Randolph Harris II International Institute

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Over a Game of Cards

To be weak is miserable, doing or suffering. As much as we in the Western culture revere the strong, so do we protect and care and perpetuate the weak. For the person prone to weakness, it becomes an easy, comfortable trap. However, it soon becomes a miserable one. If you are stuck on the weakness polarity, you are a particularly hard-to-handle manipulator. You tend to depend upon others for everything, and when they try to get away, you play weak or helpless, thus sucking them in again. You are an excellent role player. You apologize a lot for everything, using pleas of ignorance or incompetence to avoid responsibility. To reassure yourself, you constantly ask others if you are okay. Unfortunately for you, you are so busy looking into the faces of others for expressions of approval, you never look inside yourself. Your inner self is thus a vast, unexplored territory. In spite of all your admission of weakness and incompetence, you have refused to truly examine those feelings of weakness. Your emotional life has thus remained a shallow one. If you are a master, however, you do not play the helpless role; you have the courage to really face your limitations and define them as your body and emotions guide you. You trust yourself and look inside, appealing to you “inner Supreme Court” for answers. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

The weakness you find within is real, not a manipulative game—and not a mask. When you are able to face your limitations inside, you are also able to find strength and competence there. As a master, you know you can look within to find all the answers and all the guidance you need. Having mastered, not exaggerated, your weakness, you improve your physical health. You attend to clues your body gives you as to its condition, rather than allowing them to develop into vague, nagging aches. Among others, you stand on your own feet and are free to relate to others as an equal. You carry your own weight of responsibility in the World. Mustering the strength to shoulder this weight can be a long and difficult process. Some people have been afraid all of their lives. Some infants are afraid of the wind. It howls menacingly across the open fields, then darts through the cracks in the floorboards of their farmhouse, which startles the baby with a sudden chill. On blustery nights, it makes the house shiver with what a baby might imagine is a fear like his own. Next, some children learn to fear their father. He is a stern, brittle man who works his farm from before sunrise until after sunset every day of the year. He seems to be at constant war with the farm and the farm seems to constantly fight back. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

The struggle might make a father mean, and he may vent his meanness on everything around him: the land, the animals, his wife and children. As a result, some children learn to never talk back to their father. Breaking one of his rules, even a little, means feeling the awful whack of his hand across the face, neck, shoulders, back. And when he begins to hit, he seldom stops until his hand is too sore to hit anymore. This causes some wives to become just like one of the children. She does her chores, obeys her husband unquestioningly and when she breaks one of his rules, even a little, is whacked just as hard and long. The only time the father did not hit his wife is when she was sick. Growing up in the isolation of a farmhouse, some children also come to fear the outside World, the World of the unknown and unknowable people beyond the wide fields which stretch in ever direction. A child may try a few, tentative friendships in school, but sometime the youth is never able to spend enough time with their peers to get comfortable and familiar the way real friends do. This child’s World is the farm and family and the fear which pervades everything. When abused children turn eighteen, it is often demanded that they get a job. Some youths are not willing to put up with the hard work pay, and constant crude advances of the customers. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

Abused youth often enjoy the work—not because it is easy, but because for twelve hours a day it allows the youth to be out of the house, out of the reach of his father’s stinging hand. When he serves someone particularly well, an extra dollar or two appears under the plate. Although these paychecks are sometimes all surrendered to the father, he is able to keep the tips for himself, his private treasure. As an adult, when people live with fear, it can cause pain and sickness. And often, nothing seems to help. Not the medicines, not talking about it, not anything. There will be times in our lives when we find ourselves on an unexpected path, facing severe circumstances. When events, often out of our control, alter the life we had planned or hoped for, how do we respond? No amount of change, trial, or opposition can alter our eternal course. We are God’s spirit sons and daughters, and we accepted his plan by which we could obtain a physical body and gain Earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize our divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The changes, and resulting challenges, that we encounter in mortality come in a variety of shapes and sizes and impact each of us in unique ways. Although each change may be unique to your individual circumstances, there is a common element in the resulting trial or challenge—hope and peace are always available through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

