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Genius Does What it Must—Cannot Make a Gentleman the Prince of Darkness!
The city room is an outhouse. You can get black lung by working on the rewrite desk for a week. They should pass a law against vaping, cigarettes, and the joint. There is need of a different kind, rooted exclusively in the human situation—the need for the development of a character structure. This need has to do with the phenomenon that was dealt with before, the decreasing significance of instinctive equipment in humans Effective behaviour presupposed that one can act immediately—that is, without being delayed by too much doubt and in a relatively integrated manner. It seems plausible to speculate that human beings, being still less determined by instinct than other terrestrial beings, would have been a biological failure if one had not developed a substitute for the instincts one lacked. This substitute also had to have the function of instincts: enabling one to act as if one were motivated by instincts. This substitute is the human character. Character is the specific structure in which human energy is organized in the pursuit of human’s goals; it motivates behaviour according to its dominate goals: a person acts “instinctively,” we say, in accordance with one’s character. Character is a human’s fate. The miser does not ponder whether one should save or spend; one is driven to save and to hoard; the exploitative-sadistic character is driven by the passion to exploit. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
The sadistic character is driven by the passion to control; the loving-productive character cannot help striving for love and sharing. These character-conditioned drives and strivings are so strong and unquestionable for the respective persons that they feel that theirs is simply a “natural” reaction, and find it difficult to really believe that there are other people whose nature is quite different. When they cannot help becoming aware of it, they prefer to think that these others suffer from some kind of deformation and are deviants from human nature. Anybody who has some sensitivity in judging other people (it is of course much more difficult with regard to oneself) sense whether a person has a sadistic or a destructive or a loving character; one sees enduring traits behind the overt behaviour and will be capable of sensing the insincerity of a destructive character who behaves as if one were a loving person. Sudden outburst of violence may be caused by brain disease, such as tumors, and such have, of course, nothing to do with depressive-bored states. Human groups from the very beginning have lived under very diverse environmental circumstances, regards different areas in the World and as regards fundamental changes of climate and vegetation within the same area. Since the emergence of Homo developed the less was a result of genetic changes, and the last forty thousand years such change is nil. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
Yet these different environmental situations made is necessary for each group to adapt its behaviour to these respective situations, not only by learning but also by developing a “social character.” The concept of social character is based on the consideration that each form of society (or social class) needs to use human energy in the specific manner necessary for the functioning of that particular society. Its members want to do what they have to do if the society is to function properly. This process of transforming general psychic energy into specific psychosocial energy is mediated by the social character. The means by which social character is formed are essentially cultural. Through the agency of the parents, society transmits to the young its values, prescriptions, commands, et cetera. In more than a rudimentary sense, character is a human phenomenon; as far as we know human were able to create a substitute for their lost instinctive adaptation. The acquisition of character was a very important and necessary element in the process of human survival, but it has also many disadvantages and even dangers. Inasmuch as character is formed by traditions and motivates humans without appealing to one’s reason, it is often not adapted to or is sometimes even direct contradiction to new conditions. For example, concepts like the absolute sovereignty of the state are rooted in an older type of social character and are dangerous for the survival of humans in the atomic age. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
The concept of character is crucial for the understanding of the manifestations of malignant aggression. The destructive and sadistic passions in a person are usually organized in one’s character system. In a sadistic person, for instance, the sadistic drive is a dominant part of one’s character structure and motivates ne to behave sadistically, limited only by one’s concern for self-preservation. In a person with a sadistic character, a sadistic impulse is constantly active, waiting only for a proper situation and a fitting renationalization to be acted out. Such a person corresponds almost completely to Lorenz’s hydraulic model inasmuch as character-rooted sadism is a spontaneously flowing impulse, seeking for occasions to be expressed and creating such occasions where they are not readily at hand by “appetitive behaviour.” The decisive difference is that the source of the sadistic passion lies in the character and not in a phylogenetically programmed neural area; hence it is not common to all humans, but only to those who share the same character. Human’s existential needs can be satisfied in different ways. The need for an object of devotion can be answered by devotion to God, love, and truth—or by idolatry of destructive idols. The need for relatedness can be answered by love and kindness—or by dependence, sadism, masochism, destructiveness, and narcissism. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
The need for unity and rootedness can be answered by the passions for solidarity, brotherliness, love, and mystical experience—or by drunkenness, addition to harmful and intoxicating substances, depersonalization. The need for effectiveness can be answered by love, productive work—or by sadism and destructiveness. The need for stimulation and excitation can be answered by productive interest in humans, nature, art, ideas—or by a greedy pursuit of ever-changing pleasures. What are the conditions for the development of character—rooted passions? We consider first that these passions do not appear as single units but as syndromes. Love, solidarity, justice, reason are interrelated; they are all manifestations of the same productive orientation that I shall call the “life-furthering syndrome.” On the other hand, sadomasochism, destructiveness, greed, narcissism, incestuousness also belong together and are rooted in the same basic orientation: “life-thwarting syndrome.” Where one element of the syndrome is to be found, the other also exist in various degrees, but this does not mean that someone is ruled either by the one or by the other syndrome. In fact, people in whom this is the case are the exceptions: the average person is a blend of both syndromes; what matters for the behaviour of the person and the possibility of change is precisely the respective strength of each syndrome. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
As to the neurophysiological conditions for the development of the two respective kinds of passions, we must start out from the fact that humans are unfinished and “uncompleted.” Not only is the human brain not fully developed at birth, but the state of disequilibrium in which one finds oneself leaves one as an open-ended process to which there is no final solution. However, are humans—being deprived of the help of instincts and equipped only with the “weak reed” of reason by which one deceives oneself so easily—left without any help from one’s neurophysiological equipment? It seems that this assumption would miss an important point. One’s brain, so superior to that of the primate not only in size but also in the quality and structure of its neurons, has the capacity to recognize what kinds of goals are conducive to human’s health and growth, physically as well as psychically. It can set goals leading to the realization of human’s real, rational needs, and humans can organize one’s society in ways conducive to this realization. Humans are not only unfinished, incomplete, burdened by contradictions; one also can be defined as a being in active search of one’s optimal development, even though this search must often fail because external conditions are too unfavourable. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
The assumption that humans are a being in active search of their optimal development is not without support from neurophysiological data. Human’s capacity for intelligently directed self-development confers upon one the ability to determine the pattern of one’s culture and so to shape the course of human evolution in directions of one’s own choice. This ability, which no other terrestrial beings that we know of have, is human’s most distinctive characteristic, and it is perhaps the most significant fact known to since. It is now established beyond peradventure of doubt that various levels of nervous system organization are interdependently interrelated with one another. Somehow, by means that are still mysterious, purposive behaviour organized at each of these different levels of integrative function becomes expressed by a linked sequence of over-all purposes representing some kind of final judicious reckoning among contending functions. The purpose of the whole organism are clearly manifested and continuously served according to some integrated internal point of view. Some goal-seeking systems at the molecular level can be identified by physical-chemical techniques. Other goal-seeking systems at the level of the brain circuitry can be identified by neurophysiological techniques. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
At each level, parts of these systems are concerned with the appetites and satisfactions that govern behaviour. All of these goal-seeking systems originate in and are intrinsic to protoplasmic materials. Many such systems are peculiarly specialized and are located in particular nervous and endocrine systems. Evolutionarily elaborate organisms possess appetites and satisfactions, not only to fulfill vegetative needs; not simply for the obligate cooperations required for unions in pleasures of the flesh, the rearing of young, and the safeguarding of food, family and territory; not just for the adaptive behaviours essential to meet successfully the vicissitudes of environmental change; but also for extra energies, strivings, and outreaching—the extravagance that go beyond mere survival. The brain is a product of evolution, just as are teeth and claws; but we can expect much more of the brain because of its capacities for constructive adaptation. Neuroscientists can take as their long-range objective the understanding of the fullest potentialities of humankind in order to help humanity become more fully self-aware and to illuminate human’s nobler options. Above all, it is the human brain, with its capacities for memory, learning, communication, imagination, creativity, and the powers of self-awareness, that distinguishes humanity. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
Cooperation, faith, mutual trust, and altruism are built into the fabric of the nervous system and propelled by internal satisfactions attached to them. Mammal and many other forms of life could not survive a single generation without built-in cooperative behaviour. A baby cannot exist alone, but is essentially part of a relationship. However complex the psychology of the sense of self and of the establishment of an identity eventually becomes as the baby grows, no sense of self emerges expect on the basis of this relation in the sense of BEING. This sense of being is something that antedates the idea of being-at-one with, because there has not yet been anything except identity. Two separate people can feel at one, but hereat the place that I am examining, the baby and the object are one. Many of my patients have suffered disturbances in the process of self-formation, and therapy can help them in specific ways to repair that early damage. I have become convinced that, to some extent at least, a properly conducted analysis of patients suffering from a disturbance in the formation of the self creates a psychological matrix that encourages the re-activation of the original development tendency. The nuclear self of the patient is consolidated, the talents and skills of the analysand that are correlated to the nuclear self are revitalized, while other aspects of the self are discarded or recede. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
In the state of primary narcissism, there is as yet no differentiation of self and object (usually an attachment figure like a parent, or may a house). Without this differentiation there can be no object-representation, and this makes it possible for the wonderful feelings of goodness, rightness, safety and omnipotence which belongs to that stage for the lucky ones. Yes, babies often feel like they are omnipotent because of a sense that is traced to what is called “oceanic feeling,” and it persists int adult life, or at least the longing for it persists. It is basically a narcissistic feeling of well-being, in conjunction with a feeling of union with some an all-powerful force—obviously the home-loving feelings. To my mind, narcissistic feelings come from the memory—traces of what it was like in the days of oceanic feelings and harmonious interpenetrating mix-up when the self and a beneficent and powerful (m)other were sill merged in the infant’s experience. This must have felt good. The baby’s self-esteem is determined by the gratification of its (instinctual) needs. The first supply of satisfaction from the external World is simultaneously the first regulator of self-esteem. When being gratified, the baby feels wonderful, indeed omnipotent. When the baby has a need which is not being satisfied, it fees irritated, frustrated, deprived, and it longs for what will remove the disturbing displeasure. The motivation comes from the wish to restore equilibrium. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
The longing for the return of omnipotence and the longing for the removal of instinctual tension are not yet differentiated from each other. If one succeeds in getting rid of an unpleasant stimulus, one’s self-esteem is again restored. The individual’s experiences connected with omnipotence lead to a most significant need of the human mind. The longing for the oceanic feeling of primary narcissism can be called the “narcissistic need.” “Self-esteem” is awareness of how close the individual is to the original omnipotence. Its (instinctual) needs make the child dependent on the parent. However, the child actually renounces its own instinctual satisfaction. The tendency to participate in the parent’s omnipotence, after renunciation of one’s own, differentiates itself from the desire for instinctual satisfaction. Thereafter every token of love from the powerful adult has the same effect as the satisfaction of instinctual needs. The nature of the child’s dependence is thus changed. When the baby loses love, the small child loses self-esteem, and when one regains love the self-esteem also returns. This is what makes children so educable. They need supplies of affection so badly that they are ready to renounce other satisfactions if rewards of affection are promised or if withdrawal of affection is threatened. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
The promise of necessary narcissistic supplies of affection under the condition of obedience and the threat of withdrawal of these supplies if the conditions are not fulfilled are the weapons of any authority. Some people behave as though any flaw, any difference of opinion, any lack in total harmony between them and an attachment figure or authority figure or even a peer is quite intolerable. When this occurs, they feel great distress and outrage, that their perhaps not yet even spoken thoughts and feeling had not been responded to by those people who are crafting their futures, and they require the full attention of these individuals so they can mirror their every move in an attempt to figure out what behaviours are proper decent. The individual is back in a development phase where one need a totally accurate and absolutely competent self-object. This way of relating is called “mirror-transference” and it is basically a revival of the “purified pleasure-ego,” in which the individual attempts to save the original all-embracing narcissism by concentrating perfection and power upon the self—here called the grandiose self—and by turning disdainfully aware from an outside to which all imperfections have been assigned. When children or mature people behave as though they are entitled to everyone’s deference and subservience, in ordinary life, we call them cheeky or demanding or pompous, and we respond by setting limits, through noncompliance, ridicule, scolding, or whatever. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
The self-object state of mind exists exactly to the extent that the mother is prompt to bring to the baby what it needs precisely at the moment the baby needs it. This confirms the illusion, so necessary at that stage, of harmony, security, and invulnerable power. For the self-object is the baby’s experience of its own competence, of its own power to have whatever it needs. We can get a glimpse of what this experience may feel like, in a sentence such as “To get what you want makes you feel grand, wonderful.” This sentence can mean both “makes you feel grand, wonderfully satisfied” and “makes you feel you are a grand, wonderful person.” This distinction between “I feel grand” and “I feel that I am grand” is more sophisticated than infants (and many adults) are capable of making. So the parents or care givers who are to prompt to cater to one’s baby keeps the baby feeling grand and confirms that baby’s sense of goodness and well-being. This promptness and accuracy of response is called “mirroring”: there is a symmetry between the baby’s phantasy-image of what it needs and the care giver’s intelligent caring supply of that need. I will often call it confirming, because it also confirms the baby’s sense of its own rightness: its right to exist, to have these needs, to have these gratifications. The confirming/mirroring process has important implications for the development of the infant’s sense of self. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
As if it has formed itself, the human environment reacts to even the smallest baby to confirm this idea. When, within the matrix of mutual empathy between the infant and its self-object, the baby’s innate potentialities and the self-object’s expectations converge, is it permissible to consider this juncture the point of origin of the infant’s primal rudimentary self? Accurate empathy is the first step in mirroring—knowing what the baby feels. Doing something about whatever is troubling the bay is the second step—but only the second. Except in extreme situations, the first is more important. The first requirement is not that something be done for the child; the first requirement is to understand and absorb what the child is experiencing and to communicate back some recognition and acceptance of its experience. In short, do not just shovel the silver spoon in, confirm the child’s right to hunger and satisfaction. When that happens in the right way, the child’s sense of itself is strengthened. The child then experiences hunger (or whatever), but not to such an extent that it becomes oppressed, humiliatingly dependent, or hurt—certainly not to the explosive extreme extent which would disrupt the emerging organization of self-structures. Gratifications also relate to beneficial satisfactions springing from buoyant health, vigorous and rested; delight accompanying both genetically endowed and socially acquired values; joys, solitary and shared feelings of pleasant excitement, engendered by exposure to novelty and during the quest for novelty. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
If anyone has a clear intuition about a matter, it would be foolish of one to trust intellect alone in the same matter. Gratifications result from satisfaction of curiosity and the pleasure of inquiry, from the acquisition of widening degrees of individual and collective freedom. Beneficial features of satisfaction enable humans to sustain unbelievable privations and yet to cling to life and, beyond that, to attach importance to beliefs tat may surpass the values of life itself. We do not have to speculate on which special area of the brain generates higher strivings, such as those for solidarity, altruism, mutual trust, and truth, but we must look at the brain system as a whole from the standpoint of its evolution in the service of survival. Empathy and love are qualities inherent in the brain system. How is it possible for two people to communicate, since language presupposed shared experience? Since the environment does not exist for humans by themselves but in their relationship to the human observer, communication presupposed that we find the like representation of environment in the two elements whoa re separated by their skins, but alike in their structure. When they realize and utilize this insight then A knows what A knows, because A identifies oneself with A and we have the equality I-Thou. Clearly, identification is the strongest coalition—and its mist subtle manifestation is love. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
The intellect is one medium of understanding, the intuition is another. The intuition should give orders which the intellect should carry out. The reasoning and particularity needed to do so and to attend to their details will then be provided by the intellect itself. However, the original function of giving direction and the authority of giving command will be vested in the intuition alone. Intuition reaches a conclusion directly, without the working of any process of reasoned thinking. What the thinking in one cannot receive, the mystical intuition can. The secret has yielded itself again and again, but not to human’s logical thinking; it has yielded itself only to human’s subtle intuition. After long thought and observation I became aware of a second brain or gland, locked in the region of the heart, which commanded with authority. I discovered that most of the difficulties of life were the result of the head-brain attempting to do the work of the heart-brain. It was like a skilled labourer trying to assume the place of a high-powered engineer. The point which appears in space is a point of light. It spreads and spreads and spreads and becomes the World-Mind. God has emerged out of Godhead. And out of the World-Mind the World itself emerges—not all at once, but in various stages. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
From that great light come all other and lesser lights, come the suns and the planets, the galaxies, the Universes, and all the mighty hosts of creatures small and great, of being just beginning to sense and other fully conscious, aware, wise. And the World appear the opposite, the dual principle which can be detected everywhere in Nature, the equilibrium. The Lord is just, and hath loved justice. There are two kinds of justice. The one consists in mutual giving and receiving, as in buying and selling, and other kinds of intercourse and exchange. This the Philosopher calls commutative justice, that directs exchange and intercourse in business. This does not belong to God, since, as the Apostle says: “Who hath first given to Him, and recompense shall be made one?” (Romans 11.35). The other consists in distribution, and is called distributive justice; whereby a ruler or a steward gives to each what one’s rank deserves. As then the proper order displayed in a ruling family or any kind of multitude evinces justice of this kind in the ruler, so the order of the Universe, which is seen both in effects of nature and in effects of will, shows forth the justice of God. Hence Dionysius says (Div. Nim. Viii, 4): “We must needs see that God is truly just, in seeing how He gives to all existing things what is proper to the condition of each; and preserves the nature of each in the order and with the power that properly belong to it.” #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
Certain of the moral virtues are concerned with the passions, as temperance wit concupiscence, fortitude with fear and daring, meekness with anger. Such virtues as these can only metaphorically be attributed to God; since, as stated above, in God there are no passions; nr a sensitive appetite, which is, as the Philosopher says, the subject of those virtues. On the other hand, certain moral virtues are concerned with works of giving and expending; such as justice, liberality, and magnificence; and these reside not in the sensitive faculty, but in the will. Hence, there is nothing to prevent out attributing these virtues to God; although not in civil matters, but in such acts as are not unbecoming to Him. For, as the Philosopher says, it would be absurd to praise God for His political virtues. Since good as perceived by intellect is the object of the will, it is impossible for God to will anything but what His wisdom approves. This is, as it were, is law of justice, in accordance with which His will is right and just. Hence, what He does according to His will He does justly: as we do justly what we do according to the law. However, whereas law comes to us from some higher power, God is a law unto Himself. Now is the time to be children of the light. That is where we now stand in our World. That is the situation we now have to deal with. We are beyond the point where mere talk—no matter how sound—can make an impression. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
Demonstration is required. We must live what we talk, even in places where we cannot talk what we live. We stand again in the World of the first century, when children of light first entered it. The test is reality. If the bewildering array of spiritualities and ideologies that throng our times really can do what apprenticeship to Christ can do, what more is there to say? There is no effectual response to our current situation expect for the children of light to be who and what they were called to be by Christ their head. Mere “reason” and “fact” cannot effectively respond, because they are now under that same sway of public spirit and institutions as are the arts and public life generally—and indeed as much of the “church visible” as well. Only when those who really do know that Jesus Christ is the light of the World take up their stand with him, and fulfill their calling from him to be children of light where they are, will there by any realistic hope of stemming the tide of evil and showing the way out of that tide for those who really want out. The call of Christ today is the same as it was when he left us here to serve him “even to the end of the age,” reports Matthew 28.20. We have not yet come to the “end of the age.” That call is to be his apprentices, alive in the power of God, learning to do all he said to do, leading others into apprenticeship to him, and also teaching them how to do everything he said. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
If we follow that call today in our Christian groups to become the children of the light, the morbid and difficult moments can be replaced by hope and light offered through the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it did in past time. Also, the most important thing happening in our communities will be what is happening in our churches. “Let your light so shine before humans, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in Heaven,” reports Matthew 5.14-16. And now that we know, from our studies here, what it takes to become mature children of the light, how could we possibly be excused from not taking that open path and leading others to it. We will then, once again, see among us the presence of God who answers by fire. As Moses said to the Lord long ago: “Is it not by Thy going with us, that we, I and Thy people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the Earth?” (Exodus 33.16). As coins pouring from your lap, please rain down your gifts and blessings on me, Prosperous One. As plants turning green in the spring, please bring prosperity into my life, Lord of Fertility. As Ultimate Driving Machines being brought from the factory to the dealership, please send riches into my life, Great Ultimate Driving Machine. Please walk beside me, Lord of Strength, as I undergo trial. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
Controller of the riches beneath the Earth, fertilizer of all life upon it, distributor of the wealth that arises from it: Lord of the Earth, Lord of Wealth, when sharing out your bounty, please do not forget me, who am faithful in your service. The breath of every living being shall bless Thy name, O Lord our God, and the spirit of all flesh shall ever glorify and extol Thee, O our King. From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God. However, for Thee we have no King, Deliverer and Saviour to rescue, redeem and give sustenance and to show mercy in all times of trouble and distress; yea, we have no Sovereign but Thee. Thou wert God from the beginning even as Thou wilt be God until the end. Thou art God of all that lives, Lord of all generations, extolled in manifold praises. Thou guidest Thy World with loving kindness and Thy creatures with tender compassion. Thou dost not slumber nor sleep; Thou arousest those that sleep, and awakenest those that slumber. Thou causest the uneducated to speak, loosest the bound, supportest the falling and raisest up those that are bowed down. To Thee alone d we give thanks. Were our mouth filled with song as the sea, our tongues with joyful praise as the multitude of its waves, our lips with adoration as the spacious firmament. Father, please help me, I am calling to you! My need is great, but your power is greater. I know you will prevail over the troubles that beset me. You who created all things, please give birth to what I desire; bring it to pass. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
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Still Let Me Dive into the Joy I Seek—For Yet the Past Doth Prison Me!
Any time friends have to be careful of what they say to friends, friendship is taken on another dimension. While the intellect argues waveringly at length, the intuition affirms confidently in an instant. While the one gropes among the appearances and shadows of truth, the other walks straight toward the truth. Ordinarily, ample time is needed to accumulate data and deliberate properly before the correction decisions or judgments can be made. None of this is necessary to make them intuitively, for the intuition itself operates out of time and beyond thought. An intuitive idea is quite different from one derived from the customary process of logical thinking. Unless it is distorted or muddled by the individual oneself, it is always reliable. Can we say that of an intellectual idea? The best wisdom of a human does not come out of acuteness of thinking; it comes out of depth of intuition. It suits our hypertrophied and hybristic modern consciousness not to be mindful of the dangerous autonomy of the unconscious and to treat it negatively as an absence of consciousness. The hypothesis of invisible gods or daemons would be, psychologically, a far more appropriate formulation, even though it would be an anthropomorphic projection. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
However, since the development of consciousness requires the withdrawal of all the projections we can lay our hands on, it is not possible to maintain any non-psychological doctrine about the gods. If the historical process of World despiritualization continues as hitherto, then everything of a divine or daemonic character outside us must return to the psyche, to the inside of the unknown human, whence it apparently originated. The materialistic error was probably unavoidable at first. Since the throne of God could not be discovered among the galactic systems, the inference was that God had never existed. The second unavoidable error is psychologism: if God is anything, he must be an illusion derived from certain motives—from will to power, for instance or from repressed pleasures of the flesh. These arguments are not new. Much the same thing was said by the Christian missionaries who overthrew the idols of heathen gods. However, whereas the early missionaries were conscious of serving a new God by combating the old ones, modern iconoclasts are unconscious of the one in whose name they are destroying old values. Nietzsche thought himself quite conscious and responsible when he smashed the old tablets, yet he felt a peculiar need to back himself up with a revivified Zarathustra, a sort of alter ego, with whom he often identifies himself in his great tragedy Thus Spake Zarathustra. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
Nietzsche was no atheist, but his God was dead. The result of this demise was a split in himself, and he felt compelled to call the other self “Zarathustra” or at times, “Dionysus.” In his fatal illness he signed his letters “Zagreus,” the dismembered god of the Thracians. The tragedy of Zarathustra is that, because his God died, Nietzsche himself became a god; and this happened because he was no atheist. He was of too positive a nature to tolerate the urban neurosis of atheism. It seems dangerous for such a man to asset that “God is dead”: he instantly becomes the victim of inflation. Far from being a negation, God is actually the strongest and most effective “position” the psyche can reach, in exactly the same sense in which Paul speaks of people “whose God is their belly,” (Phil. 3.19). The strongest and therefore the decisive factor in any individual psyche compels the same belief or fear, submission or devotion which a God would demand from humans. Anything despotic and inescapable is in this sense “God,” and it becomes absolute unless, by an ethical decision freely chosen, one succeeds in building up against this natural phenomenon a position that is equally strong and invincible. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
If this psychic position proves to be absolutely effective, it surely deserves to be named a “God,” and what is more, a spiritual God, since it sprang from the freedom of ethical decision and therefore from the mind. Humans are free to decide whether “God” shall be a “spirit” or a natural phenomenon like the craving of candy from a person with a sweet tooth, and hence whether “God” shall act as a beneficent or a destructive force. However, indubitable and clearly understandable these psychic events or decisions may be, they are very apt to lead people to the false, unpsychological conclusion that it rests with them to decide whether they will create a “God” for themselves or not. There is no question of that, since each of us is equipped with a psychic disposition that limits our freedom in high degree and makes it practically illusory. Not only is “freedom of the will” an incalculable problem philosophically, it is also a misnomer in the practical sense, for we seldom find anybody who is not influenced and indeed dominated by desires, habits, impulses, prejudices, resentments, and by every conceivable kind of complex. All these natural facts function exactly like an Olympus full of deities who want to be propitiated, served, feared, and worshipped, not the individual owner of this assorted pantheon, but by everybody in one’s vicinity. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Bondage and possession are synonymous. Always, therefore, there is something in the psyche that takes possession and limits or suppresses our moral freedom. In order to hide this undeniable but exceedingly unpleasant fact from ourselves and at the same time pay lip-service to freedom, we have got accustomed to saying aporetically, “I have such and such a desire or habit or feeling of resentment,” instead of the more veracious “Such and such a desire or habit or feeling of resentment has me.” The later formulation would certainly rob us even of the illusions of freedom. However, I ask myself whether this would not be better in the end than fuddling ourselves with words. The truth is that we do not enjoy masterless freedom; we are continually threatened by psychic factors which, in the guise of “natural phenomena,” may take possession of us at any moment. The withdrawal of metaphysical projections leaves us almost defenceless in the face of this happening, for we immediately identify with every impulse instead of giving it the name of the “other,” which would at least hold it at arm’s length and prevent it from storming the citadel of the ego. “Principalities and powers” are always with us; even if we would, we have no need to create them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
It is merely incumbent on us to choose the master we wish to serve, so that one’s service shall be our safeguard against being mastered by the “other” whom we have not chosen. We do not create “God,” we choose him. Though our choice characterizes and defines “God,” it is always human-made, and the definition it gives is therefore finite and imperfect. (Even the idea of perfection does not posit perfection.) The definition is an image, but this image does not raise the unknown fact it designates into the realm of intelligibility, otherwise we would be entitled to say that we had created a God. The “master” we choose is not identical with the image we project of him in time and space. He goes on working as before, like an unknow quantity in the depth of the psyche. We do not even know the nature of the simplest thought, let alone the ultimate principles of the psyche. Also, we have no control over its inner life. However, because this inner life is intrinsically free and not subject to our will and intentions, it may easily happen that the living thing chosen and defined by us will drop out of its setting, the human-made image, even against our will. Then, perhaps, we could say with Nietzsche, “God is dead.” Yet it would be truer to say, “He has put off our image, and where shall we find him again?” #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
The interregnum is full of danger, for the natural facts will raise their claim in the form of various—isms, which are productive of nothing but anarchy and destruction because inflation and human’s hybris between them have elected to make the ego, in all its ridiculous paltriness, lord of the Universe. That was the cast the case with Nietzsche, the uncomprehended portent of a whole epoch. The individual ego is much too small, its brain is much too feeble, to incorporate all the projections withdrawn from the World. Ego and brain burst asunder in the effort; the psychiatrist calls it schizophrenia. When Nietzsche said “God is dead,” he uttered a truth which is valid for the greater part of the World and it is characteristic of their behaviour. They choose to serve idols such as the fake news, pleasures of the flesh, and other such objects. People are influenced by that statement it not because he said so, but because they want it to be a widespread psychological fact to justify the dysfunction of humanity, and not take responsibility for their own maleficent actions. A way to just give up trying to life right. So the consequences are not long delayed, it created a catastrophe. The life of Christ is understood by the Church on the one hand as an historical, and on the other hand as an eternally existing, mystery. This is especially evident in the sacrifice of the Mass. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
From a psychological standpoint, the view of the reality of Christ can be translated as follows: Christ lived a concrete, personal, and unique life which, in all essential features, had at the same time an archetypal character. This character can be recognized from the numerous connections of the biographical details with Worldwide myth-motifs. These undeniable connections are the main reason why it is so difficult for researchers into the life of Jesus to construct from the gospel themselves factual reports, legends, and myths are woven into a whole. This is precisely what constitutes the meaning of the gospels, and if one tried to separate the individual from the archetypal with a critical scalpel, they would immediately lose their character of wholeness. The life of Christ is no exception in that not a few of the great figures of history have realized, more or less clearly, the archetype of the hero’s life with its characteristic changes of fortune. However, the ordinary human, too, unconsciously lives archetypal forms, and if these are no longer valued it is only because the prevailing psychological ignorance. Indeed, even the fleeting phenomena of dreams often reveal distinctly archetypal patterns. God who made the World still upholds it. He rules the entire Universe, this great Being, and regulates the Universal Laws of humans. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
The World-Mind brings our Universe into being and governs it, too. The enormous number of objects and creatures which appear through Its agency, through Its power and wisdom, cannot be limited to what is visible alone, and must fill a thinking person with wonder at the possibilities—a wonder which Plato said must be the beginning of philosophy. The Infinite Intelligence knows and controls all things, all situations. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shalt not fall on the ground without your Father,” (Matthew 10.29) puts simply that an infinite intelligence controls the entire Universe, and that it is as present in the smallest event as in the greatest. This is the Power that carries everything along, every entity, and which provides the Universe with its continuity. In the sense that the World-Mind is the active agent behind and within the Universe, it is carrying the whole burden of creation; it is the real doer carrying us and our actions too. There is a Mind which keeps that planets in their allotted orbit and the lives of humans in their largely self-earned destines. The World-Mind is God as universal intelligence and creative power. The World-Mind is Divine Ideation, the First Intelligence, the Universal Wisdom. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
We are frequently informed by religious and mystical sources that God is Love. It would be needful for those who accept this statement to balance and complete it by the affirmation that God is Pure Intelligence. Love is not the ultimate but only an attribute of the ultimate. The intelligence which works so untiringly in the World around us knows what to do without having to prepare a plan. It does not need to think in the way human beings think. Being infinite, its wisdom is infinite. The Intelligence which formulate the World-Idea is living and creative—in short, Divine. The so-called laws of nature merely show its workings. If the divine did not have real being, with all its attributes of consciousness, intelligence, power, and love, we ourselves would not exist. Those who cannot comprehend the infinite of intelligence behind the World around them can hardly be expected to comprehend that it has an independent existence as an attribute of pure Spirit. The World-Mind holds in one eternal thought the entire World-Idea. The World-Mind knows and experiences everything and everyone. It also knows the Supreme non-thing, the Real, while knowing the illusoriness of the cosmos. The World-Mind knows all because it is eternally in all. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
The mental activity of the World-Mind is not, and cannot be, an unconscious process. In the elemental, the mineral, and even the plant kingdom this may seem to us to be so; but if the first act of mentation which began the evolutionary process was not done unawares, then the entire project of the entire cosmos, at all the different stages of this process, also cannot be unknown, at any moment and in any point, to the World-Mind. In its own mysterious way, the World-Mind is all-embracing, aware of everything, every entity and every activity. The World-Mind is not only Lord and Governor of the World but also Lord and Governor of the illusion which makes the World so vivid to the unenlightened; that is, It is Itself the All-Knowing, the All-Seeing, Conscious of the Real. If that one Mind were behind all, only then could it be possible that One Mind could comprehend all. The World-Mind is common to all human minds and is the field of their interaction, and the notion that A and Be are independent and isolated minds are superficially correct but fundamentally fallacious. There is a common ground of mind, a hidden linkage, and the ideas of one can be transmitted to the other, albeit often unconsciously. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
No event could be outside the knowledge of God, no entity could be beyond the power of God. Were the World-Mind beyond, because outside, the finite Universe, then it would be limited by that Universe and thus lose its own infinitude. However, because it includes the Universe completely within itself while remaining completely unlimited, it is genuinely infinite. World-Mind is neither limited nor dissipated by its self-projection in the Universe. If World-Mind is immanent in the Universe, it is not confined to the Universe; if it is present in every particle of the All, its expression is not exhausted by the All. Inexplicable and incomprehensible though the fact must be to the human intellect, the One infinite Mind never loses its own character even though it is seemingly incarnated into the myriad forms of an evolving Universe, never loses itself in them. It is a wisdom expressed through the World-Idea, but not confined to it. Amid all this apparent self-division into innumerable selves, the World Mind remains as intact and inviolate as ever it was. When we think of holiness, great saints of the past like Francis of Assisi or George Muller spring to mind—or contemporary gains of the faith like Mother Teresa. However, holiness is not the private preserve of an elite corps of martyrs, mystics, and Nobel prize winners. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Holiness is the everyday business of every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions we make and the things we do, hour by hour, day by day. You are going to be all right. God loves you. People love you. You are surrounded by a community who is praying for you. You are going to be all right. The good news of Jesus Christ is that such God’s love is available to all. Holiness is obeying God—loving one another as He loved us. God is the Judge, the lover of all, and Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant. If a person is not ready to live by them, beliefs are not worth much. We must live by love, the law of kindness brought to light by the Gospel. What is this good for? To make all who receive it enjoy God and themselves: to make them like God; lovers of all; contented in they lives; and crying out at their death, in calm assurance, “O grave, where is they victory! Thanks be unto God, who gives me the victory, through my Lord Jesus Christ.” Holiness is obeying God—sharing His love, even when it is inconvenient. No talk here of the crushing burden of piety, as it has been called of religion as a life sentence instead of life. Our walk with Christ, well learned, is a burden only as wings are to a bird or the engines are to an airplane. The mature children of the light are like their Master. They know God and his Word, they think straight, and they live in the truth, because every essential dimension of the being has been transformed to serve God: heart, soul, mind, and strength. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Holiness is obeying God—finding ways to help those in need. “Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise—sensible, intelligent people; making the very most of the time—buying up each opportunity—because the days are evil. Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is,” reports Ephesians 5.15-17. Heroism is an extraordinary feat of the flesh; holiness is an ordinary act of the spirit. One may bring personal glory; the other always gives God the glory. The sure standard for holiness is Scripture. There God makes clear what He means by holy living or, as theologians call it, the process of sanctification. Then Ten Commandments, from which all other commandments flow, are the beginning; they apply today as much as they did when God engraved them on tablets of stone for Moses. Next, the life of Jesus provides holiness in the flesh; in His persevering self-denial, His unqualified obedience of the Father’s will, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit in His daily life, Jesus remains our example. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
Then Paul gives explicit guidelines. Consider just this sampling of injunctions: Lay aside falsehood and speak the truth. DO not let the sun go down on your anger. Let one who steal, steal no longer but work. Let no unwholesome word come from your mouth. Be rid of bitterness and wrath and malice. Be kind to each other, forgiving. Walk in live. Be careful so you will not even be accused of immorality, greed, or any impurity Engage not in silly or coarse or filthy talk. Do not practice idolatry in any form nor associate with those who do. Abstain from immorality dealing with pleasures of the flesh and conquer lustful passions. Do not lead weaker humans to sin. Things we should practice: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Things we should avoid: Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, strife, outbursts of anger, drunkenness, jealousy. The faithful must become weary in doing good. A human reaps what one sows. The quest for holiness, then, should begin with a search of the Scriptures. Holiness consists in think as God thinks and willing as God wills. That thinking and willing is a process requiring discipline and perseverance and is a joint effort: God’s and ours. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and sanctifies. However, that does not mean we can sit back, relax, and leave the driving to God. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
God expects—demands—that we do our part. Our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves—on God’s grace and on our will to be holy. Understanding this joint responsibility makes clear what is otherwise one of the most troublesome areas for many Christians, found in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome where on one hand he says we are dead to sin and in the next verse exhorts us not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies. Why should we turn away from sin that is already dead? The answer to this seeming contradiction underscores the joint responsibility for sanctification. We are dead to sin because Christ died to sin for us. He settled the ultimate victory. However, as we live day by day, sin still remains a constant reality. Though God gives us the will to be holy, the daily fight requires continuing effort on our part. Fighting off sin is like beating back continuing guerrilla attacks. Holy living demands constant examination of our actions and motives. However, in doing so we must guard against the tendency to focus totally on self which is easy to do—especially as the culture’s egocentric values invade the church. In fact, this self-indulgent character of our times is a major reason the topic of true holiness is so neglected today by Christian teachers, leaders, writers, and speakers. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
We have perhaps, unconsciously substituted a secularized self-centered message in the place of true holiness. For when we speak of “victory” in the Christian life, we all-too-often mean personal victory—how God will conquer sin for us (at least those sins we would like to be rid of—those extra ten pounds, that annoying habit, maybe a quick temper). This reflect not only egocentricity but an incorrect view of sin. Sin is not simply the wrong we do our neighbour when we cheat one, or the wrong we do ourselves when we abuse our bodies. Sin, all sin, is a root rebellion and offense against God, it is cosmic treason. We must understand that our goal as believers is to seek what we can do to please God, not what He can do for us. Personal victories may come, but they are a result, not the object. True Christian maturity—holiness, sanctification—is God-centered. So-called victorious Christian living is self-centered. It is time for us Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are defeated by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient. If we stopped using the terms “victory” and “defeat” to describe our progress in holiness, it might be well. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
The Christian life begins with obedience, depends on obedience, and results in obedience. We cannot escape it. The orders from our commander-in-chief are plain: “Whoever has my commandments and obeys them, one is the one who loves me.” Loving God—really loving Him—means living out His commands no matter what the cost. God is real. Put your faith in the God of the Bible, not the God you made up in your head. Holiness is obeying God. Please listen to me, you who grant wisdom: The stories that have been told about you from the times when our race was young have taught me that you are the clearest of thinkers and the best at deciding the proper path. I find myself now with a choice to make and I do not know how to make it. Without a clear road before me, then, I turned you for help. Path-Maker, Way-Shower, God, what should I do? I ask that you please give me a sign to help me decide. Please some to me with clear counsel; please come to me with advice. Please come to me, whether in a dream, or in the chance remark of a stranger, or in my own deliberations. May my decision reflect your calm wisdom, and my life become thereby a pleasure for you to see. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
You alone are the Lord. God, you have made Heaven the Heavens of Heavens with all their host, the Earth and all that it contains, the seas and all that is in them. God, you reserve them all; and the host of Heaven render homage unto Thee. You art the Lord God, who did choose Abram You did bring him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham, finding his heart faithful before Thee. God, you made the covenant with him to give his descendants the land of the Canaanite, the Hittie, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, and Thou has fulfilled Thy words; for Thou art righteous. And Thou did see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and did hear their cry by the Red Sea; and did perform signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land, knowing that they dealt arrogantly against them. Thus did Thou make Thy name great to this day. Thou did divide the sea before them, so that they crossed the sea on dry land, whereas their pursuers did Thou cast into the depths like a stone into mighty waters. The Lord is highly exalted. The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is y God, and I will glorify Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is triumphant in battle, the Lord is His name. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
BRIGHTON STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH
Rancho Cordova, CA |
Now Selling!
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Could Ever Hear by Tale or History—The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth!
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. His picture was, until recently, everywhere: on television, on posters that started out at ne in airports and railroad stations, on leaflets, matchbooks and magazines. He was an inspired creation of Madison Avenue—a fictional character with whom millions could subconsciously identify. Young and clean-cut, he carried an attache case, glanced at his watch, and looked like an ordinary businessman scurrying to his next appointment. He had, however, an enormous protuberance on his back. For sticking out from between his shoulder blades was a great, butterfly-shaped key of the type used to wind up mechanical toys. The text that accompanied his picture urged keyed-up executive to “unwind”—to slow down—at the Sheraton Hotels. This wound-up man-on-the-go was, and still is, a potent symbol of the people of the future, millions of whom feel just as driven and hurried as if they, too, had a huge key in the back. The average individual knows little and cares less about the cycle of technological innovation or the relationship between knowledge-acquisition and the rate of change. Until, of course, a computer application starts to rival Wall Street investors. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
Besides that, most people are usually keenly aware of the pace of their own life—whatever that may be. The pace of life is frequently commented on by ordinary people. Yet, oddly enough, it has received almost no attention from either psychologist or sociologists. This is a gaping inadequacy in the behavioural sciences, for the pace of life profoundly influenced behaviour, evoking strong and contrasting reactions from different people. It is, in fact, not too much to say that the pace of life draws a line through humanity, dividing us into camps, triggering bitter misunderstanding between parent and child between Madison Avenue and Main Street, between men and woman, between American and European, between East and West. The inhabitants of the Earth are divided not only by race, nation, religion, or ideology, but also, in a sense by their position in time. From within the main centers of technological and cultural change in San Jose and San Francisco, California, Manhattan, New York, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Canada, Dubai,London, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, are millions of men and women who can already be said to be living the way of life of the future. Trendmakers often without being aware of it, they live today as millions more will live tomorrow. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
And while these tritons of technology account for only a few percent of the global population today, they already form an international nation of the future in our midst. They are the advanced agents of humanity, the earliest citizens of the World-wide super-industrial society now in the toddler stages of development. What makes them different from the rest of humankind? Certainly, they are richer, better educated, smarter, and more mobile than the majority of the human race. They also live longer, in better homes, eat better, and drive better cars. However, what specifically marks the people of the future is the fact that they are already caught up in a new, stepped-up pace of life. They “live faster” than the people around them. They do not have time to sit at the same coffee shop for twenty years fixating on the same people and topics. Some people are deeply attracted to this highly accelerated pace of life—going far out of their way to bring it about and feeling anxious, tense or uncomfortable when the pace slows. They want desperately to be where the actions is. (Indeed, some hardly care what the action is, so long as it occurs at a suitably rapid clip.) #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
The attraction to the fast pace of life is one of the hidden motivating forces behind the much publicized “brain-drain”—the mass migration of European scientists to the United States of America and Canada. After studying 517 English scientists and engineers who migrated, it was concluded that it was not higher salaries or better research facilities alone, but also the quicker tempo that lured them. The migrants were not put off by what they indicate as the faster pace of North America; if they anything, they appear to prefer this pace to others. Similarly, a veteran of the civil rights movement in Sacramento reports: “People who are used to a speeded-up urban life…cannot take it for long in the rural South or Sacramento.” That is why people are always driving somewhere for no particular reason. Traveling is the drug of The Movement. Understanding the powerful attraction that a certain pace of life can exert on the individual helps explain much otherwise inexplicable or atypical behaviour. However, if some people thrive on the new, rapid pace, others are fiercely repelled by it and go to the extreme lengths to “get off the merry-go-round,” as they put it. To engage at all with the emergent super-industrial society means to engage with a faster moving World than ever before. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
Some mature people are even more likely to react strongly again any further acceleration of change. There is a solid mathematical basis for the observation that age often correlates with conservatism: time passes more swiftly for senior citizens. When a fifty-year-old father tells his fifteen-year-old son that he will have to wait two years before he can have an Ultimate Driving Machine of his own, that interval of 730 days represents a mere 4 percent of the father’s lifetime to date. It represents over 13 percent of the boy’s lifetime. It is hardly strange that to the boy the delay seems three or four times longer than to the father. Similarly, two hours in the life of a four-year-old may be the felt equivalent of twelve hours in the life of his twenty-four-year-old mother. Asking the child to wait to hours for a piece of candy may be the equivalent of asking the mother to wait fourteen hours for a cup of coffee. There may be a biological basis as well, for such differences in subjective response time. The calendar years seem progressively to shrink. In retrospect every year seems shorter than the year just completed, possibly as a result of the gradual slowing down of metabolic process. Even if it were not, with the slowdown of their own biological rhythms, the World would appear to be moving faster to senior citizens. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
Populations sometimes actively resist a change of pace. This explains the pathological antagonism toward what many regard as the “Americanization” of Europe. The new technology on which super-industrialism is bases, much of it blue-printed in American research laboratories, brings with it an inevitable acceleration of change in a society and a concomitant speed-up of the pace of individual life as well. While anti-American orators single out computers, Aaliyah, Meghan Markle, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, or Coca-Cola for their barbs, their real objection may well be to the invasion of Europe by an alien time sense. America, as the spearhead of super-industrialism, represents a new, quicker, and very much unwanted tempo for some. Too hip, too modern, too attractive, too innovative—it attracts a lot of envy. Fast pace embodies the American Pace of Life. Human’s perception of time is closely linked with their internal rhythms, which could be why those who are ahead of their time are considered disruptive. The human responses to time are culturally conditioned. Part of this conditioning consists of building up within the child a series of expectations about the duration of events, processes or relationships. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
Indeed, one of the most important forms of knowledge that we impart to a child is a knowledge of how long things last. This knowledge is taught in subtle, informal and often unconscious ways. Yet without a rich set of socially appropriate durational expectancies, no individual could function successfully. From infancy on the child learns, for example, that when Daddy leaves for work in the morning, it means that he will not return for many hours. (If he does, something is wrong; the schedule is askew. The child senses this. Even the family dog—having also learned a set of durational expectancies—is aware of the break in routine.) The child soon learns that “mealtime” is neither a one-minute nor a five-hour affair, but that is ordinarily lasts from fifteen minutes to an hour. He learns that going to a movie lasts two to four hours and it comes with popcorn, hotdogs, sodas, and big boxes of candy, but that a visit with the pediatrician seldom last more than one hour and he gets a sugar-free lollipop and is told to eat healthy. He learns that a school day ordinarily lasts six hours. He learns that a relationship with a teacher ordinarily extends over a school year, but that his relationship with his grandparents is supposed to be of much longer duration. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
Indeed, some relationships are supposed to last a lifetime. In adult behaviour, virtually all we do, from mailing an envelop to building a career, is premised upon certain spoken or unspoken assumption about duration. It is these durational expectancies, different in each society but learned early and deeply ingrained, that are shaken up when the pace of life is altered. This explains a crucial different between those who suffer acutely from the accelerated pace of life and those who seem rather to thrive on it. Unless an individual has adjusted one’s durational expectancies to take account of continuing acceleration, one is likely to suppose that two situations, similar in other respects, will also be similar in duration. Yet the accelerative thrust implies that at least certain kinds of situations will be compressed in time. The individual who has internalized the principle of acceleration—who understands in one’s bones as well as one’s brain that things are moving faster in the World around one—makes an automatic, unconscious compensation for the compression of time. Anticipating that situations will endure less long, one is less frequently caught off guard and jolted than the person whose durational expectancies are frozen, the person who does not routinely anticipate a frequent shortening in the duration of situations. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
In short, the pace of life must be regarded as something more than a colloquial phrase, a source of jokes, sighs, complaints or ethnic put-downs. It is a crucially important psychological variable that has been all but ignored. During past eras, wen change in the outer society was slow, humans could, and did, remain unaware of this variable. Throughout one’s entire lifetime the pace mighty vary little. The accelerative thrusts, however, alters this drastically. For it is precisely through a step-up in the pace of life that the increased speed of broad scientific, technological and social change makes itself felt in the life of the individual. A great deal of human behaviour is motivated by attraction or antagonism toward the pace of life enforced on the individual by the society or group within which one is embedded. Failure to grasp this principle lies behind the dangerous incapacity of education and psychology to prepare people for fruitful roles in a super-industrial society. Relationships that once endured for long spans of time now have shorter life expectancies. It is this abbreviation, this compression, that gives rise to the almost tangible feeling that we live, rootless and uncertain, among shifting dunes. Transience is the new “temporariness” in everyday life. It results in a mood, a feeling of impermanence. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
None of us occupy abodes of safety—true homes. We are all the same people in all the rooming houses everywhere, desperately and savagely, some methodically and strategically, trying to effect soul-satisfying connections with our community. We are, in fact, all citizens of the Age of Transience. Transience, indeed, can be defined quite specifically in terms of the rate at which our relationships turn over. People of the future live in a condition of “high transience”—a condition in which the duration of relationships is cut short, the through-pit of relationships extremely rapid. In their lives, things, places, people, ideas, and organizational structures get used up more quickly. This affects immensely the way they experience reality, their sense of commitment, and their ability—or inability—to cope. It is this fast through-put, combined with increasing newness and complexity in the environment, that strains the capacity to adapt and creates the danger of future shock. If we can show that our relationships with the outer World are, in fact, growing more and more transient, we have powerful evidence for the assumption that the flow of situations is speeding up. And we have an incisive new way of looking at ourselves and others. Let us, therefore, explore life in a high transience society. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
Barbie, mostly a twelve-inch plastic teen-ager, who looks remarkably like Paris Hilton, Nicky Rothschild, Britney Spears, Amanda Hearst, Reese Witherspoon, Ivanka Trump, or Tomi Lahren, is the best-known and best-selling doll in history. Since her introduction in 1959, the Babies doll population of the World has grown to over one billion Barbie dolls—more than the human population of China or India. Little girls adore Barbie because she is highly realistic and eminently dress-upable. Mattel, Inc., makers of Barbie, also sells a complete wardrobe for her, including clothes for ordinary daytime wear, clothes for formal party wear, clothes for swimming and skiing. In 1970, Mattel announced a new improved Barbie doll. The new version had a slimmer figure, “real” eyelashes, and a twist-and-turn waist that made her more humanoid than ever. Moreover, Mattel announced that, for the first time, any young lady wishing to purchase a new Barbie would receive a trade-in allowance for her current dolls. What Mattel did not announce was that by trading in her old doll for a technologically improved model, the little girl of those days, citizen’s of the super-industrial World, were learning a fundamental lesson about the new society: that human’s relationship with things are increasingly temporary. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
The ocean of humanmade physical objects that surrounds us is set within a large ocean of natural objects. However, increasingly, it is the technologically produced environment that matters for the individual. The texture of plastic or concrete, the iridescent glisten of an Ultimate Driving Machine under a streetlight, the staggering vision of a cityscape seen from the window of a jet—these are the intimate realities of our existence. Humanmade things enter into and colour our consciousness. Their number is expanding with explosive force, both absolutely and relative to the natural environment. This will be even more true in super-industrial society than it is today. Anti-materialists tend to deride the importance of “things.” Yet things are highly significant, not merely because of their functional utility, but also because of their psychological impact. We develop relationships wit things. Things affect our sense of continuity or discontinuity. They play a role in the structure of situations and the foreshortening of our relationships with things accelerates the pace of life. Apparently Mattel, Inc. caught on and now has a diverse cast of Barbies that really reflects the entire human race. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
Our attitudes toward things reflect basic value judgments. Nothing could be more dramatic than the difference between the new breed of girls and boys who cheerfully turn in their Barbies for the new improved model, like their mothers and grandmothers before them, clutch lingeringly and lovingly to the same doll until it disintegrated from sheer age. In this difference lies the contrast between past and future, between societies based on permanence, and the new, fast-forming society based on transience. For most thinkers since the Greek philosophers, it was self-evident that there is something called human nature, something that constitutes the essence of humans. There were various views about what constitutes it, but there was agreement that such an essence exists—that is to say, that there is something by virtue of which humans are humans. Thus humans are defined as rational beings, as social terrestrial beings, a terrestrial beings that can makes tool (Homo faber), or a symbol-making terrestrial being. More recently, this traditional view has begun to be questioned. One reason for this change was the increasing emphasis given to the historical approach to humans. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
An examination of the history of humanity suggested that humans in our epoch are so different from humans in previous times that it seemed unrealistic to assume that every human in every age have had in common something that can be called “human nature.” The historical approach was reinforced, particularly in the United States of America, by studies in the field of cultural anthropology. The study of primitive peoples has discovered such a diversity of customs, values, feelings, and born as a blank sheet of paper on which each culture writes its text. Another factor contributing to the tendency to deny the assumption of a fixed human nature was the concept has so often been abused as a shield behind which the most inhuman acts are committed. In the name of human nature, for example, Aristotle and most thinkers up to the eighteenth century defended slavery (exceptions among the Greeks would be the Stoics, defenders of the equality of all humans, and in the Renaissance, such humanists as Erasmus, Thomas More, and Juan Luis Vives). Or in order to prove the rationality and necessity of greediness in society, scholars have tried to make a case for acquisitiveness, competitiveness, and selfishness as innate human traits. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Popularly, one refers cynically to “human nature” in accepting the inevitability of such undesirable human behaviour as greed, murder, cheating, and lying. Another reason for skepticism about the concept of human nature probably lies in the influence of evolutionary thinking. One humans came to be seen as developing in the process of evolution, the idea of a substance which is contained in one’s essence seemed untenable. Yet I believe it is precisely from an evolutionary standpoint that we can expect new insight into the problem of the nature of humans. In the nature of all humankind: in each of us there is sin—not just susceptibility to sin, but sin itself. There is something natural in humans that arouses their desires, proving inner weakness or susceptibility to sinning. However, in each one of us, there are also stirrings of good. It is gradually disclosed that the line separating god and evil passes not through states, nor between cases, nor between parties either—but right through every human heart—through all human hearts. “Sinner” is not some theological term contrived to explain away the presence of evil in this World; nor is it a cliché conceived by colonial hymn writers or backwoods preachers to frighten recalcitrant congregations. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. We are sinners indeed and in deed. Humans go to great lengths to avoid their own responsibility. Many blame Satan for every imaginable evil—but Jesus Christ states clearly that sin is in us. Others recoil with horror at the sins of the society around them, smugly satisfied that sinful abominations are not of their doing—not realizing that God holds us responsible for acts of omission as well as acts of commission. Still others believe, as did Dr. Socrates two thousand years ago, that sin is not human’s moral responsibility, but is caused by ignorance. Dr. Hegel, whose philosophy so enormously influenced nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century thought, argued that humans are “evolving” through increasing knowledge to superior moral levels. However, what do we see around us in the beginning of this twenty-first century that has produced such advances in knowledge, technology, and science Soaring crime rates. Countless shattered families. A globe scarred by continual wars, oppression, and now a deadly pandemic. All our knowledge has not ushered in a brave new World. It has simply increased our ability to perpetrate evil. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
History, the fake news media, and popular culture continues to validate the biblical account that humans are by their own nature sinful—indeed, imprisoned by their sin. And we are not reluctant prisoners. We actually delight in sin and evil. What else explains our secret delight in another’s fall? Why else are people doing these mid-2000s Gossip Girl “Take Downs”? So pervasive is the sin in us that we are subject to lonely shame if we cannot share in the sins of our peers. What is it? Nothing less than the evil within us, the dark side of the line that passes through each human heart. There is a lot of good programs out there. Even on free TV. Every year Ion TV puts on these wonderful Christmas movies, a lot of feel good stories about love, happiness, family, friends, and community, but so many people prefer to emulate evil. Not that all violent TV and video games and movies are bad. Research say they are good for entertainment and help some people release their aggression. Not all people suffer from acute television intoxication. Many people can still distinguish good behaviour from bad behaviour and know that actions have consequences. The war to end all wars is a battle for eternal stakes between spiritual forces—and it is being waged in you and in me. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
When we truly smell “that smell,” the stench of sin within us, it drives us helplessly and irresistibly to despair. However, God has provided a way for us to be freed from the evil within: it is through the door of repentance. When we truly comprehend our own nature, repentance is no dry doctrine, no frightening message, no morbid form of self-flagellation. It is a gift God grants, a map which lead to life. It is the key to the door of liberation, to the only real freedom we can ever know. Because it does not mean freedom, perhaps it is not surprising that people in prison seem to have an easier time understanding repentance than those on the outside. Prisoners are captives in every sense. They have had their most blatant sins exposed in the blinding light of the court room, in the fake news media, draw out before the neighbours, and they have been locked into the midst of every from of evil and depravity. Thus, it is not surprising that the most vivid illustrations of repentance in the Bible often begin in a prison cell. The same mind which humans use to understand that two added to three totals five cannot be used to understand that one who loses oneself finds oneself. The messages which come to the human race from the kingdom of Heaven, mercifully come through different channels of its psyche. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
The Word may be received in abstract mental activity as well as utter mental stillness, in passive aesthetic appreciation as well as active creation. The intuition is a mystical faculty, whose messages may dawn slowly on the conscious mind of emerge into it suddenly. These intuitive feelings tell us that a deeper kind of Being is at the base of our ordinary consciousness. It is almost impossible to put into thoughts that which is above thoughts. However, hints, suggestions, and symbols may render some service. Only intuition, which comes up by itself, can come closer still to the truth and deliver what is more like it. If intellect fails to touch Reality, what can? The answer is intuition and inspiration. That intuition is often mistake for insight reveals one of the defects of mysticism. There are some who even question the validity of all insight, and, indeed, this is a sensible question to raise. The whole problem needs threshing out in paper on the subject. Insight is not concerned with mundane matters, but only with what is beyond our time-space dimension. Quite obviously, no one has the right to apply such a term to views concerning such matters as intellectual theology or physical diet. Intuition can, however, deal with these quite effectively when it is, itself, checked by reason. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
If we lack the capacity to comprehend, gauge, or perceive the Infinite, we do have the capacity to feel its presence intuitively. Spirit—impenetrably mysterious, without form or figure, yet as real to the mystic as matter is to the materialist—find its voice in humans and Nature, in art and circumstance. Faint glimmerings fall upon our sight from above through furtive gleams of intuition. These delicate intuitive impulses can produce no impression on ordinary minds. We can convince the intellect that the soul exists—but the only really adequate proof is intuitive personal experience of it. The discover of the soul’s existence is not a result of intellectual analysis or of emotional feeling but of intuitive experience. The World-Mind is unique, different from any other existing or conceivable mind in the whole cosmos. Indeed, all these others can only arise out of and within it, but can never equal or transcend it. There is only a single absolute unconditioned entity. Yet from it there extend countless finite and conditioned entities. They are visible to the sense of sight, physical to the sense of touch; yet it is neither. The meaning among cultured Muslims of the Islamic phrases “La Llaha” “Il-la-lahu” is: first, the denial of plurality and the affirmation of Unity in the Supreme Being; second, this Being is also the only real activating Force in the cosmos. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
Behind all the innumerable creatures in this Universe and behind all the innumerable phenomena of the Universe itself, there is a single, infinite, eternal, supreme Intelligence. It is something that never had a beginning and can never have an end. It does not change, although the World born from it does nothing else more incessantly than change. We talk of being, but it is not to be found in tie, nor in the mind and feeling of the conditioned self. And yet all these have emerged somehow out of it. Is it, then, that God is being? In the end it must be so. Only in such a language as Sanskrit does one find a word which covers this ample meaning, that truth and being are one. The word is Sat. World-Mind emanates and activates the cosmos into a fresh cyclic being. This continues under its sustenance but, again cyclically, it absorbs the cosmos in the end. Thus it is the closet to the common idea of God, the Personal God to be worshipped. The World-Mind may be worshipped by religious devotees or mediated upon by others as present in their own souls. Now, what is the mistake most commonly made by believers and others today, as they approach these glowing passages about the children of the light? #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
The mistake is simply this: Many do not understand the presupposition of inner transformation into Christlikeness that accompanies all the passages. They assume that we are supposed to “do” all the glowing things mentioned in such passages without loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. In fact, they think we must do them while our heart, soul, mind, and strength are still strongly inclined in the opposite direction, against God. And of course their despair is totally justified. What they are thinking would be completely impossible. To the person who is not inwardly transformed in each essential dimension, evil and sin still look good. They are strongly attractive. That is precisely what Peter calls, “the corruption that is in the World though strong desire or lust,” reports 2 Peter 1.4. To such people the law is hateful because it denies them what they have their hearts set on; and everything must then be done to evade the law and do what they want. Even if they do suffer from a bad conscience that tells them they are in the wrong, the force of their whole being is set against Christlikeness. As Jesus Christ rains them and “cleanses them for himself,” however, all of that begins to reverse. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
The law Jesus bestows in their hearts appears as a beautiful gift of God, as precious truth about what is really good and right. It becomes, in the language of the psalmist, “sweeter than honey freshly dripping from the honeycomb,” reports Psalm 19.10; when it is freshly taken, honey never tastes good. At that point it is sin that looks stupid, ridiculous, as well as repulsive—which it really is. Resistance to sin is then based upon that new and realist vision of what it is, not on fear of punishment. The illusion that sin is really a good thing arbitrarily prohibited by God is dispelled, and we see with gratitude that his prohibitions are among his great kindness. God love Christ not only more than He loves the whole human race, but more than He loves the entire created Universe: because He willed for Him the greater good in giving Him a name that is above all names, in so far as He was True God. Nor did anything of His excellence diminish when God delivered Him up to death for the salvation of the human race; rather did He become thereby a glorious conqueror; “The government was placed upon His shoulder,” according to Isaiah 9.6. Praise shows God, and reminds us, that we appreciate God, that we do not see Him as our employee. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
Thanksgiving shows God, and reminds us, that we do not consider what we ask for to be our right, something God has to give us. One way to prevent the “gimme, gimme, gimme more” attitude that is not acceptable is to limit petitionary prayers to intangible things. Some of the prayers we have might be described as material blessings—fertility, prosperity, health, a new house. Others ask for what might be called spiritual blessings—comfort, love, awareness, wisdom. However, the material is no less valuable than the spiritual. We do not point our noses to the sky and say, “Well, I only pray for spiritual things.” The material is just as sacred as the spiritual. Nor do we pray for an excess of things. Excess is drain on the Earth. We try not to drain on anything—not if we are try to are path, that is. Pray for what is right, for what is good, for what is deserved, and let no one but God tell you that it is wrong. God of my people: please hear me. Please let it be your words I write. Please let it be your words I speak. This time which we find ourselves in is no less sacred than the times of the Ancestors when the laws were laid down. This place in which I find myself is no less sacred than the circles of stone beneath faraway skies. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
I pray to all the beings that dwell in this World, to stone and tree, to waves and breezes, to person and beast, to deities and dust motes: please do not let me forget. Please keep my eyes open to the sacred that surrounds me and in which I live. Around me, God of the land is watching—may I do what is right. I give from my own store to you, God of this place. Please remember my generosity and please be my friend. Please accept this gift, Holy Ones, and please keep me in your World-Mind, as I will keep you in my heart. Holy Ones, Mighty Ones, Angels and the Holy Trinity, I ask for your blessings today and eternally that I might be blessed with holiness and with fortune, that my family might be blessed with holiness and with fortune, that my community might be blessed with holiness and with fortune, that my country might be blessed with holiness and with fortune, that my planet might be blessed with holiness and with fortune. Please send them forth, you who are holy. Send them forth, you filled with fortune. Send them forth, upon all for whom I pray. Please send them forth, please send them forth. Hallelujah. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let America rejoice in their Maker; let the children of America be joyful in their King. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
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Freedom is the Condition for the Full Growth of a Person, for One’s Mental Health and Well-Being!
Life is an unanswered question, but let us believe in the dignity and importance of the question. At the highest level, the level of ego-identity, the personality is organized by an overall organization of introjections and identifications under the guiding principle of the systematic function of the ego. The ego is a controlling and evaluating system. This controlling and evaluating system is integrated with other psychic structures to a greater or a lesser extent. It is by this that people steer themselves; it constitutes their sense of themselves in relation to the World and other people and things as they have learnt to experience them. Culture influences are important on personality development, and the formation of the ego-identity is a lifelong process. A self or a personality can be imagined, in a continuous development which began with clusters and networks of neural connections. The island is beginning to cohere from smaller clusters, integrating and differentiating into larger landmasses and developing specific flora and funa. Yet, it is easy when we think in terms of each person born already endowed with a soul which was highly individual from the start. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
When we understand that the infant is born into a relationship and develops in the context of that relationship, we realize that its developmental problems have to do with the differentiation of itself from others and with the relationship of self to others; one’s understanding that impulses are normally not isolated processes to which a person is somehow subject, but an expression of one’s personality; one’s understanding of dynamic structures, which are best thought of as structures of experiences, makes it clear that organizations of the memory-traces of the experiences in which a person is involved psychologically, neurologically, and psychologically creates actions and reactions and sensations and feelings, maps and models that motivates people to seek gratification, and this gratification is pleasurable. Pleasure is the signpost to the object: people seek people and take pleasure in them. There are people who live for the satisfaction of their drives; even when analysed in depth they seek others. And naturally, there are people who in some circumstances show more of one kind of interest, and in other circumstances show more of the other. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
Even though the neurophysiology basis for defensive aggression is not identical with that of the animal, it is similar enough to permit the statement that this same neurophysiological equipment leads to an incidence of defensive aggression many times greater in humans than in animals. The reason for this phenomenon lies in specific conditions of human existence. The animal perceives as a threat only clear and present danger. To be sure, its instinctive equipment and its individually acquired and genetically inherited memories induce the awareness of dangers and threats often more accurately than they are perceived by humans. However, humans being endowed with a capacity for foresight and imagination, reacts not only to present dangers and threats or to memories of dangers and threats or to memories of danger and threats but to the dangers and threats one can imagine as possibly happening in the future. One may conclude, for instance, that because one’s tribe is richer than a neighbouring tribe that is well trained in warfare, the other will attack one’s own sometime from now. Or one may reason that a neighbour whom one has harmed will take revenge when the time is favourable. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
In the political field the calculation of future threats is one of the central preoccupations of politicians and generals. If an individual or a group feels threatened, the mechanism of defensive aggression is mobilized even though the threat is not immediate; hence human’s capacity to foresee future threats enhances the frequency of one’s aggressive reactions. Humans are capable not only of foreseeing real dangers in the future; they are also capable of being persuaded and brainwashed by one’s leaders to see dangers when in reality they do not exist. Most modern wars, for instance, have been prepared by systematic propaganda of this type; the population was persuaded by its leaders that it was in danger of being attacked and destroyed, and thus reactions of hate and against the threatening nations have been provoked. Often no threat existed. Especially since the French Revolution, with the appearance of large citizens’ armies rather than relatively small armies consisting of professional soldiers, it is not easy for a nation’s leader to tell the people to kill and be killed because industry wants cheaper raw materials, cheaper labours, or new markets. If it were justified by declaring such aims, only a minority would be willing to participate in the war. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
If, on the other hand, a government can make the population believe that it is being threatened, the normal biological reaction against threat is mobilized. In addition, these predictions of threat from the outside are often self-fulfilling: the aggressor state, by preparing for war, forces the state that is it about to be attacked to prepare also, thereby providing the “proof” of the alleged threat. The arousal of defensive aggression by means of brainwashing can occur only in humans. In order to persuade people that they are threatened, one needs, above all, the medium of language; without this, most suggestion would be impossible. In addition, one needs a social structure that provides a sufficient basis for brainwashing. It is hard to imagine, for example, that this kind of suggestion would work among the Mbutu, the African pygmy hunters living contentedly in the forest and having no permanent authorities. In their society there is no human with sufficient power to make the incredible credible. On the other hand, in a society that has figures carrying great authority—such as sorcerers or political and religious leaders—the basis for such suggestion is present. The distinction between defensive and malignant aggression is not innate, and hence not ineradicable. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
However, malignant aggression is a human potential and more than a learned pattern of behavior that readily disappears when new patterns are introduced. By and large, the power of suggestion exercised by a ruling group is in proportion to the group’s power over the ruled and/or the capacity of the rulers to use an elaborate ideological system to reduce the faculty of critical and independent thinking. Another specifically human condition of existence contributes to a further increase of humans’ defensive aggressiveness compared with animal aggressiveness. Humans, like animals, defend themselves against threat to their vital interests. However, the range of human vital interests is much wider than that of the animal. Humans must survive not only physically but also psychically. One needs to maintain a certain psychic equilibrium lest one lose the capacity to function; for humans everything necessary for the maintenance of one’s psychic equilibrium is of the same vital interest as that which serves one’s physical equilibrium. First of all, human beings have a vital interest in retaining their frame of orientation. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
The human capacity to act depends on them remaining stable, and their sense of identity. If others threaten one with ideas that question one’s own frame of orientation, one will react to these ideas as to a vital threat. One may rationalize this reaction in many ways. One will say that the new ideas are inherently “immoral,” “uncivilized,” “crazy,” or whatever else one can think of to express one’s repugnance, but this antagonism is in fact aroused because “one” feels threatened. Humans need not only a frame of orientation but also objects of devotion, which become a vital necessity for one’s emotional equilibrium. Whatever they are—values, ideals, ancestors, father, mother, the soil, country, class, religion, and hundreds of other phenomena—they are perceived as sacred. Even customs can become sacred because they symbolize the existing values. It is characteristic for this phenomenon that the Greek word ethos—meaning literally behaviour—has assumed the meaning of the “ethical,” just as “norm” (originally the word for a carpenter’s tool) was used in the double sense of what is “normal” and what is “normative.” The individual—or the group—reacts to an attack against the “sacred” with the same rage and aggressiveness as to an attack against life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
What has been said about reactions to threat to vital interests can be expressed also in a different and more generalized way by stating that fright tends to mobilize either aggression or the tendency to flight. The latter is often the case when a person still has a way out that saves a modicum of “face,” but if one is driven into a corner and no possibility of evasion is left, the aggressive reaction is more likely to occur. Fright, like pain, is a most uncomfortable feeling, and humans will do almost anything to get rid of it. There are many ways to get rid of fright and anxiety, such as substance abuse, pleasures of the flesh, sleep, and the company of other. One of the most effective ways of getting rid of anxiety is to become aggressive. When a person can get out of the passive state of fright and begin to attack, the painful nature of fright disappears. Among all threat to human’s vital interest, the threat to their freedom is of extraordinary importance, individually and socially. In contrast to the widely held opinion that this desire for freedom is a product of culture and more specifically of learning-condition, there is able evidence to suggest that the desire for freedom is a biological reaction of the human organism. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
One phenomenon that supports this view is that throughout history nations and classes have fought their oppressors if there was any possibility of victory, and often even if there was none. The history of humankind is, indeed, a history of the fight for freedom, a history or revolutions, from the war of liberation of the Hebrews against the Egyptians, the national uprising against the Roman Empire, the German peasant rebellions in the sixteenth center, to the American, French, Herman, Russian, Chinese, Algerian, and Vietnamese revolutions. And the start of a revolution that is breaking out on American soil today. The revolutions that have occurred in history must not obscure the fact that infants and children also make revolutions, but since they are powerless, they have to use their own methods, those of guerrilla warfare, as it were. They fight against suppression of their freedom by various individual methods, such as stubborn negativism, refusal to eat, refusal to be toilet trained, bet-wetting, up and on the more drastic methods of autistic withdrawal and pseudomental debility. The adults behave like any elite whose power is challenged. As a result, most children surrender and prefer submission to constant torment. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
No mercy is shown in this war until victory is achieved, and our hospitals are filled with its casualties. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable fact that all human beings—the children of the powerful as well as those of the powerless—share the common experience of once having been powerless and having fought for their freedom. That is why one may assume that every human being—aside from one’s biological equipment—has acquired in one’s childhood a revolutionary potential that, though dormant for a long time, might be mobilized under special circumstances. Leaders have all to frequently used the slogan that they are leading their people in a battle of freedom, when in reality their aim has been to enslave them. That no promise appeals more powerfully to the great of humans are evidenced by the phenomenon that even those leaders who want to suppress freedom find it necessary to promise it. Much like in the lockdowns that many Americans are subjected today, unable to work, leave their homes, visit their families, or attend church and school. Another reason for assuming there is an inherent impulse in humans to fight for freedom lies in the fact that freedom is the condition for the full growth of a person, for one’s mental health and well-being; its absence cripples a person and is unhealthy. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
Freedom does not imply lack of constraint, since any growth occurs only within a structure, and any structure requires constraint. What matter is whether the constraint functions primarily for the sake of another person or institution, or whether it is autonomous—id est, that it results from the necessities of growth inherent in the structure of the person. As a condition for the unstunted development of the human organism, freedom is a vital biological interest of humans, but not only on humans. The deteriorating effect on the animal life in the zoo has been mentioned before and seems to outweigh the contrary views of even as great an authority as Dr. Hediger. And threats to humans freedom arouse defensive aggression as do all other threats to vital interests. Is it surprising then that aggression and violence continue to be generated in a World in which the majority are deprived from freedom, especially the people in the so-called underdeveloped countries? Those in power—id est, the dominant political party, culture, and race—would perhaps be less surprised and indignant if they were not accustomed to considering the underrepresented groups as nonpersons and, hence, not expected to react humanly. Only if combined with powerlessness, skin colour has this effect. The possession of advanced technology has become the criterion of being human. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
However, there is an additional reason for blindness. Even the dominant culture, powerful as they are, have surrendered their freedom because their own system had forced them to do so, although in a less drastic and overt way. Perhaps they hate those who fight for it today all the more because they are reminded of their own surrender. The fact that genuine revolutionary aggression, like all aggression generated by the impulse to defend one’s life, freedom, or dignity, is biologically rational and part of normal human functioning must not deceive one into forgetting that destruction of life always remains destruction, even when it is biologically justified; it is a matter of one’s religious, moral, or political principles whether one believes that it is humanly justified or not. However, whatever one’s principles in this respect are, it is important to be aware how easily purely defensive aggression is blended with (nondefensive) destructiveness and with the sadistic wish to reverse the situation by controlling other instead of being controlled. If and when this happens, revolutionary aggression is vitiated and tends to renew the conditions it was seeking to abolish. The conception of formal justice, the regular and impartial administration of public rules, becomes the rule of law when applied to the legal system. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
One kind of unjust action is the failure of judges and others in authority to apply the appropriate rule or to interpret it correctly. It is more illuminating in this connection to think not of gross violations exemplified by bribery and corruption, or the abuse of the legal system to punish political enemies, but rather of the subtle distortions of prejudice and bias as these effectively discriminate against certain groups in the judicial process. The regular and impartial, and in this sense fair, administration of law we may call “justice as regularity.” This is a more suggestive phrase than “formal justice.” Now the rule of law is obviously closely related to liberty. We can see this by considering the notion of a legal system and its intimate connection with the precepts definitive of justice as regularity. A legal system is a coercive order of public rules addressed to rational persons for the purpose of regulating their conduct and providing the framework for social cooperation. When these rules are just they establish a basis for legitimate expectations. They constitute grounds upon which persons can rely on one another and rightly object when their expectations are not fulfilled. If the bases of these claims are unsure, so are the boundaries of human’s liberties. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
Of course, other rules share many of these features. Rules of games and of private associations are likewise addressed to rational persons in order to give shape to their activities. Given that these rules are fair or just, then once humans have entered into these arrangements and accepted the benefits that result, the obligations which thereby arise constitute a basis for legitimate expectations. What distinguishes a legal system is its comprehensive scope and its regulative powers with respect to other associations. The constitutional agencies that it defines generally have the exclusive legal right to at least the more extreme forms of coercion. The kinds of duress that private associations can employ are strictly limited. Moreover, the legal order exercises a final authority over a certain well-defined territory. It is also marked by the wide range of the activities it regulates and the fundamental nature of the interests it is designed to secure. These features simply reflect the fact that the law defines the basic structure within which the pursuit of all other activities takes place. The actions which rules of law require and forbid should be of a kind which humans can reasonably be expected to do and to avoid. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
A system of rules addresses to rational persons to organize their conduct concerns itself with what they can and cannot do. It should not impose a duty to do what cannot be done. Also, the notion that ought implies can conveys the idea that those who enact laws and give orders do so in good faith. Legislators and judges, and other officials of the system, must believe that the laws can be obeyed; and they are to assume that any orders given can be carried out. Moreover, not only must the authorities act in good faith, but their good faith must be recognized by those subject to their enactments. Only if it is generally believed that they can be obeyed and executed, are laws and commands are accepted as laws and commands. If this is in question, the actions of authorities presumably have some other purpose than to organize conduct. Furthermore, this percent expresses the requirement that a legal system should recognize impossibility of performance as a defense, or at least as a mitigating circumstance. In enforcing rules a legal system cannot regard the inability to perform as irrelevant. If the liability to penalties was not normally limited to actions within our power to do or not to do, it would be an intolerable burden on liberty. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
The precept that like decisions be given in likes cases significantly limits the discretion of judges and other in authority. The precept forces them to justify the distinctions that they make between persons by reference to the relevant rules and principles. In any particular case, if the rules are at all complicated and call for interpretation, it may be easy to justify an arbitrary decision. However, as the number of cases increases, plausible justifications for biased judgments become more difficult to construct. The requirement for consistency holds of course for the interpretation of all rules and for justifications at all levels. Eventually reasoned arguments for discriminatory judgments become harder to formulate and the attempt to do so less persuasive. This precept holds also in cases of equity, that is, when an exception is to be made when the established rule works an unexpected hardship. However, this proviso: since there is no clear line separating these exceptional cases, there comes a point, as in matters of interpretation, at which nearly any difference will make a difference. In these instances, the principle of authoritative decision applies, and the weight of precedent or of the announced verdict suffices. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
The Lord has said that “there is a law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this World, upon which all blessings are predicated—and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 130.20-21. It would seem from this declaration that there is no permanent progress made in any field or in any place except it be through obedience to the governing law. “And again, verily I say unto you, that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same law. That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment. Therefore, they must remain filthy still. For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom recieveth wisdom truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own; justice continueth its course and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of one who sitteth upon the throne and governeth and executeth all things. And again, verily I say unto you, one hath given a law unto all things, by which they move in their times and their seasons. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
“And their courses are fixed, even the courses of the Heaven and the Earth, which comprehend the Earth and all the planets,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 88.34-35, 40, 42-43. The written law that God gave to the Israelites is one of the greatest gifts of grace that God has ever conveyed to the human race. It is a part of the blessings that God promised would come to all the families or nations of the Earth through Abraham and his seed. Of course there is much more to the law than just rules or commandments. It provides a picture of reality: of how things are with God and his creation. The Prophets and the Gospels share with “the Law” this vital function of enabling humans beings to know God, what God is doing, and what we are to do—wherein our true well-being lies. Thus Moses challenges his people: “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statues and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” reports Deuteronomy. The law of the Lord gratefully received, studied, and internalized to the point of obedience as “perfect,” as Psalm 19.7 says. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
There is nothing lacking in it for its intended purpose. It therefore converts or restores the soul of those who seek it and receive it. It is a spiritual power in its own right, as is the Word of God generally. It is a living and powerful being capable of distinguishing soul from spirit in humans and dealing with them appropriately and redemptively. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any doubled-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of hi to whom we must give account,” reports Hebrews 4.12-13. There is nothing in all of the glory of the law according to the Old Testament that suggests for a moment that what the law does in the human heart is a human accomplishment. Rather, all benefit is ascribed to the law would be, simply, a loss. For in attempting to use it, we would have thrown ourselves back into the position of self-idolatry, utilizing the written law as our tool for managing ourselves and God. This mistake is what led to the horrible degradation of “the Law” at the time of Jesus and Paul, turning it from a pathway of grace to an instrument of cultural self-righteousness and human oppression. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
What is the use, ask many questioners, of first, an evolution of the human soul which merely brings it back to the same point where is started and second, of developing a selfhood through the long cycles of evolution only to have it merged or dissolved in the end into the unselfed Absolute? Is not the whole scheme absurdly useless? “Woe to you lawyers!” Jesus said, “For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered,” reports Luke 11.52. The unit of life emanated from God and begins with the merest glimmer of consciousness, appearing on our plane as a protozoic cell. It evolves eventually into the fullest human consciousness, including the intellectual and spiritual. It does not finish as it began; on the contrary, there is a grand purpose behind all its travail. There is thus a wide gulf between its original state and its final one. Human’s individuality survives even in the divinest state accessible to them. There it becomes the same in quality but not identical in essence. The most intimate mental and physical experiences of human love cast a little light for our comprehension of this mystery. The misunderstanding which leads to these questions arises chiefly because of the error which believes that it is the divine soul which goes through all this pilgrimage by reincarnating in a series of Earthly forms. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
The true teaching about reincarnating is not that the divine soul enters into the captivity and ignorance of the flesh again and again but that something emanated from the soul, that is, a unit of life that eventually develops into the personal ego, does do. God contains this reincarnating ego within itself but does not itself reincarnate. It is the parent; the ego is only its offspring. The long and tremendous evolution through which the unit of life passes from its primate cellular existence to its matured human one is a genuine evolution of its consciousness. Whoever believes that the process first plunges a soul down from the heights into a body or forces Spirit to lose itself in Matter, and then leaves it no alternative but to climb all the way back to the lost summit again, believes wrongly. God never descends or climbs, never loses His own sublime consciousness. What really does this is something that emanates from it and that consequently holds its capacity and power in latency, something which is finited out of God’s infinitude and becomes first, the simple unit of life and later, the complex human ego. It is not God that suffers and struggles during this long unfoldment but His child, the ego. It is not God that slowly expands His intelligence and consciousness, but the ego. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
It is not God that gets deluded by ignorance and passion, by selfishness and extroversion, but the ego. “Then I saw another beast, coming out of the Earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but be spoke like a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the Earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And her performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from Heaven to Earth in full view of humans. Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the Earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given the power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive the mark on their right hand or on one’s forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless one had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let one calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666,” reports Revelation 12.11-18. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
Notice everywhere you go there are a lot of 6s on the floor, telling you to stay six feet away from others? It is just kind of fascinating. We would not know the end of days if we were living in them, but it is possible that is what is going on. May the blessings of all the World descend on this mansion: the blessings of Earth, the blessings of sky, the blessings of the moving ocean and of the never still wind. From the people of stone, blessings: the blessings of plants and the blessings of animals; of two-legged and four, of six and of eight; and the blessings of the spirits. From all those who dwell on the Earth and in it and above it, may blessings flow. I pray to you, God of happiness, who for so long presided over this mansion We call to you again; awake, come to us, and once more shower blessings on this mansion and those who come before you. May the foundation and the structure be as strong as you, lasting through all ages. This mansion was formed in love. And with newly opened eyes, clear with sight the architectures knew its fate was to reveal a story. And with her heart’s own true wisdom, she has passed expectations. Mrs. Winchester loved it, she loves it, they love it. Blessings on love and on all who love. Blessings from the God of love. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
God does raise us to high honour. Our eyes have seen the defeat of our foes, our ears have heard the doom of evil doers that rise up against us. The righteous shall flourish like a redwood tree and grow might like cypress tree. Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they shall bring forth fruit, they shall be full of vigour and strength, declaring that the Lord is just, my Rock in whom there is no unrighteousness. The Lord reigneth; He is robed in majesty; the Lord is robbed, He hath girded Himself with strength Now is the Earth firmly established; it shall not be moved. Thy throne established of old; Thou art from everlasting. The waters life up their voices, O Lord, the waters lift up their roaring; yet above the voices of many waters, above the breakers of the sea, Thou, O Lord, art mighty. The law is true and unfailing; holiness is becoming Thy house, O Lord, forevermore. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; let the Lord rejoice in His works. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever. From the rising of the sun unto its setting, the Lord’s name be praised. The Lord is high above all nations. His glory is above the Heavens; O Lord, Thy name endures forever; Thou art Lord for all generations. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
Winchester Mystery House
WINCHESTER HOUSE BUILT BY SARAH WINCHESTER. WIDOW OF RIFLE MANUFACTURER WILLIAM WINCHESTER. THIS UNIQUE STRUTUE MANY OUTSTANDING ELEMENTS OF VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE AND FINE CRAFTSMANSHIP. CONSTRUCTION BEGAN 1884 AND CONTINUED WITHOUT INTERRUPTION UNTIL MRS WINCHESTER’S DEATH 1922. THE CONTINUAL BUILDING AND REMODELING CREATED A 160 ROOM HOUSE COVERING AN AREA OF SIX ACRES CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO 868 PLAQUE PLACED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION INCOOPERATION WITH THE WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE MAY 3.1974.
What do you think inspired Sarah Winchester to continuously build such a beautiful and bizarre home composed of 160 rooms, once standing seven stories tall? winchestermysteryhouse.com
Upon Your Skirts Have Fallen Tears of Mine–Genuine Joy and Creativity Come Out of Paradox!
The run-of-the-mill have a truer capacity for love than intellectuals, who should know better. I have always worked with the temperamental conviction that at bottom there are no insoluble problems, and experience justifies me in so far as I have often seen patients simply outgrow a problem that destroyed others. This “outgrowing,” as I called it, proves on further investigation to be a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest appears on the patient’s horizon, and through this broadening of one’s outlook the insoluble problem loses its urgency. It is not solved logically in its own terms, but fades out when confronted with a new and stronger life urge. It is not repressed and made unconscious, but merely appears in a different light, and so really does become different. What, on a lower level, leads to the wildest conflicts and to panicky outbursts of emotion, from the higher level of personality now looks like a storm in the valley seen from the mountain top. This does not mean that the storm is robbed of its reality, but instead of being in it one is above it. However, since, in a psychic sense, we are both valley and mountain, it might seem a vain illusion to deem oneself beyond what is human. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
One certainly does feel the affect and is shaken and tormented by the storm, yet at the same time one is aware of a higher consciousness looking on which prevents one from becoming identical with the affect, a consciousness which regards the affect as an object, and can say, “I know that I suffer.” What our text says of indolence, “Indolence of which a human is conscious, and indolence of which one is unconscious, are a thousand miles apart,” hold true in the highest degree of affect. Now and then it happens in my practice that a patient grows beyond oneself because of unknow potentialities, and this becomes an experience of prime importance to me. In the meantime, I have learned that all the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble. They must be so, for they express the necessary polarity inherent in every self-regulating system. They can never be solved, but only outgrown. I therefore asked myself whether this outgrowing, this possibility of further psychic development, is not the normal thing, and whether getting stuck in conflict is pathological. Everyone must possess that higher level, at least in embryonic form, and must under favourable circumstances be able to develop this potentiality. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
When I examine the course of development in patients who quietly, and as if unconsciously, outgrow themselves, I see that their fates have been something in common. The new thing comes to them from obscure possibilities either outside or inside themselves; they accept it and grow with its help. It seems to me typical that some take the new thing from outside themselves, others from inside; or rather, that it grows int some persons from without, and into others from within. However, the new thing never comes exclusively either form within or from without. If it comes from outside, it becomes a profound inner experience; if it comes from inside, it becomes an outer happening. In no case is it conjured into existence intentionally or by conscious willing, but rather seems to be borne along on the stream of time. The goal toward which the individuation process is ending is “Wholeness” or “Integration”: a condition in which all the different elements of the psyche, both conscious and unconscious, are welded together. The person who achieves this goal possess an attitude that is beyond the reach of emotional entanglements and violent shocks—a consciousness detached from the World. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Individuation is a spiritual journey; and the person embarking upon it, although one might not subscribe to any recognized creed, is nonetheless pursuing a religious quest. By paying careful attention to the unconscious, as manifested in dream and fantasy, the individual comes to change one’s attitude from one in which ego and will are paramount to one in in which one acknowledges that one is guided by an integrating factor which is not of one’s own making. This integrating factor, expressed by the emergence of quaternity or mandala symbols, is named the Self; and archetype which not only signifies union between the opposites within the psyche, but is a God-image, or at least cannot be distinguished from one. Unity and totality stand at the highest point on the scale of objective values because their symbols can no longer be distinguished from the imago Dei. Imago Dei (The Image of God) is a concept and theological doctrine in Judaism, Christianity, and Sufism of Islam, which asserts that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. Hence all statements about the God-image apply to the empirical symbols of totality. Ironically, facing death can being the courage to live and create. By the creative act, we are able to reach beyond our own death. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
Because we are able to reach beyond our own death when we are creative, this is why creativity is so important, and why we need to confront the problem of the relationship between creativity and death. One needs to devote one’s aesthetic and sensibilities as an artist and their fantasy to the outside World and harness it for the task of creating a real life in relationship with others. The role of the artist is the greatest kind of courage. Many people struggle to create life through symbol and imagination, they demonstrate the essential task of creating in the face of death. It they create themselves and their own lives, however, it may be asked what “self” they are creating. Are they creating false selves and role expectations or authentic selves and authentic lives? Mandalas are cryptograms concerning the state of the self which is presented to the individual creating them. In them, some people see the self—that is, their whole being—actively at work. To be sure, at first one may only simply understand them; but they seem to the individual highly significant, and one guards the like precious pearls. One has the distinct feeling that they are something central, and in time one may acquire through them a living conception of the self. The self, one may think, is like the monad which one is, and which is their World. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
The mandala represents his monad, and corresponds to the microcosmic nature of the psyche. Now, for clarity, the mandala is an art form that one usually creates, like a painting of patterns or a sketch, and it represents one’s mind. It makes it easier for one to concentrate on, transform, and internalize unconscious things in oneself. Monads are one of the ultimate indivisible units of existence. Monads are independent of one another and innately have the power of action and direction toward some end. Although no monad in reality acts on any other, they work in a divinely preestablished harmony so that an appearance of causal connection is maintained. The concept of the monad is intended, in part, to address the mind-body problem arising from Cartesian dualism. While working on mandalas, there may be a great many and some questions may arise repeatedly: What is this process leading to? Where is its goal? From one’s own experience, one may know that one cannot presume to choose a goal which would seem trustworthy to oneself. It may be necessary to abandon the idea of the superordinate position of the ego. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
It may be a good idea to go with the scientific analysis of myths which are Symbols of Transformation. This may be an unconscious process. Therefore, let oneself be carried along by the current without a notion of where it will lead one. When one begins drawing the mandalas, however, one will see that everything, all the paths one has been following, all the steps one has been taking, are leading back to a single point—namely, to the mid-point. It may become increasingly plain to one that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the paths to the center, to individuation. Some people have seen these artworks on the exterior of Victorian houses, or in the pattern of stained-glass windows, like the stained-glass window Mrs. Winchester created with the spider web and thirteen orbs. The goal of psychic development is the self. Uniform development exists, at most, only at the beginning; later, everything points toward the center. This insight gives one stability, and gradually one’s inner peace will return. One will know that finding the mandala as an expression of the self, one has attained for one the ultimate. And perhaps one will learn more. There is great importance of authenticity and subjectivity in the creation of the self in the World. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
Our subjectivity is our true home, our natural state, and our necessary place of refuge and renewal. It is the font of creativity, the stage for imagination, the drafting table for planning, and the ultimate heart of our fears and hopes, our sorrows and satisfactions. To the extent that some are struggling to create, not just any selves, but experientially coherent authentic selves, subjectivity is a necessary aspect of one’s creativity. The confrontation between life and death, the courage to create in the face of death, and the authenticity of a subjective self can be organized into a paradoxical model. Genuine joy and creativity come out of paradox. The human psyche is a continuum of constrictive and expansive possibilities. The dread of constriction and expansion promotes dysfunctional extremism or polarization, whereas confrontation with or integration of the poles promotes optimal living. Some people oscillate between the poles of expansion out into life and withdrawal into depression and a fantasy World (light and dark imagery, pleasures of the flesh and spirituality), these extremes can be understood as resting on a continuum, with the therapeutic task being to name and integrate the poles. However, the solitary journey toward independence may be molded after the heroic journey towards consciousness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
The pull toward unconsciousness and the need for nurturance and interdependence is part of one’s journey. In Victorian women, hysteria often was a form personality of the vamp and the little girl. The mental hospital is a metaphorical space in which to articulate the crazy-making pressures of middle-class life, particularly for women. The home, the mental hospital, the body: these are woman’s places in the social order that apportion different roles to the genders; and woman herself is the very sense of mutilation. Some women, especially young women experience death by suicide or have a lust for it because they may want to die perfect, certainly not mutilated. To lose your virginity is to be mutilated; virginity is unopen, not yet spoiled. Sleeping Beauty remained perfect. Being Sleeping Beauty also expresses one’s desire to remain a child, and object of fantasy, dependent, and this beauty in their lives makes them want to die as Sleeping Beauty rather than risk imperfection. Some are seeking to balance freedom and security, meaning and emptiness, loneliness and relationship. Death may be seen as warm arms, as a release from the struggle of living. Perhaps it is a good idea to let them know it is acceptable to live and remain pure. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
When pain becomes too great, contain it with humour and with writing. Presence is critical. Having someone listen to one’s silence, to one’s presence (dasein), and give one immediate, kinesthetic, and profound attention is absolutely necessary. When in a suicidal depression, one needs someone to hold one’s hand. One needs someone to help them see life as a composition, to bring one’s extremes more integrated whole, and to apply one’s creativity to one’s actual life. An essential part of healing is to see one’s individual story in a larger cultural perspective. The balance tbween nurturance and work, and the themes of sacrifice, homelessness, and the closeness between death and rebirth, are especially close to the psyche and psychotherapy of women. Sacrifice is the basis of the early primordial fertility rites and is a necessary part of the spring rebirth. Feeling sacrificed to the dominant patriarchal culture and experiencing the plight of insecurity in the living environment through the dispossession of an archetypal place in the World bring some people together in a bond of empathy and shard humanity. This bond can also unite individuals in an empathy of an intense, preverbal sibling type relationship. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
When people have someone to groan with in sympathy, it implies a way of being that does not distance but noncognitively feels with one one’s experience and allows one to descend into the underworld, transform the pain unto image and symbol, and re-emerge stronger. As one has someone to work with them through the process and changing imagery, those who have faith and the word of God deep in their hearts will be able to absorb and overcome the fiery darts that the adversary will surely send to destroy us. Otherwise, our faith, hope, and conviction may not endure, and we could become a casualty. I have learned that having the word of God deep in my soul, coupled with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement, allows me to draw upon the power of God to overcome the adversary and anything he may throw at me. As we face challenges, we can rely upon the promise of the Lord taught by Saint Paul: “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” We know that as a child the Saviour grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. We know that as He grew older, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and humans. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
And we know that by the time God’s ministry commenced, those who heard Him were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power. Through preparation, the Saviour grew in power and was able to resist all of Satan’s temptations. As we follow the Saviour’s example and prepare through studying the word of God and deepening our faith, we also can draw upon the power of God to resist temptations. Clear the space for change to happen. Let go of the vestiges of your old life, and of illusions that others provide a home for and that your Ghostly Love can provide a relationship. The second phase has to do with descent. These entails one’s experiencing one’s aloneness, one’s vulnerability, tracking the images in one’s dreams and journals, and experiencing one’s images of fire, darkness, crosses, and sacrifice. Remember, there is no expiration date associated with the power God bestows upon those who make and keep temple covenants, nor is there a restriction from accessing that power during a pandemic. However, if we fail to keep our covenants and do not life in a way that allows us to continually qualify to receive His power, the God’s power diminishes in our lives. Focus on your readiness to create your own life, and to meet another person without any baggage or encumbrances from your past. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
When you are free from encumbrances and baggage, when you do meet someone, you will be free and ready to move into a relationship with clear intentions of creating a stable home and a place for yourself. From then on, your images will deal with rebirth, light, and interdependence. Staying with this process means trusting in the Lord and the logic of one’s psyche and helping one to put one’s images and experiences into the context of a meaningful story. Because without working through the healing process, one is faced with total lack of understanding, either not wanting to understand what one is talking about because it is too painful or one is unable to understand because it is too foreign to their experience or because one is totally unable to listen to another person and hear what one is saying. In any event, the World will seem to offer nothing of care or concern for one’s experience or one’s feelings. It will seem unable and unprepared to give one anything to help one in suffering. One will just suffer, and by asking others to listen, and getting no response, one’s suffering will increase. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
However, through it all, our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, love us! They care for us! They and Their holy angels are watching over us. I know this is true. As we seek union of feeling, we will call down the power of God to make our efforts whole. We often think of substance in terms of food or money, but perhaps what we all need more of is mercy. Sometimes when a person witnesses your suffering, it makes a difference. Just being seen and heard by another. And one listening and sharing in your deep mourning. It has an impact on other people. Their eyes fill with tears. This makes some people want to listen quietly and mourn with you. The ability to listen is a rare quality, born of love. The ability to sit in silence is even more rare—a holy moment when two sit as one. Th feeling has no need for explanation. When a person manifests the least kindness and love, oh what a power it has over one’s mind. The nearer we get to our Heavenly Father, the more are we disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls—we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders and cast their sins behind our back. If you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on another. Let us not judge each other or let or words bite. Let us keep each other’s names safe and give the gift of mercy. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
Differences can be turned to advantage instead of disadvantage. Unity does not magically happen; it takes work. It is messy, sometimes uncomfortable, and happens gradually when we clear away the bad as fast as the good can grow. Each of us is going to have deeply wounding experiences, things that should never happen. Each of us will also, at various times, allow pride and loftiness to corrupt the fruit we bear. However, Jesus Christ is our Saviour in all things. His power reaches to the very bottom and is reliably there for us when we call on Him. We all beg for mercy for our sins and failures. Jesus freely gives it. And Jesus Christ asks us if we can give that same mercy and understanding to each other. That is the meaning of the soul in the Christian understanding, and can be seen from what the Bible says about God’s soul. Many people are surprised to learn that God, too, has a soul, and even translators of the Bible often do not seem to know what to do about it. Referring to the gross wickedness into which Judea had fallen, the prophet Jeremiah gives the Lord’s word: “Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee: and lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited,” reports Jeremiah 6.8. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
However, more recent versions translate this as “or I shall turn from you in disgust,” or “Lest I be alienated from you.” Similarly I Jeremiah 9.9: “Shall not my soul be avenged on a nation as this?”; “Shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?”; and “On a nation such as this I shall not avenge Myself?” In these and other cases the word “nephesh” (or soul) occurs in the Hebrews text with reference to God. That is done in order to indicate the utter depth of the response of God to the wickedness of his people. That depth is not successfully communicated by the alternative language offered. The true meaning is hollowed out and lost. Similar observations must be made about Isaiah 1.14. In speaking of the soul of God, reference is always made to the deepest, most fundamental level of his being. And similarly in the New Testament texts such as, “Behold, My Servant Whom I Have Chosen; My Beloved In Whom My Soul Is Well-Pleased” (Matthew 12.18; see Leviticus 26.11; Psalm 11.5; and numerous other passages referring to God’s soul. The heart of the matter is that to refer to someone’s soul is to say something about the ultimate depths of one’s being and something that cannot be communicated by using terms like “person” or “self” or various available pronouns. (see Matthew 11.29.) #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
The human entity has travelled through joy and suffering, experienced birth and death, experimented with good and evil for the very purpose of becoming a fully conscious entity. How then could annihilation—Vendantic or any other kind—be its ultimate fate? Is it for this, that humans should end as a mere speck of dust, that they were born? Consciousness, aspiration insight, and inspirations, artistic creations and scientific revelations, the noblest ethical feeling—all useless because the being hey serve is destined to vanish utterly? If all human’s seeming progress comes to an end with one’s death, one’s own end, how futile it is! It helps little to say that others will benefit by it, for this merely shifts the futility to them, for they too will die. The human situation is unsatisfactory and the Biblical Psalmist succinctly lamented. We have not come from oblivion. All our past is present in our characters, capacities, and tendencies; therefore we shall not go into oblivion. There is no death—only a change of state. We have the power to remove prejudice and build unity while we are here in mortal form. May we draw upon God and walk upright with one another—in perfect peace and harmony. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
We bring before you today one of yours, people of our past, one who will continue what you started in the long-ago time. God your beloved child is one of us, the family that reached so far back, and we will need you to please guide your family until they are ready to assume their full responsibilities. Be with you children and us as we do that; as your children grow, please be at their side to help. Please come to us today and learn who your children are, come and celebrate with us. Whatever the Lord desireth, He performeth, in Heaven and Earth, in the seas, and all deeps; He causeth mists to arise from the ends of the Earth; He maketh lightening for the rain; He being forth the wind out of His store-houses. God smote the first-born of Egypt, both man and beast. He sent signs and wonders into the midst of Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all His servants. God concerned many nations, and struck down might kings; Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of the Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan; and gave their land for a heritage unto Israel His people. “Lord” is Thy name for ever; as Lord art Thou known throughout all generations. For the Lord shall judge His people, and have compassion upon His servants. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
CRESLEIGH RIVERSIDE AT PLUMAS RANCH
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If you asked us what our favorite part of this #PlumasRanch home, we’d for sure say all those windows! 😍 But also.. check out that fire pit set up. That’s what perfect nights are made of, right there!
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In a World where the Pulse of Time Beats Infinitely Slowly, Birth and Death Count for Little!
Hardships do not build character. They reveal it. Anyone who will tear down Victorian craftsmanship will tear down America. Victorian architecture and religion have made America what it is today. A World without Victorian architecture is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval prison. Just like the unconscious mind, Victorians have a lot of secrets that can take several lifetimes to reveal. Faith and the word of God fills our inner soul and is sufficient to sustain us—and allows us to access His power. The notion that God created this World spectacle for the benefit of the human alone is an absurd and unwarranted anthropolatry, but the notion that life first attains individual self-consciousness in humans is justified in philosophy and by experience. What is it of which one alone is conscious? It is of being oneself, one’s ego. In all earlier stages of evolution, consciousness is entirely veiled in its forms and never becomes self-aware. Only in the human state does individual consciousness of being first dawn. There may exist on other planets creatures infinitely more intelligent and more amiable than human beings. We may not be the only pebbles on the beach of life. Nevertheless the piece of arrogance which places humans highest in the scale of existence contains the dim reverberation of a great truth, for humans bear the divine within their hearts. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
Human beings have made too much fuss about themselves, their own importance in the cosmic scale. Why should there not be other forms of life superior t them, conscious intelligent beings higher in mentality, character, and spiritual knowledge, better equipped with powers and techniques? Even a partial awareness of what it means to be a human—as above an animal—capable of thinking abstractly, conscious of the vastness of the Universe and the littleness of the ego, asking the ago-old questions about meaning and purpose in life, sometimes getting a glimpse of a few words of the answer through religion, art, Nature, mysticism, joy, suffering, or intelligence, even this is enough to make one wonder what follows in development after one, higher than oneself, if not here then perhaps on other planets or in a fourth dimension. Such beings must already exist somewhere. Are they the gods of ancient fable and myth, disfigured or miscomprehended in human narratives by passing of time? Were they visitors who helped infant humanity reach its tends and then left it, withdrew, except for rare appearances as avatars, angels, or lawgivers? There are existences for beings on levels and in times and space different from ours. The Level we know and the humans we see only partially manifest the World-Idea. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
The multibirthed nature of human experience fits in with the shimmering galaxies of the multiverse itself. “We are not alone,” could be echoed back by this planet Earth itself. There are beings not subject to the same laws as those governing humankind’s physical existence. They are normally not visible to humans. They are gods. The Gods are both symbols of particular forces and beings dwelling on higher planes. All these figures irrupt autonomously into consciousness as soon as it gets into a pathological state. With regard to the anima, I would particularly like to draw attention to the case described by Nelken. Now the remarkable thing is that these figures show the most striking connections with the poetic, religious, or mythological formulations, though these connections are in no way factual. That is to say, they are spontaneous products of analogy. One such case even led to the charge of plagiarism: the French writer Benoit gave a description of the anima and her classic myth in his book L’Atlantide, which is an exact parallel of Rider Haggard’s She. The lawsuit proved unsuccessful; Benoit and never heard of She. (It might, in the last analysis, have been an instance of cryptomnesic deception, which is often extremely difficult to rule out.) #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
The distinctly “historical” aspect of the anima and Benoit’s condensation with the figures of the sister, wife, mother, and daughter, plus thus associated incest motif, can be found in Goethe (“You were in times gone by my wife of sister”), as well as in the anima figure of the regina and femina alba in alchemy. The English alchemist Eirenaeus Philalethes (“love of truth”), writing about 1645, remarks that the “Queen” was the King’s “sister, mother, or wife.” The same idea can be found, ornately elaborated, in Nelken’s patient and in a whole series of cases observed by me, where I was able to rule out with certainty any possibility of literary influence. For the rest, the anima complex is one of the oldest features of Latin alchemy. When one studies the archetypal personalities and their behaviour with the help of the dreams, fantasies, delusions of patients, one is profoundly impressed by their manifold and unmistakable connections with mythological ideas completely unknown to the layperson. They form a species of singular beings whom one would like to endow with ego-consciousness; indeed, they almost seem capable of it. And yet this idea is not borne out by the facts. There is nothing in their behaviour to suggest that they have an ego-consciousness as we know it. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
The behaviours show, on the contrary, all the marks of fragmentary personalities. They are masklike, wraithlike, without problems, lacking self-reflection, with no conflicts, no doubts no sufferings; like gods, perhaps, who have no philosophy, such as the Brahma-gods of the Samyutta–nikaya, whose erroneous views needed correction by the Buddha. Unlike other contents, they always remain strangers in the World of consciousness, unwelcome intruders saturating the atmosphere with uncanny forebodings or even with the fear of madness. If we examine their content, id est, the fantasy material constituting their phenomenology, we find countless archaic and “historical” associations and images of an archetypal nature. This peculiar fact permits us to draw conclusions about the “localization’ of anima and animus in the psychic structure. They evidently live and function in the deeper layers of the unconscious, especially that phylogenetic substratum which I have called the collective unconscious. This localization explains a good deal of their strangeness: they being into our ephemeral consciousness an unknown psychic life belonging to a remote past. It is the mind of our unknown ancestors, their way of thinking and feeling, their way of experiencing life and the World, gods and humans. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
The existence of these archaic strata is presumable the source of the human’s belief in reincarnations and in memories of “previous existences.” Just as the human body is a museum, so to speak, of its phylogenetic history, so too is the psyche. We have no reason to suppose that the specific structure of the psyche is the only thing in the World that has n history outside its individual manifestations. Even the conscious mind cannot be denied a history reaching back at least five thousand years. It is only our ego-consciousness that has forever a new beginning and an early end. The unconscious psyche is not only immensely old, it is also capable of growing into an equally remote future. It moulds the human species and is just as much a part of its as the human body, which, though ephemeral in the individual, is collectively of immense ago. The anima and animus live in a World quite different from the World outside—in a World where the pulse of time beats infinitely slowly, where the birth and death of individuals count for little. No wonder their nature is strange, so strange that their irruption into consciousness often amounts to a psychosis. They undoubtedly belong to the material that comes to light in schizophrenia. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
What I have said about the collective unconscious may give you give a more or less adequate idea of what I mean by their term. If we now turn back to the problem of individuation, we shall see ourselves faced with a rather extraordinary task: the psyche consists of two incongruous halves which together should form a whole. One is inclined to think that ego-consciousness is capable of assimilating the unconscious, at least one hopes that such a solution is possible. However, unfortunately the unconscious really is unconscious; in other words, it is unknown. And how can you assimilate something unknown? Even if you can form a fairly complete picture of the anima and animus, this does not mean that you have plumbed the depths of the unconscious. One hopes to control the unconscious, but the past masters in the art of self-control, the yogis, attain perfection in samadhi, a state of ecstasy, which so far as we know is equivalent to a state of unconsciousness. It makes no difference whether they call our unconscious a “universal consciousness”; the fact remains that in their case the unconscious has swallowed up ego-consciousness. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
They do not realize that a “universal consciousness” is a contradiction in terms, since exclusion, selection, and discrimination are the root and essence of everything that lays claim to the name “consciousness.” “Universal consciousness” is logically identical with unconsciousness. It is nevertheless true that a correct application of the methods described in the Pali Canon or the Yoga-sutra induces a remarkable extension of consciousness. But, with increasing extension, the contents of consciousness lose in clarity of detail. In the end consciousness becomes all-embracing, but nebulous; and infinite number of things merge into an indefinite whole, a state in which subject and object are almost completely identical. This is all very beautiful, but scarcely to be recommended anywhere north of the Tropic of Cancer. For this reason we must look for a different solution. We believe in ego-consciousness and in what we call reality. The realities of a north climate are somehow so convincing that we feel very much better off when we do not forget them. For us it makes sense to concern ourselves with reality. Our European ego-consciousness is therefore inclined to swallow up the unconscious, and if this should not prove feasible we try to suppress it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
However, if we understand anything of the unconscious, we know that it cannot be swallowed. We also know that it is dangerous to suppress it, because the unconscious is life and this life turns against us if suppressed, as it happens in neurosis. When one of them is suppressed and injured by the other, conscious and unconscious do not make a whole. If they must contend, let it at least be a fair fight with equal rights on both sides. Both are aspects of life. Consciousness should defend its reason and protect itself, and the chaotic life of the unconscious should be given the chance of having its way too—as much of it as we can stand. This means open conflict and open collaboration at once. That, evidently, is the way human life should be. It is the old game of hammer and anvil: between them the patient iron is forged into an indestructible whole, and “individual.” This, roughly, is what I mean by the individuation process. As the same shows, it is a process or course of development arising out of the conflict between the two fundamental psychic facts. The symbol of formation has the closet affinities with alchemical ideas, and especially with the conception of the “uniting symbol,” which yield highly significant parallels. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
Naturally these are processes which have no meaning in the initial stages of psychological treatments. On the other hand, more difficult cases, such as cases of unresolved transference, develop these symbols. Knowledge of them is of inestimable importance in treating cases of this kind, especially when dealing with cultured patients. How the harmonizing of conscious and unconscious data is to be undertaken cannot be indicated in the form of a recipe. It is an irrational life-process which expressed itself in definite symbols. It may be the task of the analyst to stand by this process with all the help one can give. In this case, knowledge of the symbols is indispensable, for it is in them that the union of conscious and unconscious contents is consummated. Out of this union emerge new situations and new conscious attitudes. I have therefore called the union of opposites the “transcendent function.” This rounding out of the personality into a whole may well be the goal of any psychotherapy that claims to be more than a mere cure of symptoms. As experience piles up, self-structures gradually establish themselves and, in doing so, separate out more and more from other structures which have less to do with one’s identity. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
In the course of this process, as the self becomes more distinct, other people and things also gain coherence and individuality. There is a growing sense of “Ah yes, this is me, and that is that, and you are you, and this is what goes on between us.” Gradually, with further experiences, if all goes well, the personality develops a relatively stable sense of itself in its environment and a stable sense of what is not self but other people and things. Our life-experiences are increasingly reorganized and integrated, with more linkages to the more central regions of the self, and/or with more clearly delineated object-imagery. Our experiences can become more closely connected with (or, on the other hand, more distant from) the feelings or excitements which originally accompanied the experiences. This is a process through which our experiences can also become relatively less integrated with the person with whim we first experienced them, and relatively less integrated with the feelings or excitements with which we first experienced them. Thus feelings and excitements can be isolated from the structures in terms of which they were first experienced, isolated from structures of self and/or isolated from object-imagery. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
To give an imaginary illustration of a very complicated process, the experience may be of a child being hugged by the mother and enjoying it. In words: “I like being hugged by mother.” This may be broken up into such substructures as “hugging is lovely” (whoever hugs whom: the “depersonalized” relationship), as well as “I liked being hugged,” “I love mother,” “I like hugging,” “mother loves me,” “mother loves hugging me,” “mother likes hugging,” and so on. This example is also useful in letting us realize just how many structures can emerge out of one experience; it is a mistake to think of an experience being broken up into one self-concept, one object-concept, one relationship, one emotion. “Depersonalizing” is used to describe this process. Depersonalizing is a useful way of coping with distressing feelings, I shall often call it “distancing” or “disowning.” In depersonalizing, emotions and objects differentiate. My first experience of a dog may have been frightening, but “frightening” and “dog” will eventually probably differentiate from each other, so that in due course I can distinguish between the dog which scared me, and dogs in general which have no personal significance for me either frightening or lovable, and so on. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
At that level of abstraction, dogs remain dogs, whatever my experience of them: object-constancy has been achieved. In depersonalizing, the emotions and self differentiate. “I” and “frightened” differentiate. More generally, I learn that I am not wholly (always) good or wholly (always” bad, or wholly (always) happy or wholly (always) unhappy. Later I have to discover that my feeling hat someone or something is good or bad does not mean that it is so. And I have to discover that my feeling that someone or something is good or bad does not mean that other people think so. Subjectivity is thus turned into objectivity. This process of depersonalizing may be patchy or superficial. Underneath what we have learned about dogs which helps us say we know that not all dogs are frightening although we once knew a frightening puppy, there may be unconscious connections very tightly integrated with a feeling of good or bad about dogs. Part of psychotherapy is to being these unconscious connections into consciousness. When thinking about feelings, it is useful sometimes not to think in a “distancing” or depersonalized way of “love,” or “distress,” or “fear.” It can be instructive to think for a while in terms of “love-of,” and “distress-from,” and “fear-of,” and “hate-of,” and “greed-for,” and “bliss-with.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
If we think of feelings apart from who-feels-what-towards-whom, we risk being cut from out roots. Feeling are experienced as relational—once stated, it seems obvious, at least for a healthy functioning organism. Feelings are relational from the start except when something has gone wrong with our biochemistry. When feelings are detached from the experiences in which they were aroused, that is normally due to a later and defensive manoeuver. This component in the object-relation does not therefore separate out in an organized way, as self-structures or object-imagery do in the healthy infant. On the contrary, it looks as though health may consist in keeping feelings attached to the experiences with which they are bound up. Healthy people may have a clear sense of self and of the people and things around them, but they are not much visited by isolated waves of “fear-of” or “bliss-with.” Such feelings would normally be anchored in an experience. Depersonalized feelings are very weird. One of the many contributions made by Dr. Melanie Klein and her associates comes from their intuitive understanding that “I am angry (with a person or thing)” is very close to “Someone or something is very angry with me.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
The feeling “angry-with” may be depersonalized, detached from particular experiences, and associated at random with self or with other. Similarly “I feel torn apart (by something in the course of hunger)” may become “I have torn apart (the breast associated with hunger).” For some people there is no differentiation between self-and-feeling; for others there is none between others-and-feeling. It seems that people vary in this respect. The former are likely to experience “I am fine, sad, content, frightened, furious,” et cetera. The latter are likely to experience “He is nice, she is frightening, that is nasty, this is sweet, the other wicked.” Only people who are very out of touch would be assailed by feelings of fear or well-being or anger or love without any clear connections with anything. Illustrating the extreme, a person mainly organized in terms of self-structures, and distant from the World of people and things, might say, “I was so worried when I did not hear…I wondered what I had done wrong. I felt so guilt and worried, then I remembered that I am always forgetting people’s birthdays. Are I not awful.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Another kind of person, mainly organized in terms of other people and things, and distant from one’s own feelings, might say, “They sent this letter which said they were closing down. With a cheque. The cheque was an insult. They have no right to send a notice like that through the post. I went to the Citizens’ Advice Bureau round the corner from where I used to live—not last year but the year before. Almost everyone there was new, much younger and two were Asian.” Yet another kind of person hardly experiences either self or other people, but picks up feelings without firmly attaching them to anyone: “It was really eerie, a dangerous atmosphere. There were a lot of booming noises and a lot of talk which I do not remember. It felt very heavy and threatening. It did not mater, though.” People differ in how they are aware, more in some ways, less in others. One wonders at which point thee types begin to become fixed. It is an interesting area to speculate in. Whole cultures or subcultures may be found which prefer one or other type, so that polite conventional speech requires more awareness of some aspect than another. Thus in some circles it is discourteous to talk about oneself, and in others it is band manners to talk about others, and in yet other circles one should not talk about impersonal matters. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
Because I cannot deal with the soul here in a thorough and systematic manner that would address main issues (I refer again to the literature noted), my strategy will be twofold: First, I will elaborate a picture or image of the soul, and second, I will look at certain things said about the soul in the Bible. Now the image: Our soul is like an inner stream of water, which gives strength, direction, and harmony to every other element of our life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and exuberant in all we do, because our soul itself is then profusely rooted in the vastness of God and His kingdom, including nature: and all else within us is enlivened and directed by that stream. Therefore we are in harmony with God, reality, and the rest of human nature at large. As is usual in biblical themes, a little child that has been allowed to develop naturally and have been natured in all the aspects of its being gives us the best presentation of that a life flooded with a healthy soul looks like. Now, beyond the image or picture of an inner stream is this reality: Life is self-initiating, self-directing, self-sustaining activity and power. In this full sense, of course, only God has life. That is the biblical view. Moreover, it his “hand is the soul of every living thing,” Job tells us (Job 12.10). #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Can it be truth that all this cast travail, all this long long ingathering of experience, all this travel to the farthest limit, is only to end in negation, in unlearning all knowledge and returning to where we started? My heart does not believe it, my reason cannot accept it. “The Father has life in Himself,” Jesus taught, and “gave to the Son also to have life in Himself,” reports John 5.26. “He alone possesses undying life,” reports 1 Timothy 6.16, according to Saint Paul, and is the one “who gives and preserves life to all things,” reports 1 Timothy 5.13. The individual living thing receives its relatively “self-initiating, self-directing, self-sustaining power” from the hand of God. This derivative life flows through the living being in the form of its own soul. As for the human, its peculiar form of soul is related to the unique spirit relationship it has to be God (Genesis 2.7). It is its peculiar form of soul that enlivens everything else in the creature, and its overall condition reflects the state of its soul. In the human being, spiritual life in the kingdom of God is central to its soul and its life. This, we seriously suggest, is not an image but a reality, and one that the image of a stream of water can portray with some force. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
When we speak of the human soul, then, we are speaking of the deepest level of life and power in the human being. On this land, please pour blessings, O Lord, pour blessings. On this house please pour blessings, O Lord pour blessings. Spirits of the Ancestors, do you see what has been done? A house has been born to continue your line. Once again, a link is forged in the ancient chain and we are all connected that much tighter. Bless this Victorian Mansion; it carries your memory forward to the future. Because God has set His love upon Sarah Winchester’s Mansion and estate, He will protect it; God will protect it because it knows His name. God will rescue the Winchester and its fine Victorian architecture and bring honour to it. Give will give Mrs. Winchester’s estate abundance of long life, and the Winchester mansion shall witness God’s salvation. Hallelujah. Praise the name of the Lord; give praise, ye servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise unto the name of God, for it is pleasant. For the Lord hath chosen this estate as wonder of the World and a treasure for many generations to enjoy. Indeed I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is above all who are worshipped as gods. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
Winchester Mystery House
Sarah Winchester’s Daisy Bedroom – the room she was trapped in during the 1906 earthquake. Legend says that she had the front of the house boarded up after the earthquake.
Explore in 360 http://ow.ly/280u50CXeNm
A Million Years to Her are Nothing Remarkable—Heaven and Earth Have Faded!
I know what happened there and I am not the only one who knows. There is nothing else that can be said about it. Although defensive aggression, destructiveness, and cruelty are not ordinarily the cause of war, these impulses manifest themselves in warfare. Hence some data on primitive warfare will help to complete the picture of primitive aggression. Among the Walbiri of Australia the characterization of warfare in hunting-gathering societies generally does not emphasize militarism—there is also no class of permanent or professional warriors; there is no hierarchy of military command; and groups rarely engage in wars of conquest. Every human was (and is still) a potential warrior, always armed and ready to defend one’s rights; but one is also an individualist, who prefers to fight independently. In some disputes kinship ties are align humans into opposed camps, and such a group may occasionally have comprised all the humans of a community. However, there are no military leaders, elected of hereditary, to plan tactics and ensure that others adopt the plans. Although some people are respected as capable and courageous fighters and their advice is valued, other humans do not necessarily follow them. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
Moreover, the range of circumstances in which fights occur is in effect so limited that humans know and can employ the most effective techniques without hesitation. This is still true today even of young bachelors. There was in any case little reason for all-out warfare between communities. Slavery was unknown; portable goods were few; and the territory seized in a battle was virtually an embarrassment to the victors, whose spiritual ties were wit other localities. Small-scale wars of conquest against other tribes occurred occasionally, but I am sure that they differed only in degree from intratribal and even intracommunity fights. Thus the attack on the Waringari that led to the occupation of the water wholes in the Tanami area involved only Wangeiga men—a few score at most; and I have no evidence that communities ever entered into military alliances, either to oppose other Walbiri communities or other tribes. Technically speaking, this kind of conflict among primitive hunters can be described as war; in this sense one may conclude that “war” has always existed within the human species, and hence, that it is the manifestation of an innate drive to kill. This reasoning, however, ignores the profound differences in the warfare of civilized cultures. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
Primitive warfare, particularly that of the lower primitives, was neither centrally organized nor led by permanent chieftains; it was relatively infrequent; it was not war of conquest nor was it bloody war aimed at killing as many of the enemy as possible. Most civilized war, in contrast, is institutionalized, organized by permanent chieftains, and aims at conquest of territory and/or acquisition of slaves and/or booty. In addition, and perhaps most important of all, is the frequently overlooked fact that there is no important economic stimulus among primitive hunter-gatherers to full-scale war. The birth-death ratio in hunting-gather societies is such that it would be rare for population pressure to cause some part of the population to fight others for territorial acquisition. Even if such a circumstance occurred it would not lead to much of a battle. If hunting rights or rights to some gathering spot were demanded, the stronger, more numerus, group would simply prevail, probably even without battle. In the second place there is not much to gain by plunder in hunting-gathering society. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
All bands are poor in material goods and there are no standard items of exchange that serve as capital or as valuables. Finally, at the hunting-gathering level the acquisition of captives to serve as slaves for economic exploitation—a common cause of warfare in more modern times—would be useless, given the low productivity of the economy. Captives and slaves would have a difficult time producing more than enough food to sustain themselves. The overall picture of warfare among primitive hunter-gatherers given by Service is supported and supplemented by a number of other investigators, some of who are quoted in the following paragraphs. Dr. D. Pilbeam stresses the absence of war, in contrast to occasional feuds, together with the role of example rather than power among the leaders in a hunting society, and the principle of reciprocity and generosity and the central role of cooperation. (D. Pilbeam, 1970.) Dr. U. H. Stewart comes to the following conclusion concerning territoriality and warfare: There have been many contentions that primitive bands own territories or resources and fight to protect them. Although I cannot assert that this is never the case, it is probably very uncommon. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
First, if they are too small, the primary groups that comprise the larger maximum bands intermarry. If they are too large, they split off. Second, in the cases reported here, there is no more than a tendency for primary groups to utilize special areas. Third, most so-called “warfare” among such societies is no more than revenge for alleged witchcraft or continued interfamily feuds. Fourth, collecting is the main resource in most areas, but I know of no reported defense of seed areas. Primary bands did not fight one another, and it is difficult to see how a maximum band could assemble its manpower to defend its territory against another band or why it should do so. It is true that durian trees, eagle nests, and a few other specific resources were sometimes individually claimed, but how they were defended by a person miles away has not been made clear. (U. H. Stewart, 1968.) Dr. H.H Turney-High (1971) comes to similar conclusions. He stressed that while the experiences of fear, rage, and frustration are universal, the art of war develops only late in human evolution. Most primitive societies were not capable of war because war requires a sophisticated level of conceptualization. Most primitive societies could not imagine an organization necessary to conquer or defeat a neighbour. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
According to Rapaport, Turney-High’s work did not find a very friendly reception among anthropologist because he stressed that secondary accounts of battles written by professional anthropologists were hopelessly inadequate and sometimes downright misleading; he believed that primary sources were more reliable, even when they were by amateur ethnologist generations ago. (H.H. Turney-High, 1971.) Dr. Quincy Wright’s monumental work (1,637pages including an extensive Bibliography) presents a thorough analysis of warfare among primitive people based on the statistical comparison of the main data to be found among six hundred and fifty-thee primitive peoples. The shortcomings of his analytical in the classification of primitive societies as well as different kinds of warfare. Nevertheless, his conclusions are of considerable interest because they show a statistical trend that corresponds to the result of many other authors: “The collectors, lower hunters and lower agriculturalists are the least warlike. The higher hunters and higher agriculturalists are more warlike, while the highest agriculturalists and the pastors are the most warlike of all.” (Q. Wright, 1965.) #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
This statement confirms the idea that warlikeness is not a function of human’s natural drives that manifest themselves in the most primitive form of society, but of one’s development in civilization. Dr. Wright’s data show that the more division of labour there is in a society, the more warlike it is, and that societies with compulsory classes are the most warlike of all people. Eventually his data show that the greater the equilibrium among groups and between the group and its physical environment, the less warlikeness one finds, while frequent disturbances of the equilibrium results in an increase in warlikeness. Dr. Wright differentiates among four kinds of war—defensive, social, economic, and political. By defensive war, he refers to the practice of people who have no war in their mores and who fight if actually attacked, “in which case they make spontaneous use of available tools and hunting weapons to defend themselves, but regard this necessity as a misfortune.” By social war he refers to people with whom war “is usually not very destructive of life.” (This warfare corresponds to Dr. Service’s description of war among hunters.) #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
Economic and political wars refer to people who make war in order to acquire women, slaves, raw materials, and land/or, in addition, for the maintenance of a ruling dynasty or class. Almost every body reasons: if civilized humans are so warlike, how much more warlike must primitive humans have been! However, Dr. Wright’s results confirm the thesis that the most primitive humans are the least warlike and that warlikeness grows in proportion to civilization. If destructiveness were innate in humans, the trend would have to be the opposite. A view similar to Dr. Wright’s has also been expressed by M. Ginsberg, who writes: It would seem that war in this sense grows with the consolidation of groups and economic development. Among the simplest peoples we ought to speak rather of feuds, and these unquestionably occur on grounds of abduction of women, or resentments of trespass or personal injury. It must be conceded that these societies are peaceful by comparison with the more advanced of the primitive peoples. However, violence and fear of violence are there and fight occurs, though that is obviously and necessarily on a small scale. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
The facts are not adequately known, and if they do not support the view of a primitive idyllic peace, they are perhaps compatible with the view of those who think that primary or unprovoked aggressiveness is not an inherent element of human nature. (E. Glover and M. Ginsberg, 1934.) Dr. Ruth Benedict (1959) makes the distinction between “socially lethal” and “non-lethal” wars. In the latter, the aim is not that of subjugating other tribes to the victor as masters and profiteers; although there was much warfare among North American Indian: The idea of conquest never arose in aboriginal North America, and this made it possible for almost all these Indian tribes to do a very extreme thing: to separate war from the state. The state was personified in the Peace Chief, who was a leader of public opinion in all that concerned the in-group and in his council. The Peace Chief was permanent, and though no autocratic ruler he was often a very important personage. However, he had nothing to do with war. He did not even appoint the war chiefs or concern himself with the conduct of war parties. Any human who could attract a following led a war party when and where he would, and in some tribes, he was in complete control for the duration of the expedition. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
However, this lasted only till the return of the war part. The state, according to this interpretation of war, had no conceivable interest in these ventures, which were only highly desirable demonstrations of rugged individualism turned against an out-group where such demonstrations dis not harm the body politic. (R. Benedict, 1959.) Dr. Benedict’s point is important because it touches upon the connection of war, state, and private property. Socially nonlethal war is to a large extent an expression of adventurousness and the wish to have trophies and be admired, but it was not invoked by the impulse to conquer people or territory, to subjugate human beings, or to destroy the basis for their livelihood. Dr. Benedict comes to the conclusion that “elimination of war is not so uncommon as one would think from the writing of political theorists of the prehistory of war…It is a complete misunderstanding to lay this havoc [war] to any biological need of humans to go to war. The havoc is humanmade.” (R. Benedict, 1959.) Another outstanding anthropologist, Dr. E. A. Hoebel (1958) characterizes warfare among early North American Indians in these terms: “They come closer to William James’s Moral Equivalents of War. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
“They release aggressions harmlessly: they provide exercise, sport and amusement without destruction; and only mildly is there any imposition of desires by one part on the other.” (E.A. Hoebel, 1958.) Dr. Hoebel comes to the general conclusion that human’s propensity to war is obviously not an instinct, because it is an elaborate cultural complex. He gives as an interesting example the pacifistic Shoshones and the violent Comanches who in the 1600 were still culturally and racially one. The humans of the old did not till the field, but the fruits of plants and trees were sufficient for food. Nor did the women weave for the furs of birds and animals were enough for clothing. Without working there was enough to live, there were few people and plenty of supplies, and therefore the people did not quarrel. So neither large rewards nor heavy punishments where used, but the people governed themselves. However, nowadays people do not consider a family of five children as large, and each child having again five children, before the death of the grandfather, there may be twenty-five grandchildren. The result is that there are many people and few supplies, that one has to work hard for a meagre return. So the people fall to quarreling and though rewards may be doubled and punishments heaped up, ooooooone does not get away from disorder. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
Now, of all the dimensions of human being that must be dealt with in understanding spiritual formation, the soul is by far the most controversial and inaccessible in today’s World. For various reasons, it was rejected by the field of “psychology”—by very name the “theory of the soul”—as that field tried to develop itself into a “scientific” understanding of humans. The alleged failure to “find” and enduring, nonphysical center that organizes life into a whole has become a part of what is regarded as the outcome of modern thought, as everyone with a high-school education now knows. The issues here certainly run deep, and we do not mean to dismiss them lightly. However, they are not the kind of matters that can be dealt entirely in this scope. Part of soul growth and development involves charity. Charity is act of service, but it is more. It is a condition of the heart. While charity is an essential part of our lives, the ways we develop and exercise it vary as much as each life. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift,” reports 2 Corinthians 9.6, 8, 16. The Apostle Paul taught that persistence is necessary in serving, as it is in planting and harvesting. “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good until all,” report Galatians 6.9-10. We may plant a good seed, but we must then spend long hours cultivating the plant before we can reap the harvest. And in service to others, our harvest is always twofold. First, our service blesses those we serve. Second, we are blessed with divine help as we serve. Cultivation of the soul has expressed itself in a great wave of popular publications and media presentations on the soul. “Soul” has become almost as attention-getting a some of the biggest celebrities, and as widely used as selling the most popular music. People pride themselves on having and knowing and expressing “soul.” The superficial conditions of ordinary life in most Western contexts have brough this forth. It is a natural reaction to a deeply felt need, for indeed the soul—or, more generally, the spiritual side of life—simply cannot be indefinitely suppressed. Fundamental aspects of life such as art, sleep, pleasures of the flesh, ritual, family (“roots”), parenting, community, health, and meaningful work all are in fact soul functions, and they fail and fall apart to the degree that soul diminishes. It is possible that the reason modern intellectuals have failed to find soul is that soul really is no longer present in their individual lives. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
Perhaps something like a soulless life really is possible and not just something to be portrayed in fashionable literary works. That would explain why meaning is such a problem for human beings today. “Meaning” in action is fundamentally a matter of “carry over” or transcendence. Meaningful experience flows. It does not leave you stuck on something you cannot get past-whether a word you do not understand or a pointless social situation. Meaning is one of the greatest needs of human life, one of our deepest hungers—perhaps it is, in the final analysis, the most basic need in the realm of the human experience. If life as a whole is meaningful, almost anything can be born. However, in the absence of meaning, boredom and mere effort or willpower are all that is left. “Dead” religion or a dead job or relationship is one that has to be carried on in “meaningless” human routine. In boredom and carrying on by mere willpower, almost nothing can be endured, and people who are well off by all other physical and social standards find such a life unbearable. They re “dead souls.” By contrast, though in meaningful experience we are very active, the presence of meaning, with its power of “carryover,” relieves the pain of effort and makes even great strain exhilarating. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
It is as if a power beyond us meets our action and carries us. That is always, in some measure, the presence of soul. The human fetus grows through various stages, each of which corresponds to a parallel stage of the whole human race’s own previous evolution. Examine any living organism you choose and you will find that its conception, birth, and growth show an innate evolutionary trend. The process of passing from an embryonic stage to a more evolved one involves considerable differences physically. It is equally true although less apparent, mentally. The nature and functions of humans are reflected in miniature in the cells which compose one’s body, while one oneself reflects those of the Universal Mind in which one is similar to the cell. There is no one cell in the whole organism of a human which does not reflect in miniature the pattern, the proportions, and the functions of the immense cosmos itself. The microorganism has within it all the varied possibilities of becoming a human entity. The body’s physical cells disintegrate into the Earth and become part of the soil until they take new forms in plant and animal life. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
Just as a class in school one day breaks up and all the students go their separate ways, and in its place another class is formed, so the units are fully individualized only when they enter human stage. Until then they very, very slowly approach this release, just as an embryo in the womb approaches the form of a new born baby. The human body is composed of millions of tiny different intelligences, each having its own specialized life, all having developed from a single generalized cell. Some cells die within hours, others within days or even longer after the body’s own death. The fertilized egg contains all the organs of the human being in miniature. They merely grow and become big to produce the adult. It is an astonishing thought that the entire human body, from its head to its feet, is contained in miniature in the cell from which it starts existence. No microscope can see it, for it still is only an idea. However, given time, the idea finds expression is a form. In our bodies, the phagocyte cells follow they very opposite path to all the other cells, scattering and moving restlessly where the others are settling down into groups. There are millions of living cells which, in their totality, compose the human body. Each has its own separate birth, life, and death. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
Nature extravagantly spends large fragments of time on outworking her high purpose; a million years to her are nothing remarkable. We poor mortals, however—being helpless prisoners in the captivity of time, whose tyrannous character we have yet to understand—are eager to see improvement and progress before the same day’s sun has set. We need but to consider the enormous duration of the aeons which have straddled the globe since the first Lemurian lived and loved. If they study the World-Idea, those who get discouraged by seeing how slow is humanity’s moral growth, and how few are the signs of its spiritual awakening, may gain fresh hope. The will of Gd is entirely unchangeable. On this point we must consider that to change the will is one thing; to will that certain things should be changed is another. It is possible to will a thing to be done now, and its contrary afterwards; and yet for the will to remain permanently the same: whereas he will would be changed, if one should begin to will what before one had not willed; or cease to will what one had willed before. This cannot happen, unless we presuppose change either in the knowledge or in the disposition of the substance of the willer. For since the will regards good, a human may in two ways begin to will a thing. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
In one way when that thing begins to be good for one, and this does not take place without a change in one. Thus when the cold weather begins, it becomes good to sit by the fire; though it was not so before. In another way when one knows for the firs time that a whing is good for one, though one did not know it before; hence we take counsel in order to know what is good for us. Now it has already been shown that both the substance of God and His knowledge are entirely unchangeable. Many of the words the Lord has spoken are to be understood metaphorically, and according to the likeness of nature. For when we repent, we destroy what we have made; although we may even do so without change of the will; as, when a human wills to make a thing, at the same time intending to destroy it later. Therefore God is said to have repented, by way of comparison with our mode of acting, in so far as by the deluge He destroyed from the face of the Earth humans whom He had made. The will of God, as it is the first and universal cause, does not exclude intermediate causes that have power to produce certain effects. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
Since however all intermediate causes are inferior in power to the first cause, there are many things in the divine power, knowledge and will that are not included in order of inferior causes. Thus in the case of Lazarus, one who looked only on inferior causes might have said: “Lazarus will rise again.” And God wills both: that is, that in the order of the inferior cause a thing shall happen; but that in the order of the higher cause it shall not happen; or He may will conversely. We may say, then, that God sometimes declares that a thing shall happen according as it falls under the order of inferior causes, as of nature, or merit, which yet does not happen as not being in the designs of the divine and higher causes. The He foretold Ezechias: “Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live,” reports Isaiah 38.1. Yet this did not take place, since from eternity it was otherwise disposed in the divine knowledge and will, which is unchangeable. Hence Gregory says (Moral, xvi, 5): “The sentence of God changes, but not His counsel”—that is to say, the counsel of His will. When therefore God says, “I also will repent,” His words must be understood metaphorically. For when they do not fulfill what they have threatened, humans seem to repent. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
It does not follow from this argument that God has a will that changes, but that He sometimes wills that things should change. Although God’s willing a thing is not by absolute necessity, yet it is necessary by supposition, on account of the unchangeableness of the divine will, as has been said above. There are different stages in the development of people: some stand on the lower, some on the higher ones—and others fill in the space between. There is no equality among human beings, in character or manners, in intelligence or intuitiveness. Those who resent this fact may deny it, thereby revealing their incapacity for understanding truth. Exploitation of the lower types by the higher ones has bred the resentment, and this in turn has blinded the eyes or the mind. By one’s own reactions to the fragments of knowledge of the World-Idea which come to a human, one reveals oneself, one’s kind of character and stage of development. The wise and the foolish, the enlightened and the ignorant, the good, and the bad, dwell on the same Earth outwardly but on different planets inwardly. The human being slowly unfolds its possibilities through the workings of manifold experience. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
It is there, in this manifold of experience, that there are to be seen conscience, guiding it along ever-higher moral paths; capacity, expressing its active power and creative talent; and intelligence, teaching it to discriminate between foolishness and wisdom or to penetrate through appearance to reality. It is significant that animals tend to live in herds. As humans mature, they reach more and more individuality. Slowly, at times pleasurably and at times painfully, the human entity builds up its consciousness and capacities through the ages. If human needs brought us thus far, human curiosity is bringing us into another kind of cycle. Yet this perception of the ultimate goodness behind life, the ultimate triumph of light and love, need not keep us from recognizing that there are evil tendencies in many humans. We may recognize the as motes in the beam, as dust in the sunray, for we must not lose our perspective about them; but we may still regard them as temporary phases of human vicissitude that will be over-passed and left behind as the slow course of evolution carries out its work upon the human race. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as a day that is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest humans away as with a flood; they are like moss; they are like grass that grows in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down and withers. Truly we perish by reason of Thy displeasure, and are overwhelmed by Thy wrath; for Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy presence. Yea, all our days pass away because of Thy displeasure; we bring our year to an end as a sign. The days of our years are but three-score years and tend, or by reason of strength four-score. Yet is their pride but travail and vanity; for seedily our life is over and we vanish. Who knows the power of Thy wrath? And how fearful is Thine anger! Please teach us, therefore, to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom. Return unto us, O Lord; how long wilt Thou be wroth? O relent Thee concerning Thy servants. Please give us abundantly every morning of Thy lovingkindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Gladden us according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, the years wherein we have seen sorrow. Please let thy work be revealed unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
And let Thy graciousness, O Lord our God, be upon us; establish Thou also the work of our hands for us; yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it. Please watch over our families and protect them during their whole life. May our children, and our children’s children know to worship God. May each moment we experience on this Earth welcome us and bring protection. May God increase all His people and may we rejoice with a new life. May our lives grow and give us strength. Lord, please guide us in the way to grow being us healing and strength. May be learn and know the meaning and purpose of our lives on this Earth. Deep inside, may we learn what we must know and do what we must do. Please go before us an open the gates of opportunity. May our journey in this life be smooth and safe. May we know the right thing with all of us and do it no matter what the pain. A hard road lies before us, shining ones, a road filled with great difficulties, a road filled with great joys. Please guide us alone it. Please be at our side, Lord, and send guardian angels. Father of World, we turn to you in prayer that you might bless us, our Father, who took your role here on Earth and performed it well. May we act the role as artfully. Amen. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
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Heaven Holds a Sense of Wonder and I Wanted to Believe—It Keeps Eternal Whisperings Around!
American journalists today have been forced and lured out of their normal and proper role in our society. Many of them have become not just the critics in the aisles but the actors in the play. It is not possible, and it is not necessary, for any human mind to learn all the higher laws governing life. However, it is possible to learn some of them and also the archetypal ways in which the World-Ideas manifests. With them, one has something of a key to the unknown laws. It must be remembered that these higher laws are established throughout the cosmos, not merely in our part of it; that this higher truth can never undergo any alteration in itself, whatever way different humans of insight may speak about it; that we human being can have the privilege, when purified, of partaking in the real holy communion which alone fulfills our highest prayers. Those who seek to do God’s will must first seek to discern it not only within themselves but also in their environment outside. For this a study of the pattern of the World-Idea is necessary. Heaven holds a sense of wonder and many of us want to believe we will get caught up when the rage in one subsides. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
Passion chokes the flower till she cries no more, possessing all the beauty, hungry still for more. Heaven holds a sense of wonder. Dr. Spinoza saw that the whole Universe conformed to a World-order under what he named “laws of necessity.” However, the source of these laws is God. Dr. Spinoza saw too that Man, in the effort to understand all this, and drawn by an intellectual love of God, would unfold intuition and come closer to God. Learning what these cosmic laws are and trying t live in obedience to them is the only way whereby humanity can do what is best for itself. It will have to come to such obedience through the lessons of experience and cannot escape it. The more a human learns what laws move this Universe in which one exists, the better will one find the Universe to be and the happier will one’s existence be. In the long slow course of development, as it stretches out with time, humans will come to understand the true nature of the Universe around them and the correct nature of their relationship to it. It will be a logical corollary that as they come thereafter to understand also the harm they do themselves by every violation of the higher laws they will begin to change their thoughts and amend their conduct. #RandolphHarrus 2 of 24
It is not possible to know what lies at the heart of the great mystery, but it is possible to know what it is not. The intellect, bound by the forms of logic and conditioned by the linkage between cause and effect, here enters a realm where these hold no sway. The discoveries of Germany’s leading nuclear physicist, Professors Heisenberg, were formulated in his law of indeterminacy. The ancient Egyptians sages symbolize this inscrutability under the figure of the Veil of Isis. The ancient Hindu sages called it Maya, that is, the inexplicable. Argument and debate, ferreting and probing among all available facts, searching and sifting of records are futile here. This is the real truth behind the doctrine of agnosticism. Every human, no matter who one be, from the most knowledgeable scientist to the profoundest philosopher, must bow one’s head in acknowledgment of this human limitation. One is still a human being, one is not a god. Yet there is something godlike within one and this one must find and cling to for one’s true salvation, one’s only redemption. If one does this one will fulfill one’s purpose on Earth and then only one finds true peace of mind and an end to all this restless, agitated, uncertain mental condition. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
Study what this planet’s best humans have given us. It is no truer message than this: “Seek for the divine within yourself, return to it every day, learn how to continue in it and finally be it.” Groups are an important part of treatment for people in any kind of recovery. Some will find that they like living with people. What turns many things around is having healthy people who care around. When people find a group of people they enjoy, they will usually never want to be along again. One will enjoy the attention and being able to experience oneself as part of humanity. One will find with true friendships, there is no need for the “Ghostly Lover,” and ending their relationship with that individual will be something one inherently senses is necessary, in order to be able to be available for real humans and to live. Just make sure your next move is not one into the call of the forbidden, to mystery, and danger. This is the call to the underworld, and the object of your romantic passions may be your guide in this morbid realm. They may play the part in you hitting the bottom. Your task is, no matter what decision you make, do not remain in the underworld but disintegrate and reintegrate into real life in community and creativity. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
It often happens, but should not come to this, that it takes a near-death experience to give one life. In China, they say that helps to rid one of bad omens. It is like being reborn, starting from scratch. Many people report that it feels rather amazing to come back to life, that it wonderful to just feel. Individuals often do not know that they are cut off from their feelings. In some cases, the only access people have to their feelings is in dreams. When one is cut off from one’s feelings, one often feels like they are growing old and dying. This process often goes on for a long time. There are no intimate relationships. Once people see this being cut off as a problem, it makes one want to dare to connect. Instead of just reading about it, they would rather be out experiencing freedom. Because of this desire to reconnect, some individuals will forgo watching TV. They want to be active and realize that life is more important than watching TV. You will notice when some people reconnect to life they will start to look better. A woman might buy a gold dress, and pair it with gold earrings, and show off their glimmer suntan. One may express a new interest in diet and health, one will notice the transition from lunar to solar imagery. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
This new solar energy is related to the day World, to sunshine and overtness. As this adventure progresses, some will feel that their journey is leading to somewhere hopeful. One will marvel at the turn their life has taken for the better. It will feel like something that they could not plan got rolling. Other will detect an expression of new innocence in one’s voice. This is usually due to a long period of celibacy and spiritual reflection. Some say that God is able to communicate more when an individual is celibate because their focus on life is not geared to pleasures of the flesh, but on the true purpose of why we are on Earth. This is an opportunity to get to know oneself, one’s own body and oneself as a human being. After a person feels who they are, they will be ready to venture out in the World again, and hopefully no one is obstructing their path from being with someone and living a life they feel safe with. A new found courage is discovered because one has a choice to live or die. It may be a leap of faith to journey in a new liberating direction. You have to be able to go across the pond (metaphorically speaking) and see what is there. It is risky, but the choice to live is one everyone has to make. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
Some people will find that after spending time alone, they no longer want to be “free.” They may enjoy being in a relationship and helping taking care of someone else and making that individual happy. The opportunity to care for others, clean, and shopping for someone else is enjoyable for some people. It seems this healthy relationship just manifest for some after they spend time working of themselves instead of chasing love. However, it is important to still keep a strong identity and balance the needs for work and nurturance. Some women and men are thrown out into the World in their teenage years and they need a lot still, they are still babies. That may cause them to stay in that youth neediness. Once they get what they need, they will grow life a tree, sprout leaves and branches and roots, and grow up and have a life. Some may still be an adolescent. Staying virginal is a way of staying attached to family values and pleasing the Lord. Negative habits like drinking to bound with others may occur. However, the journey to break away from home and individuate one’ self often parallels with the hero’s journey. The hero must confront challenges, learn to be alone, overcome darkness, and bring one’s new found wisdom back to one’s home and community. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
The day you can wake up and say that you are grateful for that day is a blessing. When one can say that they are grateful for their lives they know they are happy. That is a big thing to say, and one will really feel it. When life is going nowhere, some adults may experience suicide attempts, and that is often the beginning of a return All the parts, in ritual sacrifices, sacrificed over and over again, until the sacrifice is complete. Going through these motions can make one see that God has something more planned for their lives, and one will get to the essence of the spark of life, to find one’s own voice, one’s own spirituality. When in a relationship, a new sense of spirituality takes over. Couples find that they say grace together before meals and “gratefuls” before bed. It is good to share. One will experience a sense of clam, serenity, grace. People will be able to help each other with soul losses they experience. Celibacy is like a period of hibernation or dormancy. For some it is like they just go to sleep, Sleeping Beauty, or Prince Eric, a soul waiting to be awakened or saved. For many people, the ideal arrangement of life under God will be only partially realized, at best. For many, it remains an impossible dream, for their soul is running amuck and their life is in chaos. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
They are “dead in trespasses and sins,” living off of incoherent dreams and illusions. Enslaved to their desires or their bodily habits or blinded by false ideas, distorted images, and misinformation, their soul cannot find its way into a life of consistent truth and harmonious pursuit of what is good. It is locked in a self-destructive struggle with itself and with all around it. Naturally, unfulfilled desires and poisonous relationships are the most prominent features of such lives. I confess that as a sometimes counselor of those in trouble, I am often stunned with the reasons people give for not doing the only things that could possibly be of help to themselves. The individual soul’s specific formation—the character it has taken on through its life course—is seen in the details of how thoughts, feelings, social relations, bodily behaviours, and choices unfold, and especially how they interact with each other. In most actual cases, the individuals are not at harmony with themselves, much less with truth and with God. Their habitual condition is one of conflict, and one of acting other than how they themselves intend or regard as wise. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
Their intentions of good are, precisely, not effectively related to the other components of their person—the thoughts and feelings, the bodily habits, the social dynamics, the relationship to God’s kingdom—in a way that would bring the good o pass. The failure of good intentions is the outcome of the underlying disconnects or “wrong connects” between thoughts, feelings, and actions, permitted or enforced by their disordered soul. The dimensions of the self are not coherently drawn together by the soul to form a whole life devoted to God and to what is acknowledged as good. Such a person cannot “get it all together” or “get one’s act together,” as we say now. That language is not metaphorical, but expresses the reality of one’s life. Extreme cases of this are found in people for whom everything in personal and social life is painful or unmanageable. They cannot find a place in human affairs. This can take many forms, but their inner condition makes it impossible for them to deal with life. Often this comes from early experiences. Severe deprivation or suffering in the early years will invariably distort the soul and leave it receptive to malfunction and evil in many forms, or simply stunted. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
The protective forcefield of the soul seems to have been broken down by pain and evil, leaving the person at the mercy of everything that happens. There is a developmental order in the soul, such that if it does not receive what it needs to receive within appropriate periods of time as it grows, its further progression toward wholeness is permanently hindered. It will never be what it might have been. Sometimes horrible events of later life, such as being tortured or cruelly betrayed, have similar effects, from which the soul may never recover. However, one must not overgeneralize on such matters. And one must not underestimate the powers of recovery of the soul under grace. Reconnecting to the Spirit of God allows lost souls to discover that they have power and capacity beyond anything they could have dreamed. The restoration of the soul is more than a recovery of connectedness. Significant strength, ability to achieve, guidance, and awareness are imparted. Truly we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” reports Psalm 139.14. The human soul is a vas spiritual (nonphysical) landscape, with resources and relationships that exceed human comprehension; and it also exists within an infinite environment of which, as our best, we have little knowledge. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
The forces which move humans and bring about events are not always to be found by rational analysis. There is another factor present which eludes such analysis. We only know if it can only acknowledge its wounded condition, and understand that God is over it all the soul, when it finds its home in God and receives His grace, the soul manifests amazing capacities for recovery. It may be called the evolutionary intent of the World-Mind. All things and beings flow forth from the illimitable Power, all derive their consciousness from It. Nor may we stop with this acknowledgement. For they derive whatsoever they have of intelligence from It, too. Is it not a grand thought, full of promise and hope, that in the gradual progression of this intelligence from minute cells to celestial beings, it passes upward through humans, enabling one in time to attain and know one’s own Divinity? After the pattern of its own infinite perfection, the World-Idea is drawing us little by little. To say that humans are unconsciously seeking God, or rather our Higher Self, is the truth. To ay that God is seeking humans is an error based upon a truth. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
This truth is that in the divine idea of the Universe, the evolutionary development of life-cells will bring them slowly up to an awareness of the diviner level; but the Higher Self, having no desire and no emotions, cannot be said to be seeking anything. Indeed, the evolutionary pattern being what it is, there is no need for it to seek, as the development of all beings from primitive amoeba to perfect spiritual consciousness is assured. If we wish, we may call it evolutionary. However, the actuality is not quite the same. The Universe is being guided to follow the World-Idea—that is the essence of what is happening. The pattern of evolution is an endless one. The meaning of the pattern could not but be a wise one. Because mind is the basal reality, all this majestic progression is nothing else than an evolution from lower to higher forms of intelligence and consciousness. Within the Overself, the infinite absolute principle of mind, there arises the idea of the cosmos, and from this original idea proceeds all other mental constructions that constitute a Universe. Because the Overself (God) is formless and unindividuated, we have to picture Him under the glyph darkness. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
The cosmic idea will then appear as a primordial germ of light, called by the Hindus Hiranyagarbha (the golden embryo). The entire panoply of suns and stars and creations are contained latently within this point of light. This first-born God is the primal Idea. World-Mind, concerned only with Its own larger purposes, which are hidden from us, directs us in that light. We must begin by recognizing that this planet exists for a specific purpose and that the evolution of all creatures upon it is part of that purpose. This Earth, with the varied experiences of good and evil joy and suffering, peace and peril which it offers us, is a school of initiation leading primitive terrestrial humans into the development of awareness until one reaches the first discovery of God. The World exists for the training of ever-ascending living things—form their early start as protoplasmic cells to their later development as human beings. “He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake,” Psalms 23.2-3. The comfort and sense of well-being we feel on special mornings comes not only from the external influence of beauty of the landscape and the sea, lovely as they are, but also from the inner peace, strength, and security of knowing that God lives and from a testimony of the divinity of His work upon the Earth. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
It is not where but who and how. God restores out souls. The replenishing of our inner selves occurs as we come to know the Saviour through keeping his commandments and serving Him. “While I was labouring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one say reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let one ask of God, that giveth to all humans liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given one,’” reports Joseph Smith—History 1.11. Joseph Smith was driven to the scriptures to seek guidance, which he found. The young Joseph Smith said, “At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I do as James directs, that is, ask God,” reports Joseph Smith—History 1.13. Joseph no doubt also read the following words given by James: “But let one ask in faith, nothing wavering. For one that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed,” reports James 1.6. Joseph knelt to offer up the desire of his heart. Then came a wrestling with darkness. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
This was followed by the light of the divine message. The answer and the instruction were complete and full. It not this the instruction, the how-to we need to obtain divine answers to the confusion and to the vexatious problems in our lives? First, when possible, study the scripture daily, with an emphasis upon the Book of Mormon and the modern scripture. Pray daily. Listen for divine answer. Be obedient to it. Some people are literally twice born, with energy, conviction, and a desire to tell all their acquaintances and others of the healing and sanctifying message of the gospel. It is possible for all of us, through the power of the Holy Ghost, to have a personal witness. It is a personal source for information and revelation. There seems to be a great need for a restoration of goodness and decency in the souls of many throughout the World. Could not much goodness be brought about in our societies by members of the Church individually, humbly, wisely, and persuasively adhering to their convictions at all times and under all circumstances? It could be brought about by the young lawyer who has the courage to let one’s voice be heard as a voice of reason to remind others that there are no “victimless crimes.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
Restoration of goodness can also be brought about by physicians, acting individually, but each refusing to allow someone one to terminate their lives. Could it not be encouraged by teachers sharing the examples of individual moral and civil responsibility with young people as they teach history, woodshop, auto shop, English, geometry, chemistry, and trigonometry? Could restoration of goodness also be fostered by business people refusing to compromise or to be compromised? Restoration of goodness—could it not be exemplified by those who hold positions of honour and trust in government, to function always from a position of personal honour and integrity? This would be the beginning of a different kind of revolution. It would be a revolution of thought and purpose. It would be a quiet revolution, which each individual acting independently and courageously in one’s own peace of conscience. This kind of moral courage does not destroy one’s credibility. It enhances it. Acting in harmony with our own conscience and beliefs is fundamental to our own inner peace and security. May all who are seeking to act in harmony with their conscience enjoy an inner peace. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
Gd will have all human be saved. God wills all human to be saved that are saved, not because there is no human whom God does not wish saved, but because there is no human saved whose salvation He does not will. God wills some humans of every class and condition to be saved, men, women, Jews and Gentiles, great and small, but not all of every condition. They are understood of the antecedent will of God; not of the consequent will. This distinction must not be taken as applying to the divine will itself, in which there is nothing antecedent nor consequent, but to the things willed. To understand this we must consider that everything, in so far as it is good, is willed by God. A think taken in its primary sense, and absolutely considered, may be good or evil, and yet when some additional circumstances are taken into account, by a consequent consideration may be changed int the contrary. Thus a human should live is good; and that a human should be killed is evil, absolutely considered. God antecedently wills all humans to be saved, but consequently wills some to be damned, as His justice exacts. Nor do we will simply, what we will antecedently, but rather we will it in a qualified manner; for the will is directed to things as they are in themselves, and in themselves they exist under particular qualifications. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
Hence we will a thing simply inasmuch as we will it when all particular circumstances are considered; and this is what is meant by willing consequently. Thus it is clear that whatever God simply wills takes place; although what He wills antecedently may not take place. An act of the cognitive faculty is according as the thing known is in the knower; while an act of the appetite faculty is directed to things as they exist in themselves. However, all that can have the nature of being and truth virtually exist in God, though it does not all exist in created things. Therefore God knows all truth; but does not will all good, except in so far as He wills Himself, in Whom all good virtually exists. A first cause can be hindered in its effect by deficiency in the secondary cause, when it is not the universal first cause, including within itself all cases; for then the effect could in no way escape its order. And thus it is wit the will of God, as said above. Despite the pious assertions of our New World theologians, the World does not exist solely for the benefit of the human species. It is a means of development and expression for all kinds of creatures, a development in which the humans share so largely. Who can calculate the number of years which shaped the primal atom into its latest form—the modern human? #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
The differences in consciousness between an amoeba, an insect, an animal, and a human represent a line of growth. Because evolution is not merely a physical matter of size and shape, because it is primarily a mental matter of intelligence and consciousness, philosophy finds the ant nearer to humans than is the panther. Animal life climbs ever higher in the scale of evolution, reappears in forms of a more developed type. That is one compensation for the manner of its death, which is so often to be devoured by other forms. Everything that has feeling or awareness, however sim, is capable of developing to higher and higher forms of existence. However, only when it is individuated and attains the human form does it fulfill its possibilities. With longer shadows, I sit down to my supper. Before me are the products of Winter, the Moon’s light become food. Listen, food and Moon: I thank you. Hunting is a source of some controversy among people. Our respect for life has led some of us to reject hunting. I doubt that any would approve of hunting simply for trophies. And yet, what about hunting for food? If we are to eat meant, we owe it to the animals who die for us to make their deaths a sacred act. It is doubtful that a worker in a slaughterhouse will do this for us. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
Those who hunt, however, have a chance to take part in the dance of life and death. A properly prayerful attitude makes hunting a sacred act. Through prayer a hunter is reminded that what they hunt is sacred, and that the God was Himself the victim of a hunt. (This is a myth that is implicit in carious forms of the myth of the year.) The hunter then puts themselves and their actions under the control of the God. In essence, it is the God who will be hunting. In this way the hunter takes the part of God as hunter, but in the back of their mind is the thought that, as they are the God, so are they the hunted as well. In American, hunting is richer, deeper, and more rewarding than the old trophy-mount stereotypes. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) serve dishes such as lovingly prepared squirrel, grouse, barnacles, oyster mushrooms, bowhead whale. Some of the cuisines are dishes like venison pasties with a cherry and morel sauce, served alongside trout and wild rice. Antelope jackrabbit tacos alongside elote-style cholla cactus, bacon-wrapped rattlesnake. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
Some people like game meat because it is low on fat, and because animals eat a wild diet, and it often tastes like the ecosystem from which it came. BHA also has a long-held spiritual connection to wild places because there is not a dinner on the planet, regardless of price, that has any more authenticity and labour involved. The meat from game animals is considered a delicacy to BHA. It is good. It is exquisite. It is not a compromise. These people hunt to eat and do not let the meat go to waste. There are an estimated 12 million hunters in the United States of America. Hunting builds culture and kinship ties that sustain people during a time when Americans feel more isolated than ever. There is something very civilized about retuning to a hunting-gathering society. Hunters feel an intimate, personal connection to their food during a time when we are largely disconnected from food production systems. They like feeling an immediate relationship to the ecosystems that support you at a time when we spend less and less time outside. Hunting motivates one’s desire to source one’s own food and deepens one’s relationship to the wildlands they love to explore. They are following in the footsteps of every hunter who ever came before them. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
This culture into which new millennial hunters, seeking out sustainable meat for the table, are entering—one which meat is ethically sourced represents a place, labour, time, and community. Hunting is work, especially for those who pack into the backcountry to challenge themselves and to take time to observe and admire wild animals: Meat represents hours, days, sometime weeks spent in the field and processing the meat is n easy task, it can take a couple of days. It also build friendships because hunters share their meat with their friends who may have been unsuccessful that day so they have food to put in their freezer. The taste of that deer meet is perfect: savory, tender, flavourful. And there is not much to gain by plundering in hunting-gathering societies. Ground game meat mac and cheese, carne asada bison covered fries, Texas Spicey wild boar pork belly burn ends, Elk shank and pepper medley tacos, classic backyard smoked venison brats, sting ray stakes, black bear barbeque ribs, and black pepper venison burgers with cheddar and remoulade are a few favourites. The flame on the trees burns away the green of summer. Summer’s last heat is put to good use. Run with the prey as hunting time starts, race through the forest with the deer, god of stages. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
The blood on the ground, as red as the leaves that fall on it, flows from your sacrifice as this season is born. In autumn, the hunting time, you come into your own; the day comes round for your greatest of gifts. Lord of flame and blood, Lord of deer and sacrifice, Lord of autumn and gifts, please bless your people with a feast the winter. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit. Ay are the misfortunes of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth one out of them all. One protecteth all one’s limbs; not one of them is broken. Evil shall destroy the wicked; and they that hate the righteous shall suffer punishment. The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants; and none shall be condemned who trust in Him. “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything,” reports Genesis 9.3. Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the Earth and the World, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. But as for humans, Thou turnest one back unto dust, and sayest: “Return, ye children of men.” #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
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Rubbing their Sleepy Eyes with Lazy Wrists–There is the Brute and the Angel in Almost Every Human!
Americans are trained from infancy for mutationhood. Western civilization is a human running with increased speed through an air-sealed tunnel in search of additional oxygen. In your prayers, pour out your heart to your Father in Heaven in thanks for the blessings you have received. Please be specific in thanking God for His goodness, for your family, for your friends, for your home, for your leaders and teachers, for the gospel, and for His Son, Jesus Christ. If we prayed for the small and simple blessings of if our prayers were only prayers of gratitude, what would our prayers be like? Recognizing our blessings and expressing gratitude increases our happiness. God gives us commandments to protect us and help us to be happy. The commandment to be grateful is no exception. Gratitude takes us outside of ourselves and focuses our attention on God and others. At this beautiful time of year, may our hearts be softened and changed as we increase our gratitude. May we always choose, no matter the season, to be grateful and qualify for God’s acknowledgement and promised blessings. “And one who recieveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this Earth shall be added unto one, even an hundred fold, yea, more,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 78.19. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
When things get tough, perseverance is demonstrated by those who keep going, who do not give up even when others say it cannot be done. When we encounter challenged, success is usually earned by persevering and not becoming discouraged. Early warning signals are evident in many aspects of our lives. For example, a fever can be a first symptom of sickness of disease. Various financial and labour market indicator are used to forecast future trends in local and national economies. And depending upon the area of the World in which we live, we may receiver flood, Earthquake, avalanche, hurricane, tsunami, tornado, or winter storm warnings. We are also blessed by spiritual early warning signals as a source of protection and direction in our lives. Recall how Noah was alerted by God of things not yet seen, and he “prepared the ark to the saving of his house,” reports Hebrews 11.7. Consider the language of the Lord in the revelation known as the Word of Wisdom: “In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring humans in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 89.4. Spiritual warning should lead to increasingly vigilant watching. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
You and I live in “a day of warning,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 63.58. And because we have been and will be warned, we need to be, as the Apostle Paul admonished, “watching with all perseverance,” reports Ephesians 6.19. I pray for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. The highest possibility which separates humans from beast is attainment of insight into truth, experience of one’s divine source. A tension holds all thins in equilibrium between coming together of their elements, temporary maintenance of their forms, and passing away int dissolution. This includes the mineral, the plant, the animal, and the human. However, when we look at the last-named, a new possibility opens up which could not have happened to Nature’s earlier kingdoms. All things dissolve in the end, but humans alone dissolve consciously into a higher Consciousness. We are not just higher animals and nothing more, but as human beings we possess a self-consciousness which can be developed until it matures into a thinking power as well as a totally superior kind of awareness—that of God. A human life presents only the opportunity for attaining the realization of God. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
Developing the full potential of the human mind ought not to be taken away from any human, however evil one may be, and however remote from this goal, in punishment for one’s crimes. Our sole objective where the truths of salvation are concerned should be to find out what the Lord has revealed and then to believe and act accordingly. We testify that God is infinite and eternal and that He ordained the laws whereby His spirit children might have power to advance and progress and become like Him. We know the salvation is in Christ; that He was the Firstborn Son of the Eternal Father; that he was chosen and foreordained in the councils of Heaven to work out the infinite and eternal atonement; that Christ was born into the World as the Son of God; and that He has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We believe with perfect surety that Christ came to ransom humans from the temporal and spiritual death brought into the World by the Fall of Adam and that Christ took upon Himself the sins of all humans on condition of repentance. We testify that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the plan of salvation; and that through the Lord’s atoning sacrifice all humans shall be raised in immortality to be judged by Jesus Christ according to the deeds done in the flesh. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
Those that believe and obey the fullness of gospel shall be raised also unto eternal life in our Father’s kingdom. We believe it is by grace that we are saved after all that we can do, and that building upon the foundation of the atonement of Christ, all humans must work out their salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. We proclaim that to gain salvation humans must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of their sins, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and then press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, keeping the commandments and enduring to the end. How can humans be so blind to the truth of their very being? Their quality of consciousness provides the clue, but it must be followed up. It is questionable whether the advantages of being a human creature are outweighed by the disadvantages. Why? Simply because humans may use their human faculties to transcend their present level and, as they call it, “realize oneself.” The choice between submitting or not submitting to one’s terrestrial genes and hormones belongs to humans, but the tendency to follow them belongs to the earlier stage; it is very, very ancient and is coming under their control very, very slowly. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
When this transcendence of their ancestry is complete, humans fulfill themselves as truly human. If a human walks upright, it is because this upright poster is symbolic of their gradual progression into ruling their terrestrial body and human nature. The ordinary ego-driven unenlightened human is acted on by lower cosmic Nature, just as plants and animals are. However, in human animal, individuality and intellect are additionally present—whether slightly in the savage or markedly in the highly civilized person. The enlightened human is also acted on, but in one’s case it is by higher cosmic Nature. Instead of being guided by passion and desire, one is guided by intuition. The changeover from lower to higher requires one’s contribution, one’s effort to control nature, to discipline individuality, and to achieve self-mastery. It is not only in the possession of reason and the reception of intuition that the human form of life is superior to other beings, but also in the exercise of will. Humans are an individualized creature. They are aware of their own separate identity and special personality. If humans feel one feel they are not individually responsible for their actions, being entirely responsive to their instincts, they have the choice to learn how to modify their behaviour. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
Human beings add a new urge, that of conscious development through intelligence to the Earth. The impersonal and eternal part of us is the God in us, symbolized by the upper half of the Sphinx’s head, as the lower half symbolizes the human part, and as the body itself symbolizes the terrestrial part. We cannot separate the importance of the body from the importance of the mind. We are animals in one part of our nature, human beings in the second part, and sometimes angelic in the third part. All make one creature. We learn what our bodies are through the physical senses. We learn a part of what the mind is through our thoughts. We learn still more about the mind’s deeper phases through our non-thoughts—that is, intuitions. Such is the triple nature of humans—a lower self of animal instincts, a middle self of human thoughts, a higher self of divine nature. We may well wonder how animal lust, human cunning, and angelic nobility can come to be mingled in a single entity. That indeed is the mystery of humans. When the whole cosmos shows its double-face of Eternal Consciousness, shadow and light, we must expect the individual creature to show the same. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
Hence, humans are half animal and half god, with reason as their link; only when they establish an equilibrium between then do they fulfill themselves. Nature is what it is—bipolar—so existence involves struggle and conflict of all of us until the genius in a million finds the point of equilibrium between the two opposing pulls, between the savage and the saint in one. The animal nature is naturally selfish, the spiritual nature unselfish. Between those two poles, humans are brought more and more into conflict with oneself as one evolves. Because they are human animals bonded to a divine spirit, we see humans as erratic in their behaviour and irrelevant in their purposes. They bear the human form externally but are largely predatory animal internally. Mind—that is, character and consciousness—is the real essence of a human. There is the brute and the angel in almost every human. However, how much there is of the one and how little of the other, differs with every human. Returning for a moment to the metaphor of “islands,” it has to be acknowledged that the islands undergo some atypical developments in the course of time. As the infant encounters further experiences, we may think of the island both as disintegrating and as merging in new ways. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
However, this transformation happens not on a geographical but on a multidimensional scale, and it is not easily visualized on a flat map. It is as though all the green on al the islands (green of leaves, of sea, of stones) merged to contribute to the more abstract concept of “green” without, however, bleaching the green objects on the island. It is as though the flying of the birds and of the leaves in the win were integrated to make the concept of flying. In short, each experience remains itself although generalized abstracted aspects may grow in relative importance as further experiences contribute to them. Differentiating, generalizing, and abstracting go together. Abstraction, differentiation, and generalization are names for different aspects of the same process which are in connection with learning to recognize triangles, oranges, and musical notation: the formation of concept. The concepts now under consideration are at a higher level, that is all. In order to conceptualize the colour puce, I have to perceive and recognize as puce a particular shade in a variety of contexts—generalizing. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
I have to disentangle it from other features of the situation in which it is embedded—abstracting. And I have to distinguish it from other shades which are not puce—differentiating. Three main sets of abstractions, generalizations, and differentiations with which we are concerned just now are to do with the achievement of some sense of self, some sense of other people and things, and, thirdly, some ways in which self is experienced as related to other people and things. These will be considered one by one. However, perhaps yet another caution is needed before we do so. It is only for the sake of clarity we look at these three sets one by one and “abstract” them. Except in very rare circumstances, my experience of myself is not of me in some pure abstract sense. I am aware at this moment, not of “me,” but of me-getting-an-idea-across-to-you-the-reader and of you-the-reader-understanding-me, you-liking-this-point, you-put-off-by-my-style. In short, and to say it yet again, our experiences come in units of relationship. Gradually, if all goes well, a self, and a sense of self, is established, made up from all the bits of experience in which the persons has been involved. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
The memory-traces of all these bits remain, but the structures which they form are profoundly affected by the context which the evolving structures provide for each new experience as it happened. Some experiences will have integrated with much that has gone before; some will have been left more or less isolated. Under the influences of a well integrated ego-identity, more central controls gain increasingly more dominance over new information coming in, and the map is no longer so easily modified by further experience. New information, although registered, then has relatively little effect on behaviour or indeed on consciousness. This is in reference to the process of selective perception, by which certain meanings come to predominate over others. Through these processes the sense of self differentiates from not self. Strong psychological structures are created in which the self is involved—self-structures. Self-structures are often strong enough to be functioning as “maps” to the working model of what is going on in and around the organism at a particular time. When this is so, they are strong enough to steer behaviour in a particular direction. When this has happenes, we recognize a stable identity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
Appetite and will are two different faculties, yet they have the same function: they impel humans to action. The two faculties are essential to action. Appetite is the efficient and effective cause of processes not having sense organs. It appears, for example, in the movements of nutrition and excretion. It seemed logical to postulate the same kind of originative power for all kinds of movement. That is why we admonish the mora philosophers who spend such an infinite quantity of debate touching good and the highest good to cast their eye abroad upon nature and behold the appetite that is in all things to receive and to give. With receiving and giving as the controlling ideas, there are appetitive motions more precise than that of philosopher in their long and wandering discourses of pleasure, virtue, duty, and religion. Furthermore, if one looks deeply into the experience of human desire one can detect movement, for every obtaining of a desire hath a shew of advancement, as motion though in a circle hath a shew of progression. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
That is, a desire—say that of obtaining political office, or a mistress—directs one initially to a goal, and arriving at the goal is like retuning to one’s starting point. The will, too, seems to be the immediate impetus to any action that is the outcome of reasoning and judgment. Reason might work well and true, judgment might be sound, but unless the will were moved the intellect would have cerebrated in vain. One function of the imagination, described previously, is that of making reason appealing to the will; and the art of rhetoric discharged its office by applying the dictates of reason to imagination for “better’ moving of the will. As efficient causes, appetite and will allowed two different kinds of behaviour, the sensuous and the rational. In sensuous actions, three features were always present. First, they were immediate and nonreflective; there was no thinking about consequence. Desire, for example, was often touched off by some unlawful wish, and the wish rashly granted before it has been understood and weighed. Second, pleasure and pain attend sensuous actions, and hence were guides to desire. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
These qualities of experience are shown most clearly in the passions, some emotional experience giving pleasure, as with joy, other experiences giving pain, as with anger. Pleasure and pain are to the particular affections, as light is to particular colours. That is, pleasure or pain is always a feature of emotional experience, just as light is always present in colour. As a quality of experience, pleasure is not most pure and satisfying when accompanying knowledge and learning. Delight always attends upon learning; there is no satiety for satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable. Many other kinds of behaviour give pleasure because of their novelty. Accordingly, some of life’s pleasures can be graded, the pleasures of knowing exceed those of affections, the affections those of the senses, achievement and victory those of a strong dinner. If the pleasure of learning be not insatiable, why do voluptuous men turn friars, and ambition men turn melancholy? The third feature of sensuous behaviour in some manner involves the affections of passions; that is, sensuous actions are emotional to some degree, great or small. The center of emotional experience is in the heart or its region. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
Both affections and passions are linked to appetite rather than will. Their activity, strongly tinctured with pleasure and pain, powerfully affects the appetite. Their influence, however, need not be bad. In fact, in the scheme of things, if it does not conflict with reason and will, appetitive behaviour is coloured with good. The affections, indeed, can be properly enlisted by the imagination in efforts to move the will. Only when the affections of their perturbation rise up to disturb judgment and overpower the will are the issues of appetite are evil. As a general rule, behaviour controlled by will is preferable to actions controlled by appetite. “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. Now the Earth was a formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day,” reports Genesis 1.1-3. Light is a species of quality. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
Some writers have said that the light in the air has not a natural being such as the colour on a wall has, but only an intentional being, as a similitude of colour in their air. However, this cannot be the case for two reasons. First, because light gives a name to the air, since by it the air becomes actually luminous. However, colour does not do this, for we do not speak of the air as coloured. Secondly, because light produces natural effect, for by the rays of the sun bodies are warmed, and natural changes cannot be brought about by mere intentions. Others have said that light is the sun’s substantial form, but this also sems impossible for two reasons. First because substantial forms are not of themselves objects of the senses; for the object of the intellect is what a thing is. Whereas light is visible of itself. In the second place, because it is impossible that what is the substantial form of one thing should be accidental for of another; since substantial forms of their very nature constitute species: wherefore the substantial form always and everywhere accompanies the species. However, light is not the substantial for of air, for if it were, the air would be destroyed when light is withdrawn. Hence it cannot be the substantial form of the sun. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
We must say, then, that as heat is an active quality consequent on the substantial form of fire, so light is an active quality consequent on the substantial form of the sun, or of another body that is of itself luminous, if there is any such body. A proof of this is that the rays of different stars produce different effects according to the diverse natures of bodies. Since quality is consequent upon substantial form, the mode in which the subject receives a quality differs ad the mode differs in which a subject receives a substantial form. For when matter receives its form perfectly, the qualities consequent upon the form are firm and enduring; as when, for instance, water is converted into fire. When, however, substantial form is received imperfectly, so as to be, as it were, in process of being received, rather than fully impressed, the consequent quality lasts for a time but is not permanent; as may be seen when water which has been heated returns in time to its natural state. However, light is not produced by the transmutation of matter, as though matter were in receipt of a substantial form, and light were a certain inception of substantial form. For this reason light disappears on the disappearance of its active cause. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
It is accidental to light not to have a contrary, forasmuch as it is the natural quality of the first corporal cause of change, which is itself removed from contrariety. As heart acts towards perfecting the form of fire, as instrumental cause, by virtue of the substantial form, so does light act instrumentally, by virtue of the Heavenly bodies, towards producing substantial forms; and towards rendering colours actually visible, inasmuch as it is a quality of the first sensible body. God hath done all things, whatsoever He would. The will of God must needs always be fulfilled. In proof of which we must consider that since an effect is confirmed to the agent according to its form, the rule is the same with active causes as with formal causes. The rule in forms is this: that although a thing may fall short of any particular form, it cannot fall short of universal form. For though a thing may fail to be, for example, a man or a living being, yet it cannot fail to be a being. Hence the same must happen in active causes. Something may fall outside the order of any particular cause, but not outside the order of the universal cause; under which all particular causes are included: and if any particular cause fails of its effect, this is because of the hindrance of some other particular cause, which is included in the order of the universal cause. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
Even in corporeal things this is clearly seen. For it may happen that a star is hindered from producing its effects; yet whatever effect does result, in corporeal things, from this hindrance of a corporal cause, must be referred though intermediate causes to the universal influence of Heaven first. Since, then, the will f God is the universal cause of all things, it is impossible that the divine will should not produce its effect. Hence that which seems to depart from the divine will in one order, returns into it in another order; as does the sinner, who by sin falls away from the divine will as much as lies in one, yet falls back into the order of that will, when it is punished. In the spiritually transformed social dimension is abandonment of all defensiveness. This of course could occur only in a social context where Christ dwells—that is, among his special people. However, it is natural it would occur in the absence of attack and withdrawal, wherever that may be, or where we have an impregnable defense against it. This abandonment includes a willingness to beknown in our most intimate relationships for who we really are. It would include abandonment of all practices of self-justification, evasiveness, and deceit, as well as manipulation. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
That is not to say we should impose all the fact about ourselves upon those close to us, much less on others at large. Of course we should not. However, it does mean that we do not hide and we do not follow strategies for “looking good.” Jesus’ teachings about not performing for public approval, about letting our “yes” be a “yes” and nothing more, and about not being a hypocrite—having a face that differs from our reality—all find application here. “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before humans, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have n reward from your Heavenly Father,” reports Matthew 6.1. (Important to read Matthew chapters 5 and 6 in the Christian Bible.) Frequently, death comes as an intruder. It is an enemy that suddenly appears in the midst of life’s feasts, putting out is lights and gaiety. It visits the aged as they walk on faltering feet. Its summons is heard by those who have scarcely reached midway in life’s journey, and often it hushes the laughter of little children. Death lays its heavy hand upon those dear to us and at times leaves us baffled and wondering. In certain situations, as in great suffering and illness, death comes as an Angel of mercy. However, for the most part, we think of it as the enemy of human happiness. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
The darkness of death can ever be dispelled by the light of revealed truth. “I am the resurrection, and the life,” spoke the Master. “One that believeth in me, though one were dead, yet shall one live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,” reports John 11.25-26. This reassurance, yes, even holy confirmation of life beyond the grace, could well be the peace promised by the Saviour when he assured his disciples: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the World giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nether let it be afraid,” reports John 14.27. So all those who walk with God in this Earthly pilgrimage will be blessed and know that God will not abandon his children who trust in Him. In the night of death God’s presence will be better than a light and safer than a known way. The door is starting to swing from hot to cold. Although it is not as cold as it should be, occasionally a cold day comes. The pokeberries are purple, the sassafras is starting to turn, and the gardens are heavy with tomatoes and mandarin oranges. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
It is a time to stop and pay attention: the spirit of the land are very busy. I pray to them at this liminal time to open my eyes. Do not let me awake one day and ask where winter has gone. May I be aware of its heavy rain and feet and feet of deep snow, and artic chill. May I be aware of winter’s presence, may we experience rain and lightning and thunder storms, and be as thrilled with it as I will be with arrival of the spring. I set my face to the dark I will travel with the Sun through the dark. I will go with confidence in the deepest dark. Though about me the dark may grow, God is always at my side guiding me to light. This is what I know, God of the Universe. This is what you are telling me and this is what I tell you: the Earth prepares for a great change. Light and dark are equal today, but that will not last. I see the Heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. The Earth makes its way around the Sun and takes u with it into the year’s dark half. We travel with it, not in calm resignation, but with wild anticipation of what dreams may be dreamt in the night of the World. May they be good dreams. For we saw Him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he if the Only Begotten of the Father. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
That by God, and through God, and of God, the World are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters of God. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork; day unto day expresses His greatness; night unto night makes Him known. There is no speech, there are no words, their voice is not heard. Yet their sway extends over all the Earth and their message to the ends of the World. In the Heavens, He hath set a tent for the Sun. For the Sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber it rejoices as a strong human to run its course. Its going forth is from one end of the Heaven, and its circuit unto the other; nothing is hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether; more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than must fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. More over by them is Thy servant warned; in keeping of the there is great reward. What can humans discern of their own errors? Please clear me of my hidden faults. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
Winchester Mystery House
The Witches Cap – named for it’s conical resemblance of a witches hat. Many famous mediums claim this room was “important” to Sarah Winchester, all though we do not know what it may have been used for. How did you feel when you experienced the Witches Cap for the first time?
Winchester Mystery House
A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻 The original mansion still stands, but there were also other Victorian houses on the estate for employees. Be sure to show your support and help keep tours possible in the future by taking virtual tours and exploring items in the online gift shop.
🗝 winchestermysteryhouse.com
To Live with Gratitude Ever in Our Hearts is to Touch Heaven!
It is very peaceful to be able to live for your work alone. The self-denial, the sacrifices that our work demands are all compensated for by that lovely serenity of giving yourself to inherit the kingdom of Heaven. Many people believe that we can only experience peace when the conditions in our lives are pleasant. However, we can even feel peace in times of war, and when there is no war raging, many people often lack peace. In order to have peace a person must first find atonement; peace is the result of change within humans in which union has replaced alienation. Peace is harmony and union between humans, it is the overcoming of separateness and alienation. Peace comes through the gospel—through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Even when the World is in turmoil all around us, we can receive the blessings of inner peace. This blessing will continue with us as we stay true to our testimony of the gospel and as we remember that Heavenly Fathers and Jesus Christ love us and watch over us. In addition to feeling peace ourselves, we can be an influence for peace in our families, our community, and the World. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
When we keep the commandment, give service, care for family members and neighbour’s, and share the gospel, we work for peace. Think about it. Why do people make fun of people and spread vicious rumors and lies? Because they want to spread evil and hate. However, if we share the Word of God, we will spread love and peace. Whenever we help relieve the suffering of another, we work for peace. “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall tech you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the World giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid,” reports John 14.26-27. At this time of year, we frequently think of gifts. We sometimes obsess over gifts we want to give and gifts we hope to receive. However, do we consider the great gift of gratitude? Gratitude is deeper than thanks. Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts. It especially blesses of families. The Saviour exemplified and taught the importance of gratitude. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
Many of us had a hard year, and some of us knew 2020 was not going to be a great year. As we lay in bed on the first day of 2021, I am sure a lot of people were thinking, “Is this going to be worth it. Going through another year of uncertainty. Nothing ever changes.” However, a grateful heart comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. To live with gratitude ever in out hearts is to touch Heaven. When our lives change or become difficult and we have to deal with a lot of difficult people and it seems we are not getting the help we need and thinks are taking much longer than we expect them to, sometimes we need someone to help teach us how to think and look at life. The Scriptures and church are the best way to reeducate ourselves and train our brains to think different. You could spend years trying to convince the people around you to live right and confess their sins, and in many cases, all they will do is get more entrenched in lives, sarcasm, and ignorance. To some people sinning and lying and breaking the law is cool. They think it allows them to be part of an elite group and that they are cool, hip, trendsetters. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
Therefore, it is important to focus on self. Our hearts must be changed in order to inherit the kingdom of God. How might we change our actions so that our heart may be changed int a grateful hearts and touch heaven? Our Father in Heaven has placed great trust in you. He has a work for you to do. Seek His guidance in prayer. The decisions you make now will set the course for much of what will follow during your mortal life and throughout eternity. We testify that God lives. It is our fervent prayer that you will remain steadfast and valiant throughout your lives and that you will trust in the Saviour and His promises. As you do this, you will be an influence for good in helping to build the kingdom of God and prepare the World for the Second Coming of the Saviour. Heavenly Father has given to us agency, the ability to choose right from wrong and to act four ourselves. Next to the bestowal of life itself, the right to direct our life is one of God’s greatest gifts. We are responsible for the choices we make and must have the agency and courage to stand firm in obeying God’s will, even if we have to stand alone. While we are free to choose our course of actions, we are not free to choose the consequences. Whether for good or bad, consequences follow as a natural result of the choices we make. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
Some sinful behaviour may bring temporary, Worldly pleasures, but such choices delay our progress and lead to heartache and misery. Righteous choices lead to lasting happiness and eternal life. Remember, true freedom comes from using our agency to choose obedience; loss of freedom comes from choosing disobedience. We are responsible for developing the talents and abilities Heavenly Father has given us. We are accountable to God for what we do with our talents and how we spend our time. Choose to do many good things of your own free will. It seems evident, that humans are carried, by a natural instinct or prepossession, to repose faith in their senses; and that, without any reasoning, or even almost before the use of reason, we always suppose an external Universe, which depends not on our perception, but would exist, though we and every sensible creature were absent or annihilated. Even the animal creation are governed by a like opinion, and preserve this belief of external objects, in all their thoughts, designs, and actions. It seems also evident, that, when humans follow this blind and powerful instinct of nature, they always suppose the very images, presented by these senses, to be the external objects, and never entertain any suspicion, that the one are nothing but a representation of the other. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
This very table, which we see white, and which we feel hard, is believed to exist, independent of our perception, and to be something external to our mind, which perceives it. Our presence bestows not being on it. Our absence does not annihilate it. It preserves its existence uniform and entire, independent of the situation of intelligent beings, who perceive or contemplate it. However, this universal and primary opinion of all humans is soon destroyed by the slightest philosophy, which teaches us, that nothing can ever be present to the mind but an image or perception, and that the senses are only the inlets, through which these images are conveyed, without being able to produce any immediate intercourses between the mind and the object. The table, which we see, seems to diminish, as we remove father from it: But the real table, which exists independent of us, suffers no alteration: It was, therefore, nothing but its image, which was present to the mind. These are the obvious dictates of reason; and no human, who reflects, ever doubted, that the existences, which we consider, when we say, this house and that tree, are nothing but perceptions in the mind, and fleeting copies or representations of other existences, which remain uniform and independent. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
So far, then, are we necessitated by reasoning to contradict or depart from the primary instincts of nature, and to embrace a new system with regard to the evidence of our sense. However, here philosophy finds herself extremely embarrassed, when she would justify this new system, and obivate the cavils and objections of sceptics. She can no longer plead the infallible and irresistible instincts of nature: For that led us to a quite different system, which is acknowledged fallible and even erroneous. And to justify this pretended philosophical system, by a chain of clear and convincing argument, or even any appearance of argument, exceeds the power of all human capacity. By what argument can it be proved, that the perceptions of the mind must be caused by external objects, entirely different from them, though resembling them (if that be possible) and could not arise either from the energy of the mind itself, or from the suggestion of some invisible and unknown spirit, or from some other cause still more unknown to us? It is acknowledged, that, in fact, many of these perceptions arise not from anything external, as in dreams, madness, and other diseases. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
And nothing can be more inexplicable than the manner, in which the body should so operate upon the mind as ever to convey an image of itself to a substance, supposed of so different, and even contrary a nature. It is a question of fact, whether the perceptions of the sense be produced by external objects, resembling them: How shall this question be determined? By experience surely; as all other questions of a like nature. However, here experience is, and must be entirely silent. The mind has never anything present to it but the perceptions, and cannot possibly reach any experience of their connexion with object. The supposition of such a connexion is, therefore, without any foundation in reasoning. To have recourse to the veracity of the supreme Being in order to prove the veracity of our sense, is surely making a very unexpected circuit. If one’s veracity were at all concerned in this matter, our sense would be entirely infallible; because it is not possible that one can ever deceive. Not to mention, that, if the external World be once called in question, we shall be at a loss to find arguments, by which we may prove the existence of that Being or any of his attributes. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
The Darwinian idea of evolution as a struggle for existence is blind; the philosophic idea sees it as rhythmic unfoldment, following a spiral pattern and accompanied by involution. If we start with the theory that the human form was born out of a pair of apes, that it originated by a process of natural selection, a different view of the descent of humans may be obtained. However, we still need the Missing Link. This is something which will never be found by the methods of scientific investigation. There is evolution only in outward appearance but unfoldment inward reality. The human entity paradoxically contains within itself all lower forms of life from the very beginning, although they are quite different from the one it manifests when fully developed. The living, intelligent human entity preexists elsewhere, and takes up its physical residence on Earth only when it is ready for it. From the moment this specific unit of life separated from the cosmic Life, through all the differences experiences whereby it developed, and through all the different kingdoms of Nature, its spiritual identity as Man was predetermined. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
The materialist belief that humans have evolved from the monkey is not accepted by philosophy. The race of apes came from a conjunction of primitive man and a female beast. It was a degeneration, not an evolution. It is true that we got our bodies, as Dr. Darwin says, from the best type of animals on Earth through a utilization of them at the time of conception. The progeny was animal plus human. The monkey did not precede man, as so many materialistic biologists assets, but appeared after hi. Had it really preceded him it would not have been in existence today, for in ever case of the evolution of species the predecessors die off and disappear. There is a long evolutionary arch between a thinking animal in human form and a beauty-inspired man. According to philosophic tradition, we are in the “monkey” stage of development where our relationship toward the full “human” stage is as far away as that of a monkey is to a present-day man. The “half-ape” half-human being which passes today for a real “man” will one day give place to the real thing. Only then will it deserve the appellation. The grossest humans, not far from animals in habits and ways, and the most unrefined primitive communities contain this possibility of eventual development. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
However, the full humans realization can come only with time, with birth after birth slowly and spirally unfold the World-Idea. Anne Rice also mentioned in the Vampire novels that humans may not be God’s final and best creation and that they could still be evolving. Is man only a reasoning ape—a creative animal? The religious instinct, the ethical conscience, the metaphysical faculty, and the mystical intuition proclaim, with one vice, the answer: “No!” Man is the keystone of the arch of material life, whereas an animal lives solely under the impulses of self-preservation and self-procreation. Only in man can this Divine Being arrive at Self-consciousness, because only man can develop intelligence in its fullness. The intelligence which animals possess, however excellently it suffices them, is after all one which is concerned purely with objective things. Animals cannot move in the realm of abstract ideas, but man can escape from the concrete through his developed reason, his religious feeling, his mystic intuition. So far as man is an animal body, he shares with the other animals their interest in eating, drinking, and copulation. However, their interest does not go beyond this point where his does. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
Men and woman want to know about other things and to express what they know or to receive communications from others concerning what they know. No living creature in the kingdom of animals knows more than its immediate surroundings or cares for more than the sustenance of its immediate existence. It lives in an immense and varied Universe but that fact is lost to its mentality and outside its interest. Only when the evolving entity attains the stage of developed human beings does this unconsciousness disappear. Then life takes on a larger meaning and the life-force becomes aware of itself, individualized, self-conscious. Only then does a higher purpose become possible and apparent. Is there any animal which tries to understand the meaning of is life, much more the meaning of life in the whole cosmos? Only when its consciousness has advanced to some extent to the human kingdom does the beginning of such an attempt become noticeable. When Consciousness in any creature reaches by successive periods of growth the stage where it asks itself “What am I?” thus betraying developed intelligence of a kind which no animal possesses, it is ready to seek the Spirit. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
As far as we know, the moral idealism and metaphysical thinking which is possible to humans may be impossible to animals. What animal could hold any metaphysical theory, could generalize ideas about space, time, and mind, could analyse situations and relationships, could be seriously concerned about a higher ethical problem? Since we cannot truly communicate with animals, we do not truly understand their mental capabilities, and therefore they do not seem to have the capacity to get outside themselves and to perceive themselves quite impersonally. Some humans do have it and more will have it as they develop their potentialities. A self-conscious creature is one that not only knows its own individual feelings and thoughts, its own mind, but can also reflect upon them. The animal, as far as we know, has not reached this stage but the human has. If there were no way of going beyond it, tied to the physical body as humans are, the outlook would seem bleak for humans. However, they have mental and emotional possibilities and capacities, imaginations and sensitivities, which can carry them where animals may not be able to penetrate. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
There are certain ideas which belong exclusively to the higher part of human’s nature. We would look in vain into any animal’s mind to match them. Humans are the only creature among Earth’s animals which, as far as we know, aspires to reach beyond themselves, which has the inner urge to grow. Humans also are the only creature which desires to know what life is here for. The human animal is unique. Yes, let it be admitted that man moves and acts with a terrestrial body but let it not be forgotten that humans think with a human brain and feel with a heart capable of responding to calls for charity. More, there is something in them which aspires to spirituality. There are two basic feelings, pleasure and pain, attached to two basic drives: libidinal/pleasure-seeking and aggressive/destructive/pain-associated respectively. According to this view, all pleasurable experiences are associated with libidinal drives, all painful experiences with aggressive/destructive drives. The emergence of self and other out of the earliest units of experience is attributable to these two drives and their associated feelings. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
The painful experiences which the infant encounters are the first to be organized, and they are experienced as somehow inflicted on the infant by an “other.” This primitive organization of experience constitutes the first differentiation of self from other. It is as though the baby knew that the self is good and the other bad. According to this theory, organization starts when something is experiences as bad—it does not start from an experience of well-being. The sense of “other” is thought to come from times of distress which the infant experiences in terms of “this is terrible but it is not me.” This is in contrast to what is thought to happen at times of well-being. These are so pleasant that it is thought to be of no advantage to the infant to organize the experience into “this is very nice but it is not me. On the contrary. This is how the sense of omnipotent well-being develops which Dr. Freud calls the “purified pleasure-ego”: “all that is good is me and all that is me is good.” The purified pleasure-ego and the pleasant experiences which lead to its construction are the core or germ of the self. The basic units of experience are “precipitants” round which parts of the self “consolidate.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
They consolidate by virtue of the common element of pleasure in a number of experiences. What is important is the intense, overwhelming nature of early feeling and its irradiating effect on all other perceptual elements of the introjection. In this view, not only does distress not get organized at this stage with what will become part of the self, but also distressing experiences are not recognized as having a common factor—they are not given meaning except as “other.” Unpleasant experiences are kept apart from each other, and from the sense of well-being—defensively. From this viewpoint, pleasure and pain are the organizing principles for all experiences, taking precedence over any other means of conceptualizing experience. It is not difficult to imagine circumstances in which this could be so, for instance when the infant is so frequently uncomfortable that this makes an overwhelming impact on its development: distress and the absence of distress could come to matter more than anything else. And if we picture a system in which those neural pathways come to be the most dominant, down which pleasure-messages and pain-messages flow, we may imagine how this can happen; this would be a system in which those pathways have more enduring and more extensive reverberations. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
We could also account for the relatively later conceptualization of distressing experiences, by imagining that, in early states of development, distress somehow disrupts normal message-sending. This disruptive process would be the same as that referred to when it is said of a human baby that the ego is overwhelmed by anxiety, and disintegrates. In the adult, we call it panic. When distress disrupts the immature organism’s organization, this prevents it doing anything other than calling for help from more mature animals. There may be survival-value in this. If the young organism is too immature to react to danger with fight or flight in a successful way, it is perhaps safest that it should be unable to try, and be reduced to only crying for help. The beginnings of ego-functioning are thought to be defensive in this tradition, the purpose being to maintain a sense of well-being and to ward off the infant’s discover that the distress is also its own. However, it may not be true that the sense of well-being and the sense of distress can be the original organizing principles of self and other in every case, though perhaps it was the general cause among those who sought psychotherapeutic help at a particular time during this century. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
For the most part, to my mind, people need to be fairly well and integrated, before they are able to organize their experiences of the World in terms of “I like” versus “I do not like,” “libidinally” versus “aggressively.” I think it is at least as possible for people’s minds to be organized according to what happened in their early relationships with others, whether pleasurable or painful. Sensations and emotions are thought of as organized into the landscape of what occurs as experience follows experience. Psychic structures form because repeated experiences create them from the most commonly experiences connections, which after a certain point gain some independence from the structures in which they were originally embedded. To my mind, the neurophysiological/classificatory/concept-attaining/structure-building approach provides the basic ideas in terms of which we should understand the emergence of self and other from the original state which Dr. William James (1890) called a “big buzzing blooming confusion,” and Dr. Balint a “harmonious interpenetrating mix-up.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
Pleasure and pain may profoundly affect the harmonious interpenetrating mix-up differentiation, but they are not solely responsible. The process I have called concept-formation start off the differentiation of self from other, as they start every other differentiation and integration. Growth is the characteristic of the plant kingdom, movement of the animal, thought of the human. The mineral, the plant, and the animal have the infinite Life-Power within them, too, but they do not know that they have it. Humans alone can know their own divinity. Indeed one is not truly a human until one has know it. What the fishes and birds cannot attain, the human can. And that is the Supreme Awareness, the Divine Being discovered under the cosmic masquerade. The first main element in the transformed social dimension is for individuals to come to see themselves whole, as God Himself sees them. Such a vision sets them beyond the wounds and limitations they have received in their past relationships to others. It is this vision of oneself from God’s point of view that makes it possible to regard oneself as blessed, no matter what has happened. “We are dead,” Paul tells us, and “our life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then we will appear with him, glorious,” reports Colossians 3.3-4. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
We have stepped into a new life where the primary relationship is with Christ and we are assured of a glorious existence forever. If we place our hope entirely in God, God has a plan for each of us in the work he is doing during our lifetime, and no ne can prevent this from being fulfilled. The part we play in His plans now will extend to the role God has set before us for eternity. Our life in Him is whole and it is blessed, no matter what has or has not been done to us, no matter how shamefully our human circles of sufficiency have been violated. It is God’s sufficiency to us that secures everything else. Paul again said, “Our sufficiency is of God.” “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes for God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” reports 2 Corinthians 3.5-6. “And God is able to make all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: ‘He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever,’” reports 2 Corinthians 9.8-9. It is the God-given vision of us as whole in Him that draws all the poisons from our relationships to others and enables us to go forward with sincere forgiveness and blessings toward them. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
Only when we have the God-given vision can we stand free from the wounds of the past and from those who have assaulted or forsaken us. Every efficient cause is greater than the thing effected. However, nothing is greater than the will of God. We must not then seek for a cause of it. In no wise has the will of Gd a cause. In proof of which we must consider that, since the will follows from the intellect, there is cause of the will in the person who wills, in the same way as there is a cause of the understanding, in the person that understands. The case with the understanding is this: that if the premiss and its conclusion are understood separately from each other, the understanding the premiss is the cause that the conclusion is known. If the understanding perceive the conclusion in the premiss itself, apprehending both the one and the other at the same glance, in this case the knowing of the conclusion would not be caused by understanding the premises, since a thing cannot be its own cause; and yet, it would be true that the thinker would understand the premises to be the cause of the conclusion. It is the same with the will, with respect to which the end stands in the same relation to the means to the end, as do the premises to the conclusion with regard to the understanding. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
Hence, if anyone in one act wills and end, and in another act means to that end, one’s willing that end will be the case of one’s willing the means. If in one act one will both end and the means to the end, this cannot be the case. Yet it will be true to say that one wills to order to the end the means to the end. Now as God by one act understands all things in His essence, so by one act He wills all things in His goodness. Hence, as in God to understand the cause is not the cause of His understanding the effect, for He understand the effect in the cause, so, in Him, to will an end is not the cause of His willing the means, yet He wills the ordering of the means to the end. Therefore, He will this to be as means to that; but does not will this on account of that. The will of God is reasonable, not because anything is to God a cause of willing, but in so far as He wills one thing to be on account of another. Since God wills effects to proceed from definite causes, for the preservation of order in the Universe, it is not unreasonable to seek for causes secondary to the divine will. It would, however, be unreasonable to do so, if such were considered as primary, and not as dependent on the will of God. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
Philosophers have their vanity have thought fit to attribute contingent effects to other causes, being utterly unable to perceive the cause that is shown above all others, the will of God. Since God wills effects to come from causes, all effects that presuppose some other effect do not depend solely on the will of God, but on something else besides: but the first effect depends on the divine will alone. Thus, for example, we may say that God willed humans to have hands to serve His intellect by their work, and intellect, that humans might be human; and willed humans to be humans so that they might enjoy Him (God), or for the completion of the Universe. However, this cannot be reduced to other created secondary ends. Hence such things depend on the simple will of God; but the others on the order of other causes. Look! The garden is growing well! Through your help, and through my work, we have done a great deed, Holy Ones. We have produced food from seeds’ promise. I stop for a moment to praise tomatoes, honouring them by eating one. Lovely is the Spirit of God who grows such things. First I praise their shapes—they shun the easy perfection of the sphere and take instead their own forms. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
The weight of these tomatoes is worth praising, and the depth of their colour. Before I eat this one, I smell it, taking its scent in deeply, finding in me a resonance that tells me that this is the smell of fertile Earth. Their skin, though stretched tightly, yields quickly; it has performed its duty of containing treasure with uncommon devotion and now relinquishes command to me. With silent thanks, then, I accept the task and eagerly receive the honour so bestowed, hoping, by so doing, to honour in turn the giver of the gift and the gift itself. Our soul has waited for the Lord; He is our help and shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in Thee. Show us Thy loving kindness, O Lord, and please grant us Thy salvation. Arise for our help and redeem us for Thy mercy’s sake. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth, and I shall grant you of My bounty. Happy is the people that fares thus, happy is the people whose God is the Lord. As for me, in Thy loving kindness do I trust; my heart rejoices in Thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24
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Randolph Harris II International 