Play that song again. You keep playing it and you keep singing it. If her spirit’s wandering, she will hear it and it will comfort her. The problem of human’s existence is unique in the whole of nature; humans have fallen out of nature, as it were, and are still in it; they are partly divine, partly terrestrial; partly infinite, partly finite. The necessity to find ever-new solutions for the contradictions in one’s existence, to find ever-new solutions for the contradictions in one’s existence, to find ever-higher forms of unity with nature, one’s fellow humans and oneself, is the source of all psychic forces which motivates humans, of all one’s passions, affects and anxieties. Humans are not content if only their physiological needs—their hunger, thirst, and intimacy—are satisfied. These instinctual needs are not sufficient to make a person happy; they are not even sufficient to make a person sane. The archimedic point of the specifically human dynamism lies in this uniqueness of the human situation; the understanding of human’s psyche must be based on the analysis of human’s needs stemming from the conditions of one’s existence. The problem,then, which the human race as well as each individual has to solve is that of being born. We are the offspring of God, and God in these last days has seen fit to place of in communication with himself. “Establish peace throughout the land, that there should be no wars, not contentions, no stealing, nor plundering, nor murdering, nor any manner of iniquity,” reports Mosiah 29. 14. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11
Physical birth if we think of the individual, is by no means as decisive and singular as it appears to be. It is, indeed, an important change from intrauterine into extra uterine life; but in many respects the infant after birth is not different from the infant before birth; it cannot perceive things outside, cannot feed itself; it is completely dependent on the mother, and would perish without her help. Actually, the process of birth continues. The child begins to recognize outside objects, to react affectively, to grasp things and to coordinate one’s movements, to walk. However, birth continues.The child learns to speak, it learns to know the use and functions of things,it learns to relate itself to others, to avoid punishment and gain praise and liking. Slowly, the growing person learns to love, to develop reason, to look at the World objectively. One begins to develop one’s powers; to acquire a sense of identity, to overcome the seduction of one’s senses for the sake of an integrated life. Birth then, in the conventional meaning of the word, is only the beginning of birth in the broader sense. The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving birth to oneself; indeed, we should be fully born, when we die—although it is the tragic fate of most individuals to die before they are born. When we consider the visions of eternity, and contemplate God and our own destiny in the economy of Heaven the Angles rejoice in blooming hope and immortal glory. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11
From all we know about the evolution of the human race, the birth of a human is to be understood in the same sense as the birth of the individual. When a person has transcended a certain threshold of minimum instinctive adaption, one has become elevated; but when one was as helpless and unequipped for human existence as the individual infant is at birth. The birth of human beings began with the first members of the species homo sapiens, and human history is noting but the whole process of this birth. It has taken human beings hundred of thousands of years to take the first steps into human life; humans went through a narcissistic phase of magic omnipotent orientation, through totemism, nature worship, until human beings arrived at the beginnings of the formation of conscience, objectively humanly love. In the last four thousand years of human’s history, one has developed visions of the fully born and fully awakened human, visions expressed in not too different ways by the great teachers of human in Egypt, China, India, Palestine, Greece and Mexico. True position before God, Angels, and people allow humans to soar above all things of time and sense and burst the cords that bind humans to Earthly objects. “The Lord work with his power in all cases among the children of humans, extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him,” reports Mosiah 29.20. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11
The fact that human’s birth is primarily a negative act, that of being thrown out of the origin aloneness with nature, that one cannot return to where one came from, implies that the process of birth is by no means an easy one. Each step into one’s new human existence is frightening. It always means to give up a secure state,which was relatively known, for one which is new, which one has not yet mastered. Undoubtedly, if the infant could think at the moment of the severance of the umbilical cord, one would experience the fear of dying. A loving fate protects us from this panic. However, at any new step, at any new stage of our birth, we are afraid again. We are never free from two conflicting tendencies: one to emerge from the womb, from the lower form of existence into a more human existence, from bondage to freedom; another return to the womb, to nature, to certainty and security. In the history of the individual, and of the race, the progressive tendency has proven to be stronger, yet the phenomena of mental illness and the regression of the human race to positions apparently relinquished generation ago, show the intense struggle which accompanies each new act of birth. In one point of view, humans appear very poor, weak, and imbecile, and very insignificant: in another point of view, humans appear wise, intelligent, strong, honorable,and exalted. It is just in the way that one looks at humanity. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11
The three types of anxiety are interwoven in such a way that one of them gives the predominant color but all of them participate in the coloring of the state of anxiety. All of them and their underlying unity are existential, i.e. they are implied in the existence of humans as human, one’s finitude, and one’s estrangement. They are fulfilled in the situation of despair to which all of them contribute. Despair is an ultimate or boundary-line situation. One cannot go beyond it. Its nature is indicated in the etymology of the word despair: without hope. No way out into the future appears. Nonbeing is felt as absolutely victorious. However, there is a limit to its victory; nonbeing isfelt as victorious, and feeling presupposed being. Enough being is left to feel the irresistible power of nonbeing, and this is the despair within the despair.The pain of despair is that a being is aware of itself as unable to affirm itself because of the power of nonbeing. Consequently it wants to surrender this awareness and its presupposition, the being which is aware. It wants to get rid of itself—and it cannot. Despair appears in the form of reduplication,as the desperate attempt to escape despair. If anxiety were only the anxiety of fate and death, voluntary death would be the way out. The courage demanded would be the courage not to be. The final form of ontic self-affirmation would be the act of ontic self-negation. People are changeable in their opinions, thoughts, reflections and actions. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11
However, the despair is also the despair about guilt and condemnation. An there is no way of escaping it, even by ontic self-negation. Death by suicide can liberate one from the anxiety of fate and death—as some know. However, it cannot liberate from the anxiety of guilt and condemnations, as the Christians know. This is a highly paradoxical statement, as paradoxical as the relation of the moral sphere to ontic existence generally. However, it is a true statement, verified by those who have experienced fully the despair of condemnation. It is impossible to express the inescapable character of condemnation in ontic terms, that is in terms of imaginings about the immortality of the soul. For every ontic statement must use the categories of finitude, and immortality of the soul would be the endless prolongation of finitude and of the despair of condemnation (a self-contradictory concept, for this finis means end). The experience, therefore, that death by suicide is noway of escaping guilt must be understood in terms of the qualitative character of the moral demand, and of the qualitative character of its rejection. Guilt and condemnation are qualitatively, not quantitatively, infinite. They have an infinite weight and cannot be removed by a finite act of ontic self-negation.This makes despair desperate, that is, inescapable. There is “No Exit” from it #RandolphHarris 6 of 11
The anxiety of emptiness and meaninglessness participates in both the ontic and the moral element in despair. Insofar as it is an expression of finitude it can be removed by ontic self-negation: This drives radical skepticism to death by suicide. Insofar as it is a consequence of moral disintegration it produces the same paradox as the moral element in despair:there is no ontic exit from it. This frustrates the suicidal trends in emptiness and meaninglessness. One is aware of their futility. In view of this character of despair it is understandable that all human life can be interpreted as a continuous attempt to avoid despair. And this attempt is mostly successful. Extreme situations are not reached frequently and perhaps they are never reached by some people. The purpose of an analysis of such a situation is not to record ordinary human experiences but to show extreme possibilities in the light of which the ordinary situations must be understood. We are not always aware of our having to die, but in the light of the experience of our having to die our whole life is experienced differently. In the same way the anxiety which is despair is not always present. However, the rare occasions in which it is present determine the interpretation of existence as a whole. As children of God, we did not originate from chaotic mass of matter, moving or inert, but came forth possessing, in an embryonic state, all the faculties and powers of God. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11
Humans stand proudly erect as the head of all creation and the representative of God on Earth. However, we still possess only the powers that belong to humans. This may be why some people avoid human interaction by acing inferior. There is a large number of people who passively allow the power people to succeed, if only because they have chosen to wear the mask of weakness. The motives, as before, as mixed. Some do this as a defensive maneuver. Take the following example: Elizabeth is 35 years of age, and a mother of two. She has a good mind, many talents, but seems tremendously inferior in social situations. It is hard to know if she is inferior, feels inferior, or just plays inferior. Her husband, George, is a competent, someway domineering, middle-class businessman. He has a great need to be right most of the time, and Sarah lets him be right as often as he needs to be. She will make mistakes, fumble, proclaim her inabilities, and general act as if she were the weakest, most ineffective, most helpless person in the World. George seems to enjoy being needed, being competent, being right. Elizabeth is an example of the person who portrays The Weakling. George needs to be strong and competent, and Elizabeth is going to see to it that he comes off as just that. What is Elizabeth’s motivation? In her childhood, she found that boys liked girls who acted weak and helpless. This became a necessary role for her to play, she thought. Even when she found boys who liked girls to be competent and themselves, she felt more comfortable with The Weakling role. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11
Others know that the person who portrays a weak and innocuous role will not be attacked. It is a very effective defense. Very few people will attack someone who is lying down, looking totally defenseless. And think of all the sky, non aggressive people who are allowed to go their own way because nobody perceives them as threatening, if they are perceived at all! The Weakling is often a manipulative and very aggressive person in hiding. You may recall the character of Uriah Heep in Dickens’ David Copperfield. Heep, wringing his hands and proclaiming his ‘umbleness managed to get into powerful situation, without others knowing much about it .Usually we find that a person plays The Weakling as a ploy to put aggressors off guard. When an aggressor lets down his guard in the face of a no contest plea, The Weakling walks off with some advantages. It is an effective technique for manipulating people, but it is also a sneaky and limited way of living one’s life. There is also Sweet Georgia Brown—this woman who never utters a discouraging word. She is always smiling, always cordial, always has a kind and friendly word. She has millions of sweet, wonderful friends, but none of then know her any deeper than her sweet face and smile. She is able of letting people see her mask and no more. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11
Underneath, she is full of anger and bitterness. She resents being a woman, not because of anything intrinsically wrong with womanhood, but because she has to be the kind of woman people expect. She wears a mask of sweetness because it fits the stereotype of docile, affectionate, good woman she had been expected to grow into. She has resented her brother being able to live their own lives, go where they pleased, when and with whom they pleased. She had had to help her mother. When she did grumble, she was spanked and told she was not being ladylike. A lady, she was informed, accepted with good grace what life had to offer her. Enough spankings and enough rejections had accompanied her few exhibitions of assertiveness that she soon learned to tuck that part of her away and be just what her mother and aunts expected her to be. Since there were enough people outside her family who also responded optimistically to this role, it became easier and easier to play. Soon, it was the only self she could really portray well. Many people, male and female alike, play this nice guy or sweet Georgia role. It is easier to be liked and loved than to struggle to be significant or respect. Incidentally, many common stereotypes are perpetuated by the people who are best descried by them simply because they will not or cannot take the trouble to declare themselves as full human beings. Passivity, sweetness or compliance are easier than asserting individuality. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11
There are also people who avoid human interaction by acting aggressive. There is a group of people, also partial actualizers, who exhibit hostile or sour faces toward everything and everyone. They often act like bullies, some actually hurting people, and others act more like bulldogs; they just look mean. The effect is the same. Distance. Nobody will risk crossing them or trying for any closer relationship. A few of these people are deeply warm and human on the inside, but they hide their vulnerability behind a rough exterior. No doubt they have learned the hard way that exposed sensitivity, like Achilles’ heel, is a natural target for the arrows of exploiters. On the Supernatural TV Series, Dean Winchester, while actually a humanitarian, wore a mask that said, “Do not get too close,and do not try to get to know me. I will play a professional role, but the man inside is private property.” As readers and viewers well know, the warmth often showed through in private moments. Many others who specialize in this rough-hewn exterior, in and out of fiction, are usually much kinder than their bark would indicate. Occasionally, as in bullying types, there is little or no kindness lying dormant. The bluff for these hurt or rejected people serves to protect others as well as themselves from their underlying fear and hostility. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked,” reports Luke 12.48. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11
Happy Thanksgiving!
God has unlimited goodness, knowledge, and power. The omnipotence of God requires that he should be able to do what we would understand as being logically impossible, and thus the eternal truths are dependent on God’s will. The concept of self-preservation as well our interpretative concept self-affirmation, if taken ontologically, posit a serious question. What does self-affirmation mean if there is no self, e.g. in the inorganic realm or in the infinite substance, in being-itself? Is it not an argument against the ontological character of courage that it is impossible to attribute courage to large sections of reality and to the essence of all reality? Is courage not a human quality which can be attributed even to higher beings only by analogy but not properly? Does this not decide for the moral against the ontological understanding of courage? In stating this argument one is reminded of similar arguments against metaphysical concepts in history of human thought. Concepts like the World soul, microcosmos, instinct, the will to power, and so on have been accused of introducing subjectivity into the objective realm of things. However, these accusations are mistaken. They miss the meaning of ontological concepts. It is not the functions of these concepts to describe the ontological nature of reality in terms of the subjective or the objective side of our ordinary experience. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
A human’s power is nothing in comparison to that of one’s maker. Indeed, a person is helpless to do anything expect sin unless one is assisted by the power and grace of God—God works in us both to will and to do. It is the function of an ontological concept to use some realm of experience to point to the characteristics of being-itself which lie above the split between subjectivity and objectivity and which therefore cannot be expressed literally in terms taken from the subjective or the objective side. Ontology speaks analogously. Being as being transcends objectivity as well as subjectivity. However, in order to approach it cognitively one must use both. And one can do so because both are rooted in that which transcends them, in being-itself. It is the light of this consideration that the ontological concepts referred to must interpreted. They must be understood not literally but analogously. This does not mean that they have been produced arbitrarily and can easily be replaced by other concepts. Their choice is a matter of experience and thought, and subject to criteria which determine the adequacy or inadequacy of each of them. This is true also of concepts like self-preservation or self-affirmation, if taken in ontological sense. It is true of every chapter of an ontology course. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
God knows what will come to pass, but his knowing does not cause anything to happen. Both Self-preservation and self-affirmation logically imply the overcome of something which, at least potentially, threatens or denies the self. There is no explanation of this something in the minds of some. If everything follows by necessity from the nature of the eternal substance, no being would have the power to threaten the self-preservation of another being. Every thing would be as if it is and self-affirmation would be exaggerated word for the simple identity of a thing with itself. Self-affirmation and self-preservation are powerful and part of growth. Therefore, the will does not strive for something it does not have, for some object outside of itself, but wills itself in the double sense of preserving and transcending itself. This is its power, and also its power over itself. Will to power is the self-affirmation of the will as ultimate reality. Life in this term is the process in which the power of being actualizes itself. However, in actualizing itself it overcomes that in life which, although belong to life, negates life. One could call it the will which contradicts the will to power. Life has many aspects, it is ambiguous. Its ambiguity most typically in the last fragment of the collection of fragments which is called the Will to Power. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Courage is the power of life to affirm itself in spite of this ambiguity, while the negation of life because of its negativity is an expression of cowardice. We can develop a prophecy and philosophy of courage in opposition to the mediocrity and decadence of life in the period which is to come. It is your dearest Self, your virtue what is good. The Self has itself, but at the same time it tries to reach to itself. Life is that special substance. The truth of virtue is that the Self is in it and not an outward thing. Courage is the affirmation of one’s self it is virtue altogether. The self whose self-affirmation is virtue and courage is the self which surpasses itself. Life creates life loves and what is has created is the will to power which is more than life. Life, willing to surpass itself, is the good life, and the good life is the courageous life. It is the life of the powerful soul and the triumphant body whose self-enjoyment is virtue. Such a soul banishes everything cowardly; it says: bad—that is cowardly. However, in order to each such a nobility it is necessary to obey and to command and to obey while commanding. This obedience which is included in commanding is the opposite of submissiveness. The latter is the cowardice which does not dare to risk itself. The submissive self is the opposite of the self-affirming self, even if it is submissive to a God. It wants to escape the pain of hurting and being hurt. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
God’s views of all things from the perspective of eternity—the simultaneous and complete possession of infinite life. In such a conception there is no suggestion of succession in time, and God must thus see all things in a manner similar to that in which we view things spread out in a given moment. The obedient self, on the contrary, is the self which commands itself and risks itself thereby. In commanding itself it becomes its own judge and its own victim. It commands itself according to the law of life, the law of self-transcendence. The will which commands itself is the creative will. It makes a whole out of fragments and riddles of life. It does not look back, it stands beyond a bad conscience, it rejects the spirit of revenge which is the innermost nature of self-accusation and of the consciousness of guilt, it transcends reconciliation, for it is the will to power. In doing al this the courageous self is united with life itself and its secret. One acts voluntarily and freely, then, in doing what one wills, prefers, or chooses. The unconscious is the master of every fate and the captain of every soul. The courage to look into the abyss of nonbeing in the complete loneliness of one who accepts the message that we have to manifest God in our daily lives has the experience of courage and proves to be an outstanding key for the ontological approach to reality. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
God is not deceiver; hence, we may conclude that we are not systematically misled with respect to those things which we have a strong natural tendency to believe and, accordingly, we are not misled in supposing that there is both a part and an external World. One of the faults in the way most of us think is the strong tendency to dichotomize, to divide things up into mutually exclusive opposites. If work is viewed as a curse, not working is viewed as a blessing. Mainly we view work as a necessary evil and our leisure time and days off as the necessary and balancing good. Partly because we still hold onto the Work-Sin Ethic and partly because of this dichotomous way of thinking, play takes on the interesting character of being something earned, a reward for working so hard. Most of us do not know how to use leisure time or play in a creative and restorative way. For some the reward comes from sleeping late on days off, refusing to do anything in the way of labor, avoiding chores or tasks, and resenting people or things that interfere with just laying about the house. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
A few people occupy themselves with eating or drinking or smoking too much on their days off. Reward mechanisms take many forms, and for all that people may resent immature behavior, they fail to recognize that their work as rewardable at all is a juvenile attitude. Work in the general sense need not be such a drag as to engender this necessarily to escape into activities that are merely different without necessarily being pleasant or fun. Therefore, in order to discuss attitudes toward play, we must first consider attitudes toward work as play. There are lot of examples of work that must be considered nothing more than drudgery. However, it is possible to note that there are many people who are capable of finding enjoyment, even fun, it the most menial or tedious kinds of work. How? Possibly the answer, complex as it is, lies not in the nature of the work experience, but in the person doing the work. The person who brings to one’s work, ether ditch-digging or book-writing, a sense of personal expression is likely to enjoy one’s work. To actually be able to see work as an outgrowth of selfhood makes it more enjoyable. Many people report that their work is considered a chance to demonstrate their personal sense of selfhood. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
People who take their work as an expression of themselves find work that enables them to test out certain skills or that gives them an opportunity to explore other, often hidden, skills. They take on new tasks, or do old tasks in new ways, because it is a form of self-expression. Any job, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time, becomes a challenge in some sense. There is an increasing tendency on the part of aware people to seek out work that is meaningful to them and to whomever they work for. Many are unwilling to take just any job simply to earn money or job security. They recognize that in a complex and highly varied society such as ours there are thousands of different kinds of work, with some of the less traditional jobs and the newer ones offering individuals new chances to explore and express their selfhood. However, how does playfulness enter into working? It can be artificially inserted by those who try to find aspects of the work that are enjoyable, stimulating, fun. Or the work or the particular task may be visualized as a game. One of the advantages of playing at work is that overly self-absorbed people can learn not to take themselves quite so seriously, to be so concerned about how they look, or what others think or feel about them that they literally sit in judgment on themselves. #RanolphHarris 8 of 10
People who criticize themselves for the type of work they do or let the judgments of others get to them about their personal job or career choice are demonstrating a lack of confidence or self-liking. They are too dependent on external validation of their selfhood to be in the same category with self-actualizing people. Better than artificially creating games or play is attitude-changing. Work and play are not absolute polar extremes. Most jobs are situations that include relaxation and drudgery, challenge and monotony, delight and disgust, exhilaration and tedium, inspiration and irritation, fulfillment and frustration, self-satisfaction and service. The creative, self-actualizing people is capable of experiencing all of these and growing from them. It is important to feel motivated and inspired in your career. Without the drive to excel, your performance will lack passion and, in turn, your company may suffer. Productivity allows one to work in the most efficient manner, which makes room for downtime and encouraged work-life balance. If one is passionate about one’s, one is likely to take an active interest in learning every aspect of the business. Many people are too afraid to follow their dreams and do what they love, but keep in mind it is important that we challenge ourselves so we can achieve our vision. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
Testimony is personal knowledge, based up the witness of the Holy Ghost, that certain facts of eternal significance are true. The Holy Ghost is the messenger for the Father and the Son and the teacher of and guide to all truth. This, by the power of the Holy Ghost we may know the truth of all things. The knowledge and spiritual conviction we receive from the Holy Ghost are the results of revelation Seeking for and obtaining these blessings require a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ. A personal testimony also brings responsibility and accountability. “Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every person,” report Doctrine and Covenants 84.85. Therefore, let naturally occurring times happen where one can have a conversation and testify of specific blessings one has received during the course of relatively routine activities of that day, which is one of the reasons Sunday Dinner is so important to many God loving families. The truth is the scripture has always been a source of direction for many and Sunday Dinner is a time the family uses to illuminate the needs and better understand each other in a supportive and secure environment. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Last night she lay on the bed for hours. She was whispering things. I could not hear her. She would not talk to me. She would not come out of it. She would not get dressed for bed, or take anything to eat or drink. I lay beside her—what you told me to do. I held her. I even sang to her. Sleep does many things for us. In sleep there is the obvious function of resting the tired cells of the body. They are not called upon to fire and react as much as during sleep as during the average day. Do the cells are allowed to go through a longer period of what we call absolute refraction. In the period they build up potentially for future use more easily and efficiently than when they might be called on for quick reactivity with short periods of rest. Also in sleep we have the chance to escape from conscious and direct involvement with the World around us. We can shut out some of the pressures we face in a waking state, and one good turn gets most of the blanket. Sleep can also be an exquisite personal, and spiritual experience. Falling asleep can be an experience to look forward to each night. In a state of slumber, we experience the process of surrendering. That is important because in order to really derive enjoyment and true peace in this sublime state of being, we must be relaxed. Relaxation does not begin until after we have completed the last thing on our list. It is cultivated in intervals during the day. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Going to bed early and getting up early will allow the mind and body to become rested. Another definite function of sleep seems to be to give us a chance to dream. Recently, dreams have been the subject of much research, and we now know a bit more than we used to about them. When, after passing through a narrow defile, one suddenly reaches a height beyond which the ways part and a rich prospect lies outspread in different direction, it is well to stop for a moment and consider whither one shall turn next. We are in somewhat the same position after we have mastered this first interpretation of the dream. We find ourselves standing in the light of discovery. The dream is not comparable to the irregular sounds of a musical instrument, which, instead of being played by the hand of a musician, is struck by some external force; the dream is not meaningless, not absurd, does not presuppose that one part of our store of ideas is dormant while another part begins to awake. It is a perfectly valid psychic phenomenon, actually a wish-fulfillment; it may be enrolled in the continuity of the intelligible psychic activities of the waking state; it is built up by a highly complicated intellectual activity. Dreams seem to play a very important part in preserving our mental health. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
When we are dreaming we are involved with what is called Rapid Eye Movement Sleep. REM Sleep comes right after a period of deep sleep during which no dreaming seems to take place. There may be four to six stages of REM sleep each night, lasting for only a few minutes. During this period the eye ball is actually moving underneath the closed eyelid, much as it does when it follows the ball in a tennis match. Subjects who are awakened when the recording instruments indicate they are in REM sleep report on their dreams, but they also give evidence that they are irritated by the interruption, leading dream experts to speculate that the dreaming is very important to them. Dr. Freud believe that dreams serve dynamic functions by protecting sleep and alleviating unconscious wishes. It is easy to show that the wish-fulfillment in dream is often undisguised and easy to recognize, so that one may wonder why the language of dreams has not long since been understood. There is, for example, a dream which I can evoke as often as I please, experimentally, as it were. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
If, in the evening, I eat anchovies, olives, or other strongly salted foods, I am thirsty at night, and therefore I wake. The waking, however, is preceded by a dream, which has always the same content, namely that I am drinking. I am drinking long draughts of water; it tastes as delicious as only a cool drink can taste when one’s throat is parched; and then I wake, and find that I have an actual desire to drink. The cause of this dream is thirst, which I perceived when I wake. From this sensation arises the wish to drink, and the dream shows me this wish as fulfilled. It thereby serves a function. I sleep well, and am not accustomed to being waked by a bodily need. If I succeed in appeasing my thirst by means of the dream that I am drinking, I need not wake up in order to satisfy that this. It is thus a dream of convenience. The dream takes the place of action, as elsewhere in life. Unfortunately, the need of water to quench the thirst cannot be satisfied by a dream, as can my thirst can only be quenched if I get up and fetch a glass of water. I thus quite appropriately dreamt that my wife was giving me a drink from a vase; this vase was an Etruscan cinerary urn, which I had brought home from Italy, and had since given away. However, the water in it tasted so salt (apparently on account of the ashes) that I was forced to wake. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
Another view holds that dreams simply express a need for some kind of cognitive activity, which is present during sleep as well as when awake. A third view suggests that dreams are more or less unimportant cognitive activities that express internal states during sleep. This would mean that intrinsic energy or tension is acted out through the symbolic content of the dream, regardless of the meaning of the content. All of these views are based on the research evidence we currently have concerning dreams. Whether we are aware of dreaming or not (and evidence suggests that we all do dream every night), sleep is an important part of our lives. We know from many studies that subjects will experience fantastic changes at all levels if they are deprived of it. Subject who have been kept awake experimentally for long periods of time report physical sensation they do not ordinarily have. Some subjects report tingling or numbness in the limbs. Some report headaches, nausea, dizzy feelings, and soreness in muscles. Others report mental confusion. A few have experienced hallucinations and delusions. All report a lowered threshold of tolerance for various stimuli. They have less patience, less ability to stand tension, less tolerance for bothersome noises. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Obviously, we need sleep and we need it to be relatively uninterrupted. However, since sleep is a function of both individual needs and cultural attitudes toward it, the amount needed varies with each individual. The average or the mean is generally expressed as eight hours. If the average work day is eight hors and the average sleep time is eight hours, what do we do with the remaining eight hours a day? In many cases they are more important, for the person may use them in such beneficial ways as to enhance one’s work and enable the sleep to come more readily. People who get adequate sleep receives more flashed of inspiration and insight during the day. “Cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 88.124. It is well to be up before day-break, for such a habit contributes to health, wealth and wisdom. Connection have also been made between keeping an early schedule and mental and emotional health. To those who feel defeated and downtrodden, look to the early hours of the day for your rescue because the World is usually a more beautiful place early in the morning. Life is so much more calm. Much more can be accomplished in a shorter amount of time. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Randolph Harris II International Institute 