The Atonement of Jesus Christ provides the ultimate corrective and healing measures to every wounded body, damaged spirit, and broken heart. Jesus Christ knows, in a way that no one else can understand, what it is that we need, individually, in order to move forward in the midst of change. Unlike friends and loved ones, the Saviour not only sympathizes with us, but He can empathize perfectly because He has been where we are. In addition to paying the price and suffering for our sins, Jesus Christ also walked every path, dealt with every challenge, faced every hurt—physical, emotional, or spiritual—that we will ever encounter in mortality. In this mortal experience, we cannot control all that happens to us, but we have absolute control over how we respond to the changes in our lives. This does not imply that the challenges and trials we face are of no consequence and easily handled or dealt with. It does not imply that we will be free from pain or heartache. Helpless is a place—a place that is real. However, it is important that we do not let ourselves play helpless. Do not give in to it. There is cause for hope and that is due to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can move forward and find better days—even days full of joy, light, and happiness. Healing blessings come in many ways, each suited to our individual needs, as known to Him who loves us best. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Sometimes a “healing” cures our illness or lifts our burden. However, sometimes we are “healed” by being given strength to understanding or patience to bear the burdens placed upon us. In the first year that I knew my wife, we played Russian Bank quite often. She had been winning but then she began losing, and one evening she threw her head and arms on the table and sobbed, as though she had lost not a game of cards but everything in the World. That was what I noticed at the time. Instead of letting that thought itself be said, the spontaneous noticing, matter-of-fact, without opinion, neither tender with pain nor hard with accusation, I let myself be scared by seeing this “strong” woman fall apart “over a game of cards,” by seeing her little rib cage heave like a child’s. It was cultural conditioning that made me view this as “weak” or “helplessness”—something that “should not happen” and so must be stopped. In losing my neutrality, I wanted to put her back together. I put a hand on her shoulder. I bent and kissed the back of her neck. She pulled together and smiled at me, her eyes saying thank you. And I thought that I had helped her, too. There were these moments, brief and rare, when my wife’s guard was down, when she was cracking. I had botched them. I did just what she did—tried to put “her” back together, not knowing that this was not her. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

If I had not done this, just possibly she might not have done it herself. There might have been the of an opening. All those years of reassurance were crutch-type helping, and all the times when I prevented her suicide never really saved her life, because her life was what she never lived. If I had said my own thought as simply as I felt it, as it came into my head, my first thought that was my own direct and immediate response and really me, is it not possible that she might have told me what “losing” meant to her? And if I had accepted that (not saying that it was not so, that there were many ways in which she won, was running ahead of others—which was true in the view of the society of which we both were a part, but not in the view of all societies) might she not have been able to speak what she never could say to anyone and so could not hear properly herself? Suppose, that morning after the Japanese attack, I had said, “You sound as though you feel this really is the end for you. I hope it is not.” Those were my true thoughts, my own thoughts at the time, that I let get blacked by what I saw as my World and what I thought that his should be. My World at that time in fact was not superior: it required that she be in it with me. My World did not see that she was in it only more so, and blocked my own immediate and direct response to her. My tenderness for human suffering did not include her. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

Some people do not believe that mental illness exists. The phenomena now called mental illnesses [should be] looked at afresh and more simply, be regarded as the expressions of man’s struggle with the problem of how he should live. How do we fit ourselves in a society that gives us so much trouble? That is the wrong question. It is possible to lose all awareness of ourselves as an active participant. In the year before I left my wise, she had almost totally convinced me that I was “insane,” unfit to be a father. “No judge would let you have him (our son).” In fighting not to blame my wife for my hurt and confusion, because I could not bear to have my love change to hate, I arrived at knowing my own part in it, and told a doctor what was true: “I watched her dig the pit, and obligingly fell in.” However, I could not see that clearly while I was under fire. Each time that I almost grasped it, my wife’s words—or even the way she looked at me—threw me into a chaos of uncertainty again—the doubting of myself. No one else seemed to find her behaviour odd, so was it all in me? I had to be away from her, away from everyone with opinions, to find out. It gives me the creeps that children who are told they are “wrong,” “no good,” “worthless,” cannot get away, and that our young people are required to fit into a society which does not fit them. When we require always more doctors, more psychotherapists, more jailers, more police, who is at fault? #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

There are some people who have been in prison for twenty years straight and they talk to themselves. There is no one that they can call on. Their New York lawyers cannot do anything for them. There is no appeal from a .30 caliber summons. Some wonder if Sade is an atheist? He says so, and we believe him, before going to prison, in his Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man; and from then on, we are dumbfounded by his passion for sacrilege. One of his cruelest characters, Saint-Fond, does not in any sense deny God. He is content to develop a gnostic theory of a wicked demiurge and to draw the proper conclusions from it. Saint-Fond, it is said, is not Sade. No, of course not. A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously. Now, all Sade’s atheists suppose, in principle, the nonexistence of God for the obvious reason that He existence would imply that He was indifferent, wicked, or cruel. Sade’s greatest work ends with a demonstration of the stupidity and spite of the divinity. The innocent Justine runs through the storm and the wicked Noirceuil swears that he will be converted if divine retribution consents to spare her life. Justine is struck by lightning, Noirceuil triumphs, and human crime continues to be man’s answer to divine crime. Thus there is a freethinker wager that is the answer to the Pascalian wager. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

