain sort of living organism whose identity depends on its biological organization. It is obvious that we all frequently use the term personality. However, if you think that personality means charm, charisma, or style, you have misused them. Many people also confuse personality with the term character, which implies that a person has been evaluated as possessing beneficial qualities, not just as described. If, by saying someone has personality, you mean the person is friendly, outgoing, and upstanding, you might be describing what we regard as good character in our culture. However, in some cultures, it is deemed good for people to be fierce, warlike, and cruel. Psychologist regard personality as a person’s unique long-term pattern of thinking, emotions, and behavior. In other words, personality refers to the consistency in who you are, have been, and will become. It also refers to the special blend of talents, values, hopes, loves, hates, and habits that makes each of us a unique person. So, everyone in a particular culture has personality, whereas not everyone has character—or at least not good character. (Do you know any good characters?) #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
A thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places; which it does only by that consciousness which is inseparable from thinking and essential to it. As far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that person. Should the soul of a prince, carrying with it the consciousness of the prince’s past life, enter and inform the body of a cobbler, as soon as deserted by his own soul, everyone sees he would be the same person with the prince, accountable only for the prince’s actions. Had I the same consciousness that I saw the ark and Noah’s flood, as that I saw an overflowing of Thames last Winter, I could no more doubt that I who write this now, that saw the Thames overflowed last Winter, and that viewed the flood at the general deluge, was the same self than that I who write this am the same myself now whilst I write…that I was yesterday. Self-concepts provide another way of understanding personality. The rough outlies of your self-concept could be revealed by this request: “Please tell us about yourself.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
In other words, self-concept consists of all your ideas, perceptions, stories, and feelings about who you are. It is the mental picture you have of your own personality. Self-concepts can be remarkably consistent. In an interesting study, antiquated people were asked how they had changed over the years. Almost all thought they were essentially the same person they were when they were young. We creatively build our self-concepts out of daily experiences. Then, we slowly revise them as we have new experiences. Once a stable self-concept exists, it tends to guide what we pay attention to, remember, and think about. Because of this, self-concepts can greatly affect our behavior and personal adjustments—especially when they are inaccurate. For instance, a young lady, who is a student thinks she is stupid, worthless, and a failure, despite getting good grades. With such an inaccurate self-concept, she tends to be depressed regardless of how well she does. However, in some cultures people are apt to engage in self-criticism. By correcting personal faults, they add to the well-being of the group. And when the group is successful, individual members feel better about themselves, which raises their self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
The history of some people in America is a record of an oppressed people from conditions of slavery as a moral-legal order to conditions of existence of a low caste and class within the society. It is against this background that the generalized underprivileged classes awareness and the self-concept of their ethnic identity in America is presumed to have developed into negative self-evaluations. Optimistic self-concept is not out of the ordinary. Good personal experiences can outweigh negative social historical experiences in the development of self-concepts. A belief in God and strong spirituality can uplift one’s consciousness and has great potential for helping people who might feel dejected attain self-realization, which will allow them to overcome the strong negative self-imagery emanating from reflections in other members of society. Maladaptive behavior arises from an underlying psychological or biological dysfunction that makes it difficult for people to meet the demands of day-to-day life. Maladaptive behavior most often results in serious psychological discomfort or loss of control over thoughts, behaviors of feelings. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
People involved psychopathological ritualism rely more heavily on emotional and psychological intimidation to get their ways. This is often out of necessity since the consequences of physical intimidation or outright violence in the public spheres of life become obvious. Whether we call it bullying or abuse, the hallmark of this type of maladaptive behavior is instilling doubt and fear in order to maintain control. The abuser finds that one of the most effect means of instilling doubt and maintaining control is harassing a person into keeping silent about the abuse. Another tactic is to rally others to the cause, getting them to view victims as cowards, weaklings, less than human. People love to blame a person for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency because it takes that bright intense scrutiny off their own emotional and psychological problems, letting them focus instead on someone else. The use of psychological, emotional and physical intimidation to instill self-doubt in order to maintain control, trying to feel superior by isolating an individual from the group and making them question their sanity is a sadistic form of cult and ritual abuse. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
