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Mystery and Magic at the Winchester Mansion
Whoever has been so fired in one’s own spirit by the overwhelming thought of the Divine Being as to kindle the flames of faith in their heart of their fellow humans, has thereby proved oneself to be a prophet of the living God; and thus every great historic religion dates from a genuine inspiration by the Eternal spirit. The Winchester mansion attracted a recorded 27.5 million visits in 1923, when the state of California only had a population of 4 million (3.991 million to be exact). On its best day, the mansion drew more than 700,000 visitors. That the mansion was built at all, however, was something of a miracle. To build it, the Sarah and William Winchester confronted a legion of obstacles, any one of which could have—should have—killed it long before it was completed. Together, the Winchesters’ and their architects had conjured a dream castle, whose grandeur and beauty exceeded anything each singly could have imagined. The house was furnished with the finest materials and was a showcase of Victorian elegance and taste. It is a maze of Victorian craftmanship—there were gold and silver-plated chandeliers, imported Tiffany art glass windows, German silver and bronze inlaid doors, Swiss molded bathtubs, rare precious woods like mahogany paneled walls, and rosewood and parquet floors. Cabinets and fireplaces made of teak, maple, oak and white ash. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Believe or not, the key to the massive front door was made of solid gold. Early in her residence, Mrs. Winchester planned a grand reception and sent hundreds of gold-engraved invitations to all the prominent valley residents. Visitors wore their best clothes and most subdued expressions, as if entering the great Winchester cathedral. Some wept at its beauty, others rejoiced as if they have a revelation of God, as the moonlight cascaded through the beautiful art glass windows. At that time, the Winchester mansion had 600 rooms, was 100,000 square feet, bisected with a ten-story tower and sat on 161 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens, with spouting fountains and blossoming orchards. A sumptuous midnight banquet was the main feature that night, guests were served beef bourguignon, tartiflette, and quiche on honeycomb platters of crystal glass, 12 inches in diameter made by Tiffany & Co, along with the table being set with a $800,000.00 solid-gold dinner service (which was counted at the end of the night to make sure every piece was put away in one of the mansion’s six huge safes). The dinner was supported by a famous orchestra for added entertainment. The mansions was patrolled by a pack of ferocious Hell Hounds, plus, of course she had her staff or armed bodyguards. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The crowing feature of which was the wine. A 1787 Chateau Lafite, was served out of a Tiffany & Co. refresher set in handblown glass with a 68-ounce pitcher and of course, 13-ounce glasses. For dessert, they tasted a new snack called Cracker Jack and a new breakfast food called Shredded Wheat, and brought elegance and tradition to the table by serving the treats out of 12-inch harmony bowls made of crystal glass by Tiffany & Co. The mansion employed two hundred Egyptian and German employees, who were paid in gold coins. There are still more than 10,000 windows, nine kitchens, 47 fireplaces, which are all hand carved and no two alike. And while no one claimed to like gossip, girl, they gossiped about Mrs. Winchester more than any Wendy interview—and everyone enjoyed it. Talk begat rumors and as the years passed and new towers and gables rose behind the 16-foot hedge of Llanda Villa, the rumors grew to established legend. There were also twenty-five distinct Victorian guest houses on the property. Everything about the Winchester mansion was exotic and, above all, immense. Mrs. Winchester also had a sacred blue séance room, where her secret rendezvous with the spirits took place. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
The house was over a square mile, and some people were more impressed with the Winchester mansion, so much so that it eclipsed the tower of Alexandre Eiffel, Madison Square Garden. Mrs. Winchester is reported to have had dinner with Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Henry Adams, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Nikola Tesla, Jane Addams, Francis Ellingwood Abbot, and his wife but when President Theodore Roosevelt’s entourage passed, he expressed desire to visit the greatest event in the history of this country since the Civil War, at the World famous mansion, but at the great front door, our nation’s leader was more than astonished to be coldly told by the Butler, “Mrs. Winchester is not home!” The Winchester mansion was one of the first in the World to utilize wood insulation. Mrs. Winchester used brass cornerplates on many stairways to prevent dust pocket, and she invented an inside crank to open and close the outside shutters. Her 46 fireplaces were the first hinged iron drops for ashes and concealed wood boxes. The tier of tubs in her immense laundry had moulded-in wash boards. Mrs. Winchester also rode in regal splendor. First with a Victoria with livered coachman. Then a French Renault, a Buick Town-Car and two Pierce-Arrows, one done in stunning lavender and gold. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Mrs. Winchester had a remarkable memory and knew location of every piece of material in the mansion, even in the vast store-rooms. Some of the built-in innovations were decades ahead of the times. Annunciators installed in all rooms could signal her whereabouts to the servants. Illuminating gas was manufactured by a new process directly on the grounds. She improvised a window catch patterned after the Winchester rifle trigger and trip-hammer. Mrs. Winchester was very strong minded and firm, but always fair and kind. Laziness, theft, gossip or revealed confidence met with instant dismissal. Something magical had occurred in that mansion, and it was beyond doubt, but darkness, too had touched the house. Scores of workers had been hurt or killed in building the dream, their families consigned to poverty (for looting the mansion). And a fire had killed more, and an assassin had allegedly gone on a rampage targeting members of elite classes. Worse had occurred, too, but these revelations emerged only slowly. A murdered had moved among the beautiful things the Winchesters had created and the mansion was so large that he would sneak in and out at night killing guests. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
Mr. Abbot’s young wife was drawn to the Winchester mansion by the prospect of business and she and many other young women had disappeared, last seen at the mile-long Winchester mansion. Later, Francis Abbot and his colleagues learned of the anguished letters describing daughters who had come to California and had fallen silent. The press speculated that scores of people must have disappeared within the building. After completing “The Syllogistic Philosophy,” Francis Abbot allegedly committed suicide at his wife’s grave. Even Lizzie Halliday was startled by what the fact that such grisly events could have gone undiscovered for so long, and people started to suspect that there really was supernatural activity going on inside of the Winchester mansion and that the Winchester family was being stalked and killed by ghost. Enough strange things began happening to people to make the claim seem plausible. For the supernaturally inclined, the death of the butler alone offered sufficient proof. America is every whit as sacred as Judea. God is as near to you and to me, as ever he was to Moses, to Jesus, or to Paul. Wherever a human soul has uttered its sincere and brave faith in the Divine, and this bequeathed to us the legacy of inspire words, there is the Holy Bible. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
Humans impose their own way of life on nature, and transforms it into something with a human shape. There are in consequence two levels of nature: an upper level of human nature and a lower level of physical nature. We are born into the latter World, but do not really belong to it. It is natural to people to be moral, civilized, and socially disciplined; it is unnatural to live like wild beasts. Human’s present relation to nature can hardly be expressed except by paradox. Certain human qualities, such as chastity, are natural, on the human level of nature. The nature God had originally planned for humans was that of the Golden Age or the Garden of Eden: this was lost at the Fall, but in some measure, is recreated by the disciplines of civilization, morality, religion, and the arts. People are subject to death, and on the physical level of nature there can be no more natural event than death. Yet death was not a part of the order originally planned for humans and in that context death is unnatural. Witchcraft, a perceived facility to summon evil spirits and demons to do harm to others, was linked to religion to the extent that the medieval Church had powers to punish those who dabbled in magic and sorcery. Its priests were able to exorcise those who had become possessed by malign spirits. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
During the 16th century, many people believed that witchcraft, rather than the workings of God’s will, offered a more convincing explanation of sudden and unexpected ill fortune, such as the death of a child, bad harvests, or the death of cattle. Witch-hunting became an obsession in some parts of the country. An estimated total 60,000 people were executed during the witch trials. Those accused of witchcraft were portrayed as being worshipers of the Devil, who engaged in such acts as malevolent sorcery at meetings known as Witches’ Sabbaths. In 1552, Parliament passed the Witchcraft Acts which defined witchcraft as a crime punishable by death. It was repealed five years later, but restored by a new Act in 1562. The circling of the immortal Heavenly bodies in the sky is the most eloquent symbol of the order and harmony of the nature that was originally intended for human beings. In 1736, Parliament passed an Act repealing the laws against witchcraft, but imposing fines or imprisonment on people who claimed to be able to use magical powers. At the level of society (or at least the groups of human beings that existed in the evolutionary past), religious belief promotes cooperation, mutual respect, and solidarity, and these features help the group to survive. God wants us to love our neighbors, as we love ourselves, which means show respect. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Faith Laughs at the Impossible
He fumbles at your spirit as players at the keys before they drop full music on; God loves with a great love the person whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible. Faith laughs at the impossible. Life with nothing, but material things and money is lonely, if no one really loves you and you have no real friends. People sit around smiling and talking and pretending to be good people, pretending to be worthy, and others play into the delusion because they temporarily are desirable due to success or money. However, when one uses people and takes all they can get from them and then forgets the individuals who helped them gain success, the same thing will happen to you. The friends that your money and newly found popularity has allowed you to rent will drain you faster than Jerry Brown’s Delta Twin tunnel project will drain the Sacramento River. And then when you are desolate and in need, your reputation will make people want nothing to do with you. While you smile and make people feel sorry for you, you can only work the system for so long. I am happy that I have learned to forgive people who have done me wrong because I do not want bitterness to poison my soul. However, even though I have forgiven some, I will never forget what these individuals did, and just because I have forgiven you, it does not mean that I like you—I simply let go of the pain I was holding on to. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11
Successful propagandists have succeeded because the doctrine they bring into form is that which their listeners have for some time felt without being able to shape. In my silence, I would love to forget, but restitution has not come quite yet and with one accord I keep pushing forth. I stretch my heat to heal some more. The soul changes and develops through time as it gains further self-determination and self-awareness. Forgiveness means to restore or give back, it is a restoration of oneself, which reinstates the originating bond and allows us to become present with love. Our belief that we are inherently sinful, a state of separation and alienation that seems beyond correction from Heaven or Earth, causes us to experience guilt over what we believe we have done and even more basically, who we believe we are. As a result of this sense of basic wrongness and wrongdoing, we will fear the punishment we are sure is forthcoming because that is deserved. We are seemingly helpless in the face of the basic anxiety and terror that inevitably accompany the belief in our own guilt. When we are mad, we are typically being blocked by something that has been placed in our way. People are unable to control the past or the future, but who remain firmly based in the present can manage their circumstances more effectively. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11
Forgiveness is a great gift. It releases the captive; the guilty sinner is set free from the penalty that was due. Understanding restores broken relationships and welcomes a fresh start, and extends a hand and a promise for some kind of future relationship. Conflicts do not mend themselves. People always want to give a situation time and see if the issue will clear up on its own. Yet, the offense will stay, until forgiveness is extended, processed and worked through in a healthy way. If one never goes through the process of forgiveness and release, the offense and pain will reoccur. However, there may be some situations where unconditional love is not the answer. Some offenses committed may dissolve a relationship forever. There are some shattering sins like abuse that can be so tragic and demoralizing that one may be wise to set boundaries around one’s life to stay away from the offender. God does ask us to forgive other people, but he does not want us putting ourselves in danger because one could suffer a life-threatening attack upon one’s life. Therefore, it is important to use great discernment and wisdom. Do not allow yourself to face situations that are so tragic and horrific that they could change one’s life forever. Loss of faith is ever one of the saddest results of sin. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11
Lies is lies. However they come, they did not ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round to the same. Sin is fun to some for a season and if they do not see negative consequences quickly, they will continue in their poor choices. Making others suffer with fresh pain and gaping wounds from being assaulted with sinful acts can alter the offender’s life also. Forgiveness may be granted, but the law of attraction still operates, often inflicting the ones involved with the assault great pain and loss. Some reaping goes dormant for a while, and then the consequences are revealed at a later time. By forgiving the offender, it releases us from the bondage to the dark side and pain. It enables us to let go of resentment, anger, anxiety, and stress. We are alive and we know it. Although self-awareness gives rise to unbridled awe and joy, it can also lead to the potentially overwhelming dread engendered by the realization that death is inevitable, that it can occur for reasons that can never be anticipated or controlled. Humanly constructed beliefs about reality shared by individuals in a group serve to manage the potentially paralyzing terror resulting from the awareness of death. Therefore, to provide meaning and value we bestow psychological equanimity in the face of death. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11
For a moment, think about dying. All the sentiments of Worldly grandeur vanish at that unavoidable moment which decides the destiny of humans. This should intensify one’s striving to protect and increase aspects of Worldviews and self-esteem that are conducive to one’s longevity. This reflecting on the conclusion of life also projects negative reactions towards those who violate cherished cultural values. Write down what you specifically think will happen to you when you die and once you are physically dead. Terror management theory serves a couple of psychological functions, it is a way of trying to increase an individual’s faith and supply a sense of personal worth that is attained by believing that one is living up to the cultural system’s standards and values. Many people are worried about the outcomes of their lives because they are not in a place where they feel secure, but when they see that they are doing all that they can and have increased their faith in God, it removes some anxiety because God made promises to provide for those who believe in him and are living righteous lives. Terror management theory is supposed to be a way to protect against fear of death and allowing, at the same time, creative expansion and development. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11
Love is faith, and faith, like a gathered flower, will ruthlessly live on. Let your life decision be governed by your own beliefs and values and feelings, your sense of who you really are and who you want to be, and not social engineering designed to scare or shame one out of one’s single status. Loneliness should not be equated with a fear of being loved. Everyone has times when they are alone. Being alone and lonely, and the fear of being isolate for the rest of one’s life can make an individual feel insecure, anxious, and depressed. However, some people accept being alone and realizes that they are unloved and will probably spend their life alone until someone goes out of their way to show compassion and altruism towards this individual, and that action awakens the persons heart and makes the individual value humanity and people more. It also restores their faith and makes them want to get to know people because they see that there are kind people in the World. Also, a person can enjoy their own company. Loneliness can be a response to a specific situation or event, such as the death or extended absence of a loved one. Or it can occur when there is a relationship where there is anger and resentment or a lack of loving communication. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11
One of the commonest of daily experiences is that of our recognizing our friends. A less common, though still fairly familiar, experience is the decision that a certain person is or is not the person he claims to be. The problem of personal identity is that of clarifying the principles beings these indispensable processes of reidentification. To reidentify someone is to say or imply that in spite of a lapse of time and the changes it may have wrought, the person before us now is the same person we knew before. When are we justified in saying such a thing? We are never justified because sameness and change are, in themselves, incompatible. It is almost paradoxical to say that something has changes and yet is still the same. There is nothing special about the case of person in this connection, except, of course, that we might, as persons ourselves, be expected to be more concerned about this case or might be expected to have access to some of the facts needed to deal with it. One set of such facts is the private set of thoughts, feelings, and images that each of us has, and rapid are the changes in them which our identity has contend. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11
All thinking is merely detour from the memory of gratification (taken as a purposive idea) to the identical cathexis (concentration of emotional energy on an object or idea) of the same memory, which is to be reached once more by the path of motor experiences. Thought must concern itself with the connecting-paths between ideas without allowing itself to be misled by their intensities. However, it is obvious that condensations of ideas and intermediate or compromise-formations are obstacles to the attainment of the identity which is aimed at; by substituting one idea for another they swerve away from the path which would have led onward from the first idea. Such procedures are, therefore, carefully avoided in our secondary thinking. It will readily be seen, moreover, that the pain-principle, although at other times it provides the thought-process with its most important clues, may also put difficulties in its way in the pursuit of indentity (memory) of thought. The pain-principle is this: If you can understand why and how pain works to keep your from organizing your life, then you can address it head-on and create a plan for overcoming it. True faiths rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the one who cannot lie. It is enough that God has said it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11
Hence, the tendency of the thinking process must always be to free itself more and more from the exclusive regulation by the pain-principle, and to restrict the development of affect through the work of thought to the very minimum which remains effective as a signal. This refinement in functioning is to be achieved by a fresh hyper-cathexis, effected with the help of consciousness. However, we are aware that this refinement is seldom completely successful, even in normal psychic life, and that our thinking always remains liable to falsification by the intervention of the pain-principle. Those of us who are avoiding organizing because it is painful will never make lasting changes in our environment or life. We will continue to peck away at the problem, only to find ourselves stuck in the same self-defeating cycle of disorder. The fulfillment of these wishes will no longer produce an affect of pleasure, but one of pain; and it is just this conversion of affect that constitutes the essence of what we call repression. The memories from which the unconscious wish evokes a liberation of affect have never been accessible to the preconscious (Pcs), and for that reason this liberation cannot be inhibited. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11
It is precisely on account of this generation of affect that these ideas are now accessible even by the way of the preconscious thoughts to which they have transferred the energy of wishes connected with them. True and lasting order does not come without going through the struggle against self that leads to change. Without learning about ourselves, becoming aware of our habits, and facing the costs of our disorganization, we cannot emerge from our state of disorder. As we struggle through our process we gain skills and make new commitments to establish and protect our quality of life. Once we have gone through the pain, we do not particularly want to repeat it, so we become more committed to maintenance. The blessing of the pain principle is that you will emerge from your process with greater self-awareness and newfound skills to create and maintain order. We have developed our psychology on our own responsibility. Perception then transforms into spiritual vision. This evolution evokes a supportive response from the highest levels of consciousness for it takes great power to overcome the gravity of the Earthly life and its habits of perception. The act of worship is an entreaty and invitation to these higher energies for assistance in one’s spiritual endeavor. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11
Faith is living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that an individual could stake one’s future on it a thousand times. Take the limits off of God and release your faith in uncommon ways. God is extraordinary, and believe that he will increase your health, prosperity, and happiness, taking you forward into the fullness of your destiny. There is an inner light that shines through the mist of human beliefs and frees individuals from the bondage of fear and limitation. Walk with God, and learn all the ways of life and freedom. Travel with God from this day, and be united in the perfect bonds of everlasting unity. And the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the spirit of message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge of the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, at another gifts of healing by that one spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another interpretation of tongues. All these are the one of one and the same spirit, and God gives them to each one as he determines. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11
Is the Historic Goldfield Hotel Haunted?
Perhaps it is not the souls of the dead, wandering in another dimension, but rather beings from other planets who are trying to establish a relationship with Earthlings but who, because they are made of an intangible matter, can easily be confused with disembodied spirits, which essentially, they are. Mental events may be not causes of physical events but only symptoms of underlying physical events that are the real causes. Despite progress, we are at the present far from understanding the brain. Mental events can have effects either on other mental events or on physical events. However, these effects have been confined within the person (although these mental effects might incidentally result in further effects outside the person. Cases where a mental event of one person directly affects the thought of another person or directly affect some body other than his or her own would be cases of parapsychological phenomena—telepathy and psychokinesis, respectively. Perception nevertheless normally gives us knowledge of material objects and properties. With a few fairly obvious test, like touching and looking closely, or using the evidence of other percipients, we can establish certainty or else correct the first sight or hearing. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
In the ghost town of Goldfield, Nevada, USA there is reportedly a haunted hotel. The town Goldfield was born when gold was unearthed in 1902. In 1908, the Goldfield hotel was built on the site of a hotel that had previously burned down. The four-story, 154 room hotel cost an estimated cost of $10,000,000.00 (adjusted for inflation). The Goldfield hotel was so luxurious, boasting of mahogany paneling, crystal chandeliers, black leather upholstery, carpets, rooms with private bathrooms. There were gilded columns throughout the hotel, and gold-leaf ceiling, and besides the Winchester mansion, the Goldfield had one of the first Otis elevators. The Goldfield was so fancy that they imported chefs from Europe and was considered one of the most luxurious hotels in America. It appealed to society’s elite, making it an instant success. Champagne is said to have flowed down the front steps in the opening ceremony. Shortly after the hotel was built, it was sold to mining mogul George Wingfield, the owner of the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company. George Wingfield was a multimillionaire by the age of 30, a power political figure, and owned a chain of banks, several ranches, and many other hotels. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Reportedly, there are several ghosts at the historic hotel. The infamous is a lady named Elizabeth, and according to legend she was a beautiful woman, with long black hair, thin build and of European descent. She and George Wingfield had become romantically involved and she became pregnant. So, George allowed her to stay in the hotel in room 109, where she gave birth to a baby. One day, George overhead Elizabeth telling another man the baby was his and discovered that they had plans to marry. Later on that evening, he allegedly beat Elizabeth, chained her to a radiator, and took her baby away. Bloody, bruised, and with a broken spirit, Elizabeth kept screaming, “Where’s my baby, where my baby?” George eventually got tired of her crying and entered room 109 with a tied burlap sack, and threw it on the floor and replied, “Here’s your baby, bitch!” And left her in the room to die. People say that Elizabeth still paces the hallways to this very day, calling out to her child. Two more ghost who reportedly committed suicide on the third floor of their hotel rooms have also be spotted. One woman hanged herself, the other is a man who jumped to his death from the hotel. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The Goldfield is also supposedly haunted by a man called “The Stabber,” who attacks people who enter the kitchen with a large knife. And George Wingfield also makes his presence known in the antiquated hotel, people usually see him near the lobby and say when his apparition appears they smell cigar smoke, and cigar ashes are supposedly frequently found in a room on the first floor. Illusions, comprising illusion proper, hallucinations, and cases of the relativity of perception, have traditionally been the most important origin of the major problem of perception. Illusions show that perception is never absolutely certain, and the appearances we are aware of in illusions, especially hallucinations, cannot be identified with the real properties of objects and therefore but private objects of awareness, or sensa (indeed, all perception involved awareness of sense which in correct, or veridical, perception belong to the object or correspond to its properties). However, if you believe in ghost, you are not alone. Cultures all around the World believe inspirits that survive death to live in another realm. Millions of people believe. A recent Harris Poll found that 43 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The Goldfield Hotel still stands today. Over the years the hotel has changed hands several times, with each new owner promising to restore and reopen the historical property. A rancher from Carson City called Edgar “Red” Roberts bought the hotel for $360,000.00 USD in 2003. Mr. Roberts had plans to restore the bottom two floors of the hotel, which was supposed to cost an estimated $1 million, and reopen the hotel to the public. The plan was to include 40 guest rooms, a casino, and a café. However, to this day, the haunted Goldfield Hotel left looking spooky and in need of renovation. Many believed that to violate the Earth was dangerous because the Earth harbors ghost and spirits. Belief in underground spirits who sometimes assist and pestered miners is widespread. There is an unsettling suggestion that the ground beneath the Goldfield hotel is in fact riddled with tunnels and crawl-spaces, and there is a trap door in the hotel that opens to a graveyard, and the trapdoors as well are featured in the mines. This is good use, either against thieves, or prying knaves, who may come at unreasonable times to see any work, and thereby take the occasion to do the individual damage. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
So, the calls to the ghost are a sort of debunking of both the ghost’s authority and the authority of illusion. The discarding of illusion, the effect is still frightening. People have tried to (or claimed to) communicate with spirits for ages; in the Victorian era, it was fashionable for the upper echelons to hold seances in their parlors after tea and crumpets with friends and spiritual advisers. Many people are convinced that they have experienced something uncanny, whether at the Goldfield hotel or somewhere else—something inexplicable, extraordinary, mysterious, bizarre, or eerie. In such cases and in hallucinations one has to admit that one seems to see an object quite different from that present to the sense. Perception is more than just sense experience, for we identify and interpret what is given (that is, it involves inference from implicit data, and the conclusion of such an inference must be a judgment). Perceiving, usually tends to be a private mental activity or process because it is not an overt one, is not an activity at all and this provides no evidence of a mental World. However, other researchers claim that the reason ghosts have not been proven to exists is that we simply do not have the right technology to find or detect the spirit World. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
The Heaven Below and the Heaven Above—I speculate No More
We may summarily reject all miracles, prophecies, narratives of angels and demons, and the like, as simply impossible and irreconcilable with the known and universal laws which govern the course of events. There is a sympathetic power in all states of mind, and they who have reached the deep secret of eternal rest have a strong power of imparting calm to others. His absence broke her heart. She had fallen in love. His visits thrilled her, his departures destroyed her. She was perplexed—had seemed to be conducting a courtship and even urged her to abandon her studies and run with him to Shanghai, China, but now he was gone and his letters came only rarely. She gladly would have left London under the flag of marriage, but not under the reckless terms he proposed. He would have made an excellent husband. He was affectionate in ways she rarely encountered in men, and he was adept at business. She missed his warmth and touch. As she gazed out of her window and the sparkling stars, she said to herself, “Let me not mar that perfect dream by an auroral stain, but so adjust my daily night that it will come again.” #RamdolphHarris 1 of 7
He was credulous inasmuch as the miracles, as they are narrated, cannot, in the light of our modern knowledge of the uniformity of nature, be accepted as historical facts. Protagonists of the supernatural, and opponents too, take it for granted that well all possess some natural (as oppose to revealed) way of knowing that and where the unassisted potentialities of nature (as opposed to a postulated supernature) are more restricted than the potentialities which, in fact, we find to be realized or realizable in the Universe around us. We must be careful not to overpsychologize our poltergeist agents. As many critics of psychoanalysis have complained, it is easy to find psychopathology and stress conditions anywhere one looks for them. Now that parapsychologist expect to find psychopathology, it is not surprising that they do find it in these cases. If poltergeist outbreaks are simply due to young people with repressed hostility who are under psychological stress, we should expect to see whole school buildings come crashing down by the dozens each year around finals time. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
At any given time, there are probably hundreds of thousands of young people who have more severe psychological disturbances or who are enduring far greater stress than any of the poltergeist agents who have been studied. The real question is, what are the catalysts that set off so very few individuals, turning them into poltergeist agents? What is it in their psychological (or physical) makeup that can cause such gross violations of the laws of physics? It must be work effected in a manner different from the common and regular mode of providence, by the interposition either of God himself, or some intelligent agent superior to human beings. The occurrence of poltergeist is to serve for the proof or evidence of some particular doctrine, or in attestation of the authority of some particular person, then surely poltergeist agents must be conceived in this way. It is only and precisely insofar as it is something really transcendent—something, so to speak, which nature by itself could not contrive—that such an occurrence could force us to conclude that some supernatural power is being revealed. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Poltergeist activities are not essentially overridings, but signs. If a sign is to signify to the unbeliever, then there must by some means independent of the doctrinal system itself by which the signs may be identified and read. It is necessary to insist on two fact that seem to be often overlooked—namely, that part of the price which must be paid for this method of interpretation is the sacrifice of the use of these incidents as independent evidence of the genuinely revelatory character of the doctrines; and that such a sacrifice presumably entails the rejection of sensible operations, which, being above the comprehension of the spectator, and contrary to the established course of nature, is taken to be the divine. Nature is the will of God, and hence that a portent is not contrary to nature, but contrary to our knowledge of nature (Portentum ergo fit non contra naturam, sed contra quam est nota natura). Neuroelectric discharges become blocked in the body and are instead reflected in the surrounding environment. When the agents cannot deal with disturbances in the traditional way, such as headaches, vomiting, and seizures, then the poltergeist are activated within the agent and the energy is transferred to something in the environment that reflects the disturbance that the body is trying to resolve. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
People who are basically possessed or haunted by a poltergeist indicate signs of abnormality in their brainstem, and it may be associated with alterations in brain structure and function. There is no species of reasoning more common, more useful, and even necessary to human life than that derived from the testimony of people and the reports of eye-witnesses and spectators. Yet all testimony must ultimately be subject to assessment by the supreme court of experience. Certainly, there are a number of circumstances to be taken into consideration in all judgments of this kind. Yet the ultimate standard by which we determine all disputes is always derived from the experience and observation. The weight of the testimony required must depend on the apparent credibility of the events reported. If the events are in some way marvelous and rare, then the testimony for them has to be treated with more circumspection than the witness to everyday occurrences. A poltergeist agent is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a poltergeist, from the very nature of the fact, is as an entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
However, if there is sufficient historical evidence to establish that a poltergeist agent exists or there is real paranormal activity, like the universal eight-day eclipse that had occurred in January 1600, then our present philosophers [scientists], instead of doubting the fact, ought to receive it as certain; and ought to search for the causes whence it might be derived. Therefore, it seems more likely that the poltergeist are not of a violation of the laws of nature, but rather, and more weakly, of violation of the usual course of nature. Divine companionship—I have an inner friend who walks and talks with me daily. He is not afar off, but is within me, a constant companion. I shall never become lonely, for my friend is always near. I have but to speak and he answers. Before ever my lips spoke, he told me of his love. Oh, my kind friend, how dear to me is your presence. The spirit within me is my friend. Eternal peace, undisturbed and quiet, I feel you calm. I would enter your gates with joy and live in peace in your house. Eternal and blessed presence, illumine my mind and command my will that my soul may be refreshed and that my life may be renewed. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
One blessing had I, than the rest so larger to my eyes that I stopped gauging, satisfied, for this enchanted size. It is the limit of my dream, the focus of my prayer—a percent sustaining bliss contended as despair. I knew no more of want or cold, phantasms both become, for this new value in the soul, supremest Earthly sum. The Heaven below the Heaven above obscured with ruddier hue. Life’s latitude leant over-full; the judgment perished, too. Why joys so scantily disburse, why paradise defer, why flood are served to us in bowls—I speculate no more. Lover of my soul, and keeper of my spirit, none can separate us, for we are one. So shall your wisdom guide me, your presence dwell within me, your love keep me and your life envelop me now and forever for. It is forever calm and peaceful. It is, therefore, a principle of complete satisfaction which knows no unsatisfied desire. The only appetite or desire of Infinite Mind is for the complete manifestation of its own constructive contemplation. My life is a part of the Universal Life; its peace, calm and satisfaction are manifesting in and through me now in absolute perfection. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Deprivation Dwarfism
All hours and all seasons are alike to the genuine lover of nature. The Kingdom of God is also revealed through you and me. If we have faith, we will be able to accomplish great tasks, and nothing will be impossible. Faith centers us in God’s mind. However, if we focus on how the picture looks and only consider our means and resources, but not God, we limit our blessings to that which has already been accomplished, and few miracles will be manifested. The person who prefers the highroad (virtue) to a more reputable way of making one’s fortune, does it because one imagines the one easier than the other. When, through intuition, faith finds its proper place under Divine Law, there are no limitations, and what are called miraculous results follow. Measurements of life should be proportioned rather to the intensity of the experience than to its actual length. Resources do not depend upon gross amounts, but the proportions of spendings to takings. If we are to have an active faith—the faith of God instead of merely a faith in God—our thought must be centered in the Universal mind of God. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
We are convinced that under God’s law all things are possible, if we only believe, and work in conformity with Godly ways. Such a faith does not spring full-glory into being, but it takes days, years, months, and decades to develop and it grows by knowledge and experience. No matter what seems possible to us, we must cling steadfastly to the knowledge that God is great, and God is all, underneath, above and round about. There is no place but the Universe; no limit but the limitless; no bottom but the bottomless. Miracles seem impossible, just because they break the laws of nature. A miracle is something which would never have happened had nature, as it were, been left to its own devices. A miracle can be worked only by God or by his specially deputed agents, and miracles have in fact occurred and they are legitimate and miraculous. They are a striking interposition of divine power by which the operations of the ordinary course of nature are overruled, suspended, or modified. Mental or spiritual treatment should bring into actual manifestation the health and happiness which are mankind’s normal and divine heritage. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
Such healing includes the emancipation of the mind from every form of bondage through a new concept of God, which causes the heart to beat with joy and happiness. Every problem is primarily mental, and the answer to all problems will be found in spiritual realization. Have a full sense of sacredness in your trust of the Lord; this means being confident and patient, which impels him to pour out his soul. This is the key stone to all spiritual progress as well as success in the World. It means letting go of resistance and finding the joy of going one hundred and one percent. Unpleasantness is due to resistance, and when resistance is let go, it is replaced by feelings of strength, confidence and joy. There will be a release of enormous energy, an emergence into an almost enlightened state in which all is happening of its own. One will experience a peace, a serenity, and an increased sense of security. Truth is only relative and not absolute. All truth is only a certain level of consciousness. For instance, to forgive is commendable, but at a later stage, one sees that there is actually nothing to forgive. This is an attitude of withdrawal of emotional entanglement in Worldly affairs. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
In a broad philosophical sense, every human being begins to die the very moment his or her life beings. Although everyone is inexorably marching toward his or her demise, the trek can be significantly hastened or slowed by factors which appear extraneous to that inevitable biological process. While certain forms of adult death occur abruptly and without precursors, most fatalities typically involve long period between onset of the illness, the appearance of symptoms, and eventual death. Certain forms of death, however, appear in a manner which tends to obscure this latter reality. For example, heart attacks often strike an individual suddenly, with few apparent warning signs, leading to the widespread illusion that the precursors of such attacks also developed rapidly. And yet, the opposite situation more closely approximated clinical reality. Typically, years before a heart attack occurs, the process of coronary atherosclerosis is already slowly placing the individual at greater and greater risk. While certain physical and behavioral factors have been singled out as contributors to the process of coronary atherosclerosis, by no means have the exact mechanisms been identified. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Nor is it at all clear exactly when coronary atherosclerosis begins, although it has been established that by age 50 most American males already have what the National Heart Institute has labeled moderately advanced coronary atherosclerosis. Coronary atherosclerosis is fatty deposits that can clog the arteries in the heart, which restricts the blood flow. They are made of cholesterol, fatty substances, cellular waste products, calcium and fibrin (a clotting material in the blood). Exactly how atherosclerosis begins or what causes it is not known, but some theories have been proposed. Many scientists believe plaque beings when an artery’s inner lining (called the endothelium becomes damaged. Three possible causes of damage are: elevated levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood, high blood pressure, and cigarette or drug smoke. Smoke has a big role in the growth of atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries, aorta, and arteries in the legs. It makes fatty deposits more likely to form and to grow bigger and faster. Eventually, it causes significant blockages. Pain in the chest or legs when you exert yourself is the usual symptom. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
The worst happens when plaques suddenly rupture, allowing blood to clot inside an artery. In the brain, this causes a stroke; in the heart, a heart attack. It seems possible that atherosclerosis, once viewed as a degenerative disease restricted to older people, may even begin during childhood. By late adolescence some people already have reached an advanced stage of this disease. Autopsies performed on U.S. service members killed on the battlefield during World War II revealed that a startling number of these young individuals, mostly in their early twenties, already had developed significant coronary atherosclerosis: their coronary arteries resembled those usually seen in men over 60 years of age. Even now, the reasons for their premature development of this disease have not been clarified, in part because the necessary research studies have not been conducted. Even today, a large number of young people without symptoms have evidence of atherosclerosis. A study shows 52 percent of people have some atherosclerosis. It is present in 85 percent of those older than 50, and 17 percent of teenagers have it. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
No concept is more central to psychiatric and psychological thinking than the belief that human personality and emotional development are significantly influenced by childhood experiences. It is possible that in addition to childhood experiences, that blood pressure, diet, and exercise regiments can possibly be linked to the development of coronary heart disease. Excessive drinking, stress, smoking, not eating fruits and vegetables, not exercising regularly, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and loneliness are linked to coronary heart disease. In a report entitled “Deprivation Dwarfism,” Frederick II, ruler of Sicily in the thirteenth century, believed that all people were born with a common language, such as Hebrew. In order to test his theory, he took newborn infants away from their natural mothers at birth and gave them to foster mothers. He ordered these foster mothers to care for these babies physically, but never to speak to them, so that he might learn what language they would naturally speak. The experiment was, however, a failure—all of the children died. For they could not live without petting and the joyful faces and loving words of their foster mothers. Childhood experiences are vitally important to the ultimate development of adult personality. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
The psychiatric research clearly indicates that bereavement, divorce, sudden loss of love and lack of love, chronic human loneliness are by no means felt only by adults. Children suffer from the loss of love and lack of love perhaps more than adults do. There can be extensive physical, emotional, and intellectual damage that can result from a child’s separation from its parents (especially from the mother) for extended periods of time, particularly if this separation occurs in the first few years of life. Marasmus, or physical wasting away, is usually caused by infants who suddenly lost their mothers. Some infants who suddenly lost their parents would refuse to eat and would eventually die when forced fed. Anne Winchester was born 15 June 1866 and died 24 July 1866 from marasmus. Perhaps she died at a young age from the stress she endured from being haunted by the ghost of the Winchester rifle. It is said that babies pick up on their parents’ emotions also. Then William Wirt Winchester passed away in 1881 at the young age of 44, leaving his wife Sarah Winchester nearly $600,000,000.00, adjusted for inflation. Sarah Winchester used this money to build the beautiful Winchester mansion and lived to be 82. That shows life is extended when you focus on something you love. The rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
That Wretched, Rash, Intruding Fool, Farewell! I Took Him for Better!
In human nature, the Scriptures center on the fact that so many different interpretations are possible and are accepted by so many different sincere believers. Traditional religion, therefore, is not infallible but only probable, as is all history. Reason and tolerance are the only cures for vindication of human nature. In all behavior there occurs an unrestricted concomitance of physical and physical events. Hence, each behavior episode is susceptible of interpretation in both physiological and psychological terms. There are two stories to be told, each throwing light on the other, but neither story as such makes the other what it is. The twofold story is really about one natural order of events. Moreover, that one order of events has a progressive natural history designated by the word evolution. An adequate description of this process requires us to recognize that evolution has not been uniformly continuous, as Darwin believed, but has involved from time to time major discontinuities or critical turning point. These turning points are marked by the abrupt appearance of certain phenomena called emergents. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
An emergent supervenes upon what already exists, arises out of what already exists, is something genuinely new in the history of the Universe, occurs in a manner that is unpredictable in principle since it conforms to no general laws, and cannot be naturalistically explained but must be accepted with natural piety. The successive emergent in the panorama of evolution mark stages of progress from lower to higher. In picturing the totality of nature, we have a pyramidal scheme. The full significance of emergent evolution cannot be grasped, however, as long as one remains at the level of a philosophy based on the procedure sanctioned by the progress of scientific thought. A basic presupposition of the system is one in which the existence of a physical World is nowise dependent on being perceived or thought of by any human or sub-human mind. Physical events exert an advenient influence on the sense receptors of organisms. By virtue of their physical power, the organism respond by respond by referring the signs arising within the psychophysical system to regions of physical space in the process called proficient reference. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
The result is an emergent object correlated with the externa event in such a way as to be biologically useful to the organism. The pyramid of emergent evolution is a hierarchy of kinds of relatedness. Four basic concepts are needed to unfold it consequences—stuff, substance, quality, and property. The ultimate stuff consists of psychophysical events, and the mode of their relatedness in a given system is that system’s substance. Each system has intrinsic qualities grounded in its substance and extrinsic properties grounded in its relation to other systems. Besides the emergent there are resultants, or phenomena that are repetitive, predictable, and the source of quantitative continuity. Emergence generates progress in continuity, but through resultants there is continuity in progress. The universal correlation of physical and physical events. The mind is a quality emergent at a high level of evolutionary advance. The directing activity, otherwise called spirit or God is manifest. Thus, the whole course of events subsumed under evolution is the expression of God’s purpose, which embraces all that has been and all that will be brought about in the course of evolutionary advance. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
The view of evolution, a mystery, unexplained, and inexplicable except, perhaps, to God. However, doing this research, it has been revealed that the spirit and soul are two different essences. The spirit is God in us, the soul is also from God, but it is the essence of human that causes the body to live. Is it possible, however, for one to live without a soul? It seems probable. It has been thought that babies who are born through invitro federalization do not have souls. More than 26,000 children are born from invitro fertilization treatment in the United Kingdom, and as they reach adulthood, many will discover they are too unable to have babies naturally. There are genetic causes of infertility that you can pass on. It means that the next generation may be infertile as well. If there is a genetic origin this genetic origin of infertility may be transmitted to the next generation. It is also believed that invitro fertilization removes conception from the marital act and because it treats babies as a product to be manipulated, violating the child’s integrity as a human being with an immortal soul from the moment of conception. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
With embryotic stem cell research, genetic engineering, and cloning are things that have arisen with invitro fertilization. However, nothing can move a body that God wills to be at rest or impede or alter the movement of a body that he wills to be in motion, bodies in themselves are inefficacious; and since there is a necessary connection between the volition, God is the true cause of the motion in bodies, and the action of his will is their moving force. Accordingly, when one ball strikes a second ball and the second ball moves, God is the real or true cause (cause reelle, veritable) of the second ball moving. Since God acts not at random, but in accordance with general laws of motion that he has enacted, the impact of the first ball may be called occasional, or particular, cause (cause occasionnelle, particuliere) of the second ball moving. Granted that bodies are inefficacious, it is true fortiori that they cannot necessarily produce changes in the mid. And God being the true cause of movements in bodies, it follows that the mind cannot produce changes in the body. We may, for instance, exert ourselves to do something without success, and it is possible that God might have conjoined to our volitions effects contrary to them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
As it is, God acts according to laws connecting mental events and cerebral events in such a way that, if the body is suitably disposed, our volitions are executed. Evils exists in the World not to create despair, but to create activity. It is perfectly impossible to conceive that any creatures of God’s hands can be condemned to eternal suffering. Could we once admit such an idea, all our natural conceptions of goodness and justice would be completely overthrown, and we could no longer look on God as a merciful and righteous Being. The doctrine of life and immortality is brought to light by the gospel is the doctrine that the end of righteousness is everlasting life, and the wages of willful and wanton sin are death. It is wrong to cause a decedent to suffer serious and fatal injuries, as well as fear and terror of impending death. Along with the loss of support, loss of net earnings of the descendent, loss of services, loss of inheritance of prospective accumulations, mental anguish, emotional pain and suffering, loss of society, care, love, affection, solace, protection, companionship, comfort; to endure conscious physical pain and mental suffering. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
These acts and omissions were outrageous and gross in that they knew or, in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known that these people were unqualified, inexperienced, and ill-prepared to have positions of authority. These individuals acted oppressively, and in such a manner that was despicable and subjected others to cruel and unjust hardship in conscious disregard for the safety of Randolph Harris and others. As a direct and proximate result of the negligence, recklessness and carelessness, plaintiffs have suffered foreseeable damages in an amount to be proven at trial. The aforementioned conduct of each of the defendants was despicable and oppressive and subjected Randolph Harris to cruel and unjust hardship in conscious disregard of his health, safety, and welfare. Each of the defendants willfully, wantonly, recklessly, maliciously, and despicably chose not to properly act. Some people may come off as gentlemen of the situation, for his own master’s purpose, manipulates human beings, including his own children, and who does not even do it very well. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
These types of individuals are plausible, not monsters, but they appear to have grown morally blind—a verdict which, in due course, evidently applies also to the more immature manipulators, whose loyalty to their master’s seems to know no reservations. It is never good to become deeply involved in a situation of increasing ugliness, some people might see these types of individuals and their associates as incarnations evil, they are corrupted enough from any balanced point of view, a condition that is also intimated by the heavy-headed revel. In a World where people are forced to act, there appears to be no room for passive and obedient innocence. It is crushed, and perishes. That wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took him for better. Take your fortune; you will find to be too busy is some danger. The death of my father has shaken me so profoundly that I refuse to accept it as natural, and look at the events that occurred shortly after, which were caused by negligence, recklessness and carelessness of defendants. They negligently failed to warn me as to the risks inherent in this situation. Their acts and omissions were outrageous and gross in that they knew. In a World where people are forced to act, there appears to be no room for passive and obedient innocence. It is crushed, and perishes. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
With More Knowledge We can Create Better Work and a Feeling of Knowledge
The fields of air are open to knowledge. The person who can join ideas with the most propriety will separate them with the greatest nicety. Human well-being (eudaimonia) is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and the virtues are the requisite skills and dispositions needed to attain it. If the code of ethics are taught to people for several successive generations, the code will become congenital. Every individual inherits some predisposition from one’s predispositions from their predecessors, and later generations are therefore supposed to be more advanced intellectually than earlier ones. Good is what gives people pleasure in the long run. Ethics is the science of conduct, and conduct deals with the adjustment of acts to ends. The lower animals find their satisfaction in using the environment to their best advantage; human beings find their satisfaction, or happiness, in a similar way. Appropriate adjustments result in pleasure; inappropriate adjustments result in pain. We ought to look to our own pleasures, but we ought to do this by using intelligence, which gives us some insight, no matter how small, into what the future may bring; present pleasures may be outweighed by possible future pains. #RandolpHarris 1 of 5
Unlike primitive people, we have the ability to form ideas about remote ends, and disaster befalls us easily when we refuse to entertain such ideas or to construct them in accordance with the scientific data available to us. In fact, the whole conception of a moral consciousness is no more than a rule emphasizing the need to consider the consequences of its actions, to examine whether more or fewer possible benefits to itself and to society would result. The notion of duty is also a rule emphasizing the need to consider future benefits in contrast with present temptations. Without the feeling of duty we would simply act for ourselves alone and, in this way, in the long run act against our own best interests. Much earlier in history, an analysis of utilitarianism and biological behavior leads us to concrete educational proposals. Since people are in constant struggles with environmental forces, they ought, first and foremost, to be subjects that will help them most in this struggle. A knowledge of science, therefore, is crucial because it is the primary means by which people may be able to avert possible natural disasters. After the sciences, one ought to study psychology, education, and the social sciences because these will give insight into ways of resolving family and social problems. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
The antiquated Roman literature survives, and creates for us an intimacy with the classic ages, which we have no means of forming with the subsequent ones. Light literature is the garden and the orchard, the fountain, the rainbow, the far view; the view within us as well as without. The choice public will have good writing for light readings. All art is convention of one kind or another, and each demands its own interpretation. People should also study art because it produced the kind of satisfaction that needs no justification nor analysis in terms of future satisfactions. It is an immediate good in itself, producing an immediate feeling of mental well-being. Learning should begin by introducing the child to actual experimental situations from which one should deduce the law involved. The child should be taught to regard the World as a place in which one must makes one’s own decision in accordance with the best scientific data. Therefore, teachers should encourage initiative and free expression of ideas, and they can best do this by being actively engaged in inquiry and study. A teacher who is interested in one’s work, will be more apt to produce research oriented students. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Ardent souls, ready to construct their coming lives, are apt to commit themselves to the fulfillment of their own vision. Life never seems so clear and easy as when the heart is beating faster at the sight of some generous self-risking deed. We feel no doubt then what is the highest prize the soul can win; we almost believe in our power to attain it. There is nothing that human imagination can figure brilliant and enviable that human genius and skill do not aspire to realize. What we strive to gratify, though we may call it a distant hope, is an immediate desire: the future estate for which people drudge up city alleys exists already in their imagination and love. The people who have many gratifications are apt to wander in imagination from daily and familiar joys, and confidently to reach after things yet untried. No human being springs forth from the womb as a fully-grown, sophisticated, wise, ready-for-anything adult. Nor does one possess all the necessary skills for effectively interrelating when one comes into the World. We have to learn the techniques of relating to other humans. However, we do bring some characteristics into the World with us. Exactly what is inherited and what do we learn? #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
The newborn child is new in a lot of ways. One’s new at being out in the open. One is new to one’s parents, and they are certainly new to the child, even though the baby has been pretty close to one of them for nearly a year. The baby is doing new things to meet some familiar needs, too. When the baby was a resident inside of the mother, the baby had a nice thing going—the most comfortable, most protected environment it is possible to imagine. Until birth, the infant is pretty much a product of their heredity. Heredity refers to the genetic traits and characteristics that are inherited—that come with the child when one is born, passed down from the parents. It is as possible for a baby to know something without having been at school, as it is to have been at school and to know nothing. Almighty God, kindle, we pray, in every heart the true love of peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of Earth, that in tranquility your dominion may increase until the Earth is filled with knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God and forever. The rest of your life will be the very best of your life. Happy Canada Day. Amen. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
Memories of a Lifetime–I Stumbled on this Photograph
The heart is initially no more than an enlarged blood vessel, and eventually becomes the four-chambered structure found in human beings. Every great discovery is just like perception, an operation of the understanding, an immediate intuition, and as such the work of an instant, a flash of insight. They are not the result of a process of abstract reasoning, which only serves to make the immediate knowledge of the understanding permanent for thought by bringing it under abstract concepts, i.e, it makes knowledge distinct, it puts us in a position to impart it and explain it to others. The experience we undergo is the result of the interaction between reality and the particular human organism, but even though we are required to acknowledge the existence of the external stimulant, we can never know exactly what it is like it our own right. This is a unique case in that, although we can investigate the effects of the stimulant, the cause is inherently unknowable. The keenness of the understanding in apprehending the casual relations of objects which are known indirectly, does not find its only application in the sphere of natural sciences (though all the discoveries in that sphere are due to it), but it also appears in practical life. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14
Since we cannot know the nature of reality apart from its effects, we are led to a belief in some Unknowable; this does not mean, however, that we are committed to a belief in the existence of God. First of all, our complete dependence on sensory data for knowledge makes it impossible for us to tell whether this Unknowable is at all comparable to any kind of divine substance. We are never in the position to test whether our idea of what the Absolute is, corresponds to what it actually is. Second, reasoning, which is no more than an advanced physical ability by which an organism can meet environmental problems, cannot cope with data that are not reducible to observables. When such an endeavor is made, reasoning, like any machine whose function is abused, breaks down. Consider what occurs when we attempt to analyze a concept whose reference is take to be necessarily outside of the domain of experience—the concept of God. All questions are either unanswerable or productive paradoxes. If there is a God, then how did he come into existence? If he created himself out of nothing, then how can something come out of nothing? #RandolphHarris 2 of 14
The fact that God is treated as an immanent, existing or operating within; inherent, permanently pervading and sustaining the Universe, rather than an external power, does not eliminate the questions that are raised with theism. It is still impossible to imagine the Universe arising uncaused out of nothing. This is why I believe that the Universe is like a sea-walnut, which produces its own light to sustain life and ward off predators, but is contained in the ocean. It is only logical that we would think of the Universe as existent in some potential form prior to its becoming actual; and even if it were meaningful to speak of the potential Universe, the question would still remain how a potential Universe could have been created. Are we then necessarily led to atheism? No. The fact that we do not know whether a God exists does not mean that therefore no God exists. The rejection of theism and pantheism entails only that we can have no knowledge about the Unknowable, not that the Unknowable does not exists. At most we can simply say that we do not know whether there is a God. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14
Many religions still cling to beliefs that arose because primitive people could not account for natural phenomena. Thus, the notion of a soul, or of a ghost, arose because primitive people could not account for dreams, shadows, and reflections. All such phenomena led to the belief that people were dual personalities, one of which remains unchanged regardless of changes in the visible human. From this conception there gradually developed the theory that there were eternal, unchanging, omnipotent personalities. In this way, people came to believe in gods; and, for similar reason, the Judaeo-Christin God has many strictly human traits. This religious anthropomorphism which depicted God as filled with hatreds and desires that were appropriate only to human beings. Nevertheless, religion can serve as a means of fostering friendships and cooperation among human beings and also of guaranteeing the retention of the most worthwhile values of the past. Furthermore, religion can be useful as a way of developing interest in the various enigmas that are found in the Universe, a means of motivating people to initiate scientific inquiries. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14
The fact that we can never know what the Unknowable is in itself does not imply that we cannot have any genuine knowledge. Good sense or prudence signifies exclusively understanding at the command of the will. However, the limits of these conceptions must not be too sharply defined, for it is always that one function of the understanding by means of which all animals perceive objects in space, which, in its keenest form, appears now in the phenomena of nature, correctly inferring the unknown causes from the given effects, and providing the material from which the reason frames general rules as laws of natural now inventing complicated and ingenious machines by adapting known causes to desired effects; now in the sphere of motives, seeing though and frustrating intrigues and machinations, or fitly disposing the motives and the people who are susceptible to them, setting them in motion, as machines are moved by levers and wheels, and directing them at will to the accomplishment of the ends. Deficiency of understanding is called an intellectual disability. It is dullness in applying the law of causality, incapacity for the immediate apprehension of the concatenations of causes and effect, motives and actions. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14
A stupid person has no insight into the connection of natural phenomena, either when they follow their own course, or when they are intentionally combined, i.e., are applied to machinery. A stupid person does not observe that persons, who apparently act independently of each other, are really in collusion; that person is therefore easily mystified; and outwitted; one does not discern the hidden motives of proffered advice or expressions of opinion. But it is always just one thing that the individual lacks—keenness, rapidity, ease in applying the law of causality, i.e., the power of understanding. The domain of phenomena of the Unknowable is characterized by features which are not controllable by our desires or even by our manipulations. Certain relationship consistently appear in spite of our objections or antagonistic attitudes. Also, in all objectsions, including ourselves, there are many varying degrees of energy—or force. These aspects of reality are manifestations of the Unknowable, and information about them is the only kind of knowledge human beings can obtain or ought to see. #RandolphHarris 6 of 14
It is clear that knowledge, for human beings, is not a study of the Unknowable but rather of the manifestations of the Unknowable among phenomena. There are beginnings, middles (or periods of equilibrium), and ends; but all these processes take place in a finite space and a finite time. A person is born; one matures; one passes on, generally. Similarly, a society begins, reaches a stage of equilibrium, and is destroyed by something internal or external. All around us we can see the workings of the law of evolution and dissolution, but we can never know whether the Universe as a whole is undergoing this process. Feelings, too, arise through evolution. Life seeks to survive, and feelings of pleasure are necessary to sustain this urge. If the organism experiences no rewards for maintaining its own life and reproducing its kind, if there were no sense of accomplishment, then the urge to survive might easily be extinguished. Therefore, behavior that contributes to survival is accompanied by the feeling of pleasure, and behavior that endangers survival is accompanied by the feeling of pain. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14
Similarly, feelings of sociality and sympathy developed in human beings because in the struggle for survival people came to recognize that human cooperation is necessary, and the pleasures that accrue to the feeling of sociality were the rewards that guaranteed the continuation of such cooperation. The development of the feelings of sociality and sympathy led to the emergence of a new kind of entity, society, which is the subject of sociology and ethics. Here, too, the principle of evolution holds. Society, like other organisms, has its period of infancy, of maturity, and death. Therefore, strive to possess yourself of what you have inherited from your ancestors. The problem would appear more difficult if we could admit that they leave no traces whatsoever behind them. However, our memories are colored by emotions, judgments, and quirks of personality. What we remember depends on what we pay attention to, what we regard as meaningful or important, and what we feel strongly about. Memory structure is that pattern of associations among items of information stored in the memory. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14
I stumbled on this photograph, it kind of made me laugh, it took me way back, back down memory lane. I see the happiness, I see the pain where I am. I see us standing there, such a happy pair. Love beyond compare. The way you held me. No one could tell me that love would die. Why, oh why did I have to find this photograph? Gaps in memory, which are common, may be filled in by logic, guessing, or new information. Indeed, it is possible to have memories for things that never happened (such as remembering broken glass at an accident when there was none). People with pseudo memories (false memories) are often quite upset to learn they have given false testimony. A filmed automobile accident was showed to people. Afterwards, some participants were asked to estimate how fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other. For others the words bumped, contacted, or hit replaces smashed. One week later, each person was asked, “Did you see any broken glass?” Those asked earlier about the cars that smashed into each other were more likely to say yes. (No broken glass was shown in the film.) The new information (smashed) was included in memories and altered them. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
The updating of long-term memories is a common problem in police work. For example, a witness may select a photo of a suspect from police files or see a photo in the news. Later, the witness identifies the suspect in person (in a lineup or in court). Did the witness really remember the suspect from the scene of the crime? Or was it from the more recently seen photograph? Even an innocent person may be remembered as the criminal. It is quite possible for a photo to update or blend with the original memory. Many tragic cases of mistaken identity occur this way. Indeed, the fading of memories and the weak affect of impressions which are no longer recent, which we are apt to take as self-evident, and to explain as a primary effect of time on our psychic memory-residues, are in reality secondary changes brought about by laborious work. It is the preconscious that accomplishes this work. Networks of associated memories may help explain a common experience: Imagine finding a picture taken on your sixth birthday or tenth Christmas. As you look at the photo, one memory leads to another, which leads to another, and another. Soon you have unleashed a flood of seemingly forgotten details. This process is called redintegration. Redintegrative memories seem to spread through the branches of memory networks. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14
Many people find that such memories are also touched off by distinctive events from past—like a visit to Grandma’s kitchen, pleasant scents, going to the farm, the seashore, a doctor’s office, the perfume or after-shave of a former lover, and so on. The key idea in redintegration is that one memory serves as a cue to trigger another. As a result, an entire past experience may be reconstructed from one small recollection. Personally, I have had no real anxiety-dreams for a few months, but I do recall one. The dream was very vivid, and showed me my beloved mother, with a peculiarly calm, sleeping countenance, carried into the room and laid on the bed by two (or three) persons with birds’ beaks. I awoke crying and screaming, and disturbed my parents’ sleep. The peculiarly draped, excessively tall figures with beaks I had taken from the illustrations of the Philippson’s Bible. I believe they represented deities with the heads of sparrowhawks from an Egyptian tomb-relief. The analysis yielded, however, also the recollection of a house-porter’s boy, who used to play with us children on a meadow in front of the house; I might add that his name was Philip. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14
It seemed to me then that I first heard from this boy the vulgar word signifying sexual intercourse, which is replaced among educated persons by the Latin word coitus, but which the dream plainly enough indicates by the choice of the birds’ heads. I must have guessed the sexual significance of the word from the look of my Worldly-wise teacher. My mother’s expression in the dream was copied from the countenance of my grandfather, whom I had seen a few days before his death snoring in a state of coma. The interpretation of the secondary elaboration in the dream must therefore have been that my mother was dying; the tomb-relief, too, agrees with this. I awoke with this anxiety, and could not calm myself until I had waked my parents. I remember that I suddenly became calm when I saw my mother; it was as though I had needed the assurance: then she is not dead. However, this secondary interpretation of the dream had only taken place when the influence of the developed anxiety was ready at work. I was not in a state of anxiety because I had dreamt that my mother was dying; I interpreted the dream in this manner in the preconscious elaboration because I was already under the domination of anxiety. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14
The latter, however, could be traced back, through the repression to a dark, plainly disturbing period I had in my life, which had found appropriate expression in the visual content of the dream. It was a time when I felt like savage humans were trying to break up my family, and take the only people who cared about me in the World away, and then do away with me. As I grow up, and I think most adults are the same, they fear losing their parents and siblings because you have known them all of your life and that is all you have in this World. And while after you lose a parent, you can still feel their presence and sense them looking over you, but that sense of communication in the physical World is gone and that means so much. People spend so much time on social media, but think about it this way. What if someone took away everyone you care about in your life and replaced them with social media profiles and pictures and videos was your new community and social circle, but never actually see them in person. You would feel isloated, incomplete, and alone. Do not let social media rob you of reality and life. We are only here on this planet for so long and once you lose someone you care about chances are you can never talk to them again. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14
Make more time for your family and spend time with the people you love. Ask your grandparents to recall vivid and important autobiographical memories and what do you get out of it? Up to a point, the results are like the memories of people at any age: Most recollections come from the 2 or 3 most recent years. Fewer and fewer autobiographical memories come from earlier years, tapering off back to childhood. However, something interesting occurs for older adults as they scan over a lifetime. If you tally their memories, you will find a bulge or bump in the curve between the ages of 10 and 30. In other words, many more memories come from this period than would be expected. Why do memories from this period of life stand out for older adults? Because memories formed during this time are encoded in ways that make them easier to retrieve later in life. Just why these years are so memorable is not known. However, if you are between the ages of 10 and 30, take note: These are the days, my friend. You know me. Every time you try to forget who I am, I will be right there to remind you again, you know me. Answer me when I call, God, defender of my cause; you set me free when I am hard-pressed; have mercy on me and hear my prayer. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14
Seek Not to Mystify the Mystery
A spirit of reform is a salutary temper of the times; because there is at all times need for reformation. Some believe that people only emerged from savagery with the help of the civil state and penal laws, as well as through the deliberate invention of gods in order to inspire fear in the evildoer. The belief that virtue can be taught is universal among many philosophers, so much so that some have regarded it as their sole distinguishing feature. The effect of this doctrine upon society was revolutionary, since it implied that anyone, after instruction, might become qualified for the exercise of power, and it leaves no special place for privilege by birth or the inheritance of a special family or class tradition. The greatest object in the Universe, is a good person struggling with adversity; yet there is still a greater, which is the good person that comes to relieve it. The idea of a personal God who is the creator of the natural World with its casual connections as well as the supreme source and bearer of values can be satisfy all the facts of experience. God who would regenerate society must first regenerate himself, and then his virtues must act as a contagion acts, by contact of human with human. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14
A great voice is an ocean. You cannot drain it. It is something found—an addition to the wealth of this life. This God sufficiently unifies the scheme of things to overcome the disjunction between fact and value, and yet, since he is less than an all-inclusive absolute, he allows for that relative independence and diversity that seem to be a presupposition of genuinely personal and individual experiences. Our manners and customs go for more in life than our qualities. Time, patience, and fortitude often conquer fate. The presence of evil in the World creates difficulties for any theistic solution, but the fact of evil is not fatal, if we bear in mind that the solution offered is not a rigid monism. God limits himself by his creation, for moral values can be realized only by being free beings, and the gift of freedom makes possible evil as well as good. In spite of the evil that may, and does, arise, such a World is not only better than any World that lacked freedom but alone can be setting of the creation of value. What caused Satan to be cast from Heaven? Perhaps the reason Lucifer and the other angels fell from Heaven is because they were forced to be good. They were not given freedom like humans to choose to be good or evil. #RandolphHarris 2 of 14
Chance and change love to deal with one’s settled plan, not with their idle vagaries. Incidents little in speculation are great in the eye of fortune. Satan supposedly fell from Heaven because of pride that originated from his desire. While Satan was the highest of all the angels, he was not happy. Little did he know of his life to come, he was not very sure, for one thing, that the good he aimed at would not be obtained. Satan wanted to be God instead of a servant of God. He desired to rule the Universe. Therefore, God cast Satan out of Heaven as a fallen angel. Supposedly, Satan acted as leader of the fallen angels. These demons, existing in the invisible spirit realm yet affecting our physical World, rebelled against God, but are ultimately under God’s control. There is an ongoing spiritual war between God and Satan, good and evil. However, Satan masquerades as an angel of light deceiving humans. We should not fear Satan’s limited power. We ought to be wise, however, in resisting his tactics. Every prohibition conceals a desire. An unconscious impulse need not have originated where we find it expressed; it can spring from an entirely different place and may originally have referred to other persons and relations, but through the mechanism of displacement, it reached the point where it comes to our notice. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14
Though angels and demons live in the World, they do not wage war as the World does. The weapons the good angels fight with are not weapons of the World. They have divine power to demolish strongholds. They demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and they take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The intellect is a nobler power than the will. Both civil and ecclesiastical power derive ultimately from God, but the civil power proceeds through the medium of society; the people concertize authority received from God in the person whom they designate as rulers. Observational learning is achieved by watching and imitating the actions of another person or by noting the consequences of a person’s actions. In other words, information is imparted by example, before direct practice is allowed. The value of learning by observation is obvious: Imagine trying to tell someone how to tie a shoe, do a dance step, crochet, preach, or play a piano. Anything that can be learned from direct experience can be learned by observation. Often, this allows a person to skip the tedious effects of attempting to accomplish something by trying various means until the correct one is found. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14
Witches are believed to be able to exercise a malign influence even after death unless they are buried with their toes downwards. Culmstock is a village and civil parish in Mid Devon, England, about 12 miles from Tiverton. Not very long ago, a woman suspected of being a witch, was buried in this way within twenty miles of Tiverton. In no part of the country is witchcraft more believed than in the Culm Valley. There is a local saying that there are enough witches in the valley to roll a hogshead of cider up the Beacon Hill, at Culmstock, and old people living there are not ashamed to say that they believe in witchcraft. The witches are two kinds—black and white. The former profess to have the power to condemn those on whom they are asked to cast a spell, to kinds of misfortunes: the latter impose on credulous clients by making them believe that they can remove evil spells and bring good fortune—for consideration, of course. For obvious reasons visits to witches are generally kept dark, but every now and again particulars leak out. In Culmstock district, not so very long ago, a young girl went with her mother to a witch, in order to get a spell cast over an errant swain, who was suspected of bestowing his affections on another. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14
The witch professed to be able to bring the young man back to this young lady, or to condemn him to all kinds of torture, but her price was prohibitive, and so the young man was left to marry whom he would. Farmers are the witches’ most profitable clients, and it is a noteworthy fact that they generally contrive to visit the wise woman when they are away from the house, at market. A few years ago, farmers used to go to Exeter for many mils round to consult a witch whenever they had any misfortune, and it is commonly reported that they can get the same sort of advice in the city at present day. At many farmhouses Bibles are kept in the dairies to prevent witches from retarding the butter-making operations. “I am witched,” or “I must have been witched,” are expressions heard in Devon every day in the week. Generally speaking, it is animals that are supposed to sustain the most harm from being overlooked. The loss of cattle that have died has been put down to the power of evil spirits, and according to many superstitious people, witches have a peculiar power over pigs. These are only hints, but a careful elaboration of them would show how important they may become for understanding of the development of civilization. #RandolphHarris 6 of 14
In the analytical consideration of taboo phenomena we have hitherto allowed ourselves to be guided by their demonstrable agreements with compulsion neurosis; but as taboo is not a neurosis but a social creation we are also confronted with the task of showing wherein lies the essential difference between neurosis and product of culture like taboo. A young man who believed his pigs had been bewitched was told, not so long ago, to take the heart of a pig, stick it full of pins and needles, and roast it at the fire. He did this believing this would check the mortality among his swine. The power of truth; its conquest is slow and laborious, but if once the victory be gained it can never be wrested back again. Besides the ideas we have as yet considered, which, according to their construction, could be referred to time, space, and matter, if we consider the, with reference to the object, or to pure sensibility and understanding (i.e. knowledge of causality), if we consider them with reference to the object, another faculty of knowledge has appeared in humans alone of all Earthly creatures, an entirely new consciousness, which, with very appropriate and significant exactness, is called reflection. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14
From the knowledge of perception, we derive that a reflected appearance is on it. For primitive people believe in an animation of human individuals. Human beings have souls which can leave their habitation and enter into other beings; these souls are the bearers of spiritual activities and are, to a certain extent, independent of the bodies. Originally souls were thought of as being very similar to individual; only in the course of a long evolution did they lose their material character and attain a high degree of spiritualization. The soul conceptions are the original nucleus of the animistic system, that spirits merely correspond to souls that have become independent, and the souls of animals, plants, and there were formed after the analogy of human souls. How did primitive people come to the peculiarly dualistic fundamental conceptions on which this animistic system rests? Through the observation, it is thought, of the phenomena of sleep (with dreams) and death, which resembles sleep, and through the effort to explain these conditions, which affect each individual so intimately. Above all, the problem of death must have become the starting point of the formation of the theory. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14
To primitive humans the continuation of life—immortality—would be self-evident. The conception of death is something accepted later, and only with hesitation, for even to us it is still devoid of content and unrealizable. Very likely discussion have taken place over the part which may have been played by other observations and experiences in the formation of the fundamental animistic conception such as dream imagery, shadows and reflection, but these have led to no conclusion. If the primitive human reacted to the phenomena that stimulated one’s reflection with the formation of conceptions of the soul, and then transferred these objects to the outer World, one’s attitude will be judged to be quite natural and in no way mysterious. All are the necessary psychological product of the myth-forming consciousness, and primitive animism may be looked upon as the spiritual expression of human’s natural state in so far as this is at all accessible to our observation. There is a universal tendency among humankind to conceive all beings like themselves and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted and which they are intimately conscious. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
Sailing with sealed orders, we ourselves are the repositories of the secret packet, whose mysterious contents we long to learn There are not mysteries out of our selves. Animism, witchcraft, and such is a system of thought, it gives not only the explanation of a single phenomenon, but makes it possible to comprehend the totality of the World from one point, as a continuity. This behavior can still be demonstrated in the life of today, either as worthless survival in the form of superstition, or in living form as the foundation of our language, our belief, and our philosophy. Myths are based upon animistic foundations, but the detailed relation of myths to animism seem unexplained in some essential points. What is a country village without its mysterious personage? 2010 January 13, Pagan worshippers are suspected of weaving horses’ manes to cast spells on the animals after police investigated a series of bizarre incidents. Almost 20 animals were targeted over a period of three months. Residents in Hemyock, Culmstock, and Clayhidon, Devon, Exeter as well as parts of Dorset and Somerset started a horse watching scheme after incidents were reported. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14
Police initially believed the horses were being marked for theft by organized criminals until it was discovered that none had been stolen. Officers now suspect white witches who practice knot magic are using the horses to help them cast spells. It is thought that Pagan gods have a close connection with horses, which adds strength to spells that incorporate the animals. To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an air of mystery, is to invest it with a secret charm, and power of attraction which to the crowd is irresistible. We can easily guess that magic is the earlier and more important part of animistic technique, for among the means with which spirit are to be treated there are also found the magic kind, to frighten away a ghost with noise and cries is a form of pure sorcery; to force him to do something by taking his name is to employ magic against him, and magic is also applied where spiritualization of nature has not yet, as it seems to us, been accomplished. Magic must never serve the most varied purposes. It must subject the process of nature to the will of man, protect the individual against enemies and dangers, and give him the power to injure his enemies. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14
Magic is used to assist the gods against evil demons. Every night when the Sun God Ra in ancient Egypt sank to his house in the glowing west he was assailed by hosts of demons under the leadership of the archfiend Apepi. All night long he fought them, and sometimes by day the powers of darkness sent up clouds even into the blue Egyptian sky to obscure his light and weaken his power. To aid the Sun-god in this daily struggle, a ceremony was daily performed in his temple at Thebes. A figure of his foe Apepi, represented as a crocodile with a hideous face or a serpent with many coils, was made of wax, and on it the demon’s name was written in green ink. Wrapt in a papyrus case, on which another likeness of Apepi had been drawn in green ink, the figure was then tied up with black hair, spat upon, hacked with a stone knife and cast on the ground. There the priest trod on it with a stone knife and cast on the ground. There the priest trod on it with his left foot again and again, and then burned it in a fire made of a certain plant grass. When Apepi himself had thus been effectively disposed of, waxen effigies of each of his principal demons, and of their fathers, and mothers, and children, were made and burnt the same way. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14
The service accompanied by the recitation of certain prescribed spells, was repeated not merely morning, noon, and night, but whenever a storm was raging or a heavy rain had set in, or black clouds were stealing across the sky to hide the Sun’s bright disk. The fiends of darkness, clouds and rain felt the injury inflected in their images as if it had been done to themselves; they passed away, at least for a time and the beneficent Sun-god shone out triumphant once more. The Biblical prohibition against making an image of anything living hardly sprang from any fundamental rejection of plastic art, but was probably meant to deprive magic, which the Hebraic religion proscribed, of one of its instruments. Modeling as a powerful effect on behavior. In a classic experiment, rain is produced by magic means, by imitating it, and perhaps also by imitating the clouds and storm which produces it. It looks as if they wanted to play with rain. The Ainos of Japan, for instance, make rain by pouring out water through a big sieve, while others fit out a big bowl with sails and oars as if it were a ship, which is then dragged about the village and gardens. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14
However, the fruitfulness of the soil was assured by magic means by showing it the spectacle of human sexual intercourse. To cite one out of many examples; in some parts of Java, the peasants used to go out into the field at night for sexual intercourse when the rice was about to blossom in order to stimulate the rice to fruitfulness through their example. At the same time, it was feared that proscribed incestuous relationships would stimulate the soil to grow weeds and render it unfruitful. After looking at magic and rituals and superstitions, it seems to me that being a good person and believing in God and having faith seems to be the easier thing to do. Everything else takes all the rituals and potions and spells and probably drives some people mad. Almighty God, our Heavenly Father: We have sinned against you, through our own fault, in thought, and word, and deed, and in what we have left undone. For the sake o your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us all our offenses; and grant that we may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of your name. May the Almighty God grant us the forgiveness of all our sins, and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit. Amen. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14
A Charm against Yielding to Temptation
Things perceived as real are real in their effects. As from the direct light of the Sun to the borrowed light of the moon, we pass from the immediate idea of perception, which stands by itself and is its own warrant, to reflection, to the abstract, discursive concepts of the reason, which obtain their whole content from knowledge of perception, and in relation to it. As long as we continue simply to perceive, all is clear, firm, and certain. There are neither questions nor doubts nor errors; we desire to go no further, can go no further; we find rest in perceiving, and satisfaction in the present. Perception suffices for itself, and therefore what springs purely from it, and remains true to it, for example, a genuine work of art, can never be false, nor can it be discredited through a lapse of time, for it does not present an opinion but the thing itself. However, with abstract knowledge, with reason, doubt and error appearing in the theoretical, care and sorrow in the practical, illusion may at moments take the place of the real. Chance actions differ from erroneously carried-out actions only in that they disdain the support of a conscious intention and really need no pretext. They appear independently and are accepted because one does not credit them with any aim or purpose. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11
In the sphere of abstract thought, error may reign for a thousand years, impose its yoke upon whole nations, extend to the noblest impulses of humanity, and, by the help of its slaves and its dupes, may chain and fetter those whom it cannot deceive. We execute them without thinking anything of them, by mere chance, just to keep the hands busy, and we feel confident that such information will be quite sufficient should one inquire as to their significance. In order to enjoy the advantage of this exception position, these actions which no longer claim awkwardness as an excuse must fulfill certain conditions: they must not be striking, and their effects must be insignificant. It is the enemy against which the wisest people of all times have waged unequal war, and only what they have won from it has become the possession of humankind. Culture is constantly threatened by a relapse into barbarism and disorder that would make history sheer meaningless succession. Against perpetual decadence people struggles heroically to establish limited zones of law, order, and cultural significance. To succeed is this for a time, they must do violence to their own natures by imposing on themselves a hard discipline and accepting moral isolation amid their mediocre fellows. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11
This means living in conformity to the ethic of the producers and seeing the good life to be a cooperative creative enterprise carried on in a self-reliant spirit. Against the good things to be obtained rather than a way of acting. In the consumers’ view typical goods are welfare, prosperity, distributive justice, and the classless society, things to be aimed at for the future and enjoyed if secured. Enterprises undertaken in that spirit were based on envy and inevitably fell under the control of adventure (usually intellectuals) who duped the masses. Such instances are citizens revolting, peasant wars, anti-Semitism, and contemporary welfare-state socialism. It has often been said that we ought to follow the truth even although no utility can be seen in it, because it may have indirect utility which may appear when it is least expected; and I would add to this, that we ought to be just as anxious to discover and to root out all error even when no harm is anticipated from it, because its mischief may be very indirect, and may suddenly appear when we do not expect it, for all error has poison at its heart. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11
The symbolism in the infantile life of the normal plays a greater role than was expected psychoanalytic experiences. A doctor, on rearranging his furniture in a new house, came across a straight, wooden stethoscope, and, after pausing to decide where he should put it, was impelled to place it on the side of his writing-desk in such a position that it stood exactly between his chair and the one reserved for his patients. This act in itself was certainly odd, for in the place, the straight stethoscope served no purpose as he invariably used a binaural one; and in the second place, all his medical apparatus and instruments were always kept in drawers, with the sole exception of this one. However, he gave no thought to the matter until one day, it was brought to his notice by a patient who had never seen a wooden stethoscope, asking him what it was. On being told, she asked him why he kept it there. He answered in an offhand way that that place was good as any other. This, however, started him thinking, and he wondered whether there had been an unconscious motive in this action. Being interested in the psychanalytic method, he asked me to investigate the matter. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11
The first memory that occurred to him was the fact when a medical student, he has been struck by the habit his hospital interne had of always carrying a wooden stethoscope in his hand on his ward visits, although he never used it. He greatly admired this interne, and was much attached to him. Later on, when he himself became an interne, he contracted the same habit, and would feel very uncomfortable if by mistake he left the room without having the instrument to swing in his hand. The aimless of the habit was shown, not only by the fact that the only stethoscope he every used was a binaural one, which he carried in his pocket, but also in that it was continued when he was a surgical interne and never needed the stethoscope at all. From this, it was evident that the idea of the instrument in question had in some way or other become invested with a greater psychic significance than normally belonged to it—in other words, that to the subject it stood for more than it does for other people. The idea must have become unconsciously associated with some other one which it symbolized, and from which it derived its additional fullness of meaning. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11
I will forestall the rest of the analysis by saying what this secondary idea was—namely, a phallic one; the way in which this curious association had been formed will presently be related. The discomfort he experienced in hospital on missing the instrument, and the relief and assurance the presence of it gave him, was related to what is known as a castration complex—namely, a childhood fear, often continued in a disguise form into adult life, lest a private part of his body should be taken away from him, just as playthings so often were. The fear was due to paternal threats that it would be cut off if he were not a good boy, particularly in a certain direction. This is a very common complex, and accounts for a great deal of general nervousness ad lack of confidence in later years. The stethoscope association was formed through many connections. In the first place, the physical appearance of the instrument—a straight, rigid, hollow tube, having a small bulbous summit at one extremity and a broad base at the other—and the fact of its being the essential part of the medical paraphernalia, the instrument with which the doctor performed his magical and interesting feats, were matters that attached his boyish attention. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11
He had had his chest repeatedly examined by the doctor at the age of six, and distinctly recollected the voluptuous sensation of feeling the latter’s head near him pressing the wooden stethoscope into his hat; he found it interesting that the doctor should carry his chief instrument concealed about his person, always handy when he went to see patients, and that he only had to take off his hat (i.e., a part of his clothing) and pull it out. At the age of eight, he was impressed by being told by an older boy that it was the doctor, who was young and handsome, was extremely popular among the women of the neighborhood, including the subject’s own mother. The doctor and his instrument were therefore the objects of great interest throughout his boyhood. Probably because the boy also wanted to be popular as an adult. It is probable that, as in many other cases, unconscious identification with the family doctor had been a main motive in determining the subject’s choice of profession. It was here doubly conditioned by the superiority on certain interesting occasions of the doctor to the father, of whom the subject was very jealous, and by the doctor’s knowledge of forbidden topics and his opportunity for illicit indulgence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11
The subject admitted that he had on several occasions experienced erotic temptations in regard to his women patients; he had twice fallen in love with one, and finally had married one. This shows that the way a lot of adults act and the things they do, are behaviors they learned in their childhood, which appear to be enjoyable or pleasurable to them and they want to do these things to others when adults. For me as a boy, when I would visit my doctor, Dr. Ezekiel, would have Gold Dial soap in his office and when I would wash my hands I remembered how good it smelled, and if a doctor used it, it must be good stuff. So, that Gold Dial is the only hand and bath soap I used because I want to smell good like Dr. Ezekiel. Also, as a child growing up, we lived in a nice suburban community where everything was new and clean and nice and quiet, and everyone had jobs, and so that is what kind of life style I want for my adult life. When people ask me about what I like most about being a son, I always reply, “Everything.” And even when talking to my parents now I try to conceal my true feelings at times and say something pleasant. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11
Like, if I do not like someone and do not want to go to their party and my parents ask me about it, I will say something like, “I am very excited about the party, but I am busy that day. I am sure they will have good company and food as always.” Sometimes, however, I feel like I try too hard to be nice and pleasant and it really takes a lot of energy. I am more of a person who likes to be quiet, mind my own business and keep to myself, but when living in a city and not the suburbs, it requires one to be more social. Now back to the subject, the next memory he has was of a dream, plainly of a homosexual-masochistic nature; in it a man, who proved to be a replacement figure of the family doctor, attacked the subject with a sword. The idea of a sword, as is so frequently the case in dreams, represented the same idea as mentioned above to be associated with that of a wooden stethoscope. The thought of a sword reminded the subject of the passage in the Nibelung Saga, where Sigurd sleeps with his naked sword (Gram) between him and Brunilda, an incident that had always greatly struck his imagination. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11
The meaning of the symptomatic act now at last become clear. The subject had placed his wooden stethoscope between him and his patients, just as Sigurd had placed his sword (an equivalent symbol) between him and the maiden he was not to touch. The great act was a compromise-formation; it served both to gratify in his imagination the repressed wish to enter into nearer relations with an attractive patient (interposition of phallus), and at the same time, to remind him that this wish was not to become a reality (interposition of sword). It was, so to speak, a charm against yielding to temptation. I might add that the following passage from Lord Lytton’s Richelieu made a great impression on the boy: “Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword. I wear my pen as others do their sword,” and that he became a prolific writer and uses an unusually large fountain pen. When I asked him what need he had of this pen, he replied in a characteristic manner, “I have so much to express.” We all live in different psychological Worlds, there is no correct view of a life situation. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11
A person who feels that his or her view of a life situation has been understood feels freer to examine it objectively and to question it. (Accepting and understanding the perspective of another person can be especially difficult when cultural differences exist.) Heavenly Father, you have filled the World with beauty: Open our eyes to behold your gracious hands in all your works; that rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of the one through whom all things were made. May we commend to your fatherly goodness all those who are in any ways afflicted or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; [especially those whom our prayers are desired]; that it may please you to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of their afflictions. God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus Christ, your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the ignorance and arrogance and hatred which infects our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purpose on Earth. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11
Randolph Harris II International Institute 