The idea of God which Sade conceives for himself is, therefore, of a criminal divinity who oppresses and denies mankind. That murder is an attribute of the divinity is quite evident, according to Sade, from the history of religions. Why, then, should man be virtuous? Sade’s first step as a prisoner is to jump to the most extreme conclusions. If God kills and repudiates mankind, there is nothing to stop one from killing and repudiating one’s fellow men. This irritable challenge in no way resembles the tranquil negation that is still to be found in the Dialogue of 1782. The man who exclaims: “I have nothing, I give nothing,” and who concludes: “Virtue and vice are indistinguishable in the tomb,” is neither happy nor tranquil. The concept of God is the only thing, according to him, “which he cannot forgive man.” The word forgive is already rather strange in the mouth of this expert in torture. However, it is himself whom he cannot forgive for an idea that his desperate view of the World, and his condition as a prisoner, completely refute. A double rebellion—against the order of the Universe and against himself—is henceforth going to be the guiding principle of Sade’s reasoning. In that these two forms of rebellion are contradictory except in the disturbed mind of a victim of persecution, his reasoning is always either ambiguous or legitimate according to whether it is considered in the light of logic or in an attempt at compassion. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

It is true that thought precedes action, that actions express thoughts, and that to rule mind is to rule the entire life. However, it is also true that man’s battles with himself proceed by progressive stages, that he exerts will more easily than he changes feeling. Therefore, the discipline of inward thinking should follow after—and no before—it. To counsel him to take care of his inner life and that then the outer life will take care of itself, as so many mystics do, is to be plausible but also to show a lack of practicality. Man’s heart will feel no peace as his mind will know no poise until he abandons the lower instincts and gives himself up to this unearthly call. First, he must abandon them outwardly in deeds; later he must do it inwardly even in thoughts. This will inevitably bring him into inner struggle, into oscillation between victories and defeats, elations and despairs. The way up is long, hard, rugged, and slow to tread. It is always a stage for complaints and outcries, battles and falls. Only time—the master power—can bring him to its lofty end. Only when the lessons of birth after birth etch themselves deeply and unmistakably into his conscious mind through dreadful repetition can he accept them co-operatively, resignedly, and this put a stop to the needless sufferings of desire, passion, and attachment. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