It is a type of systematic psychopathological ritualism when groups of adults target another adult and pry into that person’s life to the point they believe they own an individual and have the power to do as they please. However, there is nothing done in that dark that will been hidden from light. If you are a victim of abuse remember, God will turn “wailing into dancing; remove your sacked cloth and clothed you with joy, and your heart will sing to him and not be silent,” (Psalm 30.11-12). We must give the Lord thanks forever. Asking with shameless persistence, the importunity that will not be denied, returns with the answer in hand. It is the nature of faith to believe God upon his care word…It will not be, says sense; it cannot be, says reason; it both can and will be, says faith, for I have a promise for it. There is no saint here who can out-believe God. God never out-promised himself yet. All things will work together for good. Thank you God that you are faithful to your word and will work mightily in the behalf of those who have faith of God. God’s energy can be labeled and traced in its motion or change of form just as a piece of matter is ticketed so that it can be identified in other places under other conditions. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
Faith in God is much like the existence of induced currents and of electromagnetic actions at a distance from a primary circuit from which we draw our energy. Faith is the medium surrounding the conductor (God) as the source for the phenomena. If we believe in the continuity of the motion of energy, that is, if we believe that when it disappears at one point and reappears at another it must have passed through the intervening space, we are forced to conclude that the surrounding medium contains at least a part of the energy, and that it is capable of transferring it from point to point. Thus, the surrounding medium or empty space becomes the arena in which energy moves, and energy, disjoined from matter, was raised in its ontological status from a mere accident or a mechanical or physical system to the autonomous rank of independent existence: matter creased to be the indispensable vehicle for its transport. When you believe, God will see to it that it is taken care of. When you believe, you have the Creator of the Universe fighting your battles, arranging things in your favor, going before you, moving obstacles out of the way. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
You could not have made it happen in your own strength, but because you are a believer, the surpassing greatness of God’s power is at work in your life. God is an indeterminate cause of finite properties. Thus, goodness exists in God in a supereminent form, proportionate to his infinite mode of being. God is in all things, not, indeed, as part of their essence, or as a quality, but in the manner that an efficient cause is present to that on which he acts. Hence, God is in all things, and intimately. God to the World is bounded on the one hand by the World of form and on the other by pre-existent matter. His task is to impose the forms on matter, and so construct a rationally ordered whole. Being wholly good, and therefore free from jealousy, he wished everything to be like himself. Since an intelligent being is superior to an unintelligent one, and since intelligence cannot be present in anything that is devoid of soul, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature best. God is superhuman, supernatural and has great influence on our lives. God is unquestionably transcendent. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
The Luxury of a Pure Conscience is the Health of the Soul
Time is a mere infirmity of human mind which prevents us from seeing things sub specie aeternitatis; and because there is a close correlation between temporality and the mentality (temporalistic panpsychism). States of consciousness are private, God within the mind, this eternal monitor. Our environment also employs a deep impact on our development. Environment (nurture) refers to the combination of all external conditions that affect a person. For instance, the brain of a newborn baby has fewer dendrites (nerve cell branches) and synapses (connections between nerve cells) than an adult brain. However, the newborn brain is highly plastic (capable of being altered by experience). During the first three years of life, millions of new dendrites (connections between nerve cells) in the brain form every day. At the same time, unused synapses (connections between nerve cells) disappear. As a result, early learning environments literally shape the developing brain, through blooming and pruning of synapses. The cradle of civilization is in Africa, where the garden of Eden is located. Although human DNA is evolving, modern humans are still genetically quite similar to cave dwellers who lived 30,000 years ago. A strong influence of African migrants existed throughout the World (and is still detectable today). Most modern genes come from African as a result of large African migration(s) and/or incremental gene flow. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
The Pleistocene era is from 1,800,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. During the latter Pleistocene (125,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago), one more major migrations from Africa fueled the Worldwide dispersal of modern humans. Although most researchers agree that anatomically modern humans originated in Africa between 150,000 and 200,00 years ago, there is still debate over whether this was a speciation event that replaced other human populations outside of Africa, or whether there was a genetic mixture. In Africa, premodern fossils have been found at several sites. One of the best known is Broken Hill (Kabwe). In this and other African premodern specimens, a mixture of older and more recent traits can be seen. Dating estimates of Broken Hill and most of the other premodern fossils from estimates have been given dates for most of the localities in the range of 600,000-125,000 years ago. The premodern human fossils from Africa and Europe are more similar to each other than they are to the hominids from Asia. They mix of some ancestral characteristics (retained from Homo erectus ancestors) with more derived features give the African and European fossils a distinctive look; they are usually referred to as H. heidelbergensis. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
