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I Expect a Judgment on the Day of Judgment
Law and equity are of little weight, where force is supreme. Relationships that evolve over the years cannot suddenly be disrupted or destroyed without leaving the person physically changed. It is not an issue that finds support only among the foggy-eyed romanticists, but is also a proposal supported by modern physics. We do not live in a solitary or purely objective World, nor can we live in isolation…we must either learn to live together or increase our chances of dying prematurely. Early attachment patterns create the inner maps that chart our relationships throughout life, not only in terms of what we expect from others, but also in terms of how much comfort and pleasure we can experience in their presence. I doubt people would feel safe and open in a community if his earliest experiences had been frozen faces, liars, physical attacks and slander, and hostile glances.
Our relationship maps are implicit, etched into the emotional brain and not reversible simply by understanding ow they were created. What cannot be communicated, if you cannot tolerate what you know or feel what you feel, the only option is denial and dissociation. Maybe the most devastating long-term effect of this shutdown is not feeling real inside. When you do not feel real nothing matters, which makes it impossible to protect yourself from danger. Or you may resort to extremes in an effort to feel something—even cutting yourself with a razor blade or getting into fistfights with strangers. And yet, the growth in interpersonal chaos is having at least one beneficial effect. It is leading increasing numbers of scientists to understand why a purely objective approach toward human relationships is doomed to failure. Paradoxically, this message is coming from where you would least expect it.
It is not generally coming from psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologist, anthropologist, or even theologians. Rather it is coming from physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and molecular geneticists, for the most basic disciplines are beginning to acknowledge openly that love is neither an object nor a thing. Recall the bright joyful eyes with which your child beams upon you when you bring him a new toy, and then let the physicist tell you in reality nothing emerges from these eyes; in reality their only objectively detectable function is continually to be hit by and to receive light quanta. In reality! A strange reality! Something seems to me missing in it. However, this realization may help you to start exploring other ways to connect in relationships—both for your own sake and in order not to pass on an insecure attachment to your own children.
Dissociation is learned early: Later abuse or other traumas did not account for dissociative symptoms in young adults. Abuse and trauma accounted for many other problems, but not for chronic dissociation or aggression against self. The critical underlying issue was that these patients did not know how to feel safe. Lack of safety within the early caregiving relationship led to an impaired sense of inner reality, excessive clinging, and self-damaging behavior: Poverty, single parenthood, or maternal psychiatric symptoms did not predict these symptoms. This does not imply that child abuse is irrelevant, but that the quality of early caregiving is critically important in preventing mental health problems, independent of other trauma. For that reason, treatment need to address not only the imprints of specific traumatic events but also the consequences of not having been mirrored, attuned to, and given consistent care and affection: dissociation and the loss of self-regulation. Though angels smile, shall not devils laugh! Every virtue is often made the instrument of effecting the most atrocious purpose of this all-subduing tyrant, love.
Being in synch with oneself and with others requires the integration of our body-based senses—vision, hearing, touch, and balance. If this did not happen in infancy and early childhood, there is an increased chance of later sensory integration problems (to which trauma and neglect are by no means the only pathways). Being in synch means resonating through sounds and movements that connect, which are embedded in the daily sensory rhythms of cooking and cleaning, going to bed, and waking up. Being in synch may mean sharing funny faces and hugs, expressing delight or disapproval at the right moments, tossing balls back and forth, or singing together. All of these foster a sense of attunement and communal pleasure. Take care not to laugh, when there is nothing to laugh at. The arm of the law reaches far, and though its movements are sometimes slow, they are not the less certain.
It was a Treasure Hunt!
I have always wondered how parents come to abuse their kids. After all, raising healthy offspring is at the very core of our human sense of purpose and meaning. What could drive parents to deliberately hurt of neglect their child(ren)? Disorganized attachment showed up in two different ways: One group of mothers seemed to be too preoccupied with their own issues to attend to their infants. They were often intrusive and hostile; they alternated between rejecting their infants and acting as if they expected the infant to take care of itself and respond to their needs. Another group of mothers seemed helpless and fearful. They often came across as sweet or fragile, but they did not know how to be the adult in the relationship and seemed to want their child(ren) to comfort them. They failed to greet their child(ren) after having been away and did not pick them up when they were distressed. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
The mothers did not seem to be neglecting, or ignoring their child(ren) deliberately—they simply did not know how to be attuned to their kids and respond to their cues and thus failed to comfort and reassure them. The hostile/intrusive mothers were more likely to have childhood histories of physical abuse and/or of witnessing domestic violence, while the withdrawn/dependent mothers were more likely to have histories of sexual abuse or parental loss (but not physical abuse). As a result, child(ren) become more and more inconsolable, sullen, or resistant to their interactions. Once the mother comes to see the child not as her partner in an attuned relationship but as a frustrating, enraging, disconnected stranger, the stage is set for subsequent abuse because the more has likely come to perceive him as a difficult child who makes her feel like a failure, and gave up on trying to comfort the child. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
In this particular case study, the mother allowed the son to be abuse by his siblings, who used to hog tie him with telephone cords and ropes for fun, and disconnect the telephone so he could not call his father for help, they were even told not to talk to their biological father. Once the older sister threatened to drop the boy off at an orphanage, and a year later the mother made it known she did not want him, but continued to tolerate him. However, once the young man got to high school, the mother used to meet with the parents of his enemies and their kids and leave her son behind and they would talk about him behind his back, she never stood up for this boy the way she stood up for her kids, and she even talked to him and it sounded like, often times, she was telling him that he is not really her son, yet he knows no other mother. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
As teenagers, when a follow up study was done, infants with seriously disrupted emotional communication patterns with their mothers grew up to become young adults with unstable sense of self, self-damaging impulsivity (including excessive spending, promiscuous sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge eating), inappropriate and intense anger, and recurrent suicidal behavior. While it was expected that hostile/intrusive behavior on the part of the mothers would be the most powerful predictor of mental instability in their adult children, it was discovered otherwise. Emotional withdrawal had the most profound long-lasting impact. Emotional distance and role reversal (in which mothers expected the kids to look after them) were specifically linked to aggressive behavior against self and others in the young adults. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
We must admit that if the example of a person who has violated a prohibition has been transmitted like a contagion, just as the taboo is transferred from a person to an object, and from this to another. While some of these mothers did not intentionally abuse their child(ren) or did not know better, it is possible that people who abuse the children of others, or rip families apart for fun, may draw a curse into their lives that they cannot shake. There is a case of three boys Jim Redd, Austin Lyman, and Winston Hurst who would collect artifacts they found in Indian burial grounds, in the 1950s. The three boys gave little thought to the fact that these were precious antiquities and collected the arrowheads, pottery, and jewelry they found and hung it on their walls. They hunted like rabbits and dug in ruins. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
However, decades later, the three antiquated friend’s pastime has wrought bitterness and tragedy. They fell out badly after Winston Hurst became an archaeologist and came to see the town’s obsession with collecting ancient artifacts as a desecration. Then the worst came when 150 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents swooped on Blanding, Utah USA, arresting some of the town’s most prominent citizens, including Jim Redd, Austin Lyman’s three older brothers and the brother of the county sheriff, on charges of dealing in antiquities plundered from state land. Jim Redd, by then was a popular doctor, and killed himself the day. Two other people caught up in the case, including the FBI’s principal informer, also took their lives in the following months. And the Lyman brothers, along with 23 other people went on trial and were convicted. They were all called lifelong criminals. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
The sad part about it is the pottery was used for target practice, so it was hundreds of years old and destroy for fun, when someone could have just used a soda can. They also threw rocks at the pottery and broke it. People were even going into the Indian burial grounds and ancient dwellings with heavy machinery and digging up graves to steal jewelry. William Hurst become physically sick and was nauseated to find out they were looting things from the Earth that were 14,000 year old, leaving behind landscape of bombed-out craters, and human bones strewn all over the place. The FBI seized some of the artifacts that ended up in the hands of a museum, including a 900-year-old basket and pottery almost as pristine as the day it was made. So before you abuse someone’s child, knocked down walls in a Victorian house, or rob a grave, understand you may suffer lifelong consequences. Be sure to be more sensitivity and respectful of the property and lives of others, please. Try to recreate things and restore them as close as you can to the originals. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Victorian Frame of Mind
Currently, perhaps the most common reason for intimacy to suffer or vanish entirely is an exclusive focus on someone’s history of past trauma and the resulting issues. Fire in straw will not be hidden, and the flames of affection will burst forth at length, though it be long kept under. Reliving a strong negative emotion causes significant changes in the brain areas that receive nerve signals from the muscles, gut, and skin—areas that are crucial for regulating basic bodily functions. The brain scans, as you recall, showed that recalling an emotional event from the past causes us to actually re-experience the visceral (internal organs) sensations felt during the original event. Each type of emotion produced a characteristic pattern, distinct from the others. For instance, a particular part of the brain stem was active in sadness and anger, but not in happiness or fear. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
All of these brain regions that produce emotions are below the limbic system, to which emotions are traditionally assigned, yet we acknowledge their involvement every time we use one of the common expressions that ink strong emotions with the body: You make me sick; it made my skin crawl; I was all choked up; my heart sank; he makes me bristle. The elementary self-system in the brain stem and limbic system is massively activated when people are faced with the threat of annihilation, which results in an overwhelming sense of fear and terror accompanied by intense physiological arousal. To people who are reliving a trauma, nothing makes sense; they are trapped in a life-or-death situation, a state of paralyzing fears or blind rage. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
People who are traumatized have their mind and body constantly aroused, as if they are in imminent danger. They startle in response to the slightest noises and are frustrated by small irritations. Their sleep is chronically disturbed, and food often loses its sensual pleasures. This in turn can trigger desperate attempts to shut those feelings down by freezing and dissociation. How do people regain control when their caveman brains are stuck in a stand your ground or escape for survival mode? If what goes on deep inside our caveman brains dictates how we feel, and if our body sensations are orchestrated by subcortical (subconscious) brain structures, how much control over them can we actually have? #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Knowing what we feel is the first step to knowing why we feel that way. If we are aware of the constant changes in our inner and outer environment, we can mobilize to manage them. However, we cannot do this unless our watchtower, the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), which controls a person’s personality, learns to observe what is going on inside us. This is why mindfulness practice, which strengthens the MPFC, is a cornerstone of recovery from trauma. However, do not be discouraged. Many people have survived trauma through tremendous courage and persistence, only to get into the same kinds of trouble over and over again. Trauma has shut down their inner compass and robbed them of the imagination they require to create something better. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, the often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from themselves. The more people try to push away and ignore internal warning signs, the more likely they are to take over and leave them bewildered, confused, and ashamed. People who cannot comfortably notice what is going on inside or become vulnerable to respond to any sensory shift either by shutting down or by going into a panic—they develop a fear of fear itself. People’s lives will be held hostage to fear until that visceral (internal organs) experience changes. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The price for ignoring or distorting the body’s messages is being unable to detect what is truly dangerous or harmful for you and, just as bad, what is safe or nourishing. Self-regulation depends on having a friendly relationship with your body. Without it you have to rely on external regulation—from medication, drugs like alcohol, constant reassurance, or compulsive compliance with the wishes of others. Do not let anyone look down upon you because you are young. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Preserve in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
White Man’s Shoes—the Most Talkative Men of their Time
Fear of Danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than Danger itself, when apparent to the Eyes; and we find the Burden of Anxiety greater, by much, than the Evil which we are anxious about. The courage as well as cowardice of fools proceeds from not knowing what is or what is not the proper object of fear; we may account for the extreme hardiness of some men in the same manner as for the terrors of children at a bugbear. The child knows not but that the bugbear is the proper object of fear, the blockhead knows not that a cannonball is so. Fear brings one into more dangers than the caution that goes along with it delivers one form. Something must be done by a man who refuses a challenge to let a challenger see that he has better motives than fear for a refusal. Parents who never showed their love, complain of want of natural affection in their children; children who never showed their duty, complain of want of natural feeling in their parents; lawmakers who find both so miserable that their affections have never had enough of life’s Sun to develop them, are loud in their moralizings over parents and children too, and cry that the very ties of nature are disregarded. When applied to the purposes of indulgence and debauchery, opium rends the nerves, destroys the strength, weakens the intellect, and undermines life. However, fear not to use its virtues in the rime of need, for the wise man warms him by the same firebrand with which the madman burneth the tent. The straight warp of necessity, not to be swerved from its official course—its every alternating vibration, indeed, only tending to that; freewill still free to ply its shuttle between given threads; and chance, though restrained in its play within the right lines of necessity, and sideways in its motions modified by freewill, though thus prescribed to by both, chance by turns rules either, and has the last featuring blow at events.
The sky looks ever so deep when you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before. And how far a body can hear on the water such nights! I heard people talking at the ferry land. I heard what they said, too, every word of it. God’s own presence is felt lingering yet, as if, in love with his own work, he stayed to touch it again—creating new charms in multiple duration. Prove to a man that his will is governed by something outside of himself, and you have lost all hold on his moral and religious nature. There is nothing bad men want to believe so much as that they are governed by necessity. Necessities usually are odious. However, women meet them. Men evade them and shirk them. To be reduced to necessity is to be wicked; for necessity is not only the temptation, but is such a temptation as human nature is not empowered to resist. Why should a man want to be better than his neighbors? Let him be thankful is he is no worse. My friends, we are now in the mansions of the rich and great. Why are we now in the mansions of the rich and great, my friends? Is it because we are invited? Because we are invited? Because we are bidden to feast with them, because we are bidden to rejoice with them, because we are bidden to play the lute with them, because we are bidden to dance with them? No. Then why are we here, my friends? Air we in possession of a sinful secret, and doe [sic] we require corn, and cranberry juice, and oil—or, what is much the same thing, money—for the keeping thereof. Probably so, my friends. The most innocent echo has an impish mockery in it when it follows a gravely persistent speaker. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of the outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Incomprehensible Torture
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…Live the questions now. Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your human population, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (Jehovah, Allah). The ideal light that you kindle is flame in my mind, which is more brilliant than rosy dawn, stronger than sunshine, more interesting than norther lights. The body keeps the score: If the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera (the internal organs in the body), in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching emotions, in autoimmune disorders and skeletal/muscular problems, and if mind/body/visceral communication is the royal road to emotion regulation, this demands a radical shift in our therapeutic assumptions. Not being seen, not being known, and having nowhere to turn to feel safe is devastating at any age, but it is particularly destructive for young children, who are still trying to find their place in the World. This is a difficult concept for many people to understand. The common response to distress is to seek out people we like and trust to help us and give us the courage to go on. We may also calm down by engaging in a physical activity like walking or going for a swim. We start learning these ways of regulating our feelings from the moment someone feeds us when we are hungry, covers us when are cold, or gently holds us when we are hurt or scared.
However, if no one has ever looked at you with loving eyes or broken out in a smile when they see you; if no one has rushed to help you (but instead said: Stop crying, or I will give you something to cry about), then you need to discover other ways of taking care of yourself. You are likely to experiment with anything—drugs, alcohol, binge eating, or cutting—that offers some kind of relief. People who suffer from trauma and neglect experience an extreme disconnection from the body. Some people cannot feel whole areas of their bodies. Their sensory perceptions simply were not working. People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often have trouble putting the picture together. When our senses become muffled, we no longer feel fully alive. Some people are surrounded by all that can render life happy and agreeable, still the faculty of enjoyment and of feeling is wanting…Each sense, each part of their proper self, is as it were separated from them and can no longer afford any feeling; this impossibility seems to depend upon a void which the victimized person feels in the front of their head, and due to the diminution of the sensibility over the whole surface of their body, it seems that they never actually reach for objects which they touch. All of this would be a small matter enough, but for its frightful result, which is that of the impossibility of any other kind of feeling and of any sort of enjoyment, although they experience a requirement and desire of them that renders their lives an incomprehensible torture. Many find themselves feeling increasingly encumbered and limited by the interpretations and labels they have accumulated over the years. Rather than feeling more connected with other people and all of life, people who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) feel more fragmented and self-absorbed. These people require space and freedom so they can recognize their fantasies, wishes, requirements, and so forth. The existence and inherent value of this subjective individuality is often taken for granted.
Apparently Everyone is Waiting on the AC Transit Bus 54 to Fruitvale
From your words, I can hear a good heart beating strongly and your ideal is glittering. If we understand that traumatized children and adults get stuck in stand your ground or quickly escape and in chronic shut-down, how do we help them to deactivate these defensive maneuvers that once ensured their survival? Dear friend, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. However, rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God (Jehovah, Allah, LORD) rests on you. Do not be ashamed, but praise God (Jehovah, Allah, LORD) that you bear that name. Some gifted people who work with trauma survivors know how to do this intuitively. My dad used to walk around the house with a brightly colored beach ball, and when he saw his kids were angry or frozen in their bedrooms, he would flash them a big smile. We rarely responded. Then, a little later, he would return and accidentally drop his ball close to where we were sitting. As he leaned over to pick it up, my dad would nudge the colorful ball gently towards us, then we would push it back in return. Gradually, he got a back, back, forth, and forth going and before long you would see smiles on all our faces. Man is always yearning for life, and even suffering from the biggest frustration or setback you should not despair, but should ignite the fire of hope for life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 3
The civilization of youth is the civilization of struggles, which struggles with the times and experience. Youth is the king, spring and essence of one’s life—as the encouragement to us all. From simple, rhythmically attuned movements, Dad had created a small, safe place where the social-engagement system could begin to reemerge. In the same way, severely traumatized people may get more out of simply helping to arrange chairs before a meeting or joining others in tapping out a musical rhythm on the chair seats than they would from sitting in those same chairs, like they are waiting AC Transit bus 54 to Fruitvale, and discussing the failures in their life. One thing is certain: Yelling at someone who is already out of control can only lead to further dysregulation. Just as your dog cowers if you shout and wags his tail when you speak in a high singsong, we humans respond to harsh voices with fear, anger, or shutdown and to playful tones by opening up and relaxing. I love you for your absolute sincerity. Thank you for being that something of extraordinary value in my life. Thinking of you fills me with energy. We simply cannot help but respond to these indicators of safety or danger. #RandolphHarris 2 of 3
Sadly, our educational system, as well as many of the methods that profess to treat trauma, tend to bypass this emotional-engagement system and focus instead on recruiting the cognitive capacities of the mind. Despite the well-documented effects of anger, fear, and anxiety on the ability to reason, many programs continue to ignore the requirement to engage the safety system of the brain before trying to promote new ways of thinking. The last things that should be cut from school schedules are chorus, physical education, recess, and anything else involving movement, play, and joyful engagement. When children are oppositional, defensive, numbed out, or enraged, it is also important to recognize that such bad behavior may repeat action patterns that were established to survive serious threats, even if they are intensely upsetting or off-putting. #RandolphHarris 3 of 3
Is someone Pulling the Roulard over your Eyes?
For our theoretical explanation of the nature of wit, harmless wit must be of greater value to us than tendency-wit and shallow wit more than profound wit. Harmless and shallow plays on words present us the problem of wit in its purest form, because of the good sense therein and because it has no tendency nor underlying philosophy to confuse the judgment. With such material our understanding can make further progress. At the end of a dinner to which I had been invited, a pastry called Roulard was served; it was a culinary accomplishment which presupposed a good deal of skill on the part of the cook. “Is it home-made?” asked one of the guest. “O, yes,” replied the host, “it is a Home-Roulard” (Home Rule). As I remember, this improvised joke delighted all the guests and made us laugh. In this case, as in countless others, the feeling of pleasure of the hearer cannot have originated from the tendency or the thought-content of the wit; so we are forced to connect the feeling of pleasure with the technique of wit. The technical means of wit which we have described, such as condensation, displacement, indirect expression, etc., have therefore the faculty to produce a feeling of pleasure in the hearer, although we cannot as yet see how they acquired that faculty. By such easy stages we get the second axiom for the explanation of wit; the first one states that the character of wit depends upon the mode of expression.
Let us remember also that the second axiom has really taught us nothing new. It merely isolates a fact that was already contained in a discovery which we made before. For we recall that whenever it was possible to reduce the wit by substituting for its verbal expression another set of words, at the same time carefully retaining the sense, it not only eliminated the witty character but also the laughableness that constitutes the pleasure of wit. We are taught above all by an observation not to put aside tendency wit when we are investigating the origin of the pleasure n wit. The pleasurable effect of harmless wit is usually of a moderate nature; all that can be expected to produce in the hearer is a distinct feeling of satisfaction and a slight ripple of laughter; and as we have shown by fitting examples at least a part of this effect is due to the thought-content. The sudden wit without tendency. As the technique may be identical in both, it is fair to assume that by virtue of its purpose, tendency-wit has at its disposal sources of pleasure to which harmless wit has no access. It is not easy to survey wit-tendencies. Wherever wit is not a means to its end, i.e. harmless, it puts itself in the service of but two tendencies which may themselves be untied under one viewpoint; it is either hostile wit serving as an aggression, satire, or defense, or it is obscene wit serving as a sexual exhibition.
Again, it is to be observed that the technical for of wit—be it a word- or thought-witticism—bears no relation to these two tendencies. We all know what is meant by a smutty joke. It is the intentional bringing into prominence of sexual facts or relations through speech. It must be added that the smutty joke is directed toward a certain person who excites one sexually, and who becomes cognizant of the speaker’s excitement by listening to the smutty joke, and thereby in turn becomes sexually excited. Instead of becoming sexually excited the listener may reaction to the smutty joke with shame and embarrassment, which merely signifies a reaction against the excitement and indirectly an admission of the same. The smutty joke was originally directed against an individual and may be comparable to an attempt at seduction. If a man tells or listens to obscene jokes in male society, the original situation, which cannot be realized on account of social inhibitions, is there by also represented. Whoever laughs at a smutty joke does the same as the spectator who laughs at sexual aggression. The sexual element which is at the basis of the obscene joke comprises more than that which is peculiar to both genders, and goes beyond that which is common to both genders, it is connected with all these things that cause shame, and includes the whole domain of the excrementitious. However, third person, who now as a listener is bribed by the easy gratification of his own libido. It is curious that common people so thoroughly enjoy such smutty talk, and that it is a never-lacking activity of cheerful humor.
Deliverance Promised for Little Boy Blue
God implants in the hearts of his pupils a desire to advance his ends, but human agents are compelled to employ natural means. There are people who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. What God says is best, is best, though all the people in the World are against it. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. All of the little signs we instinctively register during a conversation—the muscle shifts and tensions in the other person’s face, eye movements and pupil dilation, pitch and speed of the voice—as well as the fluctuation in our own inner landscape—salivation, swallowing, breathing, and heart rate—are linked by a single regulatory system. All of the function listed above are product of the synchrony between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS): the sympathetic, which acts as the body’s accelerator, and the parasympathetic, which serves as its brake. These are the reciprocals that the English naturalist and geologist, Charles Robert Darwin, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution spoke of. And working together, they play an important role in managing the body’s energy flow, one preparing for its expenditure, the other for its conservation.
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for arousal, including the stand your ground or escape response. Almost two thousand years ago the Roman physician Galen gave it the name “sympathetic” because he observed that it functioned with the emotions (sympathos). The SNS moves blood to the muscles for quick action, partly by triggering the adrenal glands to squirt out adrenaline, which speeds up the heart rate and increases blood pressure. The second branch of the ANS is the parasympatheric (“against emotions”) nervous system (PNS), which promotes self-preservative functions like digestion and wound healing. It triggers the release of acetylcholine to put a brake on arousal, slowing the heart down, relaxing muscles, and returning breathing to normal. Feeding, shelter, and mating activities depend on the PNS. There is a simple way to experience these two systems for yourself. Whenever you take a deep breath, you activate the SNS. The resulting burst of adrenaline speeds up your heart, which explains why many athletes take a few short, deep breaths before starting competition. Exhaling, in turn, activates the PNS, which slows down the heart. One should pay particular attention to the exhalation, since deep, long breaths out help calm you down. As we breathe, we continually speed up and slow down the heart, and because of that the interval between two successive heartbeats is never precisely the same.
A measurement called heart rate variability (HRV) can be used to test the flexibility of this system, and good HRV—the more fluctuation, the better—is a sign that the brakes and accelerator in your arousal system are both functioning properly and in balance. We had a breakthrough when we acquired an instrument to measure HRV, and later we will talk about how HRV can be used to help treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Polyvagal Theory (Polyvagal refers to the many branches of the vagus nerve or the pneumogastric nerve—which connects numerous organs, including the brain, lungs, heart, stomach, and intestines), provided a more sophisticated understanding of the biology of safety and danger, one based on the subtle interplay between the visceral experiences of our own bodies and the voices and faces of the people around us. It explained why a kind face or a soothing tone of voice can dramatically alter the way we feel, It clarified why knowing that we are seen and heard by the important people in our lives can make us feel calm and safe, and why being ignored or dismissed can precipitate rage reactions or mental collapse. It helped us understand why focused attunement with another person can shift us out of disorganized and fearful states. Basically, we have to look beyond the stand your ground or defense methods and put social relationships front and center in our understanding of trauma. It is also suggested new approaches to healing that focus on strengthening the body’s system for regulating arousal are also helpful. Human beings are astoundingly attuned to subtle emotional shifts in the people (and animals) around them. Slight changes in the tension of the brow, wrinkles around the eyes, curvature of the lips, and angle of the neck quickly signal to us how comfortable, suspicious, relaxed, or frightened someone is.
Our mirror neurons register their inner experience, and our own bodies make internal adjustments to whatever we are ready to pounce on them or run away. When the message we receive from another person is “You are safe with me,” we relax. If we are lucky in our relationships, we also feel nourished, supported, and restored as we look into the face and eyes of the other. Our culture teaches us to focus on personal uniqueness, but at a deeper level we barely exist as individual organisms. Our brains are built to help us function as members of a tribe. We are part of that tribe even when we are by ourselves, whether listening to music by Paris Hilton, or that other people created, watching a Golden State Warriors basketball game at the Oracle arena or on television (our own muscles tensing as the players run and jump), or preparing a spreadsheet for a sale meeting (anticipating the boss’s reactions). Most of our energy is devoted to connecting with other. If we look beyond the list of specific symptoms that entail formal psychiatric diagnoses, we find almost all mental suffering involves either trouble in creating workable and satisfying relationships or difficulties in regulating arousal (as in the case of habitually becoming enraged, shut down, overexcited, or disorganized). Usually, it is a combination of both. The standard medical focus on trying to discover the right drug to treat a particular “disorder” tends to distract us from grappling with how our problems interfere with our functioning as members of our tribe. Every man, woman, and child will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty (Jehovah is the name some use) has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God (Jehovah) forever and ever.
The Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom
Why should a man so carelessly cast away himself, by giving heed to a stranger? God does not desire the spiritual death of a sinner, however, God’s justice cannot let His mercy operate for the comfort of one person, as the divine grace is not divined to space. The evil that takes false nobility, by grabbing itself in the royal magnificence of good, rise up and listen to me; you who feel secure will tremble. The scoundrel’s methods are wicked, he makes up evil schemes to destroy the humble with lies, even when the pleas of the needy is just. However, the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds (TheDeedle.com) he stands. In this silvery World, the white snowflakes are my missing and blessing for you. Wish you stretch out your hands and accept my best wishes. May the flower of happiness be fragrant in your future days. Without rhythm, there would be no poetry; without colours, could there be life? May Summer endow you with magnificent colors, boundless hopes and a bright future. A door just opened on a street—I, lost, was passing by—an instant’s width of warmth disclosed, and wealth, and company. While I was lost in the happy bustle which this announcement produced in my charming household, Ryan was at one with me in thinking with intensity of the castle. The case which has called him to Sacramento, California USA was not complicated enough to absorb all his attention, and he had the professional faculty of keeping a part of his mind free when its services were not required. Ryan recognized the fact that he was paying up, as there had always been a chance of his having to pay up, for the voluntary exclusions of his past.
The door as sudden shut, and I, Randolph, was passing by contrast most, enlightening misery. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar. In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror. It seems not inappropriate to mention here the other celebrated national games of the Greeks. The first and most distinguished were the Olympic, founded it was said by Jupiter himself. They were celebrated at Olympia in Elis. Vast numbers of spectators flocked to teem from every part of Greece, and from Asia, Africa, and Sicily. They were repeated every fifth year in midsummer, and counted five days. They gave rise to the custom of reckoning time and dating events by Olympiads. The first Olympiad is generally considered as corresponding with the year 776 Before Christ, so they predate the human Bible and possibly their God. The Pythian games were celebrated om the vicinity of Delphi, the Isthmian on the Corinthian isthmus, the Nemean at Nemea, a city of Argolis. The exercise in these games were of five sorts: running, leaping, wrestling, throwing the quoit, and hurling the javelin, or boxing. Besides these exercises of bodily strength and agility, there were contest in music, poetry, and eloquence. Thus these games furnishes poets, musicians, and authors the best opportunities to present their production to the public, and the fame of the victors was diffused far and wide.
The labyrinth from which Theseus escaped by the clew of Ariadne was built by Daedalus, a most skillful artificer It was an edifice with numberless winding passages and turnings opening to one another, and seeming to have neither beginning nor end, like the river Maeander, which returns on itself, and flows now onward, and now backward, in its course to the sea. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure houses, in undisturbed places of rest. Daedalus built the labyrinth for King Minos, but afterwards lost the favor of the king, and was shut up in a tower. He contrived to make his escape from the castle, but could not leave the island by sea, as the king kept strict watch on all the vessels and permitted none to sail without being carefully searched. “Minos may control the land and sea,” said Daedalus, “but not the regions of the air. I will try that way.” He next equipped his son in the same manner and taught him how to fly. Past events are dreams in memory. You are the only being to imagine me. The waterdrops on green leaves are my tears of missing. My son, I charge you to keep at moderate height, for if you fly too low the damp will clog your wings, and if too high the heat will melt them. Keep near me and you will be safe. You will see those arrogant people no more, those people of an obscure speech, with their strange, incomprehensible tongue.
Secrets and Lies—Dinner at Steak ‘N Shake and the Chain of Command
The will is placed in the soul, and who can enter there but he that created the soul? What are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God? When your judgments come upon the Earth, the people of the World will learn righteousness. Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprighteness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the LORD. O LORD, your hand is lifted high, however, they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them. My love falls into your sea, splashing a beam of blue moonlight, and this moonlight floats my heart. Your love-lit eyes are like sparkling stars, dispelling loneliness from my heart. Wish you a bright future and not forget me. If life is a flower, love is the honey of the flower. May your future be as beautiful as flower and as sweet as honey. In that day, the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people. He will be a spirit of justice to who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth. Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To child(ren) weaned from their milk to those just taken from the day school?
I felt a clearing in my mind as if my brain had split; I tried to match it, seam by seam, but could not make them fit. The thought behind I strove to join unto the thought before, but sequence raveled out of reach like balls upon the floor. These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore, once more, I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish. The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have eyes for evil will be cut down—those who with a word make a man out to be guilt, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice will be vanquished. Woe to the obstinate children, to those who carry out plans that are not mine forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. However, Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace. Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace. Who has not found the Heaven below will fail of it above. God’s residence is next to mine, His furniture is love. Are friends delight or pain? Could bounty but remain, riches were good.
Fate slew him, but he did not drop; she felled—he did not fall—impaled him on her fiercest stakes—he neutralized them all. She stung him, sapped his firm advance, however, when her worst was done, and he unmoved, regarded her, acknowledged him a man. Finite to fail, but infinite to venture. For the one Albatross that struts the shore many’s the gallant, overwhelmed creature nodding in navies nevermore. Who never wanted, –maddest joy remains to him unknown; the banquet of abstemiousness surpasses that of wine. Within its hope, though yet ungrasped desire’s perfect goal, no nearer, least reality should disenthrall thy soul. The LORD will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail. The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria; with his scepter he will strike them down. For wise and good reasons, God made the knowledge of Himself scarce any otherwise attainable by us, than that of the existence of other beings absent to sense. The devil may work against us, but God sense us men when we want them. The high official gave their orders to a middle class of functionaries and middle-ranking priest, whose task it was to ensure that their superiors’ orders were carried out by such specialists as soldiers, scribes, junior priests, craftsmen and artists, who were paid for their services not in money but in food and other goods. Egyptian society had a distinct hierarchic structure that is often symbolized by a pyramid. Titular owner of all the lands, quarries, and mines in Egypt, head of government, supreme commander of the army, chief of the priesthood and sole intermediary between the gods and mankind, the pharaoh was all powerful.
The Winchester Mystery House
Those who tour The Winchester Mystery House will discover a beautiful mansion where ghostly hound howl occurs on stormy nights. This is one of Santa Clara’s oldest homes where spirits whisper to guests. Come and experience an architect’s dream house that turned into a home for the undead. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Randolph Harris II International Institute 