When a man’s desire and yearnings, thirst and longings are so strong as to upset his reasoning power and block his intuitive capacity, he is stopped from finding the truth. In this condition, he shuts his eyes to those facts which are displeasing or which are contrary to his desires and opens them only to those which are pleasing or agreeable to his wishes. Thinking bends easily to desires, so that the satisfaction of personal interest rather than the quest of universal truth becomes its real object. Reforms that begin with the lowest in man lead the way to the highest in him. The mastery of terrestrial passion opens the door to the birth of the spiritual intuition. Whether the cage be made of gold or the net fabricated from silk, the reality of their inner captivity still remains. A discipline which is not stern but gentle and easy is best suited to modern man. The astrological Zodiac which has continued to attract the attentions of intelligent people for five thousand years must have some caste-type meaning—and this significance must be explained by the theories which improve it. New theories can improve, can explain, but not reject, the Zodiac. The Genesis version of Creation obviously must have had profound survival validity even through it obviously fails to take into account the newer evidence from Darwinian, Mendelian, DNA, sociobiological and Behaviour genetics. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Correspondence Theory is a “magic stick” for searching out new laws, because it sets formal constraints on new mathematics. As Morrison emphasizes, the Correspondence Principle secures science against the loss of achievements of the past. For innovators it is a warning like Hippocratic maxim for physicians—above all do no harm! Classical mechanics is not a mere blunder that was repudiated in 1905, as the headlines imply. This affectionate maxim holds even more strongly for human ethology—id est, philosophy. All the theological and philosophical systems of the past must be seen as attempts, valid at the preceding, more primitive stage of neurotechnology, to explain the inner-outer (CNS-DNA) reality paradox. Thus the concern in the Starseed Transmissions to trace correspondences among the many occult theories of the past, including Christianity and Buddhism, and the new sciences. Each past philosophy, far from being repudiated, or rejected, joyously fits into an evolving, stage-by-stage theory. Medieval alchemy and astrology were not blunders repudiated by Dow Chemical and Dr. Freud. The demon is the jester in human existence, and the joker in psychotherapy. No matter how well a man lays his plans, the demon can come in at the critical moment and upset them all, usually with a smile and a ha ha. And no matter how well the therapist plans his psychotherapy, the patient always has the upper hand. At the point when the therapist thinks he has four aces, the man plays his joker, and his demon wins the pot. Then he skips merrily off, leaving the doctor to lead through the deck trying to figure out what happened. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Even if he is ready for it, there may be little he can do. The doctor may know ahead of time that just as the man gets his stone rolled up to the brow of the hill, the demon will distract his attention, and it will roll all the way down again. There may be others who know about it, too, but the demon is already at work, and sees to it that the man keeps away from anyone who would interfere. So the patient starts to miss appointments, or drifts away, and if anyone pressures him he just plain quits. He may return after he has Sisyphused out, sadder, but not much wiser, nor even aware of his glee. The demon first appears in the higher, when the man scatters his food on the floor with a merry glint, waiting to see what his parents will do. If they make friends with it, it will go on to later mischief, and then perhaps into humorous fun and jokes. If they beat it down, it will lurk surly in the background, ready to leap out at an unguarded moment and scramble his life as it originally scrambled his food. A substantial proportion of the World’s population lives in cities where trees and grass are seldom seen, where the sounds of birds and babbling streams are not heard. The air they breathe is either filtered through air-conditioning units or heavily polluted with smog. Such persons adapt to the milieu within which they live, but it is an unnatural environment. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Contact with the physical World, with seaside, forests, and parks, with fields and animals, gives persons a sense of rhythm that contrasts with the rhythms of industrialized urban life. These experiences remind the person that he or she does not simply have a body, but that the person is a body, an embodied being who is in and of nature. Chronic physical and muscular tension, accelerated rhythms of speech and movement, are common to people who live apart from their own nature and the nature around us all. Just as a person may suffer from estrangement from the rest of nature, the person may also suffer a kind of alienation and distance from the body. From infancy, the human needs physical contact with the other human beings and with the World. Infants and grownups alike need handshakes, hugs, enjoyable exercise, and dance in order to feel the vitality of their bodies. As Reich, Lowen, and Rolf have pointed out, growing up leaves a person with many muscular systems chronically tensed, as part of an overall defense against danger and pain. This “muscular armour” interferes with fullest respiration, with proper poster, with sleep and rest; it often requires specialized massage and manipulation before the muscular system is restored to the pliability most compatible with a health-giving life. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Reich especially pointed out that a chronically defensive attitude reduces a person’s capacity for the fullest intimacy. Of course, intimacy is also an exquisite experience. Our culture, with its puritan heritage, has encouraged people to repress pleasures of the flesh, perhaps because it interferes with compulsive work. Recent counterculture developments have introduced a variety of approaches to a reengagement with nature and with one’s own body that seem compatible with healthier personality. The year 2024 is important for many people and the American movement in many ways. We have seen the cause and effect of not having a balanced system. One nail drives another deeper still. Even new obligation that America assumes, as a result of its criminal mis-handling of foreign American interests, creates a stronger blow which falls on the states. When the democratic party intentionally allowed border security to fail, it gave the revolutionary uprising of an acceptance of criminal behaviour and the appearance of a spear point aimed at the American Christian family, they did not do this from the standpoint of American interest, but only as a commissioner of widespread illegal activity, corruption, and a general disregard for national security. It is obvious that this “valuable gem,” who had been constantly wandered around American political centers as the journalists’ rabble, should have been the last person called upon as a protector of American interests and he was completely indifferent whether America was even part of God’s wide World. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