The situation in Asia is less tidy. To some researchers, the remains appear more modern than contemporaries from either Europe or Africa. They represent a regional branch of H. heidelbergensis. The Pleistocene World forced many small populations into geographical isolation. Most of these regional populations no doubt died out. Some, however, did evolve, and their descendants are likely a major part of the later hominid fossil record. In African, H. heidelbergensis evolved into Neandertals. Meanwhile, the Chinese premodern populations may have all met with extinction. However, the African migrants might well have interbred with resident populations outside of Africa. Nevertheless, a bright new born baby born today could learn to become almost anything—an actor, an engineer, a race car, driver, nurse, singer, rapper, a spiritual gangster, or a mechanic who likes to build Victorian houses. But an Upper Pleistocene baby could have only become a hunter for food. It was once thought we appeared in Europe around 45,000 years ago and that they coexisted with Neanderthals for thousands of years after that. They may have hung on in pockets – including caves in Gibraltar – until 40,000 years ago, it was believed. In other words, there was a long, gradual takeover by modern humans, and died out from competition. It is not an easy matter to hit a conscience exactly between wind and water. Thank goodness for evolution and human rights. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Environmental factors actually start influencing development before birth. Although the intrauterine environment (interior of womb) is highly protected, environmental conditions can nevertheless affect the developing child. For example, when a young lady was pregnant, the baby’s fetal heart rate and movements increased when loud sounds or vibrations penetrated the womb. In addition to cultural differences, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, and sexual orientation all affect the social norms that guide behavior. Social norms are rules that define acceptable behavior. While watching an episode of “The Jefferson’s,” the father, George had a problem with his African American son, Lionel dating a young lady, Jenny, who has a White father and a Black mother because he did not understand her culture and did not want to deal with it. Also, on the show “The Bachelorette,” the star Rachel Lindsay is the first African American bachelorette ever on the show and comes from a prestigious family. She has to choose from African American and European American men, and one of these lucky men will be her next husband. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
To many, interracial dating is no big deal, most people do not even see what they problem is with Rachel choosing from men who have different skin tones, but still a lot of people have deeply rooted hostilities about interracial dating, as they did 40 years ago when “The Jefferson’s” was a new show, which reflects cultural attitudes of time era. And some other people wish that racial had more cultures to choose from like Japanese men and Hawaiian men. However, with interracial the more cultures you mix in to the situation, the more complex it becomes because people become insecure when they have more competition. Nevertheless, some women who are mixed race also have a problem with their children dating people who do not look like their phenotype (outward) appearance because they feel like their child is rejecting their image or culture. Even more, European American women who marry African American men sometimes have problems with their mixed race son’s dating White girls because of historical race relation issues and also sometimes because people who marry another race identify as they race and also feel rejected if their child rejects the race that they are married to. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Other problems with the show “The Bachelorette” is that some feel it is unethical because a woman is selecting from men who she does not really know and marrying them and a few people think it is unnatural. However, in China, for every man, there are two women, so there are more women than men. And dating and marriage has become a business. If you do not have a career, healthy bank account, are not tall and attractive and do not have a house in a desirable location a woman will reject you with in ten minutes of meeting you because women are in such high demand. Dating is like a business and so “The Bachelorette” many not be a bad form of finding a mate. The men are screened to make sure they healthy, safe, and come from good background, which seems like less of a gamble of meeting people on your own and taking a risk. Also, some people do fall in love fast. To fully understand human behavior, psychologist need to know how people differ, as well as the ways in which we are all alike. To be effective, psychologist must be sensitive to people who are ethnically and culturally different from themselves. For the same reason, an appreciation of human diversity can enrich your life, as well as your understanding of psychology. In strong and involuntary bias, the heart is conscience. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
We have to reflect on a new social reality: Cultural diversity is becoming the new normal. The percentage of non-Hispanic white people in the United States of America has reached an all-time low: 63 percent. That is 197.7 million White people out of 325.9 million Americans. In 2000, Whites were 69 percent of the population. In some large cities, African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native Americans are already the majority. In the past, psychology was based mostly on the cultures of North America and Europe. Now, we must ask, do the principles of Western psychology apply to people in all cultures? Are some psychological concepts invalid in other cultures? Are any universal? As psychologist have probed such questions, one thing has become clear: Most of what we think, feel, and do is influenced in one way or another by the social and cultural Worlds in which we live. Unlike the Divine Intellect, the souls are unable to grasp the timeless truth at one, in a single instantaneous act, but only gradually, step by step, by a laborious process of reasoning. Succession and change are thus mere results of our inability to grasp everything at once. The moving image of eternity, an imperfect (because moving) imitation is understood in a psychological sense as movement of soul. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Abandoned Opportunities are Never Lost
Beauty must be exhibited as a necessary condition of humanity, the luxury to apprehend, for this new value in the soul is the supremest Earthly sum; that refinement makes humans whole complete beings. The elegance and delicacy is the quality by which causes love or some passion similar to it. That love is all there is, is all we know of love; it is enough, the freight should be proportioned to the groove. Things are always beautiful in their own nature. You are the loveliest of all lovies, please stay awhile and tell me your name. And yet by Heaven, I think my love as rare. Love is compared to a single soul inhabiting two bodies. Happiness is what all people desire since it is always the end goal of our activities, it is an unconditional good. It does not depend on external things, but rather on how those things are used. Happiness is not to be found in the goods that one accumulates, or even in the projects that form the ingredients of one’s life, but rather in the agency of the individual who gives life a direction and focus. Human nature will discover what brings out the best in human beings. Offer all in your heart and all of your good intentions to God’s gracious majesty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
The human soul as it is recognized has beauty in its true origin and destiny. What mystery pervades as well softened by nature’s blessing. Love is always in a state of lack and hence of desire: the desire to possess the beautiful. This state of infinite longing is trained on the truth, and is the path to wisdom. The basic idea has been relished many times by romantics. It fuels the cult of idealized or courtly love, which has been strong since the Middle Ages, in which the beloved has become a symbol of the infinite. Beauty is centered in the human experience of pleasure. Beauty is such an order and construction of parts, as either by the primary constitution of our nature, by custom, or by caprice, is fitted to give a pleasure and satisfaction to the soul. Pleasure and pain. Proud of my broken heart since you did break it, proud of the pain I did not feel until you, proud of my sight since it was the limit of my dream. The focus of my prayer, a perfect, paralyzing bliss constitutes your very essence. It was a dream in which I found myself, a brave palace that was all my own. Whether tomorrow’s day shall break the spell, I will remember always it was your hand that I held. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
Beauty is the emblem of what we lack, the mark of an art that speaks to our desire. Beautiful things do not stand aloof, but direct our attention and our desire to everything else we must learn or acquire in order to understand and possess, and they give Godspeed to the sense of life, providing new shape and direction. The Heaven below the Heaven above obscured with rosier hue. Whatever we have seen, heard, or understood, delights, pleases, and ravishes us by this joy so scantily disburse. The pleasure of sense accompanies the ideas of sensation. There is vastly greater pleasure in your complex beauty, a regular and harmonious apprehension, which conforms my soul as if it were a church. Everyone acknowledges we are delighted with your fine face, a just picture, than with the view of any one colour, were it as strong and lively as possible. When you smile, it is more pleasing then the Sun arising among settled clouds, and colouring their edges, with starry hemisphere. When roses cease to bloom, dear, and violets are done, the pleasure of your composition has passed beyond the Sun. When dreaming the night shall pass away. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
God above all others is capable of bringing us happiness, as he is the helper of mankind who eliminates those evils, whose cure brings the greatest happiness to the human race. If life is ever worth living, it is when one has attained this vision of the soul of beauty. And once you have seen it, you will never be seduced again by the charm of gold or flesh, you will care nothing for the beauties that used to take your breath away, and when one discerns this beauty, one will perceive the true virtue, not virtue’s semblance. And one has been brought forth and reared this perfect virtue, one shall be called the friend of God, and if ever it is capable of one to enjoy immortality, it shall then be given to that individual. The greatest happiness is the pure vision of God. This overwhelming experience of truth, beauty, and the divine, will make all the sufferings and tribulations of our lives meaningful and worth experiencing. It is something that is earnestly pursued that comes only after all our adventures in the World. Humble yourself deeply before God, and make virtue a necessity. Be thankful for everything that God has blessed you with and show appreciation by taking great care of it, and you will be rewarded with more. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
The righteous person is happier than the unjust individual. We all certainly prefer to be healthy than unhealthy, but health is nothing but the harmony among different parts of the body, each carrying out its proper function. Justice, it turns out, is a similar kind of harmony, but among different parts of the soul. Injustice on the other hand is a form of civil war between parts of the soul: a rebellion in which one rogue element—the desirous part of our natures—usurps reason as the controlling power. In contrast, the just soul is one that possess psychic harmony no matter what comes one’s way in life; just individuals never lose their inner composure, and can maintain peace and tranquility despite the harshest of life’s circumstances. Happiness is the internal benefits and characteristics rather than external ones. Living a virtuous life brings greater pleasure than living an unvirtuous life. Psychic harmony that results from a just life brings with it greater peace and inner tranquility, which is more pleasant than the unjust life which tends to bring inner discord, guilt, stress, and disease. Simplicity, gentleness and modesty are to be desired in all society—there are some people who are so full of affectation in whatever they do that everyone is annoyed by them. Some people are artificial in all they do and spoil the pleasure of society. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
The higher pleasures of the just life are not merely peace of mind, but the excitement of pursuing knowledge, as it produces an almost Godlike state in the human being. The philosopher is at the pinnacle of this pursuit: having cast off the blinders of ignorance, one is able to explore the higher realm of truth, and this experience makes every merely physical pleasure pale in comparison. Most pleasures are not really pleasures at all, but merely an absence of pain. Some pleasures are not relative because they concern higher parts of the soul that are not bound to the relativity produced by physical things. These are the philosophical pleasures—the pure pleasure of coming to a greater understanding of reality. Wrapped in ever-expanding social networks, we are never far from other people. They are always right beside us, just around the corner, or only a phone call, telegraph, or text massage away. In our intensely social World, it is tempting to assume that a person who is alone is a loser, a loner, a social outcast or, at the very least antisocial or shy. However, is this assumption always justified? Well, it depends. On the one hand, it is true that some people are alone because they are socially fearful, self-conscious, or shy, or otherwise dislike social situations. Many of these people are shy and lonely. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
In more extreme cases, people who shun social interaction and are troubled by their isolation may even be diagnosed with a mental disorder such as agoraphobia. On the other hand, it is also true that some people are alone simply because they prefer solitude. In fact, many of history’s most creative and spiritual individuals have found insight in their solitude. “I think it is important to take a break, you know, from the public eye for a while, and give people a chance to miss you. I want longevity. I do not want to get out there and run myself ragged and spread myself thin,” Aaliayh said when she was asked why she took five years off between albums. She went on to say, “There are times in my life when I just want to be by myself.” Environment factors influence intelligence. Social interaction, the media, the internet and video games, much like most of popular culture is becoming so complex. The rich, complicated experiences can require 40 hours or more of intense problem-solving to complete or understand. People must usually figure out by themselves how to figure out the rules because everything is so cognitively demanding. In the end, popular culture may well be inviting us to read, reflect, and problem-solve more than ever before. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
This person is alone. But is that individual lonely? Do you think time alone is healthy or unhealthy? Can we not be around people sometimes and by ourselves at other times? Why not? Perhaps we could all benefit from some alone time. Quiet time for reflection does seem to be associated with creativity, spiritual growth, problem solving, and self-discovery. In our modern World, social contact is a given. Alone time—now that is another story. Did you know that healthy solitude was on the minds of legislatures when they passed the 1964 Wilderness Act? According to the act, national parks should serve “to preserve natural conditions, to provide opportunities for solitude, and to provide a primitive and unconfined type of recreation.” Although little can be done to change neural intelligence, by adding to personal knowledge and learning to think better, people can become more intelligent. Many psychologists believe that to make full use of innate intelligence a person must have good metacognitive skills. Metacognitive skills mean above and beyond ordinary thinking. Such skills involve an ability to manage your own thinking and problem solving. Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
Typically, to better manage our lives, this means breaking problems into parts, establishing goals, and subgoals, monitoring your progress, and making connections. Learning metacognitive skills is the surest avenue to become more intelligent. Learning to relax is a way to lower stress, and emotional support also helps. To reduce stress, rehearse how you will cope with upsetting events. Calmly plan how you will handle each situation—by keeping your attention on the task, by focusing on the issues one at a time. Another helpful strategy involves listening to the upsetting thoughts you have during the day. Then you can learn to combat these worries with calming, rational replies. If I prepare well and calm my worries, my day will go fine. Even if I do not, it will not be the end of the World. My friends will still like me, and I can try to improve the next day. We acquire social motives in complex ways, through socialization and cultural conditioning. The behavior of outstanding artists, scientist, athletes, educators, and leaders is best understood in terms of such learned needs, particularly the need for achievement. This indicates our mind is part of our soul. Call to mind that the day now is beginning and you may work for eternity, and make steadfast resolution to use this day for that end. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
Randolph Harris II International Institute 