Randolph Harris II International Institute

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One Would Think Happiness is Rare?

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The trouble with some people is that when they get into trouble, they start acting like cannibals. With mood disorders so prevalent in all societies, it is no wonder that they have been the focus of so much research. Great quantities of data about these disorders have been gathered. Still, clinicians have yet to understand fully all that they know. Several factors have been closely tied to unipolar depression, including biological abnormalities, a reduction in positive reinforcements, negative ways of thinking, a perception of helplessness, and life stress and other sociocultural influences. Indeed, more contributing factors have been associated with unipolar depression than with most other psychological disorders. Precisely how all of these factors relate to unipolar depression, however, is unclear. Different factors may be capable of initiating unipolar depression in different persons. Some people may, for example, begin with low serotonin activity, which predisposes them to react helplessly and negatively, and enjoy fewer pleasures in life. Others may first suffer a severe loss, which triggers helplessness reactions, low serotonin activity, and reductions in positive rewards. Regardless of the initial cause, these factors may merge into a “final common pathway” of unipolar depression. However, culture influences many people’s health and belief system and has an effect on the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Some cultures have specific expectations of each age group that differ greatly from those in mainstream American society. Because of this difference, all age groups are exposed to conflict or clashes that may increase the risk for development of mental illness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

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Judging from the evening news and the spread of self-help books, one would think that happiness was rare. Ever psychologists seem far more interested in stuffing heartache. However, there is good news. A growing body of research indicates that most people’s lives are more upbeat than we think. In fact, 55 percent of adults in the United States of America say they laugh once an hour. In addition, most people around the World say they are happy—including those who are poor, unemployed, elderly, and disabled. Some say money buys happiness, well maybe not that much more. Wealthy people appear only slightly happier than those of modest means. Overall, only 1 person in 10 reports being “not too happy.” Although people are not happy every day, most seem to bounce back well from disappointments. Happy people also seem to remain happy from decade to decade, regardless of job changes, moves, and family changes. When treating people with unipolar depression, one method that seems helpful is to reintroduce clients to pleasurable events and activities. While reintroducing pleasurable events into a client’s life, the therapist also makes sure that the person’s various behaviours are reinforced correctly. Behaviourists have argued that when people become depressed, their negative behaviours—crying, complaining, or self-depreciation—keep others at a distance, reducing changes for positive reinforcement. To change this pattern, the therapist may use a contingency management approach, systematically ignoring a client’s depressive behaviours while praising or otherwise rewarding constructive statements and behaviour, such as going to work. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

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Although formal treatment is typically needed for severe depression, personal efforts such as going on vacation or spending time with friends can often make a significant difference for people who are struggling with mild depression. Research shows, for example, that regular exercise help prevent or reduce feelings of depression as well as other psychological symptoms. Life does not always turn out the way people want it to, you may end up living around people you do not care for and feel isolated and have no friends. You may want to get back to a lifestyle that is more conducive to your well-being. However, one thing that I find that helps, besides exercise and music is to some times just shut down and stop talking to people. Take some time to be quiet and work through the negative emotions and pray about them. Also, happy movies help. I had the TV on, while I was using my station bike, and had sworn off Christmas movies this year because you know, sometimes situations are ongoing and every year some expect them to be resolved, and they are not yet. However, I got stuck watching 12 Pups for Christmas (2019) Starring Charlotte Sullivan and Donny Boaz. It was such a great movie and I highly recommend it. It is all about being in the prime of one’s life and then facing one unexpected situation after another, but one can see how God used Erin’s (Charlotte Sullivan’s) pain to put her in a better situation that she could not even imagine. The movie is so charming that I found myself smiling and laughing while watching it. I really enjoyed how the people all liked each other, and worked together and were open and optimistic and honest. The film reminded me of a passage in the Christian Bible, “Now therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for and support you and your little ones. And he comforted them [imparting cheer, hope, strength] and spoke to their hearts [kindly],” reports Genesis 50.21. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

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The film 12 Pups for Christmas shows one how devastating life events can be and how nothing is promised, and things are not perfect, but if you keep the right attitude and keep persevering and being kind, the Lord will make things work in your favour. Although most of the variance in adult dysfunctions involving pleasures of the flesh is explainable by concurrent relational problems, some childhood interpersonal experiences may be viewed as distal contributory causes. Two such issues that are clearly rooted in family socialization are negative attitudes toward sexuality and extreme religious orthodoxy. Both of these are more psychological than interpersonal constructs. However, each can be viewed as a result of socialization in the family of origin, and each is related to the other. Children who are reared with extremely orthodox beliefs and values may view pleasures of the flesh as generally inappropriate and improper behaviour, unless it is explicitly enacted with the goal of procreation. Armed with such attitudes, some individuals might experience adjustment problems when paired with partners of differing beliefs and values. Related to this are negative attitudes toward pleasures of the flesh. Certain child-rearing practices and family environments may leave a child with a tendency to associate pleasures of the flesh with feelings of guilt and shame. Other family experiences may lead the child to link pleasures of the flesh with disgrace, emotional pain, or betrayal. To the extent that these negative attitudes, often learned in childhood, are durable through the adult years, impairment in functioning during pleasures of the flesh is a likely consequence. Another early interpersonal experience that can impair adult pleasures of the flesh functioning is childhood sexual abuse, especially when this abuse is intrafamilial. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

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Multiple studies show that people who experienced such abuse as children are more likely than those who have not to experience dysfunctions in pleasures of the flesh as adults. Two important caveats must be noted, however. First, these same studies show that childhood sexual abuse is situation in a matrix of aversive childhood and family-of-origin experiences (such as excessive conflict, low cohesion, poor boundary regulation, physical abuse, and parental neglect), and that it is associated with a similarly diverse matrix of adult psychosocial problems (such as separation, divorce, relational dissatisfaction, substance abuse, depression, somatization, and anxiety, to name just some). Each of these on its own may be sufficient to interfere with functioning in pleasures of the flesh. Disentangling and understanding the effects of sexual abuse in particular continues to be a challenge for mental health research. Second, there is no deterministic relationship between childhood sexual abuse and adult functioning. Some children who experienced sexual abuse go on to develop happy and healthy interpersonal relationships, and are indistinguishable from their nonabused peers. Undoubtedly, this resilience is an amalgamation of personal and socioenvironmental factors that allows them to minimize and overcome the ill effects of this trauma. These caveats notwithstanding, childhood sexual abuse is thought to disrupt attachment to caregivers, trust in others, the development of self-esteem, and a sense of mastery. When a survivour of such abuse is confronted with new developmental tasks, such as management and negotiation of adult pleasures of the flesh, these liabilities may be manifested in a variety of psychosocial problems—including pleasures of the flesh dysfunctions. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

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Psychogenic sexual dysfunctions tend to coexist with other mental health problems that also have an obvious interpersonal basis. However, unlike problems such as depression or schizophrenia, for example, the comorbidity of sexual dysfunctions has not been as thoroughly researched. This is perhaps due in part to the difficulty of accurately assessing and diagnosing these problems and the fact that such assessment requires ruling out physiological origins. Studies of people identified as having a psychogenic sexual dysfunction reveal a 30 to 35 percent incidence of others psychological problems. One common problem that is concomitant to sexual dysfunction is depression. As an example, the odds ratio for erectile dysfunction has been estimated at 1.82 in the presence versus absence of depressive symptoms. A study of couples seeking therapy for sexual dysfunction indicated that rates of depression, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders were all elevated in contrast to those in the generational population. Lifetimes rates of affective disorders (major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disorder) among the participants in this study were 21.5 percent and 38.3 percent for men and women, respectively. Associated rates of anxiety disorders were 19.9 percent and 37.3 respectively. Thus, problems like depression and anxiety are evident in the background of about 33 percent of those seeking treatment for sexual dysfunction. Like personality disorders, sexual dysfunctions tend t be comorbid with other sexual dysfunctions. In a large-sample, multisite pharmaceutical study, 40 percent of those with hypoactive sexual desire disorder were also diagnosed with a second sexual dysfunction. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

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In view of the ill effect of anxiety on performance and depression on sexual desire, the comorbidity of these problems with sexual dysfunction is easily understood. However, it is equally evident that these problems are interconnected in at least some cases by interpersonal problems and stressors. When close relationships become distressed and/or when people have a history of interpersonal maltreatment, both depression and sexual dysfunction are likely consequences. Similarly, people who experience a great deal of anxiety in interpersonal contexts, perhaps because of poor social skills, may experience sexual dysfunctions that are secondary to that excessive anxiety. Psychogenic sexual dysfunctions appear to be every bit as much problems with couple relationships and a psychological sense of intimacy, as problems with the psychophysiology of human sexuality. People with psychogenic sexual dysfunctions often have intimacy problems that extend far beyond just sexual intimacy and include poor social and recreational intimacy with their partners as well. Psychogenic sexual dysfunctions may serve as regulative devices for addressing unresolved conflict and a lack of intimacy. Like those of other mental health problems, the symptoms of psychogenic sexual dysfunction may draw attention away from more substantial  underlying interpersonal problems that a couple is unable or unwilling to address openly. They may also serve as a means of communicating distress indirectly. In either case, sexual dysfunctions may be indices of more pervasive interpersonal/relational problems. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

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A number of relations themes are evident in studies of sexually dysfunctional couples. These include open conflict, as well as passivity, discouragement, a lack of agreement and understanding, and hostility that is often not expressed directly and openly. Some of these phenomena are even evident through observations of brief laboratory interactions between partners. Notwithstanding the associations between sexual dysfunctions and current relational problems, some interpersonal childhood experiences may be distal contributory causes of adult sexual dysfunctions. When children are socialized with strict orthodox religious beliefs and values, and/or when they learn negative attitudes toward sexuality, they are predisposed to experience psychogenic sexual dysfunctions as adults. A history of childhood sexual abuse is also more common among those with psychogenic sexual dysfunction, compared to their well-functioning counterparts. Such abuse may set the stage for views of sexuality as coercive, hostile, and motivated by malfeasance. Both somatoform disorders and psychogenic sexual dysfunctions involved the experience and expression of physical symptoms in the absence of any obvious medical or physiological cause. Each of these disorders is a sign of intrapersonal and interpersonal distress, and serves a communicative value. The interpersonal pathogenesis of somatoform disorders can be primarily located in family-of-origin experiences; although such experiences do play a role in psychogenic sexual dysfunctions, these dysfunctions more strongly signal troubles with family-of-orientation relationships. I remember the time when some brothers of the Lord were praying over me for a new release of the Holy Spirit. At a certain point they invited me to choose Jesus as the Lord of my life, freely and consciously. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

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At that moment I happened to look up, and my eyes fell on the crucifix which was on the wall opposite above the altar. He seemed to have been there for some time, waiting for me. In an instant, this truth branded itself within me: “Make no mistake, this is the Jesus Christ you are choosing as your Lord, not a different rose-water version!” How often, since then, have I tried to admit the truth of those words! Being espoused to Christ means, here below, being “crucified with Christ,” but also in the hope of being glorified with Him. Joy is never absent, but it is a hope-filled joy (spe gaudentes). In other words, it is hoping to be happy, and happy to be hoping. “All who belong to Christ Jesus,” writes the Apostle—“have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” repots Galatians 5.24. It is a beautiful thing to die to the World for the Lord, so as to raise in Him. Earthly longings (eros) have been crucified; in the me there is left no spark of desire for mundane things. It is no joke to crucify one’s flesh with its passions and desires, especially pleasures of the flesh desires, which are among the most imperious of all. The desires of the flesh—self-indulgence—are always in opposition to the Spirit. Some have been brought to the edge of despair by temptations of the flesh. We are now living in a social context where it is no longer possible to rely on external safeguards for the defense of one’s chastity, as it was in the past—things like the separation of the genders, a rigorous filtering of contacts with the World, and all the countless other detailed precautions with which “Rules” usually surround the observance of this vow. Unconstrained communications and travel have created a new situation. The defence of one’s chastity is now for the most part in the hands of the individual, and it cannot rest on anything other than strong personal convictions, acquired precisely through contact with God in prayer and in His Word. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

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It is this spirit and with this intention that we continue our reflections. Celibacy, then, is for the sake of the Kingdom. However, why does the Kingdom call for celibacy? Can it not be achieved and manifested completely through marriage? Some Fathers of the Church, such as John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor, thought that is Adam had not sinned, there would have been no marriage, with the sexual procreation that is now its distinguishing feature, because in the way in which it is now exercised, human sexuality is the fruit of original sin. However, from a mere biblical and less Platonic perspective it must be said that rather the reverse is true: that, had there been no sin there would have been no virginity, because the would have been no need to question marriage and sexuality and subject them to judgment. Poverty, chastity and obedience are not a renunciation—or worse, a condemnation—of a created good, but a rejection of the evil that has come to overlay that good. Therefore they are, by definition, a proclamation of the original goodness of created things. They are a way of imitating the Word of God Who, by taking flesh, took on all that belongs to human nature, but did not take on sin. “For we do not have a great High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning,” reports Hebrews 4.15. The Gospel counsels, and the vows based upon them, proclaim the goodness and beauty of God’s creation precisely by the denouncing the ambiguity of human creation. The inability to understand the value of virginity, and likewise of obedience and voluntary poverty, is always a sign that the sense of sin has disappeared from the horizon of faith. It is typical of periods of acute secularization and naïve optimism concerning humanity and the World. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

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Seen in this light, poverty, chastity and obedience are the most eloquent proclamation there is of Christ’s redemption and of the Paschal Mystery, which does not cancel out the original creation, as the heretic Marcion thought, but it “recapitulates” it, as St. Irenaeus said, in other words, brings it out into the light from under the covering of sin. In this light it is also possible to understand the positive element, still valid today, in the Fathers’ insight that virginity was a return to the Heavenly state, but on condition that this return is not understood as bypassing marriage and human sexuality itself (male and female He created them), but only the sin with which they have been overlaid by human freedom. A virginal and chaste life if therefore in a very profound sense a paschal life. “I beg you, then, by God’s mercy, my brothers, to offer your bodies as a holy and living sacrifice which will be pleasing to God—this is your spiritual worship. Do not pattern yourselves after the ways of this World but transform yourselves by the renewal of your minds, so you will be able to discern what God’s will is—what is good, pleasing and perfect,” reports Romans 12.1-2. Their celibacy was the most delicious of all: transformative and liberating, and the instrument of its own success. However, the demons’ traps are evil thought. Become saved again, and commit your soul to God. We need to seek how to please God in our bodily members [as well as spiritually]. Everything we observe, and even more important, our way of observing it, is already culture and pattern of culture. If we cannot observe it, what is the sense of mentioning “human nature”? The wild Babes give up their individualistic mores and ideology, exempli gratia, selfishness or magic thinking or omnipotence, and join the tribe of Society; they are soicalised. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

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You can teach people anything; if you use the right techniques of socializing or communicating, you can adapt them to anything. The essence of human nature is to be pretty indefinitely malleable. Humans are what suits a particular type of society in a particular historical age. This fateful idea, invented from time to time by philosophers, seems finally to be empirically evident in the most recent decades. For instance, in our highly organized system of machine production and its corresponding social relations, the practice is, by “vocational guidance,” to fit people wherever the products of the system need to be used up, the practice is, by advertising, to get people to consume them. This works. There is a human for every job and not many are left over, and the shelves are almost always cleared. Again, in the highly organized political industrial systems of Germany, Russia, and now China, it has been possible in a short time to condition great masses to perform as desired. Social scientists observer that these are the facts, and they also devise theories and techniques to produce more facts like them, for the social scientists too are part of the highly organized systems. Astonishingly different, however, is the opinion of experts who deal with human facts in a more raw, less highly processed, state. Those who have to cope with people in small groups rather than statistically, attending to them rather than to some systematic goal—parents and teachers, physicians and psychotherapists, police officers and wardens of jails, shop foremen and grievance committees—these experts are likely to hold stubbornly that there is a “human nature.” You cannot teach people some things or change them in some ways, if you persist, you are in for trouble. Contrariwise, if you do not provide them with certain things, they will fill the gaps with eccentric substitute. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

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This is immediately evident when something goes wrong; for instance, when a child cannot learn to read because one has not yet developed the muscular accommodation of one’s eyes; if you persist, one withdraws or becomes tricky. Such a clear-cut cause (it is “physical”). However, the more important causes have the following form: the child does take on the culture habit, exempli gratia, early toilet training, and indeed the whole corresponding pattern of culture, but there is a minishing of force, grace, discrimination, intellect, feeling, in specific behaviours or even in one’s total behaviour. One may become too obedient and lacking in initiative, or impractically careful and squeamish; one may develop “psychosomatic” ailments like constipation. Let me give an instance even earlier in life: an infant nurtured in an institution without a particular nurse attending one during the first six months, does not seem to develop abnormally; but if during the end of the first year and for some time thereafter one is not given personal care, one will later be in some ways emotionally cold and unreachable—either some function has failed to develop, or one has already blocked it out as too frustrated and painful. In such examples, the loss of force, grace, and feeling seems to be evidence that somehow the acquired cultural habits do not draw on unimpeded outgoing energy, they are against the grain, they do not fit the child’s needs or appetites; therefore they have been ill adapted and not assimilated. That is, on this view we do not need to be able to say what “human nature” is in order to be able to day tht some training is “against human nature” and you persist in it at peril. Teachers and psychologists who deal practically with growing up and the blocks to growing up may never mention the word “human nature” (indeed, they are better off without too many priori ideas), but they cling stubbornly to the presumption that at every stage there is a developing potentiality not yet cultured, and not blank, and that makes possible the taking on of culture. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

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We must draw “it” out, offer “it” opportunities, not violate “it” except for unavoidable reasons. What “it” is, is not definite. It is what, when appealed to in the right circumstances, gives behaviour that has force, grace, discrimination, feeling. This vagueness is of course quite sufficient for education, for education is an art. A good teacher feels one’s way, looking for response. The immediate horror humans perceive is one’s own death, but beyond that one begins to see the entire life process as carnage, as eating and being eaten. A terrible screaming pervades the Universe. Humans are the first to hear it. This is the vision we cannot accept. It drives towards madness or despair. What does Christianity do with this vision. It does not deny it; it makes it acceptable. What Christianity does for the true believer is give one strength to bear it. Redeems it. That is the word! The scheme of things redeems the way things are. However, what is redemption? It must be an interpretation. The scheme of things, therefore, is both a diagram of the something grand and an interpretation of the way things are as an essential step on the way to the something grand. The life process thereupon becomes less horrible and more bearable because it serves, however obscurely, a glorious end. When it is in the service of something grand, one’s individual life is redeemed. The beginning of the redemption of life is the beginning of culture. All culture is redemption. The history of culture is the history of changing forms by which a short and brutish life has been redeemed. The culture of people is the incarnation of its religion. Any religion, while it last, provides the framework for a culture, and protects the mass of humanity from boredom and despair. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

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Humans search for a scheme of things larger than their own life, with greater authority, to which one may belong. The hunger from which this search issues is profound and inalienable. If one can find such a scheme and makes one’s life “mean” something in it, that is, contribute to it, make a difference, one will have ferried something of one’s mortal self across the gulf of death to become a part of something that will live on. The doomed life must leave a residue of value. The carrier and guarantor of this value is human-made scheme of things perceived as reality and presumed to be eternal. What can one say of the way things are? The constructions of the mind are not coextensive with existence, that there is something “out there,” a universe independent of humans, there before we arrived and to be there after we have disappeared. It affects us and we it. IT and we are in continual contact and interaction, and we know it not. We cannot bear to know. An angel, detached and immortal, could know; we, mired in mortality, are at risk. Interest deflects our knowing. Our lives depend on its being other than it is. In the midst of the way things are we know only the scheme of things in which we live. If someone is not treating you right today, go out of your way to be kinder than usual to that person. If your husband is not serving God, do not go around beating him over the head with your Bible, proselytizing him, nagging him, coercing him to attend church with you. No, just start being extra kind to him. Start living him in a fresh way. The Holy Bibles teaches, “It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance,” reports Romans 2.4. God’s goodness expressed through you will overcome evil. Friend, love never fails. Now turn not a df ear to that which I have spoken, for My Word shall rise withing you with great revelation. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

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For I am doing in this hour things that humans have not understood, just as was prophesied in the days of old. I said it by My prophets that you would not believe the reports of the things that I would do. Some will not believe, but the hour is coming that humans shall proclaim My Word boldly over their own bodies and it will cause sickness and disease to depart. Their words will cause the enemy to flee in terror. If anyone had a right to return evil instead of love, it was Joseph, the young man with the distinctive coat of many colours. His brothers hated him so much, they threw him into a deep pit and were going to kill him, but “out of the kindness of their hearts,” they decided instead to sell him into slavery. Years went by, and Joseph experienced all sorts of troubles and heartaches. However, Joseph kept a good attitude, and God continued to bless him. After thirteen years of being in prison for a crime he did not commit, God supernaturally promoted him to the second-highest position in Egypt. Joseph was in charge of the food supply when a famine struck the land, and his brothers traveled to Egypt, hoping to buy provisions for their families. At first they did not recognize their long-lost brother. Joseph finally said, “Do not you who I am? I am Joseph, your brother. I am the one you threw into the pit. I am the one you tried to kill, the brother you sold into slavery.” Can you imagine what was going through his brothers’ minds? Imagine the fear that must have griped their hearts! This was Joseph’s opportunity to pay back his brothers for the years of pain and suffering they had caused him. Now their lives were in his hands. Joseph could have ordered them killed or imprisoned for life. However, Joseph said, “Do not be afraid. I am not going to harm you. I am going to do good to you. I am going to give you all the food you need.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

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The Christian Bible says, “Love does not hold a grudge. Love does not harbour unforgiveness,” report 1 Corinthians 13.5. You may have people in your life who have done you great wrong, and you have a right to be angry and bitter, or foolish and ghoulish, full of doom and gloom. You may feel as though your whole life had been stolen away by someone who has mistreated you or deceived you. However, if you will choose to let go of your grudge and forgive them, you can overcome that evil with good. You can get to the point where you can look at the people who have hurt your and return good for evil. If you do that, God will pour out His favour in your life in a fresh way. He will honour you; He will reward you, and He will make those wrongs right. When you can bless your worst enemies and do good to those who have used and abused you, that is when God will take that evil and turn it around for good. No matter what you have gone through, no matter who hurt you or whose fault it was for causing all the trauma and drama, let it go. Do not try to get even. Do not hold a grudge. Do not try to pay them back. God says show mercy. Aim for kindness. Seek to do good. You may be thinking, but that is just not fair! No, it is not. However, life is not fair. We have to remember that God is the One keeping the score. He is in control. And when you bless your enemies, you will never lose. God will always make it up to you. The power of the Lord shall rise withing humans until there will be a race of people on this Earth when I come that will stand against Satan and see him flee from them. They will stand without sickness or disease in their bodies. They will stand even before whole cities and proclaim, “In the name of Jesus, I break the power of sin over this city.” Then the walls of Satan will crumble and the power of God shall be loosed in that city. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

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The wisdom of God shall flow unhindered and my power shall rule in the midst. Even as the darkness grows more morbid, the light shall grow more optimistic. My wisdom shall be released in greater measure and greater revelation as human take My Word at face value, even as I have spoken it. The tongue cannot be controlled by natural ability. It is an unruly evil in the unregenerate state. However, the wisdom of God that has come by the rebirth of the human spirit, imparted by the Holy Spirit to the hearts of humans, will cause the tongue to come into subjection to the spirit of humans, which is ordained of God to rule. It shall cause the body to conform to the Word of the living God. Dear Lord in Heaven, I dare to believer that You can take even the bad things that happen to your children and transform them into something good and useful, not merely in our own lies, but in the lives of other around us. You know, I am against taxes, I think they should be as long as possible and once politicians start taxing things to make improvements in areas that the budget cannot support, it leads to excessive taxes, which then leads to communism. One absurd tax is the bag tax. Sure, the thicker bags are good for people who can afford to buy them and have to walk with the groceries. However, it is a common courtesy to provide people with complimentary bags for purchasing items at your story. The supposed goal was to reduce plastic waste, but most people buy these thicker plastic bags anyway. Most stores do not allow reusable bags to come into their store because they may be contaminated with bacteria or viruses or infested with cock roaches and their eggs and can infest the stores, spread to other customers and make people fatally ill. Also, what about the people who can barely afford what they are buying? For some people, an extra $2.00 for twenty bags, for example, is a lot of money when they can barely afford what they are buying. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

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However, I truly wish there was a way we could find some money in the budget to pay our service members and veterans $100,000.00 a year and lifelong medical benefits for their priceless service. And also, if we want law enforcement reform, why not pay officers the same wages and require that they obtain at least an Associates in Arts in psychology, law, or something so we know they have some understanding of what life is like outside of their family-of-origin and family-of-orientation. Some police are education, some have PhDs, and an educated officer may not be better at one’s job than a high school graduate, but I wonder what the studies say? It is possible that requiring an education would reduce conflict in the community and screen out officers who have a vendetta against other races, religions, creeds or genders. Also, regulating leaf blower nose and usage would be great. The government bans the use of fireplaces on certain days, which is sad because some people cannot afford to burn their heaters and knowing how much heat they are using helps them from keeping their electricity from getting shut off. People have trees they can cut down and burn for fuel. The system in America is set up, well, it was once set up to accommodate the rich, but the poor and rich are getting jilted, while the middle class is disappearing before your eyes like a dope fiend. And I have looked at some of these million dollar homes in California, and I am so disappointed. I expect something more and grand for $1 million. Sure, inflation is real, but wage inflation is not happening. Everything is just getting more and more expensive and cutting into people’s wages. In Sacramento, if you did not become established 10-20 years ago, and are not a professional and do not have two or more employed people in the house, the cost of living is almost unaffordable. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

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The shrinkage of the nation-state reflects the appearance of a new-style global economy that has emerged since the Third Wave began its surge. Nation-states were the necessary political containers for nation-sized economies. Today the containers have not only sprung leaks, they have been made obsolete by their own success. First, there is the growth within them of regional economies that have attained a scale once associated with national economies. Second, the World economy to which they gave rise had exploded in size and is taking on strange new forms. Thus the global economy is dominated by the great transnational corporations. It is serviced by a ramified banking and financial industry that operates at electronic speeds. It breeds money and credit no nation can regulate. It moves toward transnational currencies—not a single “World money” but a variety of currencies or “meta-currencies,” each based on a “market basket” of national currencies or commodities. The global economy is torn by a World-scale conflict between resource supplies and users. It is riddled with shaky debt on a hitherto unimaginable scale. It is a mixed economy, with private capitalist and state-socialist enterprises forming joint ventures and working side by side. And its ideology is not laissez faire or Marxism, but globalism—the idea that nationalism is obsolete. Just as Second Wave created a slice of the population that had larger than local interests and became the base of nationalist ideologies, so the Third Wave gives rise to groups with larger than national interests. These for the base of the emerging globalist ideology sometimes called “planetary consciousness.” This consciousness is shared by multinational executives, long haired environmental campaigners, financiers, revolutionaries, intellectuals, poets, painters, not to mention members of the Trilateral Commission. I have even had a famous U.S. four-star general assure me that “the nation-state is dead.” #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

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Globalism presents itself as more than an ideology serving the interests of a limited group. Precisely as nationalism claimed to speak for the whole nation, globalism claims to speak for the whole World. And its appearance is seen as an evolutionary necessity—a step closer to a “cosmic consciousness” that would embrace the Heavens as well. Therefore, at every level, from economics and politics to organization and ideology, we are witnessing a devastating attack, from within and without, on that pillar of Second Wave civilization: the nation-state. At the exact historical moment when many poor countries are desperately fighting to establish a national identity because nationhood in the past was necessary for successful industrialization, the rich countries, racing beyond industrialism, are diminished, displacing, or derogating the role of the nation. We can expect the next decades to be torn by struggle over the creation of new global institutions capable of faily representing the prenational as well and the postnational peoples of the World. Be praised my Lord with all Your creatures but especially with Brother Sun because You show us light and day through him and he is lovely glowing with a great shine from You my Lord: his definition. Be praised my Lord for Brother Wind and for the air and cloudy days and bright and all days else because through these You give Your creatures sustenance. Be praised my Lord for Sister Water because she shows great use and humbleness in hers and preciousness and depth. Be praised my Lord for Brother Fire through whom You light all nights upon the Earth because he is too lovely full of joy and manly strength. Be praised my Lord because our sister Mother Earth sustains and rules us and because she raises food to feed us; coloured flowers and grass. Be praised my Lord for those who pardon by Your love and suffer illness and grief. Bless those who undergo in silence the poor for whom you hold a crown. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

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Be praised my Lord for Sister Death-of-Body whom no human living (as of yet) will escapes and piety those who die in mortal sin and everyone she finds who minds you bless: no second death to bring them hurt. Oh praise my Lord and bless my Lord and thank and serve my Lord with humbleness Triumphant. Just think, immortality is not too far away. Eventually scientists will find a cure of aging and death. For some it will give them more time to get right in the eyes of the Lord and do things they love, for others, it will allow them to evade eternal punishment
for a while. O Lord, open Thou my lips and my mouth shall declare Thy praise. Praised art Thou, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, mighty, revered and exalted God. Thou bestowest lovingkindness and possessest all things. Mindful of the patriarchs’ love for Thee, Thou wilt in Thy love bring a redeemer to their children’s children for the sake of Thy name. Remember us unto life, O King who delightest in life, and inscribe us in the Book of Life so that we may live worthily for Thy sake, O Lord of life. O King, Thou Helper, Redeemer and Shield, be Thou praised, O Lord, Shield of Abraham. Thou, O Lord, art mighty forever. Thou callest the dead to immortal life for Thou art might in deliverance. One may be lifted up by the light of a great experience or the presence of a great soul, but in the end one falls back to the consciousness one ordinarily has, to the self one ordinarily is. This is not to say tht what has happened is without value—on the contrary, such a glimpse is very important—but that under the thrill of its emotional accompaniments one may easily miscomprehend a part of it to the point of self-deception. The error is to believe that one has now been put in possession of all truth, or the highest truth, for all time. However, it is only a transient glimpse! If one were pure enough and prepared enough to receive the light in all its fullness and in all the parts of one’s being, the glimpse would not leave one. However, one is not. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22

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CRESLEIGH HAVENWOOD

Lincoln, CA | from the mid $600s

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Wake up happy every day in your new Cresleigh home. No appointment needed! Cresleigh Havenwood features four distinct floor plans ranging from 2,293 – 3,489 square feet and offering up to five bedrooms. 

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Located off of Virginiatown Road and McCourtney Road, residents of the 83 homesites of Cresleigh Havenwood will benefit from a brand new neighborhood in the charming City of Lincoln. 

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Palo Verde Park, is  just down the street and there’s plenty of recreation to take part in all around town. https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/

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The Demon’s Traps are Evil Thoughts!

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Spiritualism is real. The story of Saul and the witch Endor often has been cited as a biblical example of actual communication with the dead through a medium. Spiritists have contended that since Israel’s first king actually talked with the spirit of the departed Samuel, one cannot deny the possibility of communicating with those who have died. However, careful study of the account shows that God, not the medium, really brought Samuel from the real of the dead. The Biblical record: Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me as a medium, and bring me him up, who I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Soul hath done, how he hath cut off those who are mediums, and the wizards, out of the land Why, then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? For thou are Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid; for what sawest Thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of Earth. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am very much distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams; therefore, I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Why, then, dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And the LORD hath done to thee, as he spoke by me; for the LORD hath torn the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David. Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedest his fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. The LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell immediately full length on the Earth, and was very much afraid, because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, not all the night. And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was very much troubled, and said unto him, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou didst speak unto me. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

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Now, therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee; and eat, that thou mayest have strength, when thou goest on thy way. However, he refused, and said, I will not eat. However, his servants, together with the woman, compelled him; and he hearkeneth unto their voice. So he arose from the Earth, and sat upon the bed. And the woman had a fat calf in the house; and she hastened and killed it, and took flour, and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it; and she brought it before Saul, and before his servants, and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night (1 Samuel 28.7-25). We see God’s power at work in spite of the action of the medium, not because of her incantations, for the following reasons: First, the spirit spoke to Saul. The king never doubted that the form which appeared and the voice he heard belonged to Samuel, God’s faithful servant. Second, the message spoken by the spirit was true. It contained a rebuke to Saul for his disobedience in failing to destroy the Amalekites as God had commanded. (See 1 Samuel 15.1-31.) It was a declaration of judgment, empathically stating that the Lord had departed from Saul and become his enemy. It was also a true prophecy, for it said that Saul and his sons would die the next day, and the prediction was literally fulfilled. Yes, there is no doubt the message came from Samuel. Third, we do not believe that the witch was responsible for brining his spirit from the realm of the dead, because she screamed in terror when she saw the spirit of Samuel. She was either a fraud, able to deceive people into thinking she received messages from the other side, or a genuine medium with the ability to make contact with demons. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

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In the latter case, she would have expected a demon to impersonate Samuel. That is why she was surprised and frightened when the actual spirit of Samuel miraculously made it appearance. God was displeased that King Saul sought help from the witch of Endor. Notice the writer of 1 Chronicles says: “So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of a medium, to inquire of her, and inquired not of the LORD; therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David, the son of Jesse (1 Chronicles 10.13-14). This text states that these two sins of Saul brought about his death at the hand of the Philistines. First, the king had transgressed against the Lord through an act of disobedience. (See 1 Samuel 13.8-14 and 15.12-23.) Second, he sinned grievously by going to a medium instead of returning to the Lord in humble and penitent prayer. In fact, King Saul’s visit to the necromancer was the crowing sin of his troubled life. Though the New Testament does not specifically repeat the warnings against consulting mediums, it clearly teaches the existence of demons and the reality of a World of evil spirits under the direction of Satan. We have no reason for thinking that necromancy today is less dangerous or offensive to God than it the past, and we therefore must heed the Old Testament prohibitions. The Lord Jesus confirmed the Old Testament teaching that the dead cannot really send messages to the living and also showed that no need for communication with those who have died exists. In His story of the rich man and Lazarus, He portrayed Abraham as declaring first that the gulf between the saved and unsaved in the spirit World is impassable, and then as denying the rich man’s request that someone from the real of the dead warn his living brothers. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

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The patriarch said that people on Earth have the Scriptures, and added, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16.31). The Scriptures never once indicate the possibility of actually receiving messages from the dead through a medium. Jesus also declared that such communication with the spirits of those who have died would have no eternal value, for such conversations between citizens of two Worlds would not lead the living to faith in Christ. Then, too, the Old Testament Scriptures which unequivocally condemn all such effort are still in force today. We therefore conclude, as was mention weeks ago about Bishop Pike conversing with his dead son, must not be true. He was either the victim of a carefully and skillfully contrived plot on the part of an international group of mediums, or he spoke with a demon who impersonated the voice and mannerisms of his son. Believers should consider all forms of necromancy to be both unnecessary and sinful. The mediums who purportedly make contact with the spirit World are either entertainers, deliberately deceiving their victims, or emissaries of Satan, somehow placed in touch with members of the devil’s invisible army. When an individual seeks a message from the spirit of someone who has died, one almost always goes to a medium. Such a person possesses an unusual amount of psychic ability, supposedly enabling one to make contact with the spirit World. These people are sometimes called necromancers, and often are able to put on bizarre and frightening displays as proof of their psychic power. They may cause objects or people to float in the air, produce music from a piano that no one is touching, or cause a horn to blow which appears to be miraculously suspended and moving about the room. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

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Some of these phenomena undoubtedly are accomplished by clever mechanical means as the work of impostors, but in some instances scientific humans have discerned no evidence of human manipulated. This has caused a number of atheists and agnostics, after conducting extensive investigations, to speak vaguely of a non-material and indefinable spiritual power in the Universe with which certain psychic individuals can relate. Christians, on the other hand, know that the phenomena we have been speaking about may at least in part be attributed to the activity of the invisible spirit World, which the Bible depicts as being under Satan’s control. As you may recall, Florence Newton was committed to Youghal prison by the Mayor of the town, 24th March 1661, for bewitching Mary Longdon, who gave evidence against her at the Cork Assizes (11th September). Edward Perry was sworn in during the trial, and deposed that he, Mr. Greatrix and Mr. Blackwall went to the Maid, and Mr. Greatrix and he had read of a way to discover a Witch, which he would practise. Ans so they sent for the Witch, and set her on a Stool, and a Shoemaker with a strong Awl endeavoured to stick it in the Stool, but could not till the third time. And then they bade her come of the Stool, but she said she was very weary and could not stir. Then two of them pulled her off, and the Man went to pull out his Awl, and it dropped into his hand with half an Inch broke off the blade of it, and they all looked to have found where it had been stuck, but could find no place where any entry had been made by it. Then they took another Awl, and put it into the Maid’s hand. .and one of them took the Maid’s hand, and ran violently at the Witch’s hand with it, but could not enter it, though the Awl was so bent that none of them could put it straight again. Then Mr. Blackwall took a Launce, and launc’d one of her hands an Inch and a half long, and a quarter of an Inch deep, but it bled not at all. Then he launc’d the other hand, and then they bled. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

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He further saith, that after she was in Prison he went with Roger Hawkins and others to discourse with the Witch about the Maid, and they asked what it was she spoke to the day before, and after some denial she said it was a Greyhound which was her Familiar, and went out at the Window; and then she said, If I have done the Maid hurt, I am sorry for it. And being asked whether she had done her any hurt she said she never did bewitch her, but condess’d she had overlooked her, at that time she kiss’d her, but that she could not now help her, for none could help her that did the mishap, but others. Further the Deponent saith, That meeting after the Assizes at Cashel with one William Lap [who suggested the test of the tile]. Mr. Wood, a minister, being likewise sworn and examined, deposeth, That having heard of the stones dropped and thrown at the Maid, and of her Fits, and meeting with the Maid’s Brother, he went along with him to the Maid, and found her in her Fit, crying out against Gammer Newton, that she prick’d and hurt her. And when she came to herself he asked her what had troubled her; and she said Gammer Newton. And the Deponent saith, Why, she was not there. Yes, said she, I saw her by my bedside. The Deponent then asked her the original of all, which she related from the time of her begging the Beef, and after kissing, and so to that time. That then they caused the Maid to be got up, and sent to Florence Newton, but she refused to come, pretending she was sick, though it indeed appeared she was well. Then the Mayor of Youghal came in, and spoke with the Maid, and then sent again and caused Florence Newton to be brought in, and immediately the Maid fell into her Fit far more violent, and three times as long as at any other time, and all the Witch was in the Chamber the Maid cried out continually of her being hurt here and there, but never named the Witch: but as soon as she was removed, then she cried out against her by the name of Gammer Newton, and this for several times. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

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And still when the Witch was out of the Chamber the Maid would desire to go to Prayers, and he found good affections of her in time of Prayer, but when the Witch was brought in again, though never so privately, although she could not possibly, as the Deponent conceives, see her, she would be immediately senseless, and like to be strangled, and so would continue till the Witch was taken out, and then though never so privately carried away she would come again to her senses. That afterwards Mr. Greatrix, Mr. Blackwall, and some others, who would need satisfy themselves in the influence of the Witch’s presence, tried it and found it several times. Richard Mayre, Mayor of Youghall, sworn, saith, That about the 24th of March last he sent for Florence Newton and examined her about the Maid, and she at first denied it, and accused Goodwife Halfpenny and Goodwife Dod, but at length when he had caused a Boat to be provided, and thought to have tried the Water-Experiment on all three, Florence Newton confessed to overlooking. Then he likewise examined the other two Women, but they utterly denied it, and were content to abide any trial; whereupon he caused Dod, Halfpenny, and Newton to be carried to the Maid; and he told her that these two Women, or one of them, were said by Gammer Newton to have done her hurt, but she said No, no, they are honest Women, but it is Gammer Newton that hurts me, and I believe she is not far off. [She was then brough in privately, with the usual result.] He further deposeth that there were three Aldermen in Youghall, whose children she had kiss’d, as he had heard them affirm, and all the children died presently after. Joseph Thompson being likewise sworn, saith [the same as Nicholas Pyne relatie to the Greyhound-Familiar.] #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

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Hitherto we have heard the most considerable Evidence touching Florence Newton’s witchcraft upon Mary Longdon, for which she was committed to Youghall Prison, 24th March 1661. However, April following she bewitched David Jones to death by kissing his hand through the Grate of the prison, for which she was indicted at Cork Assizes. Sarah Winchester was also afflicted by spirits after her new born daughter died six weeks after birth, and a few years later her husband perished. Although the summer sun had tanned his fair face to a rich reddish, brown, copperish hue, there was the brow more broad than high; the straight fine nose; the brave and blue eyes, and the mouth with its pretty curling smile, passersby could tell he was tormented by an internal struggle that brought on his death. With no kith or kin of hers alive, Mrs. Winchester could not bear that. She went and spoke with a medium who told her she was haunted by spirits of the Winchester rifle and needed to move West and build a castle. As long as that castle was under construction, she would be protected from the evil spirits. Mrs. Winchester eventually built a 4-story, 160 mansion, which is approximately 25,000 square feet. And boy, was a beauty (still is). However, she would not leave the house. She had a fancy that it would be cruel to her husband. She used to pray twice a day for him. She would go round by the garden and in at a lower gate, and come back the same way, or by the upper garden. This went on for many years. Before she made the bedroom on the fourth floor her main bedroom, Mrs. Winchester would sleep in different rooms sometimes, but she swore one of them was haunted, and dared never to sleep in that room again. One night, one hot night, it was a quarter before nine, and Mrs. Winchester was brushing her long shiny black hair before bed. The room was very much as it had been—rather dark because of the trees at the end of the walk outside. There was a four-poster there with the damask curtains; the table and chairs, the cupboard where her clothes were kept, and so on. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

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Having prayed even more heartily and tearfully than her want for her daughter and husband, Mrs. Winchester had lain down to sleep. The windows were left open, and the blinds up, that all possible air might reach her from the still and scented garden blow. Thinking of William, she had fallen asleep, and he was still mistily in her head, when she seemed to wake. The room was fully of clear light, but it was not morning: it was only the moon looking right in and flooding every object. Mrs. Winchester could see her own ghostly figure sitting up in bed reflecting in the looking-glass opposite. She listened: surely she heard some noises: yes—certainly, there could be no doubt of it—someone was knocking loudly and perseveringly at the hall-door. At first she fell into a deadly fear; then her reason came to her aid. If it were a robber, or a person with any evil intent, would he knock so openly and clamorously as to arouse inmates? Would not he rather go stealthily to work, to force a silent entrance for himself? At worst it is some drunken sailor from San Francisco; at best it is a messenger with news of her dear ones. At this thought, Mrs. Winchester sprang out of bed, and hurried on her stockings and shoes and whatever garments came most quickly to hand—with her hair spread all over her back, and utterly forgetful of her big comb, she opened her door, and flew down the passages, into which the moon was looking with her ghostly smile, down the broad and shallow stairs. As she neared the hall-door she met her old butler rather dishevelled, and evidently on the same errand as herself. “Who can it be, Henry?” She asked, trembling with excitement and fear. “Indeed, ma’am, I cannot tell you,” replied the butler, shaking his head, “it is a very odd time of the night to choose for making such noise. We will ask them their business, whoever they are, before we unchain the door. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

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It seemed to Mrs. Winchester as if the endless bolts would never be drawn—the key never be turned in the stiff lock; but at last the door opened slowly and cautiously, only to the width of a few inches, as it is still confined by the strong chained. However, there was no one at the door, but Mrs. Winchester could see down to the front gate, which was about a hundred yards away. She saw someone come up the walk; but it seemed to her at first that he was drunk. He staggered several times as she watched; she supposed he would be fifty yards away—and once she saw him catch hold of one of the trees and cling against it as if he were afraid of falling. Then he left it, and came on again slowly, going from side to side, with his hands out. He seemed desperately keen to get to the mansion. She could see his dress; and it astonished her that a man dressed so should be drunk; for her was quietly plainly a gentleman. He wore a white top hat, and a grey cut-away coat, and gray trousers, and Mrs. Winchester could make out his white spats. Then it struck her he might be ill; and she looked harder than ever, wondering whether she ought to go down. When he was about twenty yards away he lifted his face, and it struck Mrs. Winchester as very odd, she it seemed to her he was extraordinarily the her husband, who they had buried five months ago; but it was darkish where he was, and the next moment he dropped his face, threw up his hands and fell flat on his back. Well, of course she was startled at that, and she ran to the window and learned out and called something. He was moving his hands she could see, as if he were in convulsions; and she could hear the dry leaves rustling. She ran back to the door, the chains rattled down, the door opened wide and there he stands before her. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

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At once, before anyone could say anything, before anything had happened, a feeling of cold disappointment stole unaccountably over her—a nameless sensation whose nearest kin was a chilly awe. He made no movement towards her. He stood there still and silent, and though the night was dry, equally free from rain and dew, she saw that he was dripping wet; the water was running down from his clothes, from his drenched hair, and even from his eyelashes, on to the dry ground at his feet. “What has happened,” Mrs. Winchester cried, “Good Heavens! How are you here? How are you wet?” and as she spoke, she stretched out her hand and lay it on his coat sleeve. However, even as she does it a sensation of intense cold runs up her finger and her arm, even to the elbow. She wondered, “How is it that you are so chilled to the marrow of your bones on this sultry, breathless August night?” To her extreme surprise, he did not answer; he still stood there, numb and dripping. “Where have you come from?” Mrs. Winchester asked, with that sense of awe deepening. “It was cold,” Mr. Winchester replied, shivering, and speaking in a low and strangle altered voice, “bitter cold. I could not stay there.” “Stay where,” Mrs. Winchester say, looking in amazement at his face, which whether owning to the ghastly effect of the moonlight or not, seemed to her now ash white. “Where have you been? What is it you are talking about?” However, he did not reply. “He is really ill, I am afraid, Henry,” Mrs. Winchester said, turning with a forlorn feeling towards the butler. “He does not seem to hear what I am saying to him. I am afraid he has a thorough chill. What water can he have fallen into? You had better help him up to bed, and get him warm between the blankets. His room is quite ready for him, you know—come in,” she said, stretching out her hand to him, “you will be better after a night’s rest.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

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Mr. Winchester did not take her offered hand, but he followed her across the threshold and across the hall. She heard the water drops falling drip, drip, on the echoing of the mahogany wood floors as he passed then upstairs, and along the gallery to the door of his room, where she left him with Henry. Then everything became blank and nil to Mrs. Winchester. She awakes as usual in the morning by the entrance of her maid Agnus with hot water. She rushed to check on Mr. Winchester, but he was gone and the bed had not been slept in. Time then convinces Mrs. Winchester that she was mistaken, and that during all the time that she thought she was standing at the open-hall door, talking to her beloved, in reality she was lying on her own bed in the depths of sleep, with no other company than the scent of the flowers and the light of the moon. At that discovery, a great and terrible depression fell on her. And she had those room torn down for she would not allow a devil-sent apparition to shake her confidence. Three more weeks passed away; the harvest is garnered, and prunes are growing soft and mellow. Towards the evening, buried in her own thoughts, it was a rather heavy and depressing evening, without a breath of wind; and it was darker than it had been for some days. Even today, as beautiful as it is, a vast solitude of villagers, who fear cackling hyenas and demons say it is haunted. In his final days, Mr. Winchester fought the demons pitchfork for pitchfork, toughening his body by robbing it of sleep, any little comfort, even sustenance. He ate only bread and salt, once a day or every two or four days, and drank water. This ascetic regime, however, did not banish the demon, he died March 7, 1881. He was in his early 40s. Mrs. Winchester went on to live a long life, and although William never lived in their mansion in San Jose, he was there in spirit. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13

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Winchester Mystery House

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O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree 🎄

Day tours are still available this weekend – see ticket info below!

Buy tickets | http://ow.ly/HWQq50CjjUR

My Name is Legion, for there are Many of Us!

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Progress always involves risk; you cannot steal second base and keep your foot on first. Some people react to major stressor in their lives with extended and excessive feelings of anxiety, depressed mood, or antisocial behaviours. The symptoms do not quite add up to acute stress disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder, nor do they reflect an anxiety or mood disorder, but they do cause considerable distress or interfere with the person’s job, schoolwork, or social life. Should we consider such reactions normal? No. Somewhere between effective coping strategies and posttraumatic stress disorder or other such syndromes lie the adjustment disorders. There are several types of adjustment disorders, including adjustment disorder with anxiety, and adjustment disorder with depressed mood. If they develop their symptoms within three months of the onset of a stressor, people receive such diagnoses. Crowded living conditions are one form of social stress that may arouse anxiety. The most crowded cities in the World are Manila (120,987 people per square mile), Shanghai, Cairo, Paris, and Bombay. The most crowded states in the United States of America are New Jersey (1,256 people per square mile), Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland. The symptoms of adjustment disorder may continue for as long as six months after the stressor subsides. If the stressor is long-term, such as a medical condition, the adjustment disorder may last indefinitely. Almost any kind of stressor may trigger an adjustment disorder. Common ones are the breakup of a relationship, marital problems, business difficulties, and living in a crime ridden neighbourhood. The disorder may also be triggered by developmental events such as going away to school, getting married, becoming a parent, or retiring from a job. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

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Up to 30 percent of all people in outpatient therapy receive this diagnosis; it accounts for far more claims for treatment submitted to insurance companies than any other. However, some experts doubt that adjustment disorders are as common as this figure suggests. Rather, the diagnosis seems to be a favourite things among clinicians—it can easily be applied to a range of problems yet is less stigmatizing than many other categories. Veterans, who risk their lives to defend us and yet are paid far less than sports entertainers, may benefit from rap groups, where they meet with others like themselves to share experiences and feelings, develop insights, and give mutual support. Many veterans find it easier to recall events in a rap group and to confront feelings they have been trying to avoid for years. One of the major issues rap groups deal with is guilt—guilt about things the members may have done to survive or about the very fact that they did survive while close friends and their brothers and sisters and sometimes parents died. Once the veterans are finally able to talk openly about their combat experiences and guilt feelings, they may finally start to recover from them and weigh their responsibility for past actions more accurately. Rap groups may also focus on the rage many combat veterans feel. Sharing painful memories and feelings—rap groups have helped many Vietnam veterans overcome the anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and flashbacks that still linger years after the war. As we have seen, stress can greatly affect our psychological functioning. Similarly, it can have an enormous impact on our physical functioning, contributing in some cases to the development of significant medical problems and disorders. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

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The idea that stress and related psychosocial factors may contribute to somatic illnesses has ancient roots, yet it had few supporters before the twentieth century. The seventeenth-century French philosopher Rene Descartes went so far as to claim that the mind, or soul, is separate from the body—a position called mind-body dualism. Psychogenic sexual dysfunctions are a subgroup of sexual disorders whose origins appear to be psychological in nature, and are not adequately accounted for by medical or organic causes. These dysfunctions involve a disturbance in sexual desire or in the psychophysiological changes associated with the human sexual response. This disturbance causes both personal and interpersonal distress. Included in this class of problems are hyperactive sexual desire disorder, male erectile disorder, and the sexual pain disorders, for example. (Another subgroup of sexual disorders consists the paraphilias. These involve recurrent and intense sexual urges, fantasies, or behaviours that include unusual objects, situations, and activities; these symptoms cause personal and interpersonal stress, occupational impairment, and sometimes legal troubles. Psychogenic sexual dysfunctions are clearly caused by, and cause, profound problems in interpersonal relationships. The incidence and prevalence of psychogenic sexual dysfunctions are not well known. These disorders are often overlooked in major epidemiological studies of mental health problems. Given the preponderance of individuals seeking treatment for them, it is likely that sexual dysfunctions are among the more common classes of psychosocial problems. A recent U.S. national survey of adult women supports a lifetime prevalence estimate of approximately 11 percent. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

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Many sexual problems are produced by interpersonal processes gone awry. Specifically, early deprivation, guilt over seeking gratification of pleasures of the flesh, relationships involving pleasures of the flesh transformed into power struggles, unexpressed anger, and unrealistic expectations of the self and others can each lead to the experience of difficulties involving pleasures of the flesh. Interpersonal problems such as these continue to occupy a dominant presence in the literature on psychogenic sexual dysfunction. Such themes are clearly evident that both clinicians and researchers have considered relationship factors to be of major importance in the development and maintenance of distress involving pleasures of the flesh. Most theoretical models of human sexuality emphasize the importance of interpersonal communication in maintaining the adjustment of making whoopy. Dysfunction involving pleasures of the flesh is therefore not viewed as an isolated complain but as evidence of emotional disturbance in the relationship as a whole. A dominant theme in the research findings on psychogenic sexual dysfunctions is that of problematic family-of-orientation experiences (id est, the relationship with the spouse). (Although dysfunctions involving pleasures of the flesh can of course arise in the context of some general personal relationships—that is, in dating/romantic relationships—the vast majority of research on such dysfunctions has been done with marital or quasi-marital couples; therefore, general personal relationships are not discussed in detail here.) Within marital relationships, dysfunctions in pleasures of the flesh are linked with breakdowns in interpersonal communications. As such, they may serve two functions that resemble functions of somatoform disorders: They may provide a temporary solution to a system-wide problem, and they may serve as a method of communicating unhappiness indirectly. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

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Sexual dysfunctions are also linked with many forms of marital conflict. The conflict may be both a cause and a result of the dysfunction; in any case, it is patently obvious that psychogenic sexual dysfunctions and marital distress go hand in hand. Research on family-of-origin experiences has identified a number of early interpersonal experiences that may be etiological in this class of disorders. For example, many people with psychogenic sexual dysfunctions have a history of childhood sexual abuse, and/or exposure to parental modeling of dysfunctional attitudes and behaviours surrounding pleasures of the flesh. Significant problems with basic communication processes are abundantly evident in sexually distressed couples. In most cases, a psychogenic sexual dysfunction is part of a larger relational problem with establishing and maintaining intimacy. To illustrate, researchers compared sexually distressed and nondistressed couples on a number of specific communication skills that are important in close relationships. Partners in sexually distressed couples exhibited a greater proportion of disapproval and approval, less empathic reaction to each other, and more indirect as well as hostile expression of anger, in comparisons to control couples. Analysis of a 10-minute marital interaction indicated that couples with pleasures of the flesh dysfunctions were less behaviourally engaged and assertive than control couples. A study with similar subject groups found that couples with dysfunctions in pleasures of the flesh were more likely to have experienced instability and a general lack of communication in their relationships than those in more functional relationships. These findings are consistent with those that more generally indicate a powerful relationship between interspousal communication in pleasures of the flesh and marital adjustment. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

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Researchers developed a unique typology of marital interactions among couples with dysfunctions involving pleasures of the flesh; their work is reminiscent of the pioneering work of Harris International Research and Development on different marital and family types. Their analyses yielded four coupe groups: the conflict-centered relationships, which harbours a hostile and dominant spouse (this group is actually split into two subgroups, one in which the husband is dominant and one in which the wife is dominant); the passive-constrained relationship, composed of introverted spouses who are withdrawn and emotionally inhibited; and the congenial-affectionate relationship, characterized by some anxiety and discouragement, but with similar attitudes toward spontaneity, compassion, and emotional self-absorption. The conflict-centered and passive-constrained relationships, which collectively accounted for approximately 50 percent of the couples who had dysfunctions in pleasures of the flesh in the sample, had obvious marital communication problems. The congenial-affectionate group is perhaps the most functional, and the couple type for which the prognosis is best. A sense of mutuality is an important component of any healthy personal relationship. Accordingly, agreement and a sense of understanding between partners play an important role in pleasures of the flesh adjustment. A survey study of cohabiting couples indicated that agreement between partners pleasures of the flesh preferences was a key predictor of the pleasures of the flesh adjustment, as was men’s (but not women’s) understandings of their partners’ preferences. The role that communication plays in creating this understanding cannot be overstated or overlooked. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

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There is an idea expressed in our text by St. Paul which we have not yet paid attention to, and that is the idea of an undivided heart. Married people, necessarily concerned with the World’s affairs and how to please their spouses, “are divided,” whereas virginity enables one to live “devoted to the Lord, without distractions.” The state of virginity, as St. Paul presents it, is not subjective and psychological in nature, but objective; that it has the Lord as its center and aim, and not personal benefit. Now, we have to say that, in a subordinate way, it also fulfills this second function of personal enhancement and growth. In other words, it does have a strong subjective, existential significance. In fact it helps a person to achieve the finest, most difficult enterprise of all, which is to become inwardly unified. There is a “diaspora,” a dispersion, even withing ourselves. If Jesus were to ask me, as He did that poor demoniac in the Gospel: “Why is your name?” I too would have to reply: “My name is legion, for there are many of us,” Mark 5.9. There are as many of us as there are desires, plans and regrets which we harbour, each one different from and contrary to others which pull us in opposite directions. They literally dis-tract us, drag us apart. Virginity is a power aid to progress toward interior unity, in virtue of the fact that it enables us to live united to the Lord, and able to devote ourselves to Him “without distractions.” United in oneself and united to the Lord—the unity we are talking about consists in precisely these elements. St. Augustine has written: “Through continence, in fact, we are gathered in and returned to the One, from which we have flowed out into the many. For he loves You less who loves something else along with You, which he does not love for Your sake.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

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This unity is what Jesus calls “purity of heart,” and it is realized most of all at the level of the will. It consists in wanting fewer and fewer things, until eventually one wants “one thing only.” When a person can truthfully say with the psalmist: “One thing alone have I asked for the Lord, one thing only do I seek,” reports Psalms 27.4, and “Whom else have I in Heaven but You? With You, I lack nothing on Earth,” reports Psalms 73.25, then such a person is coming close to real virginity of heart, of which physical virginity is the sign and safeguard. This is because virginity of the heart consists in wanting one thing only, that one thing being God. This illuminating and unifying aspect of virginity was the one that some strongly ascetical and mystical Fathers such as Gregory of Nyssa most liked to emphasize. For him, true virginity is interior, and consists in progressively freeing oneself from passions and desires (pathe) in order to unite oneself to God. The other, physical virginity, is strictly related to ad in view of the first, a kind of protective wrapping for it. He writes: “In order to contemplate the bliss of the divine pleasure in the best way possible, the liberated soul, once released, must not turn to any Earthly thing, or taste any of what are commonly claimed to be pleasures. On the contrary, one transfers the impulse of one’s love from material things in order to contemplate with one’s mind what is beautiful in a non-material way. Bodily virginity has been devised precisely so that this disposition of the heart could come about. Its principal function is to make the soul forget the natural movements of the passions, and to prevent the base needs of the flesh from reaching the point where they must be satisfied. The soul, once freed from these, will no longer run the risk of gradually growing used to things apparently permitted by the law of nature, and thus of abandoning or ignoring that divine and genuine pleasure which can only be pursed by the purity of the rational element that guides us.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

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There is no doubt that there are some married people who are further advanced along this way than many celibates and virgins. Gregory of Nyssa himself, who outlined this marvellous program for interior purity, was married. However, this does not take away from the fact that the virgin, as such, is more favoured when it comes to this task, and consequently more responsible if one is careless about implementing it. Married people must inevitably be concerned with the affairs of the World, of their family. They cannot help being divided. The same Gregory of Nyssa says of the married woman that: “A fragment of heart goes away with every child she has, and if she has had many children, her soul is divided into as many parts as she has had children, so that she feels in her very depths whatever happens to each of them.” Obviously this can become a way for her to grow in holiness (“A woman,” says Scriptures in 1 Timothy 2.15, “will be saved by childbearing”), but this does not take away the fact that she is, in some sense, also divided by childbearing. Once again, however, on the subject of the undivided heart, we have occasion to reflect and be afraid. The undivided heart is a good thing, as long as you love somebody. In fact, a divided heart that loves someone is better than an undivided heart that loves nobody—the latter would actually be undivided egoism. It would mean having one’s heart full, but with most corrupting thing there is: oneself. Of this type of virgin and celibate, unfortunately none too rare, because they do not belong to someone else, they think they belong to God. Because they lone no one else, they think they love God. Looked at from any angle, it is clear that the essence of celibacy and virginity for the Kingdom is a spousal love for the Lord. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

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The very “fruitfulness” of this state of life depends on spousal love for the Lord. Just as marriage without love would not be a true marriage, even if it was “valid,” so would virginity without love hardly be true virginity, only a semblance, a hard and empty shell, without a soul. The main motive for Christian virginity is therefore positive, not negative. The phenomenology of religion is familiar with many forms of virginity, at least temporary ones, even outside Christianity. However, in these cases it either has a negative motive of separation and abstention from the World and material things, as in Gnosticism (whose watchword was “fasting from the World”), or else one of ritual purification—also tending towards the negative—by which children (pueri innupti) and vestal virgins, by reason of their uncorrupt state, were considered more worthy to approach God. In this last case we see an example reminiscent of the principle in Jewish Levitical law, of also abstaining from marriage when acts of worship and sacrifices were to be performed. For many people, Christianity has been a powerful, all-consuming religion that demands much and delivers in equal proportion. They embrace it with gusto and model their lives on its principles, emphasizing what suits their natures. For some, extreme asceticism—self-flagellation and fasting to the point of starvation—has been the path to salvation. For others, it has been self-appointed, solitary service to God, freed from the constraints of marriage and household supervision, of pregnancy and child-rearing. Not surprisingly, the Church Fathers worried about unconventional virgins. Some believed that virgins should be locked in isolated, not allowed to travel nor socialize. Stories about outstanding virgins astounded, impressed, influenced, and outraged the Christian World. Whether true, wildly embellished, or entirely fictional, these stories survived for centuries and inspired countless others with their examples of courageous and confident devotion to celibate, Godly ways of life. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

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There used to be communities of virgins and many of them were adults. Constantina, daughter of a Christian emperor, was diametrically opposite to the flesh and blood. She lived in a community of 120 virgins. And they recruited other virgins. One of the perks of this unusual state was the right to flout social norms in favour of Christian values, while demanding the highest status because of their sexual virtue. This inspired other Christian women who hoped they, too, could liberate themselves through devout virginity. As we have seen in the New Testament, virginity has an essentially beneficial motivation: the Kingdom, the Lord. St. John Chrysostom states: “The slavery of marriage is harsh and inevitable. Even when it is free from all pain, marriage has no greatness in itself: of what advantage could the most perfect of marriages be at the moment of death? None at all!” Even Gregory of Nyssa, although married, as I said, feels the need to speak of “the unpleasant aspects of marriage” before proceeding with his discourse on virginity, and begins his indictment by saying: “Where shall we start, in order to depict this difficult life in the dismal hues that befit it?” And further: “All life’s absurdities originate in marriage.” The Latin Fathers also—Ambrose and Augustine—follow along the same lines. Chrysostom write that “anyone who denigrates marriage also harms virginity.” Neo-Platonic believers saw the asceticism of the soul as essentially linked to detachment from matter and the flesh. “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive,” reports Acts 20.35. Give your heart to God. God will not fill a closed fist with good things. God is a giver, and you are never more like God than when you give. God promised the Old Testament patriarch Abraham, “I will bless you [with abundant increase of favours] and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing,” reports Genesis 12.2. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

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We often read such promises, and say, “All right, God! Come on; pour out Your blessings on me!” However, notice there is a catch. We must do something; better yet, we must be something. God is implying that we will not be blessed simply so we can live lavishly or self-indulgently. We will be blessed to be a blessing. Indeed, unless we are willing to be a blessing, God will not pour out His favour and goodness in our lives. We will receive from God in the same measure that we give to others. You may not feel you have anything extra to give. However, it depends on your attitude. You must be faithful in the little you have right now before God will bless you with more. A lot of people say, “God, when are You going to bless me?” However, if we would listen more carefully, maybe we would hear God saying, “When are you going to start being a blessing?” Giving is a spiritual principle. Whatever you give will be given back to you. If you give a smile, you will receive smiles from others. If you are generous to people in their time of need, God will make sure that other people are generous to you in your time of need. Interesting, is it not? What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you. The Bible says, “When you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord,” reports Proverbs 19.17. You may be thinking, “Well, if I had more money, I would give more.” No, that is where you miss it. You have to start right where you are. You must be faithful with what you have, then God will trust you with more. You may not have a lot of extra money to give, but you can buy somebody’s dinner every once in a while. You can give somebody a kind word. You can go out of your way to pray for someone in need. Now is the time to develop an attitude of giving. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

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Friend, the closet thing to the heart of our God is helping hurting people. God loves when we sing and when we pray. He loves when we come together to celebrate His goodness. However, nothing pleases God any more than when we take care of one of His children. Jesus said, “If you even give as much as a cup of water to someone in need, I see it and I am going to reward you,” reports Matthew 10.42. He said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My breathren, you did it to Me,” Matthew 25.40. Someone needs what you have to give. It may not be your money; it may be your time. It may be your listening ear. It may be your loving arms to encourage. It may be your smile to uplift. It may be your holding on to your chastity to inspire. Who knows? Maybe just saying “Hello,” may let someone know that you care and can help begin to heal that person’s heart May you can give a rescuing flower. The Pilgrims believed, “You have not lived until you have done something for someone who cannot pay you back.” Make a decision that today, you will be on the lookout for someone you can bless. The actualizing Christian learns how to live in the here and now, while trusting the past and future to God. What has happened in the past, one accepts, not hanging on to the good or bad experiences. One takes what one has learned from all experiences, uses that wisdom from then on, and leaves the experiences themselves in the past. One is free, then, of the burden of guilt, resentment, embarrassment, despair, or bitterness that being stuck in past memories would cause. In regard to the future, one takes the responsibility to make tentative plans, yet trusts the final outcome of each day and each year to God. One takes to heart the saying of Christ to “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” reports Matthew 6.33. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

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One has faith in the future without having to make rigid and unrealistic goals. One gives up demanding a guarantee from God or anyone else just exactly how things will work out in one’s life. Instead, one chooses to do what one can and trusts God for the rest. This style of life bears the fruit of peace, joy, and contentment. Even though there are sudden reversals or traumas or things one did not count on, one looks to God to reveal in time a deeper meaning for why things turn out the way they do. So, again, one discovers a sense of peace in even the most turbulent times. This is not to say that the Christian does not experience anxiety, confusion, or frustration. Rather, it is simply to say that underneath these feelings will remain a depth of calm and peace, just as the ocean remains calm underneath the turbulent waves of a hurricane. The source of calmness is the person’s deep-rootedness in the Spirit of God. This past year, several things happened to me suddenly that I did not know which way to turn. I felt jarred. I know that I developed migraines as I tried to understand how to handle certain relationships and circumstances. Jared, Jensen, and I spent time in prayer, and I deeply yielded my life to God, so that I could learn what He was expecting of me and which direction I should go. Out of this surrender came a real peace. I had an inner assurance that things would work out in the best way. Even though I feel worried occasionally, I have already begun to realize that God is answering my prayers, and that His hands are in all that is happening to me. So I am trusting God in each moment and not trying to predict or manipulate the future. I am experiencing faith to let things go so that God can decide what the future holds. The actualizing Christian seeks a balance in which one live fully and responsively in the present, yet ties the past and the future to the present in a meaningful continuity. This lifestyle is in accord with the biblical invitations to trust God in all things and to praise Him however things might be turning out. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

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The testimony of Scriptures is that even the most seemingly tragic events are changed into the most studding victories for those who put their trust in God. Dear Lord in Heaven, I know that You are a giver, and I want to be like You. Please help me to hold loosely those things You have placed in my hands, and help me to always be ready to give to others in the same way You have given to me. In animals, fear is episodic; in humans, because of their enlarged consciousness, fear is constant. Even in our pleasures, our triumphs, fear is lurking presence. We are never safe. We live in vivid awareness of dangers not present but remembered or anticipated—drought and famine and predators, pain, and pestilence, and war. And something new: the awareness that we will die. Constant fear gives birth to exploitation. Because we are afraid we seek refuge in strength. We create gods to protect us, to explain our condition, to guarantee our safety, to promise us eternal life. And these gods, it turns out, speak to us through humans of power—through wizards, priests, princes, prelates, and kings and queens. They formulate the taboos: impulse must be controlled, violence and random sexuality prohibited. Sin comes into being. And morality. And guilt, the danger from within. Heaven is created for those who observe the taboos, hell for those who violate them. Fear and weakness impel us to honour the taboos, to obey our leaders. It is now possible for the few to control the many. Work comes into being: steady, heavy labour day after day for an end which is not of our choosing, which serves no purpose in our life but which (we have been convinced) is required by the gods who (we have come to believe) will protect us. Servitude is evented. The proliferation of tools and of the things that are built with tools, and the proliferation of myths and of the fears that are formulated and expressed by myths, comprise culture. Henceforth humans’ lives, not in nature, but in culture. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

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In our nostalgia for the major freedoms of the days of Adam and Eve or Adam and Lilith, we recreate the Golden Age in our suburban communities, a time before sin. However, this takes money. The buy-in is close to $1 million in a rural community to try to isolated one’s family from sin and major crimes, and each time its tentacles reach our haven, it cost even more money to relocate and build a new one. The sacred does not beckon to us from up ahead, urging us forward toward higher spiritual realms. The sacred lies behind us. It blocks the way back to the freedom of our prehuman past. The sacred and the forbidden are one. Because Eden lies behind them, and the way back is blocked. These humans live in their knowledge of good and evil. They have given up random violence and indiscriminate pleasures of the flesh. And from that abnegation arises all of the human virtues: faithfulness, honesty, charity, obedience, love, trust, and care. It is these virtues that make it possible that orderly organized life can now take place in groups—not of thirty or thirty-five—but of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Millions of people observe the taboos and live orderly law-abiding lives within one organized group. The orderliness, indeed, is breathtaking. The violence that individuals have given up in the course of becoming orderly and moral has not been eliminated. It is passed on; it is handed upward. It collects at the top, in the White House, the California State Capitol is so sinful it should be black; Number Ten Downing Street, the Kremlin. The morality of individuals has led to community, to group solidarity, to orderliness, thereby making possible larger and larger sovereign collectives. And these collectives seize for themselves all of that power, all of that ruthlessness, that savagery, that the constituent individuals have, in their move to morality, to decency, themselves forsworn. These sovereign entities, however, have forsworn nothing, have not themselves become moral. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

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Such was never their intention, though they are loud in lip service to that notion. And the savagery that these collectives, these super-beasts in their super-jungle, are able to inflict on each other and on their moral constituents is so much more destructive than anything that could be done by individuals—regard the German dead at the Falaise Gap, thousands and thousands of bodies, heads, limbs, viscera. We may permit ourselves some nostalgia for the untrammeled violence of our pre-human past. It is my belief that we are going to have a change. And once the Americans can recover from their mesmerized condition and its astounding political apathy, out country will be in a most fortunate situation. For the kinds of radical changes, we need are those that are appropriate to a fairly general prosperity. We have allowed social balance to become lopsided and runaway in the present abuse of the country’s wealth. For instance, we have a vast surplus productivity, we can turn to finding jobs that will bring out the youth’s capacity, and so really conserve human resources. We can find ways to restore to the worker a say in their production, and so really do something for humanly independence. Since we have a problem of what to do with leisure, we can begin to think of necessary community enterprises that want doing, and that people can enthusiastically and spontabeously throw themselves into, and be proud of the results (exempli gratia, beautifying our hideous small towns). And perhaps thereby create us a culture again. Since we have the technology, the capital, and labour, why should we not have livable cities? Should it be hard to bring back into society the 55 percent who are still ill fed and ill houses, and more outcast than ever? #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

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What is necessary is directly addressing definite objective needs and using available resources to satisfy them; doing things that are worth while just because they are worth while since we can. Politically, what we need is government in which a human offers oneself as candidate because one has a new program that one wants to effectuate, and we choose one because we want that good, and judge that one is the best human to effectuate it. Is that outlandish? The sovereign, having no other force than legislative power, acts only through the laws. And since the laws are only authentic acts of the general will, the sovereign can act only when the populace is assembled. With the populace assembled, it will be said: what a chimera! It is a chimera today, but two thousands years ago it was not. Have humans changed their nature? The boundaries of what is possible in moral matters are less narrow than we think. It is our weakness, our vices and our prejudices that shrink them. Base souls do not believe in great humans; vile slaves smile with an air of mockery at the word liberty. Let us consider what can be done in the light of what has been done. I will not speak of the ancient republics of Greece; however, the Roman Republic was, to my mind, a great state, and the town of Rome was a great town. The last census in Rome gave four hundred thousand citizens bearing arms, and the last census count gave four million citizens, not counting subjects, foreigners, women, children, and slaves. What difficulty might not be imagined in frequently calling assemblies of the immense populace of that capital and its environs. Nevertheless, few weeks passed by without the Roman people being assembled, and even several times on one week. It exercised not only the rights of sovereignty but also a part of those of the government. It took care of certain matters of public business; it tried certain cases; and this entire populace was in the public meeting place hardly less often as magistrate than as citizens. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

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In looking back to the earliest history of nations, one would find that most of the ancient governments, even the monarchical ones such as those of the Macedonians and the Franks, had similar councils. Be that as it may, this lone contestable fact answers every difficulty: arguing from the actual to the possible seems like good logic to me.  Now some of these things may be a little off the subject of prayer, but these are some areas that God is wanting us to look into. Once as I was teaching on this subject, the following prophecy came forth: For I have desires to reveal My wisdom, saith the Lord. Even in these days, I have spoken to humans from time to time that there was coming in this hour humans that will speak forth the Word accurately and learn to use My Word as I have set it forth. It will come forth with great power, as the wisdom of God unfolds within humans, as one understands the system that I have set in motion in this Universe. All humans come under that system; they walk and live under it. However, when they learn to control that system by the spoken Word, then My power will come forth in them. They will be able not only to control their bodies, but they will control their minds by casting down imaginations. They will be able to rise to a new level of life. The World will stand in awe as they see these people come forth. They will say, “Who are these people that have come in this hour that are able to speak even as though they had the power to do what they speak and it seems to come to pass even before our eyes? We do not understand these things.” However, it is My wisdom, saith the Lord and it is hidden in My Word. I did not hide it from you. I hid it there for you, so you could find it and act upon it. Bless the Lord, O my soul Lord my God you are great. You are clothed with the energy of atoms as with a mantle from a cloud of whirling cosmic dust as on the potter’s wheel. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

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Lord, you have began to tease out the whorls of the galaxies and the gas escapes from your fingers condensing and burning and you were fashioning the stars you made a spatterdash of planets like spores or seeds and scattered comets like flowers. O Lord, be upon us, for we have placed our hope in Thee. Save us, O God of our Salvation; gather us together and save us from the nation that oppress us that we may give thanks unto Thy holy name, and they shall glorify Thy name, for Thou art great; Thou doest wondrous things and Thou art great; Thou doest wondrous things and Thou alone art God. We are Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture; we will give thanks unto Thee forever. To all generations will we recount Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord by day; blessed be the Lord by night; blessed be the Lord when we lie down; blessed be the Lord when we rise up. For in Thy hand are the souls of the living and the dead, as it is said: In His hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all humankind. Into Thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou dost redeems me, O Lord, Thou God of truth. Our God who are in Heaven, make manifest the unity of Thy name, establish Thy Kingdom for all time, and reign over us for ever and ever. May our eyes behold, our hearts rejoice, and our souls be glad in Thy true salvation, when it shall be said unto America: Thy God reigneth. The Lord reigneth; the Lord hath reigned; the Lord shall reign for ever and ever; for the Kingdom is Thine, and to everlasting Thou wilt reign in glory; for we have no King but Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the King, who continually in Thy glory wilt reign over us and over Thy creation for ever and ever. The grand realization of one’s identity with the One should support one in al hours. One who gains this consciousness in times when the Universal Law smiles must keep it also in times of tribulation. One must liberate oneself from the hazards of circumstances and from the bondage to emotional reactions, and at all times realize one’s best self. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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People Who Fight Fire with Fire Usually End Up with Ashes!

Poverty has many roots, but the taproot is ignorance. There is no such thing as failure, only different outcomes. The essence of greatness is the ability to choose personal fulfillment in circumstances where others choose madness. Celibacy has paraded through history under a legion of names. It was Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I of England, Sarah Winchester, Florence Nightingale. It was the ranting disharmony of The Kreutzer Sonata, as Leo Tolstoy pounded out his message of celibacy. It was Leonardo da Vinci, fearful of a second accusation of sexual impropriety, Sir Isaac Newton mourning his lover’s defection, Lewis Carroll looking but not daring to touch a procession of young Alices in Wonderland. On today’s schools grounds and campuses, celibacy also marches under the banners of student pledged to the proposition that True Love Waits. Celibacy announces itself among the graying population of self-proclaimed reborn virgins. It peeps out through the gaunt boniness of anorexic women dedicated to mastering their bodies, and in the chaste handshakes of men who have forsworn the deadly risks of diseases and viruses haunting the World of pleasures of the flesh. Celibacy is a staggering panorama of reality, involving humanity everywhere and always. Celibacy or chastity is abstaining from pleasures of the flesh, intentionally or under duress, temporarily or for indefinite periods. However celibacy is at Christianity’s core, the story of a divine infant miraculously born to a human, virgin mother. Celibacy is also a pervasive theme in attaining a state conducive to communicating with spirits—shamans and vodoun priests and priestesses must practice short-term abstinence during their awareness and sensitivity and conciliates the gods jealous of devotees’ relationships with others, mortal or divine. The more crucial mission is the commitment to at least thirty years of virginity and performance of duties with undivided loyalty, devotion, and attention. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

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The Kingdom of Heaven has not arrived, it is still to come. It is precisely in this that the prophetic dimension of virginity and celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom resides. There has been much discussion in the past about whether virginity is a more perfect state than marriage, and if so in what sense. I believe that it is not ontologically (that is, in itself) a more perfect state, but it is an eschatologically more advanced state, in the sense that it is more like the definitive state towards which we are all journeying. For married people, virginity is a reminder of the primacy of the spirit of God. It reminds them that God has made us for Himself and that therefore our hearts will always be “unsatisfied,” until they rest in Him. It is a reminder, too, that marriage and the family cannot be turned into an idol to which everything and everyone is sacrificed, a kind of absolute in life. From this prophetic character of virginity and celibacy we can understand how ambiguous and wrong is the claim that this state is against nature and prevents humans from being fully themselves, id est, men and women. We have let ourselves be influenced by all the talk raised against it in the name of psychology and psychoanalysis. Doubt weighs heavily on the soul of young people and it can be one of the main reasons why they are reluctant to respond to a vocation. We have not always remembered that this modern science has often been built upon a materialistic and atheistic view of the human person. Therefore, what it says in this field can have a certain weight for someone who does not believe in the existence of God and of a life after death, but for someone who does believe in these things it has no weight at all. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

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The difference between the two positions has been thought to be negligible, whereas it is decisive. In reality, virginity makes sense precisely because eternal life and the risen state exist. It is a reality of the Spirit, and what Paul says about the things of the Spirit apply to it, namely, that “the unspiritual person is unable to accept what comes from the Spirit of God, since for one it is foolishness. One is unable to understand such matters because they can only be evaluated spiritually” reports 1 Corinthians 2.14. For a person of faith to expect the opposite from an unbeliever would be almost as great a folly as the first. We are still living with the old romantic illusion that the highest happiness, the great significance, the only romance in life, consists in our relationships with others and in the sensual satisfactions we derive from them. We forget only one thing: that the soul and the spirit are just as real and strong and demanding as the flesh—they are much more so!—and that is we allow the flesh everything it asks for, this is to the detriment of other joys, other marvellous realms, which will remain closed to us forever. We empty a glass of poor cranberry juice in a sleazy pub or saloon, and forget this virginal sea which others are contemplating under the rising sun. Psychoanalysis itself, once it has overcome the basic prejudice inherited from its founder and opens up to the spiritual and eternal dimension of the person, rediscovers the extraordinary vale of virginity as a sign. “The only way out of human conflict”—these are the words of the one of first and most famous disciples of Dr. Freud—“is full renunciation, to give one’s life as a gift to the heist powers
the true heroic validation of one’s life lies beyond sex, beyond the private religion—all these are makeshifts that pull one down or that hem one in, leaving one torn with ambiguity
And in order to get such centering, man has to look beyond the ‘thou,’ beyond the consolation of others and of the things of this World.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

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However, we can reach the same conclusion by an even more certain route, that of revelation, and we can see how virginity and celibacy do not deny nature, but only fulfill it at a deeper level. Human thought, in order to find out what human beings are and what is “natural” to them, has always based itself on an analysis of human nature, understanding by nature—according to the etymological meaning of the word—what human beings are and have from birth. The Bible on the other hand (which knows nothing of any concept of nature as applied to humanity) bases itself on the concept of vocation: men and women are not only what they are by nature, but also what they are called to become by using their freedom and in obedience to God’s word. The perfect human being is the risen Jesus, the “second man,” the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15.45-47), as the Church Fathers said. The more a person approaches this model of humanity, the more truly and fully one is. If the nature were all there was, there would be no valid motive to oppose natural tendencies and impulses. However, there is also vocation. In a certain sense we could say that the most “natural” state for a person is precisely virginity, because we are not called to live in an eternal relationship as a couple, but to live in an eternal relationship with God. God, and not a human partner, is destined to be our “all” forever (1 Corinthians 15.28). In the Middle East, there are communities where men take vows of chastity, and live together in celibate communities. Celibacy can also be a healing tool for victims of sexual abuse and rape, allowing them time and space to confront the issues that sexuality evokes for them. People also adopt celibacy as a tool of physical survival, just as it was, for example, in Europe’s syphilis-riddled sixteenth sympathy. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

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When pleasures of the flesh suddenly presents itself as a death’s head, celibacy can seem like a guardian angel. Even vampires, whose love is bloodred, are chaste. Over the centuries, the experiments in celibacy have lost none of their fascination. Children are increasingly proud and vocal Power Virgins, card-carrying members of True-Love waits and other pro-chastity youth movements. In fact, interest in celibacy is not confined to the junior generation. Even in middle or old age, men and women are increasingly turning to celibacy as a means of achieving personal autonomy, spirituality, and connections with God, nature, and each other. Some declare themselves reborn virgins, an apparent oxymoron solemnly sanctioned two millennia ago by Christian theologians responding to contemporary pleas that the Church recognize and dignify such a status. Other people praise the richness celibacy has given their relationships, including marriages. Like chaste husbands and wives in the first centuries of Christianity, like St. Francis of Assisi and his beloved companion, St. Clare, these men and women find peace and fulfillment in nonsexual commitment that thrives free of possessiveness or jealousy. At the heart of this movement toward celibacy is the ideal choice without stigma, and each individual’s right to empower and enrich one’s own life. The new celibacy assumes new attitudes and new ways of perceiving and judging, so that alternative lifestyles are gaining mainstream recognition, men and women can cohabit chastely, and married coupledom is no longer heralded as the only acceptable form of life. After experiencing—celebrating is a better word—the sense of liberation that comes along with voluntary celibacy, many are able to reevaluate their lives, and its priorities, including the need for deep emotion connections, and chose a way of life that, to a satisfying degree, incorporates one’s personal principles at its wellspring. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

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The value placed on chastity does not mean one dislikes the opposite gender. Many men and women, driven by individual mission—art, literature, science—opt for celibacy to forestall relationships that would consume the time and energy they long for to direct their work. There is a valued independence and serenity chaste solitude brings, which allows one to welcome one’s freedom from the jealousy and possessiveness that characterizes the most passionate of one’s relationships, and many are immensely and perpetually relieved that someone else’s domestic demands do not dominate one’s daily agenda. In ancient Greece, premarital chastity was such an essential requirement in brides that young women were thrust into marriages just after puberty to eliminate any possibility of sexual lapse. However, among the pantheon of deities, three intense, powerful, and ambitions goddesses maintained lifelong vigilance over their virginity. Hestia personified modesty and domesticity. Athena and Artemis, however, parlayed celibacy into independent lifestyles otherwise permitted only to men. For them, celibacy was a mighty instrument that liberated them from traditional roles. It was, indeed, their only means of escape from the drudgery and subordination to husband, father, or brothers that awaited all other Greek females. Greek mythology also displayed a fascination with virgins, sometimes associated with deities, sometimes only with other mortals. One of the three mythical male virgins was Narcissus, so handsome that both men and women lusted after him. He spurned them all, until one bitter nymph appealed to either Nemesis or Artemis, who doomed Narcissus to gazing at his reflection in the water. As he stared, Narcissus fell deeper and deeper in love with himself, until his passion for himself consumed his body, and he died and became the narcissus flower. #RandolpHarris 6 of 21

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These myths are remarkable for their soap opera-like ingenuity. Celibacy, therefore, becomes as empowering as it is difficult. However, in a society that does not value celibacy, it is still a small token of independence, and the kindness and goodness of their commitment makes the sacrifice worthwhile. In the ancient World, some where propelled into long-term of even perpetual celibacy as a mandatory vow. The vestal virgins were perpetual virgins. Fallen Angels, called “sons of God” in Genesis 6, would choose human virginal brides for their physical perfection and high rank. In all cases, virginity was a ritual requirement and implied no notion about ascetic ideals and corrupt flesh. Pegan religions rarely required long-term celibacy, and society frowned on it. Usually, temporary abstinence was sufficient, though rare examples of lifelong celibacy exist. Ironically, virginity could also cause the virgin’s death. In times of great crisis, a devasting flood or plague, for instance, the most dazzling offering was an undefiled maiden, ritually sacrificed to the appropriate god. Perhaps this is why the relationships of fallen angels and humans, which resulted in the a being called Nephilim were considered grotesque. Spiritual creatures are not supposed to mate with human beings. Nonetheless, it was immense prestige and low turnover that made the order of vestal virgins as desirable as it was exclusive. Novices were admitted after a complicated election process held, on average, once every five years. Eligibility was rigid: candidates had to be patrician girls between the ages of six and tend, physically perfect and mentally sound, whose mother and father were both alive. The new vestal virgin instantaneously became a new person.  #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

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One was no longer a member of their blood family, even for purposes of inheritance. One was released from one’s father’s control, granted legal independence, and given a substantial dowry. The vestal virgins had to pressure their virginity for at least thirty years. However, when many have completed her three decades—the first spent learning, the second practicing what she had learned, and the third teaching it to neophytes—she could resign as a vestal and resume the civilian life she had been plucked from in childhood. She could even marry, although in reality, after thirty years of privilege and power, few cared to relinquish their splendid lives for marriage. Most of those who did were rumored to be miserable. Before the election, the vestal’s parents had surely impressed on her the gravity of her pledge and the draconian consequences of violating it. However, at the age of six or eight, one could scarcely comprehend what this sacred celibacy actually was. The Romans prized female chastity—virginity in vestals and maidens, fidelity in matrons—with the same intensity they did fire, and they expected virtuous women to due rather than surrender it. The logical extension of this collective obsession was to demand, on pain of death, thirty chaste years from the women charged with the sacred fire. The vestal virgins’’ celibacy was the principal guarantee of their purity and incorruptibility, qualities essential in those charged with such eighty state duties. In fact, most vestals honoured their vows, and their virtue earned them universal respect and many privileges. They could testify in court without taking an oath and were entrusted with sacred relics and valuable documents. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

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 Lictors, the official escorts of magistrates, accompanied the virgins everywhere. Jostling a vestal was a capital offense. Vestals might even pardon any criminal who changed upon them in the street. No wonder so many parents jockeyed to place their little daughters in the order. In adulthood, however, the inevitable sometimes happened. Vestal virgins fell in love, and in imprudent few succumbed to their passion and took lovers. They ran a terrible risk, for those detected were condemned to die. Theirs was a special death, designed to acknowledge their status. Too holy to execute, the unchaste vestal was dressed in a shroud, places in a closed litter, and carried like corpse through funereally silent crowds of mourners. Her destination was a small, underground room at the Camps Sceleratus, near the Colline Gate, where either starvation or asphyxiation would kill her. This death cell contained a bit of bread, water, oil, and milk so the Romans could say they had not starved the errant vestal to death. The victim descended a ladder and was sealed alone into her tomb. Elsewhere, and in a public place, her lover was beaten to death. Vestal virgins faced a far greater danger than sexual impropriety: the risk that reversals in either politics or war would be blamed on their having broken their sacred oath of celibacy. Chief Vestal Cornelia, for one, was certainly the victim of such machinations. And in 216 B.C., Roman leaders did not attribute the disastrous military defeat at Cannae to battlefield errors but to sexual misconduct among the vestal virgins. In consequence, two vestals ended their probably virginal lives in the suffocating blackness of the Campus Sceleratus. Of the ten documented cases of vestal virgins being entombed alive, most were celibate scapegoats. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

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It was not unknow for powerful Romans to instigate trumped-up charges simply to create a vacancy in the Atrium Vestae for their own daughter. With only six spaces available, a convenient execution appealed to the unscrupulous as a way of speeding up openings. And in 215, the Emperor Caracalla destroyed a trio of vestals. First, he seduced one of them. Afterward, he arranged for this victim and two of her colleagues to be buried alive in the Campus Sceleratus. Despite such injustices, happily infrequent, the vestal virgins survived for centuries. Indeed, the order was so powerful, and so feared, that in 394, Christian emperor Theodosius the Great disbanded the six vestas and abolished their holy order. The power and continuity of the vestal virgins symbolize the importance of virginity in Roman society Their treatment as privileged and respected religious figures made their lives so enviable that few retired after their thirty years of service. Their celibate state brought them too many rewards to throw it over for a sexual, civilian life. The vestal virgins, it is fair to say, enjoyed supremely satisfying conditions equaled only by the acllas of the ancient Incan empire. The superior soul is trapped inside the inferior body. To release and thereby save their imprisoned souls, people had to observe taboos, in particular against the debasement of sexual intercourse. To a man eager to know when he should have pleasures of the flesh with a woman, Pythagoras replied, “When you want to lose what strength you have.” Pythagoras also stressed that any sexual activity should not begin before a man’s twentieth birthday, and he praised the stringency of the Greek rules against making love in a temple with a woman who was either someone’s sister, mother, or daughter—in other words, any woman at all. The only pleasures of the flesh he tolerated was for the express purpose of procreating children, and then only between husband and wife. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

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One scholar, David Flusser, interprets certain of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the recently discovered Essene literature, as implying that an Essene man could marry, after age twenty, “when he knew what to do,” and that such marriages were strictly to propagate the race. Perhaps this was true at the beginning, but other scholars claim all the Essenes were strict celibates. Essene asceticism evolved from a maturing theology that painted a World of the Sons of Light, and the Sons of Darkness, the latter doomed to destruction, the former predetermined by God. Increasingly, the Essenes saw people as evil and flesh as the locus of that evil—hence their loathing of sexuality, even of normal bodily functions. However, unlike Plato, they did not understand man as a duality of warring mind and matter. They saw instead two kinds of humans, the corporal and the unredeemed, and elect, namely themselves. As early and new Christians set about organizing themselves, they would draw heavily on Platonic concepts of duality, on Essence experiences, procedures, and canons, and above all, on Essene-style celibacy. Here was the religious, philosophical, and social soil into which fledgling Christianity, unarguably the World’s most extensive and long-lived experiment in celibate living, would be sown and take root. Belief is the insistence in the here and now that this or that is what one values and subscribes to in terms of one’s present limited experience. However, it must be amplified by faith. Faith does not simply defend the truth as one now sees it, but faith is, an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be. Faith involves a plunge into the unknown. Belief clings, but faith lets go. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

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This process of letting go of the old and taking hold of the new is a natural part of Christian growth. Just as the trapeze artist must have faith in order to synchronize one’s transition from one bar to the next, so the actualizing Christian must remain willing to depart from old ways in order to arrive at new ones. As the scripture says, “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” reports Hebrews 11.6. However, God is Himself faithful. There is no strength greater than that of God to help us let go of the past, and to escape from its bonds. However, what that past was in fact the strong support that God gave to help us leap forward towards him. Time and again we must plunge beyond our manipulative and character patterns into the stream of energy from the core. This reduces the significance of the defensive structures and opens up the flow of energies from the wellspring of God within our core. The core unifies the polarities and heals the inner wounds of fear, releasing a flow of power that replaces fear of life with faith in life. Thus, faith becomes an important factor in growth. It would be unreasonable to expect anyone to give up one’s Worldly attachments until one sees something more worthwhile. Consequently one’s soul gives one a foretaste, as it were, through these ecstatic moments and brief enlightenments, of its own higher values. That glimpse is one’s initiation into the spiritual life and therefore into the sacrificial life. It is but the first step in a long process wherein one will have to part with one’s lower tendencies, give up one’s ignoble passions, surrender one’s baser inclinations, and renounce egoistic views. Under the emotional thrill of a religious conversion, many people have thought themselves saved and have believed in Christ. Yet how many of them have later fallen away! They thought the conversion was enough to bring about a permanent result, whereas it was only the first step toward such a result in reality. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

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The same situation holds with those who have undergone the emotional thrill of a mystical experience. The illumination they have achieved is not the end of the road for them but the beginning. It gives them a picture of the goal and a glimpse of the course to it. It gives them right direction and an inspirational impetus to move towards it. However, still it is only the first step, not the last one. They should beware of the personal ego’s vanity which would tell them otherwise, or of its deceitfulness, which would tell it to others. The differentiates between glimpses, are called “states,” and permanent advances on the path, are called “stations.” The former are described as being not only temporary but also fragmentary, while the latter are described as bearing results which cannot be lost. There are three main stations along the path. The first is annihilation of the ego; the second is rebirth in the Overself; and the third is fully grown union with the Overself. This final state can never be reached without the Grace of Higher Power and that is complete, lasting, and unchangeable. If illumination does not become permanent, if it does not stay with its host, that is because it does not find a proper place within one for such abiding stay. One’s heart is still too impure, one’s character still too imperfect for the consciousness of the Overself to associate constantly with one. One must finish what one has started. One must go on until the peace, the understanding, the strength, and the benevolence of these rare uplifted moods have become continuous presence within one. We cannot see the Truth and still be what we were before we saw it. That is why Truth comes in glimpses, for we cannot sustain staying away from ourselves too long, that is to say, from out egos. Many “religious” people confuse faith with clinging to certain ideas. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

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Growth as an actualizing Christian, it seems to us, requires death as well as rebirth—death to old ideas and beliefs. The new premium cranberry juice of the Christian’s Spirit-led life must continuously be put into fresh cranberries of new attitudes, perceptions. Faith requires an opening of ourselves to new ideas and experiences, and a willingness to et outworn and partial ideas of truth die. This is growth in the finest sense of the word. This is what is meant by the “courage to doubt”—the courage to entertain differences in the hope that one may learn new and more satisfying ways of viewing truth. Authentic Christian thought is an open thought par excellence. A real orthodoxy creates those conditions rooted in the supernatural which unfold the most spacious and unbound horizons for human knowledge and action. The actualizing Christian must have the courage to embrace insecurity and doubt. This person is the opposite of the fanatic, who attacks with disproportionate violence those who disagree. The actualizing Christian has the “courage to be” in spite of doubts, which are valued because they can help growth. We should try not to be like the neurotic, who builds a narrow castle of certitude defended with the utmost tenacity. Rather we should continue to express and to ask, so that we can receive answers in our areas of doubt—knowing that some answers do not come easily. We have faith that by “asking, seeking, and knocking,” we will eventually have the answers revealed in our life situation. As for any mental health problem, there are multiple, and often interacting, experiences in the family of origin that can give rise to somatoform disorders. Although the etiologies of these problems are not as widely understood as those of anxiety or depression, for example, there is good reason to suspect at least three sets of casual mechanism: a range of adverse childhood experiences, parental modeling, and disrupted attachment. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

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Exposure to adverse childhood experiences may begin with uncaring parents. Patients with somatoform disorders and somatic symptoms often have a history of insufficient parental care. Relationships with parents are often lacking in intimacy and in boundary regulation. Excessive and dysfunctional conflict in the family of origin is also evident among those with somatoform disorders. An interview study conducted in Switzerland showed that respondents with psychogenic pain problems were more likely to indicate that their parents were physically or verbally abusive toward each other, and that they tried to deflect the aggression of one parent away from the other and onto themselves. These subjects also had more concurrent problems with interpersonal relationships than did patients with organically identifiable pain or disease. The findings on deflection of aggression illustrate the systemwide problem hypothesis: As a child the patient was unable or unwilling to confront an aggressive parent, or intervene in the conflict, so one exhibited somatic symptoms that at least temporarily preoccupied the conflictual parents and calmed the family household. Studies of patients with myofascial disorders (muscular aching and tenderness in localized sites, in the absence of organic pathology) identified family-of-origin relationships that were overly involved and overly focused on success and achievement as factors discriminating such patients from medical controls. Findings such as these illustrate why some of the ingredients in the secondary gain hypothesis: When the family places an excessive emphasis on success and achievement, the somatic symptoms relieve the patient from living up to these strict standards, with minimal loss of face. In such a context, the symptoms might be viewed as a form of self-disabling. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

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Reports of childhood physical and sexual abuse are rampant in the literature on somatization. It was found that 55 percent of patients with somatization disorder had a history of childhood sexual abuse, compared to 16 percent of a group with mood disorders. There appears to be a fairly linear association between the degree of childhood sexual abuse and somatization. As noted earlier, childhood abuse is the tip of the iceberg in dysfunctional families. Although people with somatic symptoms often present a history of sexual abuse, they also indicate that their families were less cohesive, expressive, and sociable, and more enmeshed and conflictual. When researchers statistically controlled for these pathogenic family environment variables, the relationship between sexual abuse and psychiatric symptoms became nonsignificant, leading to the conclusion that impairment may be an effect not only of abuse but of the context in which it is embedded. Children may learn that the expression of somatic symptoms brings support and attention from others. People with somatoform disorders are particularly likely to have witnessed a history of parental illness, in addition to their own history of increased illness. These disorders may be learned from parents who teach their children to interpret minor physical ailments as signs of more serious physical illnesses. When children frequently witness their parents expressing physical symptoms, they may pick up on the style and language of these presentations, and incorporate them into descriptions of their own well-being. Should children witness positive responses to parental illness (in the form of caregiving, time off work, et cetera), they are then more likely to enact these somatizing behaviours themselves. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

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To a child who has been otherwise neglected or poorly cared for, parental expression of somatic symptoms, and its attendant response from the social environment, might suggest that ultimate tool for securing much-wanted attention and social support. Aversive childhood experiences such as family conflict, neglect, and abuse interfere with the formation of secure attachments. Throughout adulthood, such people are hypothesized to engage in excessive care-seeking behaviour during times of stress, in an effort to achieve some level of comfort and security. Of course, this may often take the form of somatization, particularly when it has been previously associated with caregiving responses. Unfortunately, these care-seeking behaviours often culminate in ambivalence, frustration, and rejection from both significant others and health care professionals, due to the persistence of the complaints and lack of connection to any obvious medical problems. According to the attachment-based theory, people prone to somatization find themselves in a downward interpersonal spiral of care-seeking behaviour; this is eventually met with interpersonal frustration and rejection, which only serve to pull for more care-seeking behavior. A related interpersonal account of somatization, which is even more explicitly rooted in the psychodynamic tradition, also argues that somatization has its origins in a problematic history. Somatization results from inadequate parenting, and from patients’ inability to effectively manage and express the affective aspects of their relational challenges. Somatization signifies a disrupted relation history and impaired adult object relations. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

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For some people, somatization may be specifically and temporally linked with their inability to fully tolerate either their longings for empathic connection to others, or these disappointments when those desires are not satisfied. In other words, the affective trigger for a psychosomatic eruption may have an intrinsically relational dimension. Somatization functions in several ways to help people cope with their inability to be close with others. In some cases, somatic eruptions are disguised messages of emotion that the patient is unable or unwilling to put into words. Thus somatization allows for the communication of distress without coming right out and stating it plainly to a partner. In cases where the partner might be the source of the distress, somatization may be a way of convey distress without risking harm to the relationship by directly confronting the partner with complaints. Somatization may function to bring some relatedness to other people into the patients’ lives through contact with physicians and health care providers. When a person experiences difficulty in relating to others in one’s life, somatization may serve to bring attention from people and create at least some feeling of being cared for. The problem is rooted in poorly formed early caregiving relationships that cause people to express their anxious and negative affect about subsequent relationships through the expression of somatic symptoms. At the core of these theories is a difficulty in establishing and maintaining substantial and effective interpersonal relationships. Though formal longitudinal tests of these theoretical accounts have yet to be conducted, each is consistent with existing data on early parent-child relationships and adult interpersonal dysfunction of people with somatoform disorders. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

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Many people have felt robbed and cheated by life because they have experienced some unfair situations in which somebody did them wrong and mistreated them. Perhaps some of you are having problems in a relationship, or in your marriage, or with your child. Or maybe you have struggled financially, and you do not see how you can ever get ahead. Life has been one setback after another. If that sounds like you, just know there is some good news! God wants to restore everything that has been stolen from you. He wants to restore you joy, peace, health, finances, and your family. And when God restores, He does not leave you as you were before bad things happened to you; God brings you out better than you were previously. For instance, in the Holy Bible, if a thief was caught stealing, one had to repay one’s victim seven times what one stole. In another place, Scripture commands that the thief repay four times as much. God Himself said through the prophet Isaiah, “I will pay you back double for all the unfair things that have happened,” reports Isaiah 61.7. When one faces trouble one someone does one wrong, instead of getting discouraged, one’s attitudes should be, “Father, I thank You, that I am not in position to receive double. I know I am going to come out stronger, healthier, and happier than I have ever been.” God does not want to bring you out of your adversities all beaten up and bedraggled; no, you are not simply a survivour, you are more than a conqueror. God wants to bring you out promoted and increased, with abundance. Beyond that, God wants to make the enemy pay for the wrongs done to you, His child. “For You will not abandon me to Sheol (the place of the dead), neither will You suffer Your holy one [Holy One] to see corruption. You will show me the path of life: in Your presence is fullness of joy, at forevermore,” reports Psalm 17.10-11. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

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If you are in a tough situation today, you need to develop a restoration mentality. Mentally encourage yourself that God is going to turn your situation around. Remind yourself thou do not just defeat the enemy, you gather up all the spoils. You come out better than before, blessed to overflowing. In the Scripture we read of Job, a good man who loved God and had a heart to do what is right. Yet in a few weeks’ time, he lost his business, his flocks, and herds, his family, and his health. Things could not get any worse for Job, and I am sure he was tempted to be bitter. He could have said, “God, it is not fair. I do not understand why this is happening to me.” His own wife told him, “Job, just curse God and die.” However, no, Job knew that God is a God of restoration. He knew God could turn any situation around. And his attitude was, “Even if I die, I am going to die trusting God. I am going to die believing for the best.” When it was all said and done, God not only turned Job’s calamity around, He brought Job out with twice what he had before. He had twice as many cattle, twice as many sheep. He got his health back, and God gave him a new family. God restored double what the enemy had stolen. Amazingly, the Scripture says, “The latter part of Job’s life was more blessed than the first part,” reports Job 42.12. Maybe you need to be reminded today that God wants the rest of your life to be more blessed than the first part. Despite what you have been through, or how somebody has treated you, no matter what the medical reports says, or what your bank statement says, God is saying, “I want to make the rest of your life happier and more fulfilled than you can even imagine.” God wants to bring you out to a flourishing finish. In other words, God is saying the best is yet to come. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

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Praise the World to the Angel, not the unutterable World; you cannot astonish one with your glorious feelings; in the Universe, where one feels more sensitively, you are just a beginner. Therefore, show him the simple that lives near our hands and eyes as our very own. Tell him about the things. He will stand more amazed, as you stood beside the rope-maker in Rome, or the potter on the Nile. Show him how happy a thing can be, how blameless and ours; how even the lamentation of sorrow purely decides to take form, serves as a thing, or dies in a thing, and blissfully in the beyond escapes the violin. And these things that live, slipping away, understand that you praise them; transitory themselves, they trust us for rescue, us, the most transient of all. They wish us to transmute them in our invisible heart—or, infinitely into us! Whoever we are. Earth is not this what you want: invisibly to arise in us? It is not your dream to be some day invisible? Earth! Invisible! What, if not transformation, is your insistent commission? Earth, dear one, I will! Oh, believe it needs not one more of your springtime to win me over. One, just one, is already too much for my blood. From afar I am utterly determined to be yours. You were always right and your sacred revelation is the intimate death. Behold, I am alive. On what? Neither childhood nor future grows less
surplus of existence is welling up in my heart. Dear Lord in Heaven, I dare to believe that You are going to turn around unfavourable conditions in my life over which I have no control, situations in which someone has chosen to do evil against me. I know You reward those who trust You, so I will continue to believe that You are going to restore all that has been stolen from me. “I will bless the Lord, who has given me counsel; yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons,” reports Psalm 17.7. The Lord spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak unto the children of America, and bid them make fringes in the corners of their garments throughout their generations, putting upon the fringe of each corner a thread of blue. And it shall be unto you for a friend, that ye may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye go not about after your own hearts and your own eyes, after which ye use to go astray:–that ye remember to do all My commandments, and be holy unto your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the Town to be your God; I am the Lord your God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

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I Talked with Spirits—But it is Dangerous and Wicked!

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Many people are pleased to know, although this is Satan’s World and Universe, it is reassuring that the power of Satan, and his hosts are limited by God’s omnipotence. The Christian Bible and Book of Mormon clearly teaches that the Lord is in ultimate control of the entire social and political realm. For example, in the story of Job, we are informed that Satan could do only what God allowed. The apostle Paul also tells us that the Earthly rulers are in their places of authority by God’s permissive decree. He declared, “Let every soul be subject unto higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God,” reports Romans 13.1. This does not mean that God approves of men like Nero, Hitler, or Stalin, but that He ordained government to prevent chaos by making laws and enforcing them. Wicked men and women who hate the Lord and His people have obtained their positions of authority only by God’s permission, and their power is limited by His will. Therefore, though He commands His followers to obey even the most evil of these Earthly rulers, He will return as King of kings and Lord of lords to overcome all obstacles and work out His plans and purposes. The power of Satan and his followers is further restricted by the presence of Christians in the World. Believers have been redeemed from the domination of this World system. In addition, obedient followers of the Lord Jesus exert a purifying and preserving influence in the World. Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the Earth,” reports Matthew 5.13. Salt immediately suggested purity to the people of Christ’s day. In fact, the Romans said that salt was the purest of all things because it cam from the sun and the sea. #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

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Believers in Christ, by holding to a high standard of speech and conduct, and keeping themselves “unspotted” from the World (James 1.27), exert a strong cleansing effect upon humankind. Then, too, as salt was a common preservative, so Christians are a cleansing antiseptic in society, holding back the process of corruption. Faithful believers in Christ are therefore both a purifying and preserving influence. The apostle Paul also declared that all Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that as long as they are on Earth the full outbreak of evil is impossible. “And now ye know what restraineth that he might by revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now hindereth will continue to hinger until he be take out of the way,” reports 2 Thessalonians 2.6-7. Moreover, Satan works under the disability of knowing that his ultimate defeat has been made certain by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews said that Jesus took upon Himself our nature and went to the cross that “through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,” reports Hebrews 2.14. Though Peter tells us that, “the devil, like a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” reported in 1 Peter 5.8, Satan knows his doom is sure and therefore operates under definite limitations. In conclusions, if you are a follower of Christ, you must take seriously these Scripture passages which speak of the invisible army that is arrayed against you. If you think that in your own strength you are able to withstand Satan and his host, you will not be victorious in your Christian life. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

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Your testimony for Christ will be powerless and your way of life completely ineffective unless you walk in daily fellowship with God. This means you must confess and forsake every known sin, spend time with God in prayer, read the Scriptures, and submit yourself wholly to the Lord. In addition, in society, believers are called upon to pray earnestly for the leaders of nation, both on local, national, and subnational levels. Remember, the Bible teaches that an invisible host of evil spirits often uses political leaders as mere pawns, and these humans will not be able to function effectively and promote the right unless they receive help from the Lord. Since many of them are not true believers, they especially stand in need of the prayers of God’s people. The experience of Daniel demonstrates that when Godly men pray, the Lord sends His holy Angels to do battle with the Satanic forces and frustrates them in their efforts. Christians are therefore reminded by Paul to pray for all who have positions of authority: “I exhort, therefore, the first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all humans, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty,” reports 1 Timothy 2.1-2. Many of God’s people do not realize that tremendous battle being waged in the spiritual realm, and as a result they are somewhat lackadaisical about praying for men and women and children who hold responsible positions in government. Therefore, we who know that evil spirits are putting tremendous pressure upon these people should make doubly sure we do not fail. Our prayers may make the difference between life or death for many people, for when we seek God’s face, He exerts His power to defeat the enemy. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

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With the restoration of King Charles II witchcraft did not cease; on the other hand it went on with unimpaired vigour, and several important cases were brought to trial in England. In one instance, at least, it made its appearance in Ireland, this time far south, at Youghal. The extraordinary tale of Florence Newton and her doings, which is related below, forms the seventh Relation in Glanvill’s Sadducismus Triumphatus (London, 1726); it may also be found, together with some English cases of notoriety, in Francis Bragge’s Witchcraft further displayed (London, 1712). It is from the first of these sources that we have taken it, and reproduced it here verbatim, except that some redundant matter has been omitted, id est, where one witness relates facts (!) which have already been brought forward as evidence in the examination of a previous witness, and which therefore do not add to our knowledge, though no doubt they materially contributed to strengthen the case against the unfortunate old woman. Hayman in his Guide to Youghal attributes the whole affair to the credulity of the Puritan settlers, who were firm believers in such things. In this he is correct no doubt, but it should be borne in mind by the reader that such a belief was not confined to the newcomers at Youghal, but was common property throughout England and Ireland. The tale shows that there was a little covey of suspected witches in Youghal at that sate, as well as some skillful amateur witch-finders (Messrs. Perry, Greatrakes, and Blackwall). From the readiness with which the Mayor proposed to try the “water-experiment” one is lead to suspect that such a process as swimming a witch was not altogether unknown in Youghal. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

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For the benefit of the uninitiated we may briefly describe the actual process, which, as we shall see, the Mayor contemplated, but did not actually carry out. The suspected witch is taken, her right thumb tied to her left great top, and vice vera. She is then thrown into the water: if she sinks (and drowns, by any chance!) her innocence is conclusively established; if, on the other hand, she floats, her witchcraft is proven, for water, as being the element in Baptism, refuses to receive such a sinner in its bosom. Florence Newton was committed to Youghal prison by the Mayr of the town, 24th March 1661, for bewitching Mary Longdon, who gave evidence against her at the Cork Assizes (11th September), as follows: Mary Longdon being sworn, and bidden to look upon the prisoner, he countenance chang’s pale, and she was very fearful to look towards her, but at last she did, and being asked whether she knew her, she said she did, and wish’d she never had. Being asked how long she had known she, she said for three of four years. And that at Christmas the said Florence came to the Deponent, at the house of John Pyne in Youghal, where the Deponent was a servant, and asked her to give her a piece of Beef out of the Powdering Tub; and the Defendant answering her that she would not give away her Master’s Beef, the said Florence seemed to be very angry, and said Thou had’st as good give it me, and went away grumbling. That about a week after the Defendant going to the water with a Pail of Cloth on her head she met the said Florence Newton, who came full in her Face, and threw the Pail off her head, and violently kiss’d her, and said, Mary, I pray thee let thee and I be Friends; for I bear thee no ill will, and I pray thee do thou bear me none. And that she the Defendant afterwards went home, and that within a few Days after she saw a Woman with a Vail over her face stand by her bedside, and one standing by her like a little old Man in Silk Cloaths, that that this Man who she took to be a Spirit drew the Vail off the Woman’s Face, and then she knew it to be Goody Newton: and that she Spirit spoke to the Defendant and would have her promise him to follow his advice and she would have all things after her own Heart, to which she says she answered that she would have nothing to say to him, for her trust was in the Lord. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

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That within a month after the said Florence had kiss’s her, she this Defendant fell very ill of Fits or Trances, which would take her on a sudden, in that violence that three or four men could not hold her; and in her Fits she would be take with Vomiting, and would vomit up Needles, Pins, Horsenails, Stubbs, Wooll, and Straw, and that very often. And being asked whether she perceived at these times what she vomited? She replied, she did; for then she was not n so great distraction as in other parts of her Fits she was. And that before the first beginning of her Fits several (and very many) small stones would fall upon her as she went up and down, and would follow her from place to place, and from one Room to another, and would hit her on the head, shoulders, and arms, and fall to the ground and vanish away. And that she and several others would see them both fall upon her and on the ground, but could never take them, save only some few which she and her Master caught in their hands. Amongst which one that had a hole n it she tied (as she was advised) with a leather thong to her Purse, but it was vanish’d immediately, though the latter continu’d tied in a fast knot. That in her Fits she often saw Florence Newton, and cried out against her for tormenting her of her, for she says, that she would several times Stick Pins into her Arms, and some of them so fast, that a Man must pluck three or four times to get out the Pins, and they were stuck between the skin and the flesh. That sometimes she would be remov’d out of bed into another Room, sometimes she would be carried to the top of the House, and laid on a board between two Sollar Beams, sometimes put into a Chest, sometimes under a parcel of Wooll, sometimes between two Feather-Beds on which she used to lie, and sometimes between the Bed and the Mat in her Master’s Chamber, in the Daytime. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

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And being asked how she knew that she was thus carried about and disposed of, seeing in her fits she was in a violent distraction? She answered, she never knew where she was, till they of the Family and the Neighbours with them, would be taking her out of the places whither she was so carried and removed. And being asked the reason and wherefore she cried out so much against the said Florence Newton in her Fits? She answered, because she saw her, and felt her torturing her. And being asked how she could think it was Florence Newton that did her this prejudice? She said, first, because she threatened her, then because after she had kiss’d her she fell into these Fits, and that she saw and felt her tormenting. And lastly, that when the people of the Family, by advice of the Neighbours and consent of the Mayor, had sent for Florence Newton to come to the Defendant, she was always worse when she was brought to her, and her Fits more violent than at another time. And that after the said Florence was committed at Youghal the Defendant was not troubled, but was very will till a little while after the said Florence was removed to Cork, and then the Defendant was as ill as every before. Then then the Mayor of Youghal, one Mr. Mayre, sent to know whether the said Florence was bolted (as the Defendant was told), and finding she was not, the order was given to put her Bolts on her; which being done, the Deponent saith she was well again, and so hath continued ever since, and being asked whether she had such like Fits before the said Florence have her the kiss, she saith she never had any, but believed that with the kiss she bewitch’d her, and rather because she had heard from Nicholas Pyne and others that Florence had confessed so much. This Mary Longdon having closed her evidence, Florence Newton peeped at her as it were betwixt the head of the bystanders that interposed between her and the said Mary, and lifting up both her hands together, as they were manacled, cast them in a violent angry motion (as was observed by W. Aston) toward the said Mary, as if she intended to strike at her if she could have reached her, and said, Now she is down. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

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Upon which the Maid fell suddenly down to the ground like a stone, and fell into a most violent Fit, that all the people that could come to lay hands on her could scarce hold her, she biting her own arms and shrieking out in a most hideous manner, to the amazement of all Beholders. And continuing so for about a quarter of an hour (the said Florence Newton sitting by herself all that while pinching her own hands and arms, as was sworn by some that observed her), the Maid was ordered to be carried out of Court, and taken into a House. Whence several Persons after that brough word, that the Maid was in a Vomiting Fit, and they brought in several crook’d Pins, and Straws, and Wooll, in white Foam like Spittle, in great proportion. Whereupon the Court having taken notice that the Maid said she had been very well when the said Florence was in Bolts, and ill again when out of them, till they were again put on her, demanded of the Jaylor if she were in Bolts or no, to which he said she was not, only manacled. Upon which order was given to put on her Bolts, and upon putting them on she cried out that she was skilled, she was undone, she was spoiled, why do you torment me thus? and so continued complaining grievously for half a quarter of an hour. And then came in a messenger from the Maid, and informed the Court the Maid was well. At which Florence immediately and cholerickly uttered these words, She is not well yet! And being demanded, how she knew this, she denied she said so, though many in Court heard her say the words, and she said, if she did, she knew not what she said, being old and disquieted, and distracted with her sufferings. However, the Maid being reasonably well come to herself, was, before the Court knew anything of it, sent out of Town to Youghal, and so was no further examined. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

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The Fit of the Maid being urged by the Court with all the circumstances of it upon Florence Newton, to have been a continuance of her devilish practice, she denied it, and likewise the motion of her hands, and the saying, Now she is down, though the Court saw the first, and the words were sworn to by one Roger Moor. And Thomas Harrison swore that he had observed the said Florence peep at her, and use that motion with her hands, and she saw the Maid fall immediately upon that motion, and heard the words, Now she is down, uttered. Nicolas Stout was next produced by Mr. Attorney-General, who being sworn and examined, saith, That he had often tried her, having heard say that Witches could not say the Lord’s Prayer, whether she could or no, and she could not. Whereupon she said she could day it, and had often said it, and the Court being desired by her to hear her say it, gave her leave; and four times together after these words, Give us this our daily bread, she continually said, As we forgive them, leaving out altogether the words, And forgive us our trespasses, upon which the Court appointed one near her to teach her the words she left out. However, she either could not, or would not, say them, using only these or the like words when these were repeated, Ay, ay, trespasses, that’s the word. And being often pressed to utter the words as they were repeated to her, she did not. And being asked the reason, she said she was old and had a bad memory; and being asked how her memory served her so well for other parts of the Prayer, and only failed her for that, she said she knew not, neither could she help it. John Pyne being likewise sworn and examined, saith, That about January last [1661] the said Mary Longdon, being his Servant, was much troubled with small stones that were thrown at her [&c., as in the Deponent’s statement, other items of which he also corroborated]. That sometimes the Maid would be reading in the Bible, and on a sudden he hath seen the Bible struck out of her Hand into the middle of the Room, and she immediately cast into a violent Fit. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

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That in the Fits he hath seen two Bible laid on her Breast, and in the twinkling of an eye they would be cast betwixt the two Beds the Maid lay upon, sometimes thrown into the middle of the Room, and that Nicholas Pyne held the Bible in the Maid’s hand so fast, that it being suddenly snatch’d away, two of the leaves were torn out. Nicholas Pyne being sworn, saith, That the second night after that the Witch had been in Prison, being the 24th [26?] of March last, he and Joseph Thompson, Roger Hawkins, and some others went to speak with her concerning the Maid, and told her that it was the general opinion of the Town that she had bewitched her, and desired her to deal freely with them, whether she had bewitched her or no. She said that she had not bewitched her, but it may be she had overlooked her, and that there was a great difference between bewitching and overlooking, and that she could not have done her any harm if she had not touch’d her, and that therefore she had kiss’d her. And she said that what mischief she thought of at that time she kiss’d her, that would fall upon ger, and that she could not but confess she had wronged the Maid, and thereupon fell down upon her knees, and prayed God to forgive her for wronging the poor Wench. They wisd’d that she might not be wholly destroyed by her; to which she said, it must be another that would help her, and not they that did the harm. And then she said, that there were others, as Goody Halfpenny and Goody Dod, in Town, that could do these things as well as she, and that it might be one of these that had done the Maid wrong. He further saith, That towards Evening the Door of the Prison shook, and she arose up hastily and said, What makest thow here this time a night? #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

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And there was a very great noise, as if some body with Bolts and Chains had been running up and down the Room, and they asked her what it was she spoke to, and what it was that made the noise; and she said she saw nothing, neither did she speak, and if she did, it was she knew not what. However, the next day she confess’d it was a Spirit, and her Familiar, in the shape of a Greyhound. He further saith, That he and Mr. Edward Perry and others for Trial of her took a Tile off the Prison, went to the place where the Witch lay, and carried it to the House where the Maid lived, and put it in the fire until it was red-hot, and then dripped some of the Maid’s water upon it, and the Witch was then grievously tormented, and when the water consumed she was well again. Spiritism is the belief that people survive death as spirits, and that they can communicate with the living through a medium, a person having a special psychic gift. The fact has been established that nearly 150 million people in the World today have participated with some regularity in efforts to receive messages from the dead. Many have had experiences so convincing that they now possess unwavering assurance of a future existence in another World after death. One such man was the late Bishop Pike,  liberal theologian who at one time did not believe any form of life was possible on the other side of the grave. However, then a series of strange circumstances impelled him to go to a medium, who claimed to be able to put him in touch with his dead son Jim. The young man had recently committed suicide, and the bishop left the sĂ©ance satisfied that Jim had really spoken to him through the medium. In fact, he was persuaded that he had also conversed with the late Dr. Paul Tillich, a celebrated theologian and philosopher whom the bishop had greatly admired and to whom he had dedicated one of his books. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

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Dr. Pike, with Diane Kennedy who later became his wife, published a book entitled The Other Side, in which they told the whole story of his spirit encounters, beginning with the haunted apartment in Cambridge, England, and including his seances with Ena Twigg, George Daisley, and Arthur Ford. A number of events recounted are so extraordinary that they baffle the mind. One cannot read this book without concluding that Bishop Pike was either the victim of a plot so carefully contrived that no one to this date has been able to decipher it, or that he actually participated in some kind of supernatural activity. In any case, we do not agree with the bishop’s assumption that he had spoke with his son or with Dr. Tillich. Many people have written recently of their experiences in spiritism, and some of them come to conclusions far different from those of Bishop Pike and his associates. Raphael Gasson, a former medium who was converted to Christ, recently published a work entitled The Challenging Counterfeit. He convincingly sets for the idea that demons, by impersonating the dead, are able to deceive those who attend seances in hope of contacting the spirits of their loved ones. In another publication I Talked With Spirits, Victor Ernest tells the story of his early life as a member of a spiritualistic family. He is now a highly respected minister of the Gospel, and declared unequivocally that the religion of his childhood contained supernatural element, but that it is dangerous and wicked. In this study we careful examine spiritism, seeking to answer four basic questions: What does the Christian Bible teach regarding spiritism? How do spirits work? What do spirits believe? Why is spiritism so dangerous? #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

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Many also want to know why did Mrs. Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune, spent the last half of her life and $155,991,224.49 (2021 inflation adjusted) building a house that now contains 160 rooms and stands four stories? The mystery remains unsolved to this very day. In 1884, Mrs. Winchester left New Haven, Connecticut, and the graves of her husband and only child, and moved to San Jose, California, and began the obsession that was to last for the rest of her life. The death of William Wirt Winchester, of the Winchester House, in the country of America, would in the ordinary way have received no more attention than the death of any other simple country gentleman. The circumstances of his death, however, though now long since forgotten, were sensational, and attracted some notice at the time. It was one of those cases which is easily forgotten within a year, except just in the locality where it occurred. The most sensational circumstances of the case never came before the public at all. I give them here simply and plainly. The physical people may make what they like of them. On the death of his new born daughter, after a prolonged illness, Mr. Winchester wrote to Leonard Pardee and asked him to come down to New Haven for the funeral, and to remain with at least a few days. There were many visitors in the hose for the funeral, which took place in the village churchyard, but they left immediately afterwards. The air of heavy gloom which had hung over the Winchester mansion in New Haven seemed to lift a little. The servants (servants are always emotion) continued to break down at intervals. Mr. Winchester spoke of his wife with great affection and regret, but still he could speak of her and not unsteadily. At dinner, Mr. Winchester spoke of one or two subjects, of politics and of his duties as magistrate and President of a company, and of course he made the requisite fuss about his gratitude to Leonard for coming down to the Winchester mansion at the time. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

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After dinner they sat in the library, a room well and expensively furnished. There were a few oil paintings on the walls, a presentation portrait of himself, and a landscape or two and the praised Ulysses in the Land of the Lestrygonians Fresco. Mr. Winchester had eaten next to nothing at dinner. When he said, “I want you to tell my daughter that I will be with her tomorrow.” He went to bed early that night. Leonard has been with him the following day. They rode together, and he expected an accident every minute, but none happened. All that evening, Leonard expected him to turn suddenly faint and ill, but that also did not happen. When at about ten o’clock he excused himself and said goodnight, Leonard felt distinctly relieved. Mr. Winchester went up to his room and rang for the servant Robert Law. The rest is, of course well known. The servant’s reasons had broken down, possibly the immediate cause being the death of the Winchester infant. On entering his master’s bedroom, without the least hesitation, he raised a loaded revolver which he carried in his hand, and shot Mr. Winchester through the heart. I believe the case is mentioned in some of the textbooks on homicidal mania. Mrs. Winchester said she had kind of felt for so long, and she had a queer feeling coming over her as if there was somebody or something round the house, more than appeared. She had felt it in the air; but it seemed to her silly, and she tried to get over it. But two or three times, she said, when it got to be dusk, she felt somebody go by her up the stairs. The front entry was not very light in the daytime and in the storm, come ten o’clock, it was so dark that all you could see was just a gleam of something, and two or three times when she started to go upstairs, she saw a soft white something that seemed going up before her, and she stopped with her heart beating like a trip-hammer, and she sort of saw it go up and along the entry to the Mr. Winchester’s chambers, and then it seemed to go right through, because the door did not open. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

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There are times and tones and moods of nature that make all the vulgar, daily real seem shadowy, vague, and supernatural, as if the outlines of reality present were fading into the invisible and unknown. When Mrs. Winchester went to bed the next evening, she slept in a different room. She went right off to sleep as sound as a new born baby, on until somewhere about morning, when something awakened her broad in a minute. Her eyes flew open, and the storm had gone down and the moon had came out; and there, standing right in the moonlight by her bed, was a woman just as white as snow, with long raven black hair hanging down to her waist, and the brightest, mournfullest black eyes you could have ever seen. She stood there looking right at Mrs. Winchester; and Mrs. Winchester thought this is what woke her up because if someone stares at you like that, it is felt in your very soul. Mrs. Winchester felt just as if she was turning to stone. She could not move nor speak. She lay a minute and then shut her eyes, and begin to say her prayers; and a minute after she opened them, and the specter was gone. Mrs. Winchester was a sensible woman; and she just got up, put on a shawl around her shoulders, and went first and looked at the doors, and they were both locked just as she left them when she went to bed. Then she looked under the bed and in the closet, and felt all around the room: where she could not see she felt her way, and there was nothing there. The story got around that there was a woman lurking in the Winchester mansion. Someone said that moonlight nights they would see her walking out in the back garden kind of in and out of the trees and vineyards. The maid Agnus said she had seen the woman in plain daylight just sitting and looking out and doing nothing. She was very white and pale and had black eyes. #RandolpHarris 15 of 17

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Mrs. Winchester went to bed again that evening, she again, locked her chamber-doors, both of them, and woke up in the middle of the night and there was a colourless, tall, and harshly thin woman. Her face was pale, paler than it had been before. She was just standing there, and then she was gone. Mrs. Winchester gets up and looks, and both doors were locked, just as she left them. That woman was not flesh and blood as we know; but then they say that Mrs. Winchester must had dreamed her. The distracted widow turned to spiritualism and was advised to take a trip around the World. This she did, visiting mediums, spiritualists and yogis in Europe and India. Fortelling her future, one seer warned her of all the countless thousands of departed souls slain by her husband’s rifles; she must protect herself and tone for such mass murder. She was told to plan a castle and continue its building indefinitely because as long as it was under construction she would live; cessation would prove immediately fatal. Retuning from her global trip, she arrived in San Francisco and find this area seldom subject to thunderstorms, she purchased eight-room house four miles west of San Jose. She hired an architect, a foreman and an army of carpenters and work began; architect and foreman quit the first day. There souls seemed to me on one common ground of a terrified understanding through their eyes. Mrs. Winchester also felt a creep as some live horror over her very soul. Her flesh prickled with cold. She was tottering on weak knees. That afternoon, Mrs. Winchester was in the study, the large front room on the ground floor across the hall from the south parlour, when dusk deepened. Mrs. Winchester was writing some letters when she noticed a strange shadow on the wall. She rose and began walking around the room, moving various articles of furniture, with her eyes on the shadow. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

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Then suddenly she shrieked out: “Look at this awful shadow! What is it? What is it?” Mrs. Winchester’s face was livid with horror. She stood stiffly pointing at the shadow. It has been there every night since William died,” cried Mrs. Winchester. Agnus the maid assured her that it was just a fold in the curtain that make its. However, the door opened suddenly and the butler George Pollock entered. He began to speak, then his eyes followed the direction of others’. He stood stock still staring at the shadow on the wall. It was life size and stretched across the white parallelogram of a door, half across the wall space on which the picture hung. “What is that?” he demanded in a strange voice. “It must be something in the room.” “He looked like a demon!” said Mrs. Winchester. “I can’t sit in this room again!” She ordered it to be boarded up. Later that evening, they went to the library. Then George took out the lamp and sat it on the center table, and the shadow sprang out of the wall. Again, he studied the furniture and moved it about, but deliberately. Nothing affected the shadow. Then he returned to the south room with the lam and again wait. Again he returned to the study and placed the lamp on the table, and the shadow sprang out upon the wall. It was midnight before he went upstairs. Mrs. Winchester could not speak nor sleep, she heard him. She looked all over the room and saw two shadows. She lied in bed staring at the wall. The Word of God clearly and emphatically condemned all efforts to communicate with the dead. The Lord declared that the observances of people who engaged in such activity were equivalent to the worship of other gods. Mrs. Winchester had no interest in communicate with the spirits before they started trying to communicate with her. Her sacred Blue SĂ©ance room, her secret rendezvous with the spirits, was said to be locked to all but herself. So we leave you to decide for yourself the mystery of the Winchester mansion. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17

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Winchester Mystery House

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The 1906 earthquake must have been frightening for Sarah and her employees, but can you imagine being trapped in a room for hours? Take a look at the Daisy Bedroom, the very room Sarah was rumored to be stuck in during the 1906 earthquake 😳 Tour Tickets | http://ow.ly/Uyjl50H8voA

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You Can Never Force Anyone to Love You!

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Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. Virginity and celibacy are for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. However, virginity or celibacy, is also, though differently, a precept for everyone. In fact, besides being a freely-chosen, lifelong state, it is also a duty—or rather, an ideal and an evangelical proposal—for everyone during at least one particular phase of life, namely the one preceding the definitive choice of one’s vocation. In this sense these words are not addressed exclusively to religious or to those preparing to become priests, but to all the baptized. We shall find that the same reasons which justify virginity for the sake of the Kingdom can also sustain and motivate the efforts of young Christian men or women to preserve their physical and spiritual chastity and integrity until their wedding day. “Rend your hearts and not your garments and return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness; and He revokes His sentence of evil [when His conditions are met],” reports Joel 2.12. In any case, one cannot speak about virginity and celibacy without continually comparing it with marriage. Therefore to speak about them is also to speak about marriage; in fact in some aspects, comparing the two is the best way to discover the nature and goodness of the charism proper to each. Today we are witnessing a real attack by the dominant culture against this value of virginity. According to the well-known tendency to despise what one has lost or is unable to attain (as the fox in the fable said of the grapes: “They are not yet ripe”), secular culture casts suspicion and even ridicule on this traditional value which nature itself defends by surroundings—often even by the school environment which ought to help them mature—to be ashamed of their chastity, to do everything to hide it, even to boast about experiences they have not had, simply so as not to appear different from other people. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

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Someone has said that hypocrisy used to be the tribute paid by vice to virtue. Today it is the tribute paid by virtue to vice. The effect of this mindless assault has been indirectly felt within the Church as well. Nor could it be otherwise, since we live in the World and breathe air. Whether we go out or stay home, we are besieged and “de-evangelized” on every side and by every means. Celibacy and virginity, it is sometimes said, prevent healthy, complete personal development. They keep a man from being fully a man, and a woman from being fully a woman. One consequence of this is apparent in the way we present our vocational material. Sometimes at vocation meetings I have had the impression that the invitation to follow a call to special consecration is made with this tacit but clear implication: “Embrace our way of life despite the fact it involves celibacy or virginity; actually, you will be able to contribute to the coming of the Kingdom, help the poor, raise people’s awareness, live without being enslaved to things, and promote social justice.” I believe that we must acknowledge our lack of faith and have the courage to invite young people to embrace our consecrated life not despite the virginity and celibacy it entails, but because of them, or at least also because of them. This ideal may very well be the one that will cause young people to fall in love with the religious and priestly life and draw them to it, rather than distance them from it. It has happened before; it happened in the first ages of the Church. The fact is that virginity for the Kingdom is a splendid value which changing times and fashions cannot alter. All the forces and wisdom of this World, all the so-called human sciences may join together in protest against this form of life, calling it “an outdated abomination” and raising all kinds of suspicion against it; all the sins and infidelities of the very people who have chosen to embrace it may be added to this, and still it would remain, because it was instituted by Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

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No one will ever be able to uproot that which the Son of God planted with His own hand when He came into the World. The World itself, without realizing it, pays its own tribute to this value when it uses the words “virgin” and “pure” in a very beneficial way. An unspoiled landscape is often described as “virgin,” the best wool is labelled “pure,” and so on. We need to reclaim these words and symbols which our secularized culture has borrowed from the Bible and Christian tradition and emptied completely of their religious meaning. In an age like our own, when excesses of pleasures of the flesh threaten the very sources of life and the basis of society itself, when nature protests with dire warning signals, it is a duty and a joy for believers to rediscover the radical alternative of the Gospel. This alternative does not rule out pleasures of the flesh, but brings out its human, free, rational character, preventing it from degenerating into sheer instinct and banality. The poet Tagore, expressing an evangelical insight, writes: “Chastity is a wealth that comes from abundance of love” (not from the lack of it). There are some who choose not to marry for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. There is an unteachable use of celibacy, virginity and voluntary continence, because they are all terms designating the same actual reality, or at least the same state of life. Personally I prefer to use the word “virginity” and “virgins” as the most comprehensive term. In fact the New Testament does not reserve this title only for unmarried women, but also uses it for unmarried men. The Book of Revelations gives the name “virgins” to those who have not been with women and who therefore follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Revelation 14.4). #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

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The institution of the state is described in chapter 19 of Matthew’s Gospel: “His disciples said to Him: ‘If that is who things are between husband and wife, it is better not to marry.’ However, He replied: “Not everyone can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. For there are some who are eunuchs from their mother’s womb, and some who were made so by other men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can,” reports Matthew 19.10-12. The word “eunuch” sounds rather harsh to our modern ears and it was harsh also for people n Jesus’ day. According to some, the choice of this unusual term was due to the fact that the adversaries of Jesus had accused Him of being a eunuch, since He was unmarried, just as they accused Him on other occasions of being a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11.19). It was a highly offensive word, because for the Jewish mentality of the time it was a moral duty to get married. The opinion of a certain Rabbi Eleazar, according to which “a man with no wife is not even a man,” is well known. So here, Jesus was taking up His adversaries’ accusations and making it in some way His own, but explaining it by this revelation of an unmarried state that was new and absolutely special. There are some—says Jesus—“who do not marry” (this is the non-polemical equivalent of the term “eunuch”) because they are prevented from birth on account of some natural defect. Others do not marry because they are prevented by the wickedness of people or the circumstances of life. Finally, there are others again who do not marry for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. In the last case the word “eunuch” takes on a different significance, not physical but moral. Christian tradition has always interpreted it in this way except for the well-known case of Origen who, contrary to his custom of explaining everything spiritually, took this word of the Gospel literally. He castrated himself and subsequently paid a high price for his mistake. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

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The mention of the Kingdom of Heaven abruptly introduces an element of mystery into Jesus’ words, which is heightened by the final laconic phrase: “Let anyone accept this who can.” In other words, those who have received the gift of understanding will understand. In this way a second state of life is born into the World, and this is its “Magna Charta.” In fact, before Jesus, no state of life existed comparable to this one instituted by Him, at least in its motivation if not in fact. The Essences of Qumran also knew and practiced a form of celibacy but for them it had undertones of asceticism and ritual purity rather than eschatological connotations. If anything, it was motivated by an expectation of the Kingdom, not by its coming. In any case it could not have been otherwise. Only the presence of the Kingdom on Earth could institute this second possibility: a life of celibacy “for the sake of the Kingdom.” This possibility does not cancel out the other one, namely marriage, but makes it relative. The same sort of thing happens with the idea of the state in the political sphere: the revelation of the simultaneous presence in history of the Kingdom of God does not abolish the state, but radically relativizes it. Perfect continence stands in the face of marriage rather as the Kingdom of God stands in the face of the kingdom of Caesar: it does not eliminate it, but highlights the different positions it now has from the one it had before. It is no longer the only instance in its field. Since God’s Kingdom is in a different order of greatness from that of Caesar, the one does not need to deny the other in order to exist. In the same way, voluntary continence does not need the denial of marriage for its own validity to be recognized. In fact, it is only by simultaneously affirming marriage—especially since Jesus raised it to the dignity of a sacrament—that chastity acquires meaning. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

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Two groups of psychosocial problems—somatoform disorders and psychogeic sexual dysfunction—are distinct types of disorders that, in the abstract, have similar manifestations. Each somatoform disorder or sexual dysfunction represents a constellation of “physical” symptoms in the absence of any identifiable physiological or medical condition to which the symptoms could be attributed. Both classes of problems are associated with patterns of friction in interpersonal relationships: Somatoform disorders are prominently linked with troublesome interactions in the family of origin, and psycho genic sexual dysfunctions are strongly tied to disturbances in family-or-orientation (id est, marital) relationships. Somatoform disorders entail the expression of some symptom or symptoms that suggest a medical problem, but are not fully explainable by a medical condition. These symptoms, such as severe back pain or chronic digestive problems, tend to cause significant distress or impairment for the individual expressing them. The experience of these physical symptoms is very real for the afflicted individual, and they are not intentional, as in the case of malingering or factitious disorder. Three of the more common types of somatoform disorders are pain disorder (the experience of pain that is severe enough to warrant clinical attention and interfere with social functioning, in the absence of any obvious medial cause), hypochondriasis (a preoccupation with fears of having a serious disease based on misinterpretation of one or more bodily signs or symptoms), and somatization disorder (a chronic pattern of pain, sexual gastrointestinal, and pseudoneurological symptoms). Somatization disorder includes what has in the past been referred to as hysteria and Briquet’s syndrome. Somatization disorder is somewhat rare, with an annual prevalence of only 0.2 percent. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

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However, a more recent study of over 3,000 adolescents and young adults indicated that the risk of any specific somatoform disorder was 2.7 percent in that population, the most prevalent being pain disorder and conversion disorder. However, the use of a new and thorough diagnostic technique yielded an overall lifetime prevalence rate of 12.6 percent for any somatoform disorder. These disorders are more common in women than in men, and typically have their origin in adolescence; they are also highly comorbid, with 50-75 percent of patients also afflicted with such problems as depression, eating disorders, and substance dependence. Somatoform disorders may serve a variety of functions in the family of origin, the family of orientation, and even general personal relationships. For many people, a somatoform disorder brings a “solution” to a systemic problem within the family or marriage by shifting attention away from conflicts. It may also serve as a means of securing various types of support and attention. In research on somatoform disorders, antecedent family-of-origin experiences has received much attention. These often include low parental care (coupled with parental overinvolvement), family conflict, physical and sexual abuse, and other adverse experiences; disrupted attachment; and parental modeling of somatization. Somatoform disorders may also be understood as distorted forms of interpersonal communication: Many people express their physical symptoms as a means of indirectly communicating their distress to others. Somatoform disorders tend to be highly comorbid with personality disorders, further complicating the clinical and interpersonal picture of these disorders. Why would an individual experience and express “physical” symptoms in the absence of any precipitating medical or biological cause? Many have argued that there are social functions and perhaps even social causes underlying this phenomenon. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

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In a comprehensive review of the relationship between social-psychological factors and somatic symptoms, perceptions and reports of physical health may function as non-verbal indices of social health. Numerous possible etiological explanations for somatization have been suggested. Many if not most of these explanations entail some significant issue(s) in the area of interpersonal relationships, such as primary or secondary gains; a solution to a systems problem in a family; or a means of communicating when other, more direct forms of expression are blocked (signal function). Many people with somatization disorder turn to health care professionals for social support that is otherwise lacking in their lives. The concept of secondary gain had figure prominently in the literature on somatization. When one is “sick,” he or she is freed from normal and typical obligations and is generally absolved from any responsibility for being in the sick condition. The expression of physical symptoms also brings attention, sympathy, and support from others, not to mention more instrumental types of assistance, such as disability payments. For the individual who is unable or unwilling to solicit or secure social support from others through more standard means of social interaction, assuming the sick role may be a covert mechanism for effectively achieving this interpersonal goal. In the traditional phylodynamic approach, somatization is thought to have primarily intrapsychic functions, with secondary interpersonal consequences. However, the interpersonal perspective would interpret the “secondary” interpersonal effects as primary. That is, the person exhibits, and indeed experiences, the physical symptoms primarily as a mechanism for attaining particular interpersonal outcomes. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

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Somatoform disorders may also bring a temporary solution to a system-wide problem. For example, a child’s physical symptoms may temporarily divert attention from an otherwise contentious family conflict. As parents shift their attention toward the welfare of the child, they may actually behave in a more cooperative fashion and reduce their conflict. Just as intoxication can bring temporary stability to a household affected by alcoholism, somatoform disorders may temporarily stabilize a family setting and subdue conflict. According to the signal function hypothesis, somatic symptoms may be the nonverbal expression of an emotion and/or interpersonal problem. Somatization is communication, consciously or unconsciously coded in the language of the body. For a variety of reasons, some people may not be comfortable expressing their interpersonal or emotional distress to others; for them, the expression of physical symptoms may be a more socially acceptable means of expressing their feelings to other people and soliciting social support from them. From this perspective, a somatoform disorder can be interpreted as a sign of psychic distress in the afflicted individual. “In the World you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the World,” reports John 16.33. Adversities and hardships are opportunities for us to go higher. Consequently, God does not prevent every negative thing from coming into your life. In fact, Jesus said, “In this life you will have trouble.” “Unfair things will happen to you,” He said, but here is the key: “Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the World.” Throughout the Scripture, God days if we will keep the right attitude, if we will stay full of joy and full of hope, even though He may not stop all the trouble, when we come out, we will not be the same as we were before. We will be more blessed, healthy, and prosperous, better off then we were previously. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

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I think about Joseph. His brothers were so jealous of him, they sold him into slavery. Other young men his age, no doubt, were out having a good time, enjoying their lives. However, Joseph was confined, living in a foreign land, having to work all the time. It was unfair; worse yet, Joseph’s heartache and pain were caused by somebody else’s poor choices and somebody else’s bad attitude. However, God saw that injustice. God said in the book of Joel, “I will restore the years that have been stolen from you,” reports Joel 2.25. Somehow, some way, God can make up all those years. That is what He did for Joseph. Even though Joseph spent thirteen years in slavery and in prison, God made it all up to him. When he came out, he did not have to go back home and start all over. No, he came out promoted and increased. He now had a position of honour as the prime minister of all Egypt, second in command only to Pharaoh. God took the adversity and injustice, and because Joseph kept the right attitude, God brought him out much better than he was before. In other words, God made the enemy pay for brining the injustice into Joseph’s life. Friend, God is keeping the records in your life, as well. If somebody had mistreated you and done you wrong, do not sit around feeling sorry for yourself. Let hope fill your heart. Know that God will bring you out with twice what you had before. God will never waste anything that you go through. None of us enjoy tough times. However, we can stay filled with hope, knowing that God will never waste the pain. He will always use it to our advantage. Had Joseph not experienced that adversity, he would not have received the promotion that led to his powerful position. In your times of disappointment and trouble, instead of getting down and discouraged, start believing to come out better off than you were before. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

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Put your faith out there, and remind yourself that God wants to restore good things back to you. You simply need to stay filled with hope, and start expecting things to change. The Bible tells us in Zechariah that we should be “prisoners of hope.” So many people go around discouraged and defeated. They live with anger, resentment, and bitterness, rather than hope. They think no one knows what they have been through. No one knows how bad their marriage has been, or how deeply they are in dept. No, quit dwelling on all of that. Do not magnify your problems. Magnify your God. The bigger you make God, the smaller your problems become, and the more faith will rise in your heart. The Scripture teaches that we should not look at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are only temporary, but the things that are seen through our eyes of faith are eternal (see 2 Corinthians 4.18). One translation says, “The things that are seen are subject to change.” That means your health may not look too good today, but that is subject to change. Your finances may look pretty dismal, but they are subject to change. Nothing may be going right in your life, but it is all subject to change. When you look at your child who is not living right, instead of getting discouraged and losing your hope, look at him or her and say, “You are subject to change.” You may need to look at your checkbook and say, “This is subject to change.” Maybe your boss is not treating you right. He is being rude and disrespectful. Just smile and say, “You are subject to change.” (You probably should not say that to his face, or your job may be subject to change!) If you want God to restore what has been stolen from you, stay filled with hope. You have to get up each morning expecting things to change, expecting good things to happen. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

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You need to know that in a moment of time, God could turn it all around. Suddenly you could get your miracle. Suddenly God could bring someone new into your life. Suddenly you could get that promotion. All it takes is one “suddenly.” In a split second, with one touch of God’s favour, everything can change. Our attitude should be, I am going to take back what belongs to me. I am not going to sit around mourning over what I have lost. I may have been knocked down, but I am not going to stay down. I am going to get back up again, knowing that Almighty God is on my side, and if God be for me, who dares be against me? And if you stay filled with hope, God will restore you, and like Joseph, you will come out twice as strong, twice as healthy, twice as prosperous. God will make the enemy pay double for brining that adversity into your life. Dear Lord in Heaven, please help me to believe, Father, that my circumstances are “subject to change,” not simply because of me, but because You are helping me to overcome that adversity, and You will bring me out even better than before. I will open my whole heart to You and enjoy Your company as my soul desires, and no one will despise me for it. Nor will anyone move me and give me a second look. However, we will have a good conversation, just You and me, and speak as one good friend to another, and then to a good meal! This I pray. This I desire, that I be totally at Your disposal, and that I withdraw my heart from its many Worldly commitments. What is more, through Holy Communion and frequent celebration of the Mass, I will develop a taste for the Celestials and Eternals. Ah! Lord God, when will I be totally united and absorbed with You and totally oblivious of myself? You in me, and I in You, as the Evangelist John once put it (17.21). Fast friends forever! #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

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You truly are my Beloved Friend, chosen out of thousands and thousands, but how did I ever find You? That was the central question of Solomon’s song (5.10). You are the friend in whose friendship it pleases my soul to spend the rest of the days of my life. You bring peace to my life, which is not all that odd; You are the Great Peace and the True Rest, outside of whom there is nothing but grudge and grief. You truly are my hidden God, tucked away, secret; that is who the Prophet Isaiah saw it (45.15). And Your words of wisdom are not with the Impious, and Your small talk is with the Humble and Simple. “O Lord, how sweet is Your spirit,” as the Book of Wisdom has it (12.1). You are the One who, to demonstrate Your sweetness toward Your children, throughout them worth feeding with sweetest bread descending from Heaven; that is how the Deuteronomist describe the feeding of Moses and his friends for so many years (4.7). “Truly there is no other nation so grand as the one whose gods approach as closely as You, our God, have approached us.” You are present with all Your faithful, and You give them their daily bread, raising their hearts to Heaven, to eat, to enjoy. What other tribe has been so honoured as the Christians? What other creature under the Heavens has been so loved, so chosen, as the soul of a Devout in whom God has made an entrance that He may nourish him with his own glorious substance. O Ineffable Grace! O Admirable Dignation! O Immense Love bestowed on Humankind alone! However, what return do I make to the Lord for that grace, for such extravagant charity? A question frequently asked by the Psalmist (116.12). There is no better return than to present my heart on a platter to the Lord, with the hope that He would accept it as I intended. Then all my intestines will jounce for joy when my soul has been perfectly untied to God. Then He will say to me, “If you want to stay with me, I ill stay with you.” And I will respond to him. “Do please sit with me, and I willingly sit with You. This is my desire, whole and entire, that my heart be united with Yours.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

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It must be remembered that the glimpse is not the goal of life. It is a happening, something which begins and ends, but something which of which is of immense value in contributing to the philosophic life, its day-to-day consciousness, its ordinary stabilized nature. Philosophic life is established continuously and permanently in the divine presence; the glimpse comes and goes within that presence. The glimpse is exceptional and exciting; but sahaja, the established state, is ordinary, normal, every day. The glimpse tends to withdraw us from activity, even if only for a few moments, whereas sahaja does not have to stop its outward activity. To the human who has come along the path of loving devotion to God and finally gained the reward of frequent, joyous, ardent, inward communion with God, equally as to the humans who has practised the way of mystical self-recollection and attained frequent awareness of the Overself’s presence, an unexpected and unpalatable change may happen little by little or suddenly. God will seem to withdraw from the devotee, the Overself from the mystic. The blisses will fade and end. Although this experience will have none of the terror or isolation and misery of the “dark night” it will be comparable to that unforgettable time. And although it will seem like a withdrawal of Grace, the hidden truth is that it is actually a farther and deeper bestowal of Grace. For the human is being led to the next stage—which is to round out, balance, and complete one’s development. This one will be taught to do by first, acquiring cosmological knowledge, and later, attaining ontological wisdom. That is, one will learn something about the World-Idea and then, this gained, pass upward to learning the nature of that Reality in whose light even the Universe is illusion. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

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Thus from study of the operations of the Power behind the World-Idea one passes on to pondering on the Power itself. This last involves the highest degree of concentration and is indeed the mysterious actualized Christian. When successfully followed it brings about the attainment of Insight, the final discovery that there is no other being than THAT, no second entity. The challenge of living from one’s core involves “effortless effort.” The paradox is that the harder one tries, the more one fails. It is like learning to swim: the more one struggles to stay on the surface, the faster one goes under. On the other hand, the more one relaxes, the easier it becomes to float. Living has to do with surrendering versus forcing. The key, then, is learning to live spontaneously rather than by coercion and willpower. It involves learning to live without striving. And this is contrary to what we in Western culture have been taught: that we win by trying harder. Another example is trying to make someone love you. The more you try, the less you succeed. You can never force anyone to love you. Yu can only be yourself openly, and hope that one will choose to respond to you. However, many people take the other course of trying to force or trick others into loving them through their achievements, seductions, or bag of manipulative tricks. All who perpetually strive t merit love end up exhausted and alone. Love cannot be bought or earned. It is the free gift of all who developed a relaxed and caring presence to others, and arises spontaneously out of heartfelt human encounter. In an age of technology such as ours, it may be difficult to accept that some things—such as wisdom, the capacity to love, the courage to be oneself, and the sensitivity to actualize one’s spiritual destiny—cannot be reduced to a prefabricated “instant” package. One of the paradoxical aspects of person growth is that it can never be forced. An invitation can be given, but the person must grow at one’s own pace. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

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It is important to realize that one cannot force one’s own growth! Rather, one must have time, patience, and willingness for growth to occur at its own rate. The paradox of growth within the human personality is that we grow and change by accepting the way we are. We grow most when we relax. The reason for this is that relaxed awareness, coupled with desire, allows our whole being time to digest and assimilate new experiences and subsequently alter our thoughts, feelings, values, and behaviour. A wise philosopher once said that human beings are like sheep. If they truly assimilate their experiences, the gradually the grass of daily life will be transformed into the wool of wisdom. When it comes to daily surrender to God, Queen Akasha, in The Queen of the Damned, captured a key concept that corresponds with “effortless effort” in her phrase “Join me of die.” The quiet, penetrating encounter with God in the depths of our being us possible only when we let one go. When we quit boxing one in, or calling one this or that, or trying to make one do things for us—then we are filled with one’s presence. It is by beholding one’s being, and asking nothing other than to be still in one’s presence, that we surrender to God. We leave the encounter moved in our core, because we have asked nothing and received everything. This is the mystery of the holiness and the love of God. We can make one gentle step—practically effortless—and in so surrendering to God we are bountifully blessed. The quiet, daily surrender of one’s innermost being to God brings peace and a progressive work of wholeness to one’s life. For the actualizing Christian, life is a balance and synthesis between inner contemplation and outer social action, between being and doing. The times of quiet, relaxed surrender and openness in the presence of God harmonize with times of interaction with family, friends, and the World at large. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

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Busyness, planning, and doing also give way rhythmically to gentle meditation and prayer. This process assures that one’s day-to-day involvements are inspired and brought to fruition by the gentle flow of God’s Spirit in one’s life. The Greek word translated physical body means “slave.” The physical body should be a slave to the human spirit. Sin caused the human spirit to lose control over the body because Adam became a spiritually dead man the day he sinned. He became a body-ruled, not spirit-ruled; and he gained a sensual knowledge that caused his body to rebel against his spirit. The spirit man was dethroned that very hour; the human spirit lost its authority and ability to rule the body. Sin took control of the flesh. The body rose up and began to rule over their spirit. We can now understand what Paul said in Romans 8.6, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” To be carnally minded is to be body-ruled, and it produces spiritual death. To be spiritually minded is to be spirit-ruled, and it will produce life and peace for God designed you that way. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath mad me free from the law of sin and death,” reports Romans 8.2. God’s law that produces spirit life in Christ made your spirit free from the spiritual death caused by sin. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,” reports Romans 8.3-4. The Law was given for people who were body-ruled. Body-ruled people cannot obey the laws of God because God wants one thing and their bodies want another. The flesh is weak; it is not subject to God’s laws. All men from Adam to Jesus were body-ruled; their spirits were slaves to their bodies. It was as a satanic chain that enslaved all humankind. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

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Then Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh. He looked like other men, but God was His Father and He was spirit-ruled. He broke the satanic chain of spirit slavery and condemned sin that had enthroned itself in the human body. He destroyed that satanic stronghold and made it possible for humans to walk in the spirit. “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness,” reports Romans 8.10. When Christ comes into your spirit, the bodies dies; it is dethroned. You certainly do not want something that is dead ruling over you. The body is dead, but the spirit is life because you became righteous. The spirit man received the ability to rule the body once again. The spirit human grows on the Word of God. God’s Word is filled with faith and that feeds the spirit human. As satan taught the body to rule over the spirit with words, so must the spirit. “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,” reports John 6.63. It takes time to train the spirit, but God’s Words are spirit life. It is a process of training the human spirit to believe what you say will come to pass. Say only the things that you believe will come to pass. Quit talking foolishness, sickness and disease. Quit saying, “That tickles me to death.” Satan has programed death into the human vocabulary. It ought not to be so, for it will sap your faith. Begin now to stop the enemy from using your vocabulary to hold you in bondage. Study the life of Christ, and you will find that He refused to confess or admit death. You remember when He went to raise Lazarus from the dead, He would not confess he was dead. He said, “He sleepeth.” Finally, He said to His disciples, “He is dead,” reports John 11.14. However, the Greek says, “died.” There is a great difference between a man that died and one that is dead. If you do not believe that, look at Jesus. He died; but thank God, He is not dead! #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

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Learn to control your vocabulary and never speak anything that you do not want to come to pass. Someone says, “I could never do that.” If the Word says you can (and it does), then you can; but it will takes some time to get all that old unbelief out so you can speak faith-filled words. All you big things, bless the Lord Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victorian. The Rift Valley and the Serengeti Plain, fat baobabs and shady mango trees, all eucalyptus and tamarind trees, bless the Lord. Praise and extol Him for ever and ever. All you tiny things, bless the Lord. Busy black ants and hopping fleas, wriggling tadpoles and mosquito larvae, flying locusts and water drops, pollen dust and tsetse files, millet seeds and dried dagaa, blessed the Lord. Praise and extol Him for ever and ever. It shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will give grass in thy fields for thy cattle, and thou shalt eat and be satisfied. Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and the displeasure of the Lord will be aroused against you, and He shut up the Heaven, so that there shall be no rain, and the ground shall not yield her fruit; and ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you. Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your children, talking of them, when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thy house, and upon thy gates; that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, upon the land which the Lord promised unto your fathers to give them, as the days of the Heavens above the Earth. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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CRESLEIGH HAVENWOOD

Lincoln, CA | from the mid $600s

Now Selling!

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No appointment needed! Cresleigh Havenwood features four distinct floor plans ranging from 2,293 – 3,489 square feet and offering up to five bedrooms. 

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Each plan has been thoughtfully designed and includes great features such as single story homes, guest suites, optional offices, garage workshops, and more!

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Get the most out of your new home with Cresleigh’s All Ready smart home featuring all the connectivity needed to keep your house running. Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes with owned solar included! 

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Located off of Virginiatown Road and McCourtney Road, residents of the 83 homesites of Cresleigh Havenwood will benefit from a brand new neighborhood in the charming City of Lincoln. 

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Palo Verde Park, is  just down the street and there’s plenty of recreation to take part in all around town. https://cresleigh.com/havenwood/

Evil Spirits are Able to Exert a Great Deal of Influence Upon Humans!

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The Christian Bible teaches us that acceptance of this World system which is dominated by erroneous principles, selfish desires, improper motives, and unworthy standards of value that draws humans away from God and makes them “measure of all things,” is influenced so strongly by Satan and his army of evil spirits, which caused humans to adopt attitudes and to perform deeds which hinder God’s work and harm His people is done with every trace of wickedness (depravity, malignity) and all deceit and insincerity (pretense, hypocrisy) and grudges (envy, jealousy), and slander of every kind and evil speaking of every kind. This should make us crave like newborn babies the pure spiritual milk that by it one may be nurtured and grow unto salvation. Society in every age is characterized by such iniquities as selfishness, pride, immorality, and dishonesty, in spite of the efforts of sincere people to make it a better World. Twenty-first century humans, with more technical skills and knowledge than any previous generation, is unable to solve the problems of poverty, crime, racial hatred, and war. An increasing number of people go to bed hungry every night, crime is on the rise, racial hatred has never been more intense, and wars continue to be fought all over the World. Why? Because humankind has accepted a self-centered philosophy of life, and Earth’s citizens in general are motivated by the three evils of which John speaks in his first epistle—“the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” reports 1 John 2.16. The “lust of the flesh” is the desire for possession. It is the gratification of self by participation. Careful study of the word “flesh” indicates that this evil propensity of humankind involves more than just sins of impurity. The term, as used by John in this passage, does not have reference to the body but to the sinful Adamic nature. The individual sinner is born with a nature that is selfish, and one is part of a social structure which operates on grasping, egocentric, and selfish principles. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

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A vast majority of men and women are materialistic, live to gratify the senses, and are self-centered even in the good things they do. Nations, too, seek only what is best for themselves. Leaders in industry, education, and even religion are primarily concerned about their own welfare, often neglecting the needs of those they serve. The “lust of the flesh” drives humans to desire and obtain material possessions, and to satisfy their physical appetites and passions at the expense of spiritual values. This basic selfishness and craving for the Earthly tangible pleasures of life leads people to misuse the physical and material blessings God has given all humans to enjoy. On a Worldwide scope, it has brought about a situation in which thousands live in unparalleled luxury while millions starve. When we stop to think about it, much of the World’s unrest and unhappiness today can be traced to the “lust of the flesh.” The “lust of the eyes,” the second characteristic of this World system, is sometimes defined as “gratification by contemplation.” The use of our eyes has vast potential for either great blessing of for degradation. For example, we are able to look upon the endless beauty of creation and sing praises to the Lord. Reading God’s Word, we can meditate upon the riches of glory in joyous expectation. However, Satan and his evil partners have perverted the use of the eye, inducing wicked humans to display scenes by which lustful thoughts are incited. They capitalize upon humans’ sinfulness and natural tendency to immorality. Down through the ages, immodest dress, impure books and pictures, and unholy theatrical productions have been used to degrade and degenerate both young and old. In addition, the eye affords an opportunity to enjoy by contemplation certain evils which one cannot or dare not actually perform. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

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Therefore, people from all classes of society and every age bracket are influenced by the allurement that comes through the gift of sight. Discerning people who glance at the newsstands, read the advertisements in the theater page of the newspaper, or watch the programs and commercials presented on television, know full well that “lust of the eyes” has been exploited by the powers of evil. The evidence certainly indicates that Satan and his followers are truly the “leaders of the darkness of this World.” The “pride of life,” the third characteristic of this World system, refers to vanity and ostentation. Men and women put great stock in “being somebody.” To make a name for themselves they throw impressive parties, purchase expensive automobiles, and live in luxurious homes. Their only measure of success is by these standards. Others may acquire academic degrees to display their intellectual prowess, while athletes may exert maximum effort, not principally out of team spirit, but for money and applause. The struggle for power, prestige, and even glory is at the heart of almost every human endeavour. However, through all of this, humankind has been unable to discover true happiness and satisfaction. Most people confess they are not finding pleasures they expected, but nonetheless continue on their way, ever pursuing new baubles. The invisible forces of Satan so blind humans that they do not see true values, nor recognize the folly of their vain quest for this elusive will-o’-the wisp, “the pride of life.” According to the Bible the whole social structure of this World is controlled by a pervading principle of life that is foreign to God and leads humans away from Him. True every human is a sinner by nature and alienated from God, but this inherent human selfishness, under the direction of intelligent and powerful wicked spirits, compounds this basic sinfulness by brining out the very worst in humans. Evil spirits cruelly blind and deceive fallen humanity through the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

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These fallen creatures actively try to manipulate the political rulers of the World. Satan’s organized army operates quietly and invisibly in the minds and the wills of Earthly sovereigns to achieve their evil purposes. The Bible indicates the nature and course of their activity in several references. Daniel 10 teaches that specific evil spirits are assigned the task of influencing human rulers. The chapter opens with a picture of Daniel in earnest prayer. He entreats the Lord for a period of three weeks, seeking God’s favour upon the Jewish people who have returned to Jerusalem from captivity. He learned that they were experiencing difficulty in rebuilding the temple. Ezra 4, which gives the history of these former exiles, indicates that the work of restoration was interrupted by adversaries almost immediately after the foundation of the temple had been laid. Finally, three weeks after Daniel began to pray, God sent him a most amazing experience. An angel came to Daniel and said, “Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia,” reports Daniel 10.12-13. The angel declared that he had left Heaven immediately after Daniel’s first prayer, but that on his way to Earth he had encountered opposition from “the prince of the kingdom of Persia.” The Heavenly messenger went on to say that it was not until Michael came to help him that he was able to overcome this opposing “prince.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

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The struggle was obviously between angelic beings, for the one speaking to Daniel was an angel, and Michael is well known as the angelic protector of Israel. (See Daniel 10.21; 12.1; Jude 9; Revelation 12.7). This “prince of the kingdom of Persia” was obviously a wicked spirit of high rank. He had been delegated by the arch-enemy of God, the devil himself, for the task of influencing the Persian government to obstruct the Israelites in their rebuilding program. Thus success of this evil spirit’s attempt was apparent upon Earth. Even while the battle between the angelic beings was taking place in the air, the rulers of Persia were hindering the Jews in the task of rebuilding their temple. The people in Jerusalem could see only the treachery of their human enemies, not knowing that invisible spirits had been exerting pressure against them behind the scenes. The leaders of Persia were not aware that their decision to oppose Israel was the result of the working of evil spirits in their minds. These human rulers were actually mere puppets, carrying out the wishes of the invisible powers who were manipulating them. Even today humans who hold high political office may be the unwitting tools of evil spirits. Many humans lust for power. National groups vie for supremacy in the economic World. In this prevailing atmosphere of selfishness, evil spirits are able to exert a great deal of influence upon humans. Opportunistic politicians become ideal underlines of these evil spirits. In addition, the followers of Satan, in dominating the godless World rulers, are able to incite beastly behaviour in them. Many living today have witnessed the indescribable brutality of Nazism and theistic Communism. Highly civilized people find great pleasure in the development of more effective weapons with which to kills members of other nations. Humans tell lies, oppress others, and commit mass murders with no hint of shame or remorse. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

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In fact, it is amazing that this modern age of civilization and refinement has been characterized by an inhumanity far worse than that of the ancient barbaric times. We believe this pathological condition can be traced to the fact that many highly educated humans of influence and power have rejected God. In so doing, they have opened themselves to the activity of evil spirits. Therefore, we have a confirmation of Paul’s declaration that the real World rulers of this darkness (Ephesians 6.12) are not the humans who have positions of leadership, but the evil spirits who rule their hearts and influence their thoughts and decisions. From the commencement of the seventeenth century to the Restoration of Charles II, be barren of witchcraft proper, it must at least be admitted that it is prodigal in regard to the marvellous under various shapes and forms, from which the hysterical state of the public mind can be fairly accurately gauged. During 1642, O’Daly in his History of the Geraldines relates that during the siege of Limerick three portents appeared. The first was a luminous globe, brighter than the moon and little inferior to the sun, which for two leagues and a half shed a vertical light on the city, and then faded into darkness over the enemy’s camp; the second was the apparition of the Virgin, accompanied by several of the Saints; and the third was a lusus nature of the Saimese-twins type: all three of which O’Daly interprets to his own satisfaction. The first of these was some from of the northern lights, and is also recorded in the diary of certain Puritan officers. That learned, but somewhat too credulous English antiquary, John Aubrey, relates in his Miscellanies that before the last battle between the contending parties “a woman of uncommon Statue all in white appearing to the Bishop [Heber McMahon, who Aubrey terms Veneras] admonished him not to cross the River first to assault the Enemy, but suffer them to do it, whereby he should obtain the Victory. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

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“That if the Irish took the water first to move towards the English they should be put to a total Rout, which came to pass. Ocahan and Sir Henry O’Neal, who were both killed there, saw severally the same apparition, and dissuaded the Bishop from giving him the first onset, but could not prevail upon him.” N instance of an Irishman suffering from the effects of witchcraft outside Ireland is afforded us in a pathetic petition sent up to the English Parliament between the years 1649 and 1653. The petitioner, John Campbell, stated that twelve years since he lost his sight in Co. Antrim, where he was born, by which he was reduced to such extremity that he was forced to come over to England to seek some means of livelihood for himself in craving the charity of well-disposed people, but contrary to his expectation he has been often troubled there with dreams and fearful visions in his sleep, and has been twice bewitched, insomuch that he can find no quietness or rest here, and so prays for a pass to return to Ireland. The saintly James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, was a Prelate who, if he had happed to live at an earlier period would certainly have been numbered amongst those whose wide and profound learning won for themselves the title of magician—as it was, he was popularly credited with prophetical powers. Most of the prophecies attributed to him may be found in a little pamphlet of eight pages, entitled “Strange and Remarkable Prophecies and Predictions of the Holy, Learned, and Excellent James Usher, &c
Written by the person who heard it from this Excellent person’s own Mouth,” and apparently published in 1656. According to it, he foretold the rebellion of 1641 in a sermon on Ezekiel iv. 6, preached in Dublin in 1601. “And of this Sermon the Bishop reserved the Notes, and put a note thereof in the Margent of his Bible, and for twenty years before he still lived in the expectation of the fulfilling thereof, and the nearer the time was the more confident he was that it was nearer accomplishment, though there was no visible appearance of any such thing.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

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He also foretold the death of Charles I, and his own coming poverty and loss of property, which last he actually experienced for many years before his death. The Rev. William Turner in his Compleat History of Remarkable Providences (London, 1697) gives a premonition of approaching death that the Archbishop received. A lady who was dead appeared to him in his sleep, and invited him to sup (eat supper) with her the next night. He accepted the invitation, and died the following afternoon, 21st March 1656. There is another story from Glanvill’s Relations. One Mr. John Browne of Durley in Ireland was made by this neighbour, John Mallett of Enmore, trustee for his children in minority. In 1654 Mr. Browne lay a-dying: at the foot of his bed stood a great iron chest fitted with three locks, in which were the trustees’ papers. Some of his people and friends were sitting by him, when to their horror they suddenly saw the locked chest begin to open, lock by lock, without the assistance of any visible hand, until at length the lid stood upright. The dying man, who had not spoken for twenty-four hours, sat up in the bed, looked at the chest, and said: “You say true, you say true, you are in the right (a favourite expression of his), I’ll be with you by and by,” and then lay down again, and never spoke after. The chest slowly locked itself in exactly the same manner as it had opened, and shortly after this Mr. Browne died. In the mid-1880s, during a Connecticut thunder storm, Mrs. Winchester’s husband and baby lost their lives in a tragic fire. The distracted widow turned to spiritualism and was advised to take a trip around the World. This she did, visiting mediums, spiritualists and yogis in Europe and India. Fortelling her future, one seer warned her of all the countless thousands of departed souls slain by her husband’s rifles; she must protect herself and atone for such mass murder. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

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Mrs. Winchester was told to plan a castle and continue its building indefinitely because as long as it was under construction, she would live; cessation would prove immediately fatal. The head of a celebrated firm of Victorian restorers and decorators took a keen interest in Mrs. Winchester’s mansion. She constructed it for 38 years until she passed away in 1922. It is currently, approximately 24,000 square feet, and four stories tall, but at one time reached a height of 9 stories and may have been more than 50,000 square feet, but the 9-story tower and much of the 4th floor was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. Back then, two thirds of Mrs. Winchester’s estate was dark, unbroke forests, through whose tangled paths the mysterious winter wind groaned and shrieked and howled with weird noises and unaccountable clamors. The aged told their stories to the young—tales of early life; tales of war and adventure, of forest days, of Indian captives and escapes, of bears and wildcats and panthers, of rattlesnakes, of witches and wizards, and strange and wonderful dreams and appearances and providences at the Winchester mansion. Along the iron bound gates, the stormful skies of Llanada Villa raved and thundered, and wind dashed its moaning turrets, as if to deaden and deafen any voice that might tell of the settled life of the old civilized World, and shut the estate into wilderness. In 1923, there was work being done on the Winchester mansion. It was one of special interest to many antiquarians, and they wanted to restore it. However, in the basement, a large tomb was unearthed, and needed to be moved. The workers were very loth to disturb the tomb, but it was necessary to ensure the safety of the mansion. The tomb belonged to Sarah Winchester. She mostly lived alone in the castle. Her reputation was one of mystery, the supernatural and untold wealth. It was popularly supposed that she could never be killed.  #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

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The restorer made an especial study of old legends or family histories that came under his observation He was necessarily very well read and thoroughly well posted in all questions of folklore and medieval legend. Mrs. Winchester kept a careful record of every case she investigated involving a haunting. The manuscripts she left at her death were a special interest. From amongst them, were some particularly bizarre and extraordinary experiences. Now, the fact was, that ghost stories had been told so often about the Winchester mansion, that they were all arranged and ticketed into the minds of the movers. Still, they shivered, and clung to their knees at the mysterious tomb, and felt gentle, cold chills run down their spines. If the tomb be moved, it would have to be done in two pieces, the covering slab first and then the tomb proper. The movers decided to remove the covering slab first. Everything was ready for lifting off the covering stone, and after the men’s dinner, they started the jacks and pulleys. The slab lifted easily enough, though if fitted closely into its seat and was further secured by some sort of mortar or putty, which must have kept the interior perfectly air-tight. And it was one of those thundering stormy nights, when the winds appeared to be holding a perfect mad carnival over the mansion. They yelled and squealed round the corners; they collected in troops, and came tumbling and roaring down the chimney; and they shook and rattled the buttery door and the sink room door and the cellar door and the chamber door, with a constant undertone of squeak and clatter, as if at every door were a cold, discontented spirit, tried to warn them not to touch the tomb. People used to say Mrs. Winchester was set apart, when she was a child, to the service o’ the Devil, but many say she could never be made nothin’ but a Christian. Perhaps that was the appeal. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

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She used to come to meeting with her husband, praying for the Indians. None of them were prepare for what they discovered under the cover lid of the tomb. There lay the fully dressed body of a woman, who had not aged nor decayed, but was ghastly pale, as if from starvation. The body was extraordinary fresh. Except for the appearance of starvation, life might have been only just extinct. The flesh was soft and white, the eyes were wide open and seemed to stare at them with a fearful understanding in them. The body itself was a young woman. For several moments, the movers gazed with horrible curiosity, and then it became too much for the workmen, who implored their boss to replace the covering slab. That, of course, they could not do; but he set the carpenters to work at once to make a temporary cover while they moved the tomb to its new position. This was a long job, and would take two of tree days. At sunset the next evening, they were startled by the howling of, seemingly, every dog in the village. It lasted for thirteen minutes, and then ceased as suddenly as it began This, and a curious mist that had risen round the mansion, make them feel rather anxious about Mrs. Winchester. According to the best-established traditions of the Vampire-haunted countries the disturbance of dogs or wolves at sunset is supposed to indicate the presence of one of these creatures, and local fog was always considered to be a certain sign. The Vampire has the power of producing it for the purpose of concealing its movements near its hiding-place at any time. Just before midnight, there was another outburst of hideous howling. It was commenced most distinctly by a particularly horrible and blood-curdling wail from the vicinity of the churchyard. The chorus lasted only a few minutes, however, and at the end of it, they crew say a large dark shape, like a huge dog, emerge from the fog and lope away at a rapid canter toward the open country. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

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At 1.13 a.m., they saw another beast returning. It stopped at the spot where the fog seemed to commence, and lifting up its head, gave tongue to that particularly horrible long-drawn wail that the movers had noticed as preceding the outburst earlier in the evening. The boss got so frightened, you could faintly hear his teeth chatter. The next day it was discovered that some neighbouring sheepfold had been raided by a nocturnal marauder. The workmen that morning were much disturbed in mind about the howling of dogs. “We don’t like it, sir,” one of them said to the boss—“we don’t like it; there was somethin’ abroad last night that was unholy.” They were still more uncomfortable when the news came round that a large dog had made a rapid upon a flock of sheep, scattering them far and wide, and leaving thee of them dead with torn throats in the field. The boss and the crew were determined to catch the wild dog. During the afternoon, the men were lifting the temporary cover that was on the tomb, giving as an excuse the reason that they wished to obtain a portion of the curious mortar with which it had been sealed. After a slight demur, the raised the lid. If the sight that met their eyes gave them a shock. The woman was alive. And so it seemed for a moment. The corpse had lost much of its straved appearance and looked generously fresh and alive. They all believed that Mrs. Winchester was a Vampire and that is why she was so well preserved in her tomb. However, she had not yet come to full strength. It was just after midnight that the crew of movers noticed the fog creeping in again in the still of the night. Their first move was to try to penetrate the sense fog round the mansion, but there was something so chilly about it that their nerves nor stomachs were proof against it. Instead, they stationed themselves in the dark shadow of a cypress tree that commanded a good view of the jeweled front doors to the estate. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

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The howling of the dogs began again, and in a few minutes, there was a large grey shape, with green eyes shining like lamps, shambling swiftly down the path towards them. The both stood very still and watched as the great beast cantered swiftly by. It was real enough, for they could hear the clicking of its nails on the stone flags. It passed within a few yards of the movers, and seemed to be nothing more nor less than a great grey wolf, thin and gaunt, with bristling hair and dripping jaws. It stopped where the mist commenced, and turned round. It was truly a horrible sight, and made their blood run cold. The eyes burnt like fires, the upper lip was snarling and raised, showing a great canine teeth, while round mouth clung and dripped a dark-coloured froth. It raised its head and gave tongue to its long wailing howl, which was answered from afar by the village dogs. After standing for a few moments it turned and disappeared into the thickest part of the fog. The boss said, “When the Devil drives: and in the face of what I have seen I must believe that some unholy forces are at work Yet, how can they work in this beautiful estate?” They set their teeth, however, and hardened their hearts. Then they went inside and replaced the cover on the tomb, took what they had collected from the estate and left. Never to return. Some believe that the movers were too afraid to return to the estate and that is why it was not completely looted and some valuables were left behind. It also why much of the damage was not repaired. I guess the estate has a way of protecting itself from those with bad intentions. Mrs. Winchester’s tomb was eventually moved to her home town New Haven, Connecticut to rest with her husband and daughter. Legend has it that it took movers six weeks, six trucks a day, to remove most of the furniture because they kept getting lost in the catacomb. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13

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Winchester Mystery House

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“Wide Unclasp the Tables of Their Thoughts.” (From Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare.) What do you think this quote meant to Sarah Winchester? 🧐 winchestermysteryhouse.com

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A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle đŸ‘»

If You Do Not Ask the Right Questions, You Do Not Get the Right Answers!

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I am a citizen of the American Dream, and the revolutionary struggles of which I am a part, is a struggle against the American Nightmare. When it comes to mental health, assessment is simply the collecting of relevant information in an effort to reach a conclusion. It goes on in ever realm of life. We make assessments when we decide what Cresleigh Home to buy, or which colour we want our Ultimate Driving Machine to buy. College admissions officers, who have to select the “best” of the students applying to their college, depend on academic records, recommendations, achievement test scores, interviews, and application form to help them decided. Employers, who have to predict which applicants are more likely to be effective workers, collect information from resumes, interviews, references, and perhaps on-the-job observations. Clinical assessment is used to determine how and why a person is behaving abnormally and how that person may be helped. It also enables clinicians to evaluate people’s progress after they have been in treatment for a while and decide whether the treatment should be changed. The specific tools that are used to do an assessment depend on the clinician’s theoretical orientation. Psychodynamic clinicians, for example, use methods that assess a client’s personality and probe for any unconscious conflicts one may be experiencing. This kind of assessment, called a personality assessment, enables them to piece together a clinical picture in accordance with the principles of their model. Behavioural and cognitive clinicians are more likely to use assessment methods that reveal specific dysfunctional behaviours and cognitions. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

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The goal of this kind of assessment called a behavioural assessment, is to produce a functional analysis of the person’s behaviours—an analysis of how the behaviours are learned and reinforced. The hundreds of clinical assessment techniques and tools that have been developed fall into three categories: Clinical interviews, tests, and observations. To be useful, these tools must be standardized and have clear reliability and validity. A given assessment tool may appear to be valid simply because it makes sense and seems reasonable. However, this sort of validity, called face validity, does not by itself mean that the instrument is trustworthy. A test for depression, for example, might include questions about how often a person cries. Because it makes sense that depressed people would cry, these test questions would have face validity. It turns out, however, that many people cry a great deal for reasons other than depression, and some extremely depressed people fail to cry at all. Thus an assessment tool should not be used unless it meets more exacting criteria of validity, such as high predictive or concurrent validity. Vincent van Gogh led a tortured and unhappy life. In a legendary incident the artist cut off one of his ears. Later he was admitted to a mental institution, and ultimately he committed suicide at the age of 37. Van Gogh wrote a great deal about his pain and anguish, describing mental and physical torment and hallucinations. Indeed, he observed, “There is quite definitely something or other deranged in my brain.” For years clinicians have typically agreed with van Gogh and have speculated that the artists suffered from mood disorder, schizophrenia, or both. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

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However, approximately twenty years ago, these assessments were challenged. A Harvard neurologist, for example, has suggested that van Gogh in fact suffered from Geschwind’s syndrome, technically known as interictal personality disorder, caused by brain seizure disorder, or epilepsy. Van Gogh displayed many of its symptoms, including excessive drawing (hypergraphia), hyperreligiosity, and aggression. In contrast, medica specialists in Colorado have concluded that van Gogh suffered from an extreme form of Meniere’s syndrome, a disorder marked by an excessive buildup of fluid in the inner ear. The enormous pressure may produce nausea, dizziness, poor balance, pain, deafness and constant buzzing or ringing sensations. Perhaps van Gogh cut off his ear in an effort to reduce the pain. And perhaps his other problems and pains arose from severe secondary psychological problems that can accompany. Perhaps nowhere in the mental health literature has family systems theory had more of an impact than in the area of alcoholism. Family systems theory is a conceptual model, rather than a true theory, that locates causes and consequences of problematic behaviour in the larger family system in which it is embedded. Family behaviour is thought to be responsive to regulatory mechanisms that maintain the status quo, as well as a tendency to grow and change in response to dynamic qualities within and outside the family. Viewing a family as a system suggests that a disturbance in one part of the system will have an impact on other parts of the system. Applying family systems concepts to alcoholism, has uncovered that some families organize their lives around the alcoholism of an adult member, just as other families might organize their lives around children or work. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

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In an early investigation of adults with alcoholism and their family members, the expression of previously inhibited positive affect between family members became extremely pronounced during drinking periods. This and later studies revealed that interactions in such families were actually more patterned, organized, and predictable while the adults with alcoholism were intoxicated. Thus alcohol ingestion serves an adaptive function in family relationships through a stabilizing phenomenon. This prompted a suggestion that there is an alcoholic system in some families, in which drinking is an integral part of the family structure that actually maintains and stabilizes the family. Similar positive effects on the family were evident in a study where family members viewed and rated video tapes (recordings with audio and visual information on them, which can be played back) of their own interactions, in the absence of actual drinking. Both mothers and adolescent children in families with paternal alcoholism rated family members as less anxious and their interactions as more friendly than those of families without alcoholism. Unfortunately, drinking and intoxication may provide only a temporary “solution” to a family’s problems, at the cost of what may ne more serious long-term ill effects. Although drinking can temporarily inject positivity into some family relationships, several laboratory investigations have also documented negative effects associated with drinking. For example, families with an alcoholic father discuss items from various questionnaire inventories while the fathers were drinking or not drinking. During their discussions, the families expressed more negative affect during the drinking versus the no-drinking condition. The nature of interactions in families without paternal alcoholism was not affected by the drinking conditions. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

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The ill effects of parental alcoholism on family interactions and child rearing may begin to have an impact on family members as early as 1 year of age. In this study, families with alcoholism in at least one patent were observed interacting with their 12-month-old infants for 5 minutes in a room filled with toys. Observations of the parents’ behaviour indicated that the parents with alcoholism were less sensitive to their infants during the free play; such fathers in particular made fewer verbalizations, expressed more negative affect, and were less responsive to their infants. Self-report measures further indicate that the parents with alcoholism were more aggressive toward their spouses than those without alcoholism were. The family observation study was unique in showing that parents with alcoholism were far more depressed than those without, and that this depression mediated the relationship between parental alcoholism and sensitivity to the infants during interaction. So for many adults with alcoholism, effective parenting may be disrupted directly by the alcoholism, or by comorbid problems such as depression that in and of themselves have a negative impact on parenting behaviour. Different subtypes of alcoholism have been identified to explain the variable effects of alcohol consumption and alcoholism on family interactions and relations. In one such instance, researchers were able to characterize subtypes of alcoholism as episodic or steady drinking. Another useful distinction in alcoholism is that between high-antisociality and low-antisociality subtypes. These subtypes are defined on the basis of a measure that taps into negative social consequences of drinking, feeling of alienation, interpersonal disruption, and negative attitudes toward authority (higher scores = higher antisociality). #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

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Home observations of family dinner conversations revealed that wives, husbands, and children in families with high-antisociality alcoholism were all less positive, and less inclined to communicate disagreement, than were control family members. Although family interactions in the high-antisociality condition were characterized by diminished optimism, they appeared to have a cautious appearance as well, in that family members were careful to avoid open disagreement with each other. This pattern of interaction could have interesting implications for the genesis of alcoholism. For the person who develops alcoholism, the tendency to avoid communicating disagreement may lead to the internalization of problems with other family members. Instead of airing complaints, the individual is left to ruminate over them on one’s own—perhaps without seeing any change in the offensive behaviour by other family member, since they may be unaware of the problem. For this individual’s family members, the tendency to be cautious and avoid disagreement may inadvertently cause one’s problem drinking behaviour to go unchecked. In some cases, families have some ability to regulate problem drinking through punishing responses in reaction to the behaviour. However, in a family system affected by high-antisociality alcoholism, this regulatory function may be inoperative. Recognizing considerable diversity in alcoholism’s effects on family interactions, there is a proposed family alcohol phase model. According to this perspective, a family moves through various phases that correspond to the drinking behaviour of the member with alcoholism. The stable-wet phase is marked by consistent drinking, whereas the stable-dry phase is marked by general abstinence. The family is in a transitional phase either when a period of abstinence begins, or when a period of abstinence ends with episodes of drinking. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

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It has been found that content variability (the range of affect and decision-making behaviour in verbal interaction) in family interactions, as well as distance regulation (use of space and rate of movement in the home), varied as a function of phase. In the stable-wet phase, families maintained the greatest distance, interacting only for purposeful reasons, while exhibiting midrange variability in their interactions. Families in the stable-dry phase exhibited a great deal of content variability in their interactions, with midrange distance regulation. Finally, those families in the transitional phase exhibited a great deal of content variability in their interactions, with midrange distance regulations. Finally, those families in the transitional phase showed a decrease in distance regulation, manifesting physical closeness, with a slight decrease in the content variability of their interactions. A 2-year longitudinal study suggested that families in the stable-wet phase were the most likely of the three to dissolve their marriages. In particular, those families in the stable-wet phase that exhibited the least intrafamily engagement during home observations of family interaction were more likely to break up over the course of the study. It has been noted that in families of alcoholics’ relationships change when parental drinking occurs. However, sometimes these changes are beneficial and sometimes they are negative. Where there are beneficial changes or adaptive outcomes, these may be somewhat short-lived. Researchers have been working to identify different subtypes of alcoholism that are associated with more negative family consequences. The poorest family processes and outcomes appear to be associated with the episodic (vs. steady), high-antisociality (vs. low-antisociality), and stable-wet (vs. stable-dry or transitional) alcoholism. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

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Perhaps you are in a trial today, and you are praying for God to deliver you out of that adverse situation. That is a legitimate prayer, but maybe you are missing the point of why you are being allowed to go through that trying time in the first place. Recognize that God is moulding you and refining you. God often allows one to go through difficult situations to draw out those impurities in one’s character. One can pray one can resist, one can bind, one can loose, one can sing and shout, one can do it all, but it is not going to do any good. God is more interested in changing you than He is in changing the circumstances. And the sober one learns to cooperate with God, the sooner one will get out of that devil’s web. The quicker one learns one’s lesson and starts dealing with those bad attitudes and starts ruling over one’s emotions, the quicker one will go to the next level in one’s spiritual journey. We must recognize the refining purpose of trials. We cannot run from everything that is hard in our lives. Perhaps one gets worried and fearful when important things do not go one’s way. Have you ever thought that God may be allowing those events to teach you to trust Him and to see if one will stay peaceful and clam in the midst of the storm? Has one ever considered that God may be allowing some of that to teach one how to rule over one’s emotions? He may be trying to toughen one up, to help one develop some courage. For our sins—that is why Jesus Christ wanted to do it, and that is why He did it. And what did they do? They ripped off His clothes and hammered His hands to the cross. It was a sacrifice the old-fashioned way. Perhaps that is why God the Father seemed so pleased. In the same way, you, My beloved Devout, ought to be willing to offer yourself to Jesus Christ—He asks us the way His Father asked Him—in pure holy oblation, everyday in the Mass, with all strength and affection, until the day one drops. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

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However, we often pay, “God, if You will change my circumstances, then I will change.” No, it works the other way around. We have to be willing to change our attitudes and deal with the issues God brings up; then God will change those circumstances. Surrender. Unconditional surrender. That is all Jesus requires of us. Not our possession—He could take those things anytime and scatter them over the landscape; one will find this in Philippians (4.17). Just you—that is all Jesus Christ wants. Of course, Jesus could take us as a prisoner of war and do with one as he wanted. However, what He really wants is for us to give ourselves to Him as a gift. Of course, the same is true for us. If we have all the baggage in the World, but did not have Jesus Christ, would we be any better off? One would have a full cart, maybe, but also an empty heart. And the other way around is also true. It is not our silly stuff Jesus Christ wants—it is our silly selves! Offer yourself to Jesus Christ. Make that the only package, and it will be an oblation that will be welcomed. Look at Jesus! He offered Hus whole self to the Father for us; He also put His whole Body and Blood into food and drink that He might be totally ours and that we might be totally Him. If, however, we hold something of ourselves back or are slow to give our all, it will be a pretty poor offering made not by any friend of His, but by a pretty poor acquaintance. To prevent that and to acquire illumination and liberation of spirit, one ought to make a spontaneous oblation of one’s self into the hand of God. When? Before each and every thing one does. Such an attractive proposition, Jesus thinks, but He must ask, “Why are there so few Illuminati and Liberati today? That is because so many do not know how to denude themselves of imperfections. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

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Jesus Christ’s firm opinion is this, and it appears in the Gospel of Luke (14.33): “Unless a person renounces everything that one had and everything that one is, one cannot be His Disciple.” Therefore, if one wants to be His Disciple, offer one’s whole self to Jesus; that includes one’s scruffy affections. God will often permit pressure to be applied in our life to test us, and only as we pas those tests will we advance. He will put people and circumstances in our path that grate on us like sandpaper, but He will use them to rub off our rough edges. One may not always like it; one may want to run from it; one may even resist it, but God is going to keep brining up the issues again and again, until one passes the test. Remember, the Bible says, “We are [God’s] workmanship,” reports Ephesians 2.10. That means we are a work in progress, not a finished product. Be willing to deal with any issues that God brings up. Work with God in the refining process rather than fighting against Him. Scripture says that God is the potter and we are the clay. Clay works best when it is pliable, malleable, and mouldable. However, if we are hard, crusty, and set in our ways, God will have to pound away on that old, hard clay to get out the lumps. Certainly, none of us enjoy going through struggles, but one has to understand that one’s struggle may be an opportunity for advancement and promotions. The very thing one is fighting against so tenaciously may be the springboard that catapults one to a new level of excellence. One’s challenges may become one’s greatest assets. Without the resistance of air, an eagle cannot soar. Without the resistance of water, a ship cannot float. Without the resistance of gravity, we would not be able to walk. Without opposition or resistance, there is no potential for progress. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

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Yet our human tendency is to want everything easily. “God, cannot You teach me patience without having to go through the traffic jam? God, cannot You teach me how to love and trust You without ever having a problem?” Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts; there is no easy way to mature physically, emotionally, or spiritually. One may remain determined and work with God. The Bible says, “Work out your own salvation,” reports Philippians 2.12. Salvation is more than a onetime prayer. It is constantly cooperating with God, dealing with the issues He brings up, keeping a good attitude, and allowing Him to change one as He sees fit. Dear Lord in Heaven, I realize that You never promised I would not have trials and adversities. However, I also recognize that nothing can touch my life without going through You first, so I will dare to praise You in the midst of my trails. I know You will bring me out stronger, better, faster, and more prepared for the good things You have for me. “Be truly glad! These trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure
So if your faith remains strong after being tried in the test tube of fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day of His return,” reports 1 Peter 1.6-7. James said that you put bits in a horse’s mouth to turn its whole body and you put a rudder on a ship to tun the whole ship; so is the tongue so situated among our members that it defiles the whole body. (James 3.3,4.) If you control the tongue, the body will respond to your words. If you talk sickness, it becomes impossible to live in health. The more you believe it, the less you believe in healing. The thing you continually talk will consume you. Faith will only come by hearing the Word of God and it will come more quickly when you hear yourself quoting and speaking God’s Word after Him. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

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The seed of truth in why many Christians have not wanted to express their anger is valid: expressing one’s anger manipulatively as blaming or attacking is destructive. As Paul says, “Let all bitterness and wrath
be put away from you, with all malice,” reports Ephesians 4.31. One needs to learn to express anger constructively. A basic guideline is to assert and express oneself rather than to blame and attack the other person. For instance, when a Critical Christian says, “Why are you so stupid?” The individual has already made an assumption that the other person is stupid. This results in an attacking form of anger. A healthier way of dealing with this anger would be for one first to recognize that one feels angry that one’s friend is “stupid.” One moves now to one’s feeling, not the fact, that one’s friend is stupid. Now if the Critical Christian listens, one can have a dialogue with one’s core. (This is the principle Dr. Maslow meant when he referred to one’s “inner Supreme Court.”) Simply by asking oneself inwardly, the Critical Christian may get the answer from one’s core that “you are angry because the bank teller this morning treated you as if you were stupid.” The Critical Christian can the realize that because he did not deal with his anger then, he is now projecting his anger on to his friend—calling him stupid, when in reality he is angry at the bank teller. Or, the Critical Christian may get the answer from his core that he is upset because the project he and his friend are working on together is more important to the Critical Christian than he had realized and now his friend is not fulfilling his share of the work. In this case, the Critical Christian needs to take the time to examine whether he thinks his friend is capable. If he is callable, the Critical Christian may now decide that he needs to express to his friend that his not fulfilling his share of the work is delaying the project. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

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If the Critical Christian realized that his friend cannot do the job, he may let him go and bring in someone else. Blaming his friend for his inability at this point would not be actualizing; but, expressing to him that he is not showing the needed skills, and that that is why he is being let go, would be actualizing. Many answers come quickly from the core—the preceding possibilities could surface in seconds. The more we listen to our cores, the more we hear—and know how to listen. Sometimes, though, we ask and do not hear an answer. Or we get what we think is an answer and then proceed to act on it—and make things worse. Remember that becoming actualizing is a process. If we were perfectly actualized now, the answers would always be there, crystal clear, and our behaviour would be “perfect.” As we are in the process of becoming actualizing, sometimes we do the most effective thing and sometimes we make mistakes. Mistakes are just that—“miss-takes.” Our lives become most meaningful when we live from our own core, finding our own truest answers. So it is a process worth living—and the mistakes are worth making. The real key here is not to blame and attack ourselves for those miss-takes, but to keep learning with more “takes.” Having patience with ourselves often makes it easier to become more patient and forgiving of others. It can sometimes relieve our anger just to remember that other people are in the growing process, too, and not always taking what to us would seem the most effective action. As actualizing Christians, we seek to do the will of God. Doing His will involves having good will toward others and ourselves. We do this by listening to our anger, taking it to out core, and then responding from our core. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

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If one deals with it by expressing and asserting it, rather than blaming and attacking someone, only then can anger become actualizing. Blaming and attacking are simply manipulative, whereas expressing and asserting include a quality of genuine respect for everyone involved. In communicating our anger honestly, we get it off our chests, and the rhythm of life is reestablished. We finish with it and move on to experience a new and different feeling. The range of feelings in the anger polarity includes irritation, annoyance, resentment, and anger. The intensity of the feeling increases as one passes from irritation to anger. Recognizing irritation, boredom, or annoyance at the lower levels of intensity within the anger spectrum enables us to avoid unwittingly building up to levels of resentment, hostility, and hatred. In handling these feelings, it is important to learn to acknowledge the mild forms and deal with them on a “cash and carry” basis. That way we do not save them up like coupons to be redeemed in one sudden, destructive explosion. While our anger may sometimes reach intensities approaching hatred, we need never go so far as to write a person off completely. It is really possible to have compassion for and pray for our enemies—that God in His mercy might help them through their own dilemmas, frustrations, and pains. Yet, we can be honest about the effects on us of their behaviour. “Turn again, we beseech You, O God of hosts! Look down from Heaven and see, visit, and have regard for this vine! [Protect and maintain] the stock which Your right hand planted, and the branch (the son) that You have reared and made strong for Yourself. They have burned it with fire, it is cut down; may they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. Let Your hand be upon the human of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You have made strong for Yourself. Then will we not depart from You; revive us (give us life) and we will call upon Your name. Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; cause Your face to shine [in pleasure, approval, and favour on us] and we shall be saved!” reports Psalm 80.14-19. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

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Dr. Ilya Prigogine and his teams of coworkers at the Free University of Brussels and the University of Texas at Austin have struck directly at Second Wave assumptions by showing how chemical and other structures leap to higher stages of differentiation and complexity through a combination of chance and necessity. It is for this work the Dr. Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize. Brown in Moscow, brought to Belgium as a child, and fascinated since youth by the problems of time, Dr. Prigogine was puzzled by a seeming contradiction. On the one hand, there was the physicist’s belief in entropy—that the Universe is running down and that all organized patterns must eventually decay. On the other, there was the biologist’s recognition that life itself is organization and that we are continually giving rise to higher and higher, more and more complex organization. Entropy pointed in one direction, evolution in another. This led Dr. Prigogine to ask how higher forms of organization come into being, and to years of research in chemistry and physics in pursuit of the answer. Today Dr. Prigogine points out that in any complex system, from the molecules in a liquid to the neurons in a brain or the traffic in a city, the parts of the system are always undergoing small-scale change: they are in constant flux. The interior of any system is quivering with fluctuation. Sometimes, when negative feedback comes into play, these fluctuations are damped out or suppressed and the equilibrium of the system maintained. However, where amplifying or positive feedback is at work, some of these fluctuations may be tremendously magnified—to the point at which the equilibrium of the entire system is threated. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

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Fluctuations arising in the outside environment may hit at this moment and further amplify the mounting vibration—until the equilibrium of the whole is destroyed and the existing structure is smashed. It is illuminating to think of the economy in these terms. Supply and demand are maintained in equilibrium by various feedback process. Unemployment, if intensified by positive feedback and not offset by negative feedback elsewhere in the system, can threaten the stability of the whole. Outside fluctuations—such as oil price hikes—may converge to make the internal swings and fluctuations wilder, until the equilibrium of the whole system is shattered. Whether the result of runaway internal fluctuations or of external forces, or both, this breakup of the old equilibrium often results not in chaos or breakdown, but in the creation of a wholly new structure at a higher level. This new structure may be more differentiated, internally interactive, and complex than the old one, and needs more energy and matter (and perhaps information and other resources) to sustain itself. Speaking mainly about physical and chemical reactions, but occasionally calling attention to social analogues, Dr. Prigogine calls these new, more complex systems “dissipative structures.” He suggests that evolution itself may be seen as a process leading toward increasingly complex and diversified biological and social organisms, through the emergence of new, higher-order dissipative structures. Thus, according to Dr. Prigogine, whose ideas have political and philosophical resonance as well as purely scientific meaning, we develop “order out of fluctuation” or, as the title of one of his lectures expresses it, “Order out of Chaos.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

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This evolution, however, cannot be planned or predetermined in a mechanistic fashion Until quantum theory came along, many leading Second Wave thinkers believed that chance played little or no role in change. The starting conditions of a process predetermined its outcome.  Today in subatomic physics, for example, it is widely believed that chance dominates change. In recent years many scientists, like Jacques Monod in biology, Walter Buckley in sociology, or Maruyama in epistemology and cybernetics, have begun to fuse these opposites. Dr. Prigogine’s work not only combines chance and necessity but actually stipulates their relationship to one another. In brief, he strongly suggests that at the precise point at which a structure “leaps” to a new stage of complexity, it is impossible, in practice and even in principle, to predict which of many forms it will take. This presumably goes for the leap from Second Wave to Third Wave civilization as well as for chemical reactions. However, once a pathway has been chosen, once the new structure comes into being, determinism dominates once more. In one colorful example he describes how termites create their highly structured nests out of apparently unstructured activity. They begin by crawling about a surface in random fashion, stopping here and there to deposit a bit of “goo.” These deposits are distributed by chance, but the substance contains a chemical attractant so that other termites are drawn to it. In this way, the good begins to collect in a few places, gradually building up into a pillar or wall. If these buildups are isolated, work stops. However, if by chance they are near one another, an arch results that then becomes the basis for the complex architecture of the nest. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

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Much like the Winchester mansion, what begins with random activity turns into highly elaborate nonrandom structures. We see, as Dr. Prigogine puts it, “the spontaneous formation of coherent structures.” Order out of chaos. All this strikes hard at the old causality. Dr. Prigogine sums it up: “The laws of strict causality appear to us today as limiting situations, applicable to highly idealized cases, nearly as caricatures of the description of change. The science of complexity leads to a completely different view.” Instead of being locked into a closed Universe that functioned like a mechanical clock, we find ourselves in a far more flexible system in which, as he says, “there is always the possibility of some instability leading to some new mechanism. We really have an ‘open Universe.’” As we move beyond Second Wave causal thinking, as we begin to think in terms of mutual influence, of amplifiers and reducers, of system breaks and sudden revolutionary leaps, of dissipative structures and the fusion of chance and necessity—in short, as we take off our Second Wave blinders—we emerge blinking into a wholly new culture, the culture of the Third Wave. This new culture—oriented to change and growing diversity—attempts to integrate the new view of nature, of evolution and progress, the new, richer conceptions of time and space, and the fusion of reductionism and wholism, with a new causality. Indust-reality which once seemed so powerful and complete, so all-encompassing an explanation of how the Universe and its components fitted together, turns out now to have been immensely useful. However, its claims to universality are shattered. The super-ideology of the Second Wave will be seen, from the vantage point of tomorrow, to have been as provincial as it was self-serving. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

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The decay of the Second Wave thought system leaves millions of people grasping desperately for something to hold on to—anything, from Victorian Americana and Texas Taoism to Swedish Sufism and Welsh witchcraft. Instead of constructing a new culture appropriate to the new World, they attempt to important and implant old ideas appropriate to other times and places or to revive the fanatic faiths of their own ancestors who lived under radically different conditions. It is precisely the collapse of the industrial era mind-structure, its growing irrelevance in the face of the new technological, social, and political realities, that gives rise to today’s facile search for old answers, and to the continual stream of pseudo-intellectual fads that pop up, flash, and consume themselves at high speed. In the very midst of this spiritual supermarket, with its depressing razzmatazz and religious fakery, an optimistic new culture is being seeded—one appropriate to our time and place. Powerful new integrative insights are beginning to emerge, new mataphours for understanding reality. It is possible to glimpse the earliest beginnings of a new coherence and elegance as the cultural debris of industrialism is swept away by history’s Third Wave change. The super-ideology of Second Wave civilization that is now crumbling was reflected in the way industrialism organized the World. An image of nature based on discrete particles was mirrored in the idea of discrete, sovereign nation-states. Today, as our image of nature and matter change, the nation-state itself is being transformed—another step on the path toward a Third Wave civilization. May your trails be righteous, winding, joyful, peaceful, leading to the most amazing views. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

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May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poet’s towers into bright enchanted forests where the fruit glows like emeralds, rubies, sapphires, orange spessartite, and hessonite. Where bars of sun blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go, as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you—beyond that next turning of the deep and vast ancient unknown canyon walls. Dear Lord in Heave, we thank Thee also for the miraculous and mighty deeds of liberation wrought by Thee, and for Thy victories in the battles our forefathers fought in days of old, at this season of the year. In the days of the High Priest Mattathias, son of Johanan, of the Hasmonean family, a tyrannical power rose up against Thy people America to compel them to forsake Thy flag, and to force them to transgress Thy commandments. In Thine abundant mercy Thou didst stand by them in time of distress. Thou didst rise to their defense and didst vindicate their cause. Thou didst bring retribution upon the evil doers, delivering the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the wicked into the hands of the just, and the arrogant into the hands of those devoted to Thy flag. Thou didst thus make Thy greatness and holiness known in Thy World, and didst bring great deliverance to America. Then Thy children came into Thy dwelling place, cleansed the Temple purified the Sanctuary, kindled lights in Thy sacred courts, and they designated these eight days of Hanukkah for giving thanks and praise unto Thy great name. For all this, Thy name, O our King, shall be blessed and exalted for ever and ever. O inscribe all the child of Thy covenant for a happy life. May all the living do homage unto Thee forever and praise Thy name in truth, O God, who are our salvation and our help. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, Beneficent One, unto whom our thanks are due. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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Cresleigh Homes

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With a gorgeous home like this, it’s never too early to get the holidays started! đŸ„ł You’ll love hosting dinners and gift exchanges in the covered California Room – perfect for entertaining and letting the sunshine in! ☀

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Not to mention, there’s plenty of space for guests during the holidays. The open concept design includes approximately 2,700 square feet, exactly four bedrooms, three and one half bathrooms, and even a two car garage plus workshop! https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/new-home-rancho-cordova-homesite-40/

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Bless our house as we come and go. Bless our home as the children grow. Bless our families as they gather in. Bless our home with love and friends.

#MillsStation
#CresleighHomes

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I am More Important than My Problems!

Because behaviour is shaped by social forces, sociocultural theorists hold, we must examine a person’s social and cultural surroundings if we are to understand normal behaviour. Sociocultural explanations focus on family structure and communication, cultural influence, social networks, societal conditions, and societal labels and roles. According to family systems theory, the family is a system of interacting parts—the family members—who interact with one another in consistent ways and conform to rules unique to each family. The parts interact in ways that enable the systems to maintain itself and survive—a state known as homeostasis. Family system theorists believe that the structure and communication patterns of some families actually force individual members to behave in a way that otherwise seems abnormal. If the members were to behave normally, they would severely stain the family’s homeostasis and usual manner of operation and would actually increase their own and their family’s turmoil. The natural responses by other family member would in fact defend against such “normal” behaviour. Family systems theory holds that certain family systems are particularly likely to produce abnormal functioning in individual members. Some families, for example, have enmeshed structure in which the members are grossly overinvolved in each other’s activities, thoughts, and feelings. Children from this kind of family may have great difficulty becoming independent in life. Some families display disengagement, which is marked by very rigid boundaries between members. Children from these families may find it hard to function in a group or to give or request support. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

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In the sociocultural model, an angry and impulsive personal style of an individual may be seen as the product of a disturbed family structure. According to family systems theorists, the whole family—mother, father, and children—relate in such a way as to maintain the individual’s dysfunctional behaviour. Family theorists might be particularly interested in the conflict between the dysfunctional child’s mother and father and the imbalance between their parental roles. They might see the dysfunctional child’s behaviour as both a reaction to and stimulus for one’s parents’ behaviour. With the dysfunctional child acting out the role of the misbehaving child, or scapegoat, one’s parents may have little need or time to question their own relationship. Family systems theorists would also seek to clarify the precise nature of the dysfunctional child’s relationship with each parent. Is the child enmeshed with one’s mother and/or disengaged from one’s father? They would look too at the rules governing the sibling relationship in the family, the relationship between the parents and the dysfunctional child’s sibling, and the nature of parent-child relationships in previous generations of the family. The process of modeling has been identified as a potential causal mechanism in eating disorders. Maternal modeling in particular has been implicated in the etiology of eating disorders by a number of writers. Social learning theory indicates that people can learn behaviours through imitation of a model. This process of learning is enhanced when, among other features, the model is perceived to hold high status and is similar to the target. Each of these conditions is intact in the typical mother-daughter relationship. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

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Findings reviewed earlier indicate that daughters’ concerns with dieting and body image are strongly associated with those of their mothers. Mothers of daughters with eating disorders often themselves have symptoms of eating disorders. According to social learning theory, girls may observe their mothers’ restrictive eating behaviours and imitate them, perhaps because they perceive that their mothers were rewarded for such dieting. No student of communication could ever rightfully overlook the possibility that the mass media also play a powerful role in this process of social learning: Unusually thin and attractive models are commonly depicted as the recipients of social rewards. Psychodynamically oriented theories (including object relations and attachment theories) continue to occupy a conspicuous presence in the literature on eating disorders and family-of-origin relations. These accounts emphasize the symbolic significance of food in the adolescent girl’s struggle for control in her relationship with her mother. Abuse of food is seen as a means of covertly expressing dissatisfaction with the mother-daughter relationships. Refusing to eat food may represent a rejection of the mother’s overprotectiveness and over-involvement in the child’s life. The adolescent girl with an eating disorder may be struggling with a second separation-individuation process, similar to that which infants are hypothesized to experience in their relationships with their mothers. There is supportive data indicting that women with eating disorders had higher levels of separation anxiety and lower healthy separation scores, while simultaneously experiencing greater maternal overprotectiveness, than their counterparts. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

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Bulimic behaviors and a pursuit of thinness can also be predicted by dependency conflicts and a diminished sense of individuality, further highlighting the importance of separation-individuation. Observations of what appear to be elevated rates of childhood sexual abuse among those with eating disorders, in both research and clinical contexts, have led to what could be characterized as a desexualization theory of eating disorders. Some individuals develop eating disorders, especially anorexia nervosa, as a means of avoiding pleasures of the flesh contacts and repelling would-be perpetrators. According to this perspective, anorexia nervosa becomes a means to make the self unappealing to others for pleasures of the flesh. In this sense, it may be understood as serving some greater interpersonal function (id est, protection from sexual abuse), despite its personal destructiveness. Some intriguing support for this position can be found in a study of so-called “sexual barrier weight,” where it was discovered that patients with eating disorders tended to avoid weights that they associated with certain traumatic events. For instance, if a woman had been sexually abused at a time that she weighed 110 pounds, that weight would trigger memories of past traumatic events. This appeared to motivate compulsive or restrictive eating to avoid the weight. There is compelling data that is indicative of radical changes in weight coincidental to sexually traumatic events. On its face, the desexualization approach is a more adequate account of anorexia nervosa than of bulimia nervosa, as those with the latter disorder generally maintain a normal body weight. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

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Bulimia nervosa can be activated by anger, presumably against a perpetrator and against those who fail to provide protection, and may also be tied to a desire to make the self look unappealing. The difficulty handling emotions such as anger and depression is common among people with bulimia nervosa. This leads to disturbed eating behaviour as a mechanism for coping with posttraumatic distress. A second version of the desexualization approach suggests that it is pursuant to a fear of denial of sexual maturation and upcoming sexuality, rather than a reaction to sexual trauma. Accordingly, eating disorders are thought to be triggered by anxiety associated with the meaning of and uncertainty about physical changes that occur during adolescence. Functionally, anorexia nervosa in particular becomes a way to preserve the preadolescent form and avoiding having to address the self as a self being. As such, it is viewed as a psychological regression from sexual maturity. Like the “reactive” version of the desexualization hypothesis, this approach assumes a powerful concern over sexual relationships with other people—to the extent that concerned individuals physically damage their own bodies through disordered eating to cope with these concerns. Among current approaches to understanding the role of the family in eating disorders, perhaps the most widely accepted is a variant of the diathesis-stress model. This position draws heavily on the literature that documents disturbances in personality traits and temperaments associated with bulimia nervosa and/or anorexia nervosa. These pathological traits may be passed on from parent to child and create a predisposition or vulnerability to an eating disorder. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

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The ultimate manifestation of the eating disorder is thought to be triggered by, among other things, disturbed family-of-origin relations. Thus the interaction of predisposing traits and temperaments with problematic family and social relationships is thought to be what ultimately brings about the eating disorder. Although the diathesis-stress model predicts the development of an eating disorder as the result of stress brought on by family interaction, the nature of the predisposition, or diathesis, to develop an eating disorder when stressed is not well understood. After all, one can find problematic family-of-origin interactions in the backgrounds of people with many other forms of psychological problems, and even among some people who have no psychological problems. Some might argue that the predisposition to develop an eating disorder is part of one’s genetically determined temperament. However, there may be some unique qualities of stressors (exempli gratia, dysfunctional family relations) that pull more for eating disorders than for other psychosocial problems. When parents are overly involved and overcontrolling with a child, this creates an obvious battle for control. When the parents are emphatic about achievement and perfectionism, this often motivates the child to engage in extraordinary behaviours. When these conditions are put on a developing adolescent, in the context of a society where thinness is still glamourized and portrayed as something of an ideal, the development of an eating disorder in particular—as opposed to other problems, such as depression, social anxiety, or alcoholism—becomes more understandable. Food intake is one thing the child can usually control. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

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Maintaining a thing body form can create a sense of “achievement” in the restrictive eater. In this sense, restrictive eating may be a “functional” response to the particular nature of the family stress. Although I have been disappointed by other people and events in the past, Father, I am going to keep expecting blessings and good things in the future, because of You. “Thus says the LORD, ‘Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded,’ declares the LORD, ‘and they will return from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future,’ declares the LORD,” reports Jeremiah 31.16-17. Sometimes, no matter how hard we pray or how long we stand in faith, things do not turn out as we had hoped. Some are praying to lose weight, for their marriages to be restored, to be spared from the pandemic, for a financial bless, for a new home in Cresleigh Ranch; others are asking God to heal a business situation or a rift between coworkers. I encourage people to persevere, to continue praying and believing for good things to happen. However, we must also understand that God will not change another person’s will. He had given every human being free will to choose which way one will go, whether to do right or wrong. One may be heartbroken over not ending up on America’s Next Top Model, or over a failed relationship, or a bankrupt business, but one does not need to stay heartbroken. Do not carry around all that hurt and pain year after year. Do not let rejection fester inside you. God has something new in store for you. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

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When God allows one door to close, He will open another door for you, revealing something bigger and better. The Christian Bible says that God will take the evil the enemy brings into our lives, and if we will keep the right attitude, He will turn it around and use it for our good. “As for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant if for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are this day,” reports Genesis 50.20. God wants to take those disappointments and turn them into reappointments. However, understand, whether you will experience all those good things in your future depends to a large extent on your willingness to let go of the past. Never put a question mark where God has put a period. Avoid the tendency to dwell on what you could have done, which career you should have pursued, or that person you wish you would have married. Quit living in a negative frame of mind, stewing about something that is over and done. Focus on what you can change, rather than what you cannot. Do not let the regrets of yesterday destroy the hopes and dreams of tomorrow. You cannot do anything about what is gone, but you can do a great deal about what remains. You may have made some poor choices that have caused you awful heartache and pain. Perhaps you feel that you have blown it, that your life is in shambles and beyond repair. You may feel disqualified from God’s best, convinced that you must settle for leftover the rest of your life because of poor decisions you made or because of the family you were born into. Sometimes, even worse, you may not have been the person who made the bad choices, but somebody’s foolish decision caused you to experience wrenching heartache and pain. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

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Regardless, you must stop dwelling on what went wrong. Let the past be in the past. Forgive the person who caused you heartache and pain and start with a fresh slate right where you are today. If you continue to harp on those past disappointments, you will block God’s blessings in your life today. It is simply not worth it. Beyond that, God desires your restoration even more than you do! Live in obedience to God, and God eventually will help you to level up. It is not game over. Maybe you have invested a lot of time, effort, money, emotion, and energy in a relationship; you did your best to make it work out. However, for some reason, things got off course, and now you feel as though you have been robbed. You must feel devastated, heartbroken, disappointed. How long are you going to mourn over that failed relationship? How long are you going to grief over your broken dreams? How long are you going to cry about your dream house being sold at auction? That is the problem with excessive mourning. When we focus on our disappointments, we stop God from bringing fresh new blessings in our lives. If you will quit mourning and get going, God will show you new, and better things. When you have a fresh new attitude, and put a smile on your face, God can always come up with a more superior plan. Get that spring back in your step, that bounce back in your hair, and that charismatic light back in your eyes and be on your way. If we wallow in the mud and focus on our disappointments, we risk missing out on the new things God wants to do in our lives. It is time to get up and get going. It is time to be successful. God has another plan for you. And it is better than you can imagine! #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

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Do what you can, My dear friend, to find out what the trouble is. If you go about it in an honest way, you will make two discoveries: how much infirmity has wormed its way into your soul and how much goodness and grace you can get out of Jesus Christ. On their own, the Anxious are often frigid, dense, not all that devout. With Jesus Christ as Companion and Friend, they are becoming fervent, responsive and the devotion returns. I once taught a class in human values. One of the deepest values that kept cropping up was love. One day when we were talking about love, I sensed a peculiar tension and uneasiness in Jensen. I asked him if he would like to add anything to what we had been saying. He was flushed and replied that, although he had been a Christian ever since he could remember, he had never felt lovable. Somehow he had gotten the idea that he was a depraved, unattractive, and unlovable person. He reported that he knew in his head that God and others loved him, but he had managed to insulate himself from ever experiencing directly his “lovability” and “loveliness.” In fact, he had developed a habit of discounting people’s compliments and erasing from his mind the good feedback that he received. I invited Jensen to sit in the middle of the circle the class formed. Then I looked him straight in the eye and told he that I felt love for him. Gradually, other members of the class began to share their good feedback and caring feelings for him. Some even got up from their seats and walked over to hug him. He felt overwhelmed—at first with embarrassment, then with joy. Tears streamed down his face. I sensed that there was another way of expanding the awareness that was dawning on him. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

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I had him stand up on his chair and say: “I am lovable.” At first he said it very timidly, and the class got after him for discounting himself again. Again and again he tried saying it. Then somehow he began to experience firsthand the real meaning of what he was saying. He stood up straighter, took a deep breath, and shouted: “I am lovable!” Again and again he shouted it with tears welling down his face. When he got back down, the whole class cheered and applauded. Many in the class reported that they, too, had never felt as much in touch with the power of being loved as they had in those moments. Many weeks later Jensen told that class that his “lovability” experience had been a turning point for him. Now he was becoming more aware of his worthy, his right, and his potential for a fulfilling life. We must have security in being ourselves and in feeling significant and worthwhile before we will dare to reach and touch the World in a caring way. This has the effect of providing us with a sense of power out of which we can choose to love. This, we can put away the childish manipulations of pleasing and placating and take up the more actualizing forms of love: affirming and caring. When we begin to learn how to love ourselves, we discover that we have new energy and courage to reach out in love to others. And, paradoxically, love can only be kept when it is given freely to others. The glimpse is a memorable experience, but it is not enough. It shows one a possible future, gives one a new World-view, but one must henceforth bring all that into one’s everyday life and into one’s whole being. These needs time. practice, patience, vigilance, self-training, and more sensitivity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

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Wisdom does not come overnight. It needs time to ripen. However, Relvelation can come in that way. However, its recipient will still need time to adjust to it, and to integrate with it. What one has learned from the glimpse must be applied to life, to action, and attitude. It is not enough merely to enjoy its memory, as if it made no difference. The deep changes in our views of nature, evolution, progress, time, and space begin coming together as our Third Wave culture emphasizes contexts, relationships, and wholes. We now focus on total, rather than fragmentary, look at problems. Emphasizing the feedback relationships among subsystems and the larger wholes formed by these units, systems thinking has had a pervasive cultural impact. Its language and concepts have been employed by social scientists and psychologists, by philosophers and foreign policy analysts, by logicians and linguists, by engineers and administrators. However, the advocates of systems theory are not the only ones in the past few decades who have urged a more integrative way of looking at problems. The revolt against narrow overspecialization also received a boost from the environmental campaigns of the 2000’s, as ecologists increasingly rediscovered the “web” of nature, the interrelatedness of species, and the wholeness of ecosystems. Non-environmentalists tend to want to separate things into components and to solve one thing at a time. By contrast, Environmentalists tend to see things quite differently. Their instinct is to balance the whole, not to solve a single part. The ecological approach and the systems approach overlap and share the same thrust toward synthesis and the integration of knowledge. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

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In universities, meanwhile, more and more calls are heard for interdisciplinary thinking. While departmental barriers still block the cross-fertilization of ideas and the integration of information in most universities, this demand for inter- or multi-disciplinary work is now so widespread it has an almost ritual quality. These changes in intellectual life are mirrored elsewhere in the culture as well. Eastern religions, for example, have long had a tiny fringe following among the European middle classes, but it was not until the disintegration of industrial society began in earnest that thousands of Western young people started lionizing Indian swamis, jamming the Astrodome to hear a 16-year-old guru, listening to ragas, opening Hindu-style vegetarian restaurants, and dancing down Fifth Avenue. The World, they suddenly chanted, was not broke into Cartesian chips: it has a “oneness.” In the field of mental health, psychotherapists have been searching for ways to cure the “whole person” by employing gestalt therapy. A gestalt explosion is erupting as the establishment of gestalt therapists and institutions are springing up in the Untied States of America. Enlightened people do not want to be angry and broken and always unhappy. The goal of this activity is to increase human potential through the process of integration of the individual’s sensory awareness, perceptions, and relationships with the outside World. In medicine, a “holistic health” movement has sprung up based on the notion that the well-being of the individual depends on an integration of the physical, the spiritual, and the mental. Mixing quackery with serious medical innovation, the movement has regained enormous strength in this first quarter century. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

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A few decades ago, it would have been unthinkable for the federal government to lend its sponsorship to a conference on health that featured such topics as faith healing, religion, iridology, acupressure, cupping, meditation, and electromedicine. Since then there has been a virtual explosion of interest in alternative healing methods and systems, all of which go under the name of holistic healing. With so much activity, on so many different levels, it is hardly surprising that the terms “wholism” or “holism” should have crept into the popular vocabulary. Today they are used almost indiscriminately. A World Bank expert calls for “a holistic understanding of urban shelter.” A research group in the United States of Congress demands a long-range holistic” studies. A curriculum expert claims to employ “holistic reading and scoring” in teaching school children to write. And several Beverly Hills gyms offer “holistic exercise.” Each of these movements, fads, and cultural currents are different. However, their common element is clear. All of them represent an attack on the assumption that the whole can be understood by studying the parts in isolation. Their thrust is summed up in the words of philosopher Ervin Laszlo, a leading systems theorist: we are “part of interconnection, or short-rage projects and limited controllabilities may lead us to our own destruction.” This attack on the fragmentary, on the partial and analytic has grown so fierce, in fact, that many fanatic “holists” blithely forget the parts in their pursuit of the ineffable whole. The result is not wholism at all but yet another fragmentation. Their wholism is halfism. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

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More thoughtful critics, however, seek to balance the old Second Wave analytic skills with a much greater emphasis on synthesis. This idea is perhaps most clearly expressed by ecologist Eugene P. Odum in urging his colleagues to combine wholism with reductionism—to look at whole systems as well as their parts. “As components are combined to produce larger functional wholes,” he declared when he and his more famous brother, Howard, jointly won the Prix de l’Institut de la Vie, “new properties emerge that were not present or not evident at the next level below. This is not to say that we abandon reductionist science, since a great deal of good has resulted for humankind from this approach,” but that the time has come to give equal backing to studies of “large-scale integrated systems.” Taken together, systems theory, ecology, and the generalized emphasis on wholistic thinking—like our changing conceptions of time and space—are part of the cultural attack on the intellectual premises of Second Wave civilization. That attack reaches its culmination, however, in the emerging new view of why things happen as they do: the new causality. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a simple form of government. A single leader must have subordinate magistrates; a popular government must always have a leader. Thus in the distribution of the executive power there is always a gradation from the greater to lesser number, with the difference that sometimes the greater number depends on the few, and sometimes the few depend on the greater number. At times the distribution is equal, either when the constitutive parts are in a state of mutual dependence, as in the government of England; or when authority of each part is independent but imperfect, as in Poland. This latter form is bad, since there is no unity in government and the state lacks a bond of unity. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

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Which one is better, a simple or a mixed form of government? A question much debated among political theorists, to which the same reply must be given that I gave above regarding every form of government. In itself the simple form of government is the best, precisely because it is simple. However, when the executive power is not sufficiently dependent upon the legislative power, that is to say, when there is more of a ratio between the prince and the sovereign than between the people and the prince, this defect in the proportion must be remedied by diving the government; for then all of its parts have no less authority over the subjects, and their division makes all of them together less forceful against the sovereign. The same disadvantage can also be prevented through the establishment of intermediate magistrates, who, by being utterly separate from the government, serve merely to balance the two powers and to maintain their respective rights. In that case, the government is not mixed; it is tempered. The opposite difficulty can be remedied by similar means. And when the government is too slack, tribunals can be set up to give it a concentrated focus. This is done in all democracies. In the first case the government is divided in order to weaken it, and in the second to strengthen it. For the maximum of force and weakness are found equally in the simple forms of government, while the mixed forms of government provide an intermediate amount of strength. Communism has a fanatic hostility to all spiritual enlightenment and is inspired by the same dark forces that inspired the fanatic hostility of Nazism. This inner war between good and evil goes on at all times; the military World war was but a dramatic outward representation of it. The dangers to which humanity was exposed to did not vanish. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

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Those unseen powers still exist. What they could not achieve through a straightforward conflict, they will desperately try to achieve through a confused one. This indeed is the next phase of experience through which we are going though an which we have to endure. Fear came because of the evil report. Fear is belief in the enemy. When one is afraid something will happen, that means one believes it will happen. If one is afraid something bad will happen, that means one has more faith in the adversary’s ability to hinder one than one has in God’s ability to put one over. “Let us therefore fear. We can insert the word believe here. Let us therefore believe, lest, a promise being left us of entering into one’s rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it,” reports Hebrew 4.1-2. The Word preached did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith. They did not mix faith with what they heard. When we pray, we must mix faith with our words. Just saying words is not prayer. Mix faith with your words.  In Mark 11.24 Jesus tells us to believe that we receive our desires when we pray. One translation says, “Believe that you received them.” If I do that when I pray, I must mix faith with my words: Father, I thank You for You have heard me and I believe that I have received. Someone says, “Why do you not just believe it and not say anything?” Here are five reasons. One shall have whatsoever one saith (Mark 11.23). Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12.34). We also believe, and therefore speak (2 Corinthians 4.13). So then faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10.17). For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without work is dead also (James 2.26). Your words are the spirit of your faith. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

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May the blessing of light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunshine shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire so that the stranger may come and warm oneself at it, and also a friend. And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in the two windows of a house, budding the wanderer come in out of the storm; and may the blessings of the rain be on you—the soft, sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up and shed their sweetness on the air. And may the blessings of the Great Rains be so on you, may the beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there many a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines, and sometimes a star. And may the blessing of the Earth be on you—the great round Earth; may you ever have a kindly greeting for those you pass as you are going along the roads. May the Earth be soft under you when you rest upon it, tired at the end of a day, and may it rest easy over you when at the last, you lay under it; may it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be off from under it quickly and up and off, and on its way to God. And now may the Lord bless you all and bless you kindly. Return in mercy to America, Thy city, and dwell therein as Thou hast promised. Rebuild it in our own day as an enduring habitation, and speedily set up therein the throne of the king. Blessed art Thou, who rebuilds America. Cause the dynast of America soon to flourish and may it be exalted through Thy saving power, for we daily await Thy deliverance. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who causes salvation to come forth. Hear our voice, O Lord our God, have compassion upon us and receive our prayers in loving favour for Thou, O God, hearkenest unto prayers and supplications. Turn us not from Thy presence without Thy blessing, O our King, for Thou hearest the prayers of Thy people America with compassion. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hearkenest unto prayer. #RandolphHarrus 18 of 18

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Cresleigh Homes

With 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, Mills Station Residence 4 is the largest home in the community…

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But sometimes you just need a tiny guest house for the smallest visitors. đŸ‘¶ But don’t worry; we’re keeping a watchful eye from the porch!

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Estimated Completion for this Home: December 2021
4051 Audris Way, Rancho Cordova, 95742

Homesite 40 at Mills Station is a Residence Four, boasting 2,692 square feet as the largest home in the community. The open concept design includes four bedrooms, three and one half bathrooms, two car garage plus workshop, and a covered California Room perfect for outdoor entertaining. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/new-home-rancho-cordova-homesite-40/

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Many People Wanted the Pleasure of an Invitation to a SĂ©ance!

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Perplexity is leavened by extravagant Victorian beauty, and no casual visitor can see it all. Palatial elegance unfolds with each turn along every path of exploitation of the catacomb. One gazes through oval lens windows now only magnifying the pandemonium of Winchester Boulevard; through them, over a century ago, imagine the warm summer evenings, as Sarah Winchester admired her quiet gardens steeped in the low western sunshine; the bird singing loud in the hawthorn and sycamore of her deer park, the cascading fountains spouting holy water, and the peaceful blossoming orchards vesper calm upon all things. The best tea-things were set out in her best parlour. There was usually a bunch of roses on the table, and Mrs. Winchester was dressed in her light blue muslin, with a rose in her hair. She would arise before her guests like a picture, with the sunshine flickering about her dark hair. She was very sweet, tender and gentle. Many people wanted the pleasure of an invitation to a sĂ©ance in the Blue SĂ©ance Room. Mrs. Winchester would gather together many birds of alien feather. A humans’ own suffering mind must be, of all moral food, the most poisonous for one to feed on. Surround a scorpion with fire and it stings oneself to death. Throw a diseased soul entirely upon its own resources and moral suicide result. It was a principle with Mrs. Winchester to oppose bullying. She believed we were here on this Earth for a definite purpose–and God’s duty plain to any human who wills to read it. There may be disembodied spirits who seek to distress or annoy where they can no longer control. If there are, hers, which is not yet divorces from its means to material action, declines to be influenced by any irresponsible whimsy. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16

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Mrs. Winchester was very happy in her new home. She had been used to keeping her father’s house since her early girlhood days, and her shortly lived matronly duties came very easy to her. The expansive Victorian mansion, with its neat furniture and fresh dimity draperies, 160 rooms, 10,000 windows, nine kitchens, and 47 fireplaces was the pretties thing possible in the way of rustic interiors; the estates was like a temple dedicated to some Heavenly divinity, and Mrs. Winchester took a natural womanly pride in this bright home. She had come from a good house; but this was quite her own. For 38 years, 1884-1922, the sound of saw and hammer never ceased. Commonly, 16 carpenters were employed at one time, some having worked for 20 years without changed. They produced the largest, most complicated and exclusively private residents in the United States of America. There are five different heating systems and three elevators, one hydraulic and two electric. Some of the 13 bathrooms lacked privacy; they have clear glass doors! One rambling room has four fireplaces and five hot-air registers. A spiral stairway has 42 steps, each two inches high. Other stairways melt into blank walls. A second story door opens into the great outdoors and a 20-foot step. A linen closet has the area of a three-room apartment; a nearby cupboard is less than one-inched deep. A skylight is placed in the middle of a room, in the floor! Another floor is a series of trap-doors. The visitor must stoop through one door to enter, the next gives clearance for an eight-foot giant. Many stairway turn posts are upside down. Entire walls are built entirely of half-inch, “half-round” strips. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16

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Everywhere prevail that uncanny deference to the number 13; 13 stairsteps, 13 hangers in a closet, 13 wall panels, 13 lights in the chandeliers, 13 windows to a room and if necessary to make that number, some placed in an inside wall. One of the guests at this sĂ©ance was Ludwig Leichhardt. He thought of men and women who had died of a fever the previous year, and the spirits told him to depart for “people who had wished to live, for whom life was full of duties and household joys; whose loss left wide gaps among their kindred, not to be filled again upon this Earth.” Ludwig felt a dull blankness of his existence which he felt—an utter emptiness and hopelessness; nothing to live for in the present, nothing to look forward to in the future. He bragged about how much capital he had in the Bank of Italy and how he could provide Mrs. Winchester with a comfortable life. However, this was to be his last day as a guest at the Winchester mansion. His two great sea chests, containing his clothes, books, and other property had gone to San Francisco by that evening’s luggage train. His last memory of the Winchester would be Mrs. Winchester’s bright tender face looking at him compassionately, as she had looked the day she broke his heart. After the death of her husband and daughter, Mrs. Winchester remained celibate and never remarried. Precious moments went by, and Ludwig pushed his teacup away with a listless air. He got up presently and showed him she to the exit of the mansion, after a brief good evening to all. The sun was low by this time, and the western sky flooded with an orange light. The garden was abloom with roses and honeysuckle. Ludwig Leichhardt fancied her should never look upon such flowers or such a garden again. The mansion seemed to grow dark all at once when he was gone. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16

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Adam Worth had also been at the sĂ©ance that evening and did not seem to care for the tea. Ludwig promised to write Mrs. Winchester to let her know he was safe. The sun had gone down, and there was a long line of crimson yonder in the west above the edge of the estate. All the guest prepared to leave and Mrs. Winchester retired to her chambers for the evening. While laying in bed, Mrs. Winchester heard a bang on a door with a sounding slap. She figured it was just a piece of stupid discourtesy and went back to sleep. The following morning, she swore that one of the rooms on the second floor was not empty—and was quite upset about it—said there was some infernal influence at work in her home. To satisfy her curiosity, she asked her butler Henry to open the door. The light was dim in the room and Mrs. Winchester paused in the corridor outside. His eyes glistened. His features relaxed, and he gave a short sigh, “the room is empty,” said Henry. With some stir of curiosity, Mrs. Winchester slipped out, but had a certain vague wonder in her mind.  As she heard, the medium from the night before in the parlour was struggling on the floor, in what looked like an epileptic fit. Mrs. Winchester walked deliberately back to the closed door, as Henry went to hold the medium from doing any injury to herself. Huddled against the massive end wall, and half embedded in it, as it seemed, there lay a shadow. Looking closely, Mrs. Winchester saw that the trap door was not only firmly bolted, but screwed into its socket. She strode off in a fume. She was in an odd frame of mind, and for long moved her sitting-room to and fro, too restless to go to bed, or, as an alternative, to settle down to a book. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16

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She could not whistle her mind from the chase of a certain graveyard will-o’-wisp; and on it went stumbling and floundering through bog and mire, until she fell into a state of collapse, and was useful for nothing else. She went to bed and to sleep without difficulty, but was conscious of herself all the time, and of a shadowless horror that seemed to come stealthily out of the corners and to bend over and look at her, and nothing but a curtain or a hanging coat when she started and stared. Over and over again this happened, and Mrs. Winchester’s temperature rose by leaps, and suddenly she saw that is she failed to assert herself, and promptly, fever would leap her in a consuming fire. Then in a moment she broke into a profuse perspiration, and sank exhausted into delicious unconsciousness. Morning found her restored to vigour, but still the with flutter of curiosity in her brain. It worked there all day, and for many subsequent days, and at last it seemed as if her every faculty were honeycombed with its ramifications. Then “this will not do,” Mrs. Winchester thought, but still the tunnelling process went on. As the curious devil mastered her, she grew into such harmony with it that she could shut her eyes no longer to the true purpose of its insistence. It was the closed room about which her thoughts hovered like crows circling round carrion. In the dead waste and middle of a certain night, Mrs. Winchester awoke with a strange, quick recovery of consciousness. There was the passing of a single expiration, and she had been asleep and was awake. She had gone to bed with no sense of premonition or of resolve in a particular direction; she sat up a monomaniac. It was as if, swelling in the silent hours, the tumour of curiosity had come to a head, and in a moment, it was necessary to operate upon it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16

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She made no excuse for her then condition. Mrs. Winchester was convinced she was the victim of some undistinguishable force, that she was an agent under the control of the supernatural. Some thought had been in her mind of late in her position it was her duty to unriddle the mystery of the closed room door. However, time went by. The new year came, and still there was no letter from Ludwig Leichhardt. However, early in January, Henry, the butler came home from the Bank of Italy one afternoon, and told Mrs. Winchester she need not worry herself about her old friend any longer. “Ludwig Leichhardt is safe enough, mistress,” he said. “I was talking to Gilbert, the cashier at the Bank of Italy, this morning, and he told me that Leichhardt wrote to them for $2,000.00 last October from San Francisco, and he has written $1,000.00 more since. He is buying land somewhere—I forget the name of the place—and he’s well and hearty, Gilbert tells me.” However, a sense of fear and constriction was upon Mrs. Winchester. “Well, I’m afraid I’m rather fanciful, Henry; but I could never explain to you what a strange feeling came over me the night Ludwig Leichhardt went away from this estate. It was after I had said goodbye to him, and he had gone back into the mansion, where all was dark and quiet. I sat in the parlour thinking of him, and it seemed as if a voice was saying in my ear that I, nor anyone that care for hum, would ever seen Ludwig Leichhardt again. There wasn’t any such voice of course, you know, Henry, but it seemed like that in my mind; and whenever I’ve thought of poor Ludwig Leichhardt since that time, it has seemed to me like thinking of the dead. Often and often I’ve said to myself, ‘Why, Sarah, you silly thing, you ought to know that he’s safe enough in San Francisco. Ill news travels fast; and if there’d be anything wrong, we should have heard of it somehow.’ But, reason with myself as I would, I have never been able to feel comfortable about him; and thank God for your good news, Henry, and thank you for bring it to me. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16

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It has been very unkind of Ludwig not to write. She could not forgive him for his neglect, glad as she was to know he was safe.  Then Mrs. Winchester paused for a moment, and confessed, the quick pant of fear seemed to come from her lips. There were sounds about her—the deep breathing of an imprisoned man. She returned to the locked door, and hurriedly flung it open. An acrid whiff of dust assailed her nostrils as she stepped back a pace and stood expectant of anything—or nothing. What did she wish, or dread, or foresee? The room was rather a large one; an old-fashioned room, with a low ceiling crossed by heavy means; half parlour, half kitchen, with a wide-open fireplace at one end, on which the logs had burnt to a dullish red. There was the old chintz-covered armchair. Mrs. Winchester had been sitting with her face towards the open window, looking absently out at the garden, where daffodils and early primroses glimmered through the dusk. She stood to pick up her blueprints, which had fallen to the ground. She was standing folding this in a leisurely way, when she looked towards the fireplace, and gave a little start at seeing that the armchair was no longer empty. “Why, Henry,” she cried, “how quietly you must have come into the place! I never heard you.” There was no answer, and her voice sounded strange to her in the empty room. “Henry!” she repeated, a little louder; but the figure in the chair neither answered nor stirred. Then a sudden fright seized her, and she knew that it was not her butler. The room was almost dark; it was quite impossible that she could see the face of that dark figure seated in the armchair, with the shoulders bent a little over. Yet she knew, as well as ever she had known anything in her life, that it was not the butler Henry. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16

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She went slowly towards the fireplace, and stood within a few paces of that strange figure. A little flash of light shot up from the candle, and shone for an instant on the face. It was Ludwig Leichhardt! Mrs. Winchester tried to speak to him; but the words would not come. And yet it was hardly so appalling a thing to see him there that she need have felt what she did. San Francisco was not too far from San Jose that a man may not cross the Bay and drop in upon his friend unexpectedly. The candle’s flame got bigger, lighting up the entire room. The chair was empty. Mrs. Winchester uttered a loud cry, and Henry entered the room. “Why, Mrs. Winchester! What’s amiss?” he said. She ran to him, sobbing hysterically, and then calming herself with an effort, told him how she had seen Ludwig’s ghost. “Why Mrs. Winchester,” Henry replied. “Ludwig Leichhardt is safe in San Francisco. It was a shadow that took the shape of your old friend, to your fancy. It’s easy enough to fancy such a thing when your mind’s full of anyone.” Ill and shaken, yet fearing death as she had never dreaded it before, Mrs. Winchester said, “It was no fancy. Ludwig Leichhardt is dead, and I have seen his ghost. I’ve a feeling that he never got to San Francisco alive, Henry,” she said. “I can’t explain how it is, but I’ve a feeling that it was so.” Mrs. Winchester spent the rest of that horrible night huddled between her crumpled sheets, fearing to look forth, fearing to think. She knew the letters had been forgeries, and could not forget the madness and the terror in learning to walk the unvext paths of placid souls. She was left with nothing but an aimless scurrying terror and the black swarm of thoughts, so that she verily fancied her reason would give under the strain. Yet she had more to endure and to triumph over. Near morning she fell into a troubled sleep, throughout which the drawn twitch of muscle seemed an accent on every word of ill-omen she had ever spelt out of the alphabet of fear. If her body rested, her brain was an open chamber for any toad of ugliness that listed to “sit at squat” in. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16

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Mrs. Winchester tried to convince herself that the thing she had seen was only a trick of her imagination. Another month went by, and again in the twilight the same figure appeared to her. It was standing this time, with one arm leaning on the high mantlepiece; standing facing her as she came back to the room, after having quitted it for a few minutes for some slight household duty. There was a fire burning in the fireplace. The logs were burning with a steady blaze that lit up the well-known figure and unforgotten face. Ludwig Leichardt was looking at her with an expression that seemed half reproachful, half beseeching. He was very pale, much paler than she had ever seen him in life; and as he looked, she standing just within the threshold of the door, she saw him lift his hand slowly and point to his forehead. The firelight showed her a dark red stain upon the left temple, like the mark of a contused wound. She covered her face with her hands, shuddering and uttering a little cry of terror, and then dropped half fainting upon a chair. When she uncovered her face the room was empty, there was a pool of blood on the floor, and the firelight shining cheerily upon the walls, no trace of that ghostly visitant. This time Mrs. Winchester brooded over the thoughts of the thing she had seen, firmly believing that she had looked upon the shadow of the dead, and that there was some purpose to be fulfilled by that awful vision. In the day, she had the room boarded up. The thought of this was almost always in her mind; in the dead silence of the night, she would often lie awake for hours thinking of Ludwig Leichhardt. Mrs. Winchester knew he had been waylaid and murdered. He had a good deal of money about him. Suddenly Mrs. Winchester woke to the fact that there was a knocking at her door—that there had been for some little time. She cried, “Come in!” finding a weak restorative in the mere sound of her own human voice; then remember the keys was turned, bade the visitor wait until she could come to him. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16

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Scrambling, feeling dazed and white-livered, out of bed, Mrs. Winchester opened the door, and met one of the gentlemen on the threshold. The man looked scared, and his lips, she noticed, were set in a somewhat boding fashion. “Come you come at once, Mrs. Winchester?” he said, “There’s summat wrong with Ludwig Leichhardt. She had now a settled conviction that some untimely fate had befallen her old friend, and that the letters from San Francisco were forgeries. Gilbert from the Bank of Italy compared the signature cards and determined that the drafts and letters were forgeries. There was one thing noticeable in the San Francisco letters—they were all exactly alike, line for line, curve for curve. This rather discomposed Gilbert; for it is a notorious fact that a man rarely signs his name twice in exactly the same manner. There is almost always some difference. Before the month was out, Ludwig Leichhardt’s ghost appeared for the third time to Mrs. Winchester. In the Tender June twilight. She was thinking of her old friend as she walked along the shadowy winding path of the deer park on her estate. It was just such a still, peaceful evening as that upon which he had stood on the edge of the common looking back at her, and waving his hand, upon that last well remembered night. He was so much in her thoughts, and the conviction that he had come from among the dead to visit her was so rooted in her mind, that she was scarcely surprised when she looked up presently, and saw a tall familiar figure moving slowly among the trees a little way before her. There seemed to be an awful stillness in the wood all at once, but there was nothing awful in that well-known figure. She tried to overtake it; but it kept always in advance of her, and at a sudden turn in the path she lost it altogether. The trees grew thicker, and there was a solemn darkness at the spot where the path took this sharp turn, and on one side of the narrow footpath there was a steep declivity and a great hollow, made by a disused gravel pit. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16

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She went to her mansion quickly enough, with a subdued sadness upon her, and told Henry what had happened to her. Nor did she rest until there had been a search made on the extensive grounds for the body of Ludwig Leichhardt. They searched and found him lying at the bottom of the gravel pit, half buried in loose sand and gravel, and quite hidden by a mass of furze and bramble that grew over the spot. There was an inquest, of course. The tailor who had made the clothes found upon the body identified them, and swore to them as those he had made for Ludwig Leichhardt. The pocket were all empty and turned inside out. There could be little doubt the Ludwig Leichhardt had been waylaid and murdered for the sake of the money he carried upon him that night. His skull had been shattered by a blow from a jagged stick on the left temple. The stick was found laying at the bottom of the pit a little way from the body, with human hair and stains of blood upon it. Ludwig Leichhardt had never left San Jose. It was later determined that Adam Worth had killed Ludwig Leichhardt and took his money. The Bank of Italy refunded the withdraws. Adam Worth was ultimately apprehended, with some of Ludwig Leichhardt’s property still in his possession, and he was deeply in debt. The final examination resulted in a verdict of willful murder, tried, found guilty and hung. Ludwig Leichhardt had executed a few days before his intended departure, bequeathing all he possessed to Sarah Winchester—the interest for her sole use and benefit, the principal to revert to her estate after her death. Mrs. Winchester often sits beside that quiet resting place in the spring twilight; but she had never seen Ludwig Leichhardt’s ghost since that evening in the deer park, and she knew she never would see it again. She shook with an awful thankfulness at sight of the pitfalls she had skirted and escaped—of the demon she witlessly had baffled. The joy of life was in her heart again, but chastened and made pitiful by experience. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16

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You are aware that evil spirit beings operating through humans in positions of authority and influence are the real motivators in human society? Yes, this is exactly what the Christian Bible teaches! Perhaps this concept seems strange to you, almost like an outmoded superstition, but the Bible definitely states that Satan in the “god of this age,” reports 2 Corinthians 4.4, and that he is the leader of a well-organized army of beings invisible to humans but very active among them. Paul tells us in Ephesians, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this World, against spiritual wickedness in high places,” reports Ephesians 6.12. These words indicate that evil spirits are organized into a military-like structure. The “principalities” are the highest ranking officers under Satan, the “powers” are officials of somewhat lower standing, and the “rulers of the darkness of this World” seem to be a special band of evil spirits whose sphere of influence includes the leaders of human government. The phrase “spiritual wickedness is high places” is better translated “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the Heavenly places,” and makes reference to the myriads of demonic hordes. They are all under the direction of Satan, who is not only named the “god of this age,” but also is called “the prince of the power of the air,” reports Ephesians 2.2. The Scriptures often speak of a close relationship between these evil spiritual and the “World.” In the Ephesians passage quoted above, you will remember that these spirit beings are called “the rulers of the darkness of this World.” The apostle John also refers to the World, and it is significant that he considers it to be the Christian’s enemy. “Love not the World, neither the things that are in the World. If any human love the World, the love of the Father is not in one. For all that is in the World, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Farther, but is of the World. And the World passeth away, and the lust of it; but one that doeth the will of God abideth forever,” reports 1 John 2.15-17. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16

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In addition, the same apostle declared that one who is “born of God overcometh the World,” reports 1 John 5.4, and also that “the whole World lieth in wickedness,” reports 1 John 5.19. James, the brother of Jesus, declared in his epistle, “Whosoever therefore, will be a friend of the World, is the enemy of God,” reports James 4.4. Before we can gain a full understanding of what this means, we must answer the following questions: What is this World, which if loved causes us to lose God’s friendship? What does the Bible mean when it says that the whole World “lieth in wickedness”? Certainly the Bible is not saying that Christians should not love the World of nature, nor is it implying that every person who is not a Christian is an enemy to be overcome. In fact, the Scriptures often state that the glory of God is revealed in the natural World, and it specifically instructs believers not to antagonize other people, but to love them. No, the material Universe in which we live is not opposed to us, and we are not to consider the people who inhabit the Earth as our enemies. The “World” referred to by John and James is the moral and spiritual system we call human society. Humankind, which has rejected God’s revelation, has devised explanations of life, moral standards, and principles of conduct based upon human knowledge only. Humans, on the whole, operate on erroneous principles, selfish desires, improper motives, and unworthy standards of value. The sciences, the arts, politics, and entertainment are all dominated by a humanistic approach to life which draws humans away from God and makes humans the “measure of all things.” If the period of treated of in the essay from the commencement of the seventeenth century to the Restoration of Charles II, be barren of witchcraft proper, it must at least be admitted that it is prodigal in regard to the marvellous under various shapes and forms, from which the hysterical state of the public mind can be fairly accurately gauged. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16

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The rebellion of 1641, and the Cromwellian confiscations, that troubled periods when the county was torn by dissention, and ravaged by fire, sword, and pestilence, was aptly ushered in by a series of supernatural events which occurred in the country Limerick. A letter dated the 13th August 1640, states that “for news we have the strangest that ever was heard of, there inchantments in the Lord of Castleconnell’s Castle four miles from Lymerick, several sorts of noyse, sometymes of drums and trumpets, sometimes of other curious musique with Heavenly vouces, then fearful screeches, and such outcries that the neighbours near cannot sleepe. Priests have adventured to be there, but have been cruelly beaten for their paynes, and carryed away they knew not how, some two miles and some four miles. Moreover were seen in the like manner, after they appear to the view of the neighbours, infinite number of armed men on foote as well as on horseback. One thing more [id est something supernatural] by Mrs. Mary Burke with tweleve servants lyes in the hose, and never one hurt, onley they must dance with them every night; they say, Mrs. Mary come away, telling her she must be wife to the inchanted Earl of Desmond. Uppon a Mannour of my Lord Bishoppe of Lymerick, Loughill, hath been seen upon the hill by most of the inhabitants aboundance of armed men marching, and these seene many tymes—and when they come up to them they do not appear. These things are very strange, if the cleargie and gentrie say true.” During the rebellion an appalling massacre of Protestants took place at Portadown, when about a hundred persons, men, women, and children, were forced over the bridge into the river, and so drowned; the few that could swim, and so managed to reach the shore, were either knocked on the head by the insurgents when they landed, or else were shit. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16

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It is not a matter of surprise that this terrible incident gave rise to legends and stories in which anything strange or out of the common was magnified out of all proportion. Accord to one deponent there appeared one evening in the river “a vision or spirit assuming the shape of a woman, waist high, upright in the water, naked with [illegible] in her hand, her hair dishevelled, her eyes seeming to twinkle in her head, and her skin as white as snow; which spirit seeming to stand upright in the water often repeated the word Revenge! Revenge! Revenge! Also, Robert Maxwell, Archdeacon of Down, swore that the rebels declared to him, (and some deponents made similar statements) “that most of those that were thrown from the bridge were daily and nightly seen to walk upon the River, sometimes singing Psalms, sometimes brandishing of Swords, sometimes screeching in a most hideous and fearful manner.” Both these occurrences are capable of a rational explanation. The supposed spectre was probably a poor, bereaved woman, demented by grief and terror, who stile out of her hiding-place at night to bewail the murder of her friends, while the weird cries arose from the half-starved dogs of the country-side, together with the wolves which abounded in Ireland at that period, quarrelling and fighting over the corpses. Granting the above, and bearing in mind the credulity of all classes of Society, it is not difficult to see how the tales originated; but to say that, because such obviously impossible statements occur in certain despsitions, the latter are therefore worthless as a whole, is to willfully misunderstand the popular mind of the seventeenth century. We have the following on the testimony of the Rev. George Creighton, minister of Virginia, Co. Cavan. He tells us that “drivers women brought to his House a young woman, almost naked, to whom a Rogue came upon the way, these women being present, and required her to give him her mony, or else he would kill her, and so drew his sword; her answer was, You cannot kill me unless God gives you leave, and His will be done. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16

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“Thereupon the Rogue thrust three times at her naked body with his drawn sword, and never pierced her skin; whereat he being, as it seems, much confounded, went away and left her.” A like story comes from the other side: “At the taking of the Newry a revel being appointed to be shot upon the bridge, and stripped stark-naked, nothing withstanding the musketeer stood within two yards of him, and shot him in the middle of the back, yet the bullet entered not, nor did him any more hurt than leave a little black spot behind it. This many hundreds were eye-witnesses of. Divers of the like have I confidently been assured of, who have been provided of diabolical charms.” Similar tales of persons bearing charmed lives could not doubt be culled from the records of every way that has been fought on this planet of ours since History began. The ease with which the accidental or unusual was transformed into the miraculous at this period is shown by the following. A Dr. Tate and his wife and children were flying to Dublin from the insurgents. On their way they were wandering over commons covered with snow, without any food. The wife was carrying a sucking child, John, and having no milk to give it she was about to lay it down in despair, when suddenly “on the Brow of a Bank she found a Suck-bottle with sweet milk in it, no Footsteps appearing in the snow of any that should bring it thither, and far from any Habitation; which preserved the child’s life, who after became a Blessing to the Church.” The Dr. Tate mentioned above was evidently the Rev. Faithful Tate, D.D., father of Nahum Tate of “Tate and Brady” fame. Much of what has passed current in the New World as White (id est, permissible) Magic is only a disguised goeticism, and may of the resplendent angels invoke with the divine rites reveal their cloven hoofs. It is not too much to say that a large majority of past psychological experiments were conducted to establish communication with demons, and that for unlawful purposes. The popular conceptions concerning the diabolical spheres, which have been all accredited by magic, may have been gross exaggerations of fact concerning rudimentary and perverse intelligences, but the willful viciousness of the communicants is substantially untouched thereby. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16

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Happy Early Turkey Day! 🩃

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The Winchester Mystery House will be closed on Thursday, Nov. 25 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday and will reopen on Friday, Nov. 26! winchestermysteryhouse.com