The Sacramento Fire Department has to avert dangers to public safety caused by fires, explosions, accidents and similar events. Technical assistance and firefighting tasks play an important role in this. They also provide medical assistance for people who are in life-threatening condition. The aim is to preserve life or health. This includes initial medical care and, if necessary, the establishment of transportation to the hospital. The tasks assigned by law include, among other things, statements in the context of building permit procedures, fire safety inspections or contract procedures for fire alarm systems and fire brigade key depots. “It was a bitterly cold night, maybe twenty or twenty-five degrees (Fahrenheit). The was a farmhouse, heavily involved, and there were kids trapped in it. We got out there, and the house was cooking. There was heavy smoke coming out of the windows; since the fire hadn’t gone through the roof, it was bending out all the windows. This was the first time any of us young guys had a situation where we knew someone was trapped. We started stretching an inch-and-a-half because that’s what we always did, and out chief said, “The heck with the inch-and-a-half. The kids are trapped up there, and we’ve got to get up.” None of the guys from the other department had air packs on, and we were all masked up. They pointed to the back of the house, which wasn’t so involved with flames. The kids’ bedroom was there. We put a ladder up to the little roof over one of the side doors and went up. I looked inside the window, and the whole quarter of the house was going, trapping the kids. These were farm kids, and they had already been up doing their chores. Now they couldn’t get out. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“We tried to get in this window. I could see down the hall, I could see a crib. It was at the point where the flame is so intense that you can see again, when it’s really lit up, before you deal the water. I tried to get in the window and I got blown right back. I kept trying to reach for the crib, and I kept getting burned back, because the whole damn fire was venting this way. Two other guys were trying the next window, meeting the same thing—getting blown back. There was just heat coming at us. I lost my helmet, my New Yorker, in there. Then our bells went off, and we were called down. I was so man, I said, ‘Dang, we couldn’t get to them, we couldn’t get to them.’ And one of the guys I had never given much of a thought to slammed me against the side of a wall, and said, ‘That’s it. It’s done.’ Apparently I was sufficiently obnoxious about my frustration that somebody felt it necessary to snap me back. Meanwhile, a booster line, a high-pressure beam gun, was working on the fire. I had to change air packs because the face piece on my mask was burned so that I couldn’t see out of it. We went back up and made an entrance through the second window. We knew it was too late in the firs for the kids to be alive. I went in and started searching the room. The far corner of it had burned through to the first floor. I started crawling and found one of the kids practically underneath the window. It turned out to be a fourteen-year-old girl. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“I took off a glove and felt for a pulse, but I could see by the way everything was burned there that there was nothing I could do and I should just report it. She had probably gotten to the window and opened it, and then probably got sucked back in. The room has flashed. I don’t know why it flashed. I searched further, and I came across a lot of stuffed toys, and there was a little girl with a ponytail, all charred and black and very brittle. I remember reaching out to that. It was the little girl’s room I was in. Further on, across the hallway, there was a body strewn there, with a nose falling down across the face. It was absolutely gruesome. I came back and reported the fatalities to the chief. You think about scenarios. The older sister must have gone into the little girl’s room to try to save her and gotten trapped and just passed away. The chief and I were standing in that room, waiting for the medical examiner to come and talking about it. The little girl was the child of a poor farm family, but she had books and today and stuffed dollars and everything she could want. It was striking. The parents got out, and they were an absolute mess, the thought of their kids trapped upstairs and them getting out because their bedroom was downstairs. But the worst thing for them must have been the knowledge that they fire had started in a faultily installed wood stove, which they had twice been warned about by the fire company when they had been there earlier on less serious fires. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

“Up until then I had been a young snot who really thought he could knock the tar out of any fire. I had been in real hot fires and gone through it and really had done my job, and I would have sworn that I could have gone through anything to have gotten to the kids. That is just not the way it is. The thing is, you think you’re invincible, that you can get through any smoke or anything. I mean, the fire was horrible, four kids died in it. It was physically impossible to get through the window. I did everything I could, and I know I did. I went up to the house a couple of day later. I wanted to find my fire helmet, which was still in there somewhere. There was a lot of clutter all around. I looked up and saw my helmet inside the crib that I had been trying to reach into. I took it back, cleaned it up.” With empathy and understanding, the Sacramento Fire Department protects life, property, and the environment in their community through an all-hazards approach to fire protection, emergency medical services, community risk reduction and education. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. In an effort to keep the country cohesive, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ and buy American cars and other American goods and services. Also, please respect law and order, and treat others with kindness and respect. To ensure that you have a bright future, please take your education seriously, and be sure to actually read your books. And remember to “Just Say ‘No’ to Drugs.” Even marijuana can be deadly. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

The Winchester Mystery House

he ghosts are The Winchester Mystery House and are treated like members of the family. They are greeted and wished a Merry Christmas and asked to protect that house. The caretakers strive to create a home that is welcoming to everyone. The goal is to make guests feel comfortable and safe. There are a variety of tours, some for those who love theme parks and others for children and families and those who love more historic tours.

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

How Far Would You Go to be Remembered?

Our terrestrial God is fascinating, and the Judeo-Christian Bible is an invaluable index to the neurogenetic level of the period in which it was written. The genetic stage of gene pool can be identified by the personality characteristics of the Local God. God of Genesis is an Earth God. He generously created the Heaven and the stars and the World, but, much like the Mrs. Winchester, provides no technical details or replicable blueprints. His preoccupation, whims, anxieties, jealousies, rules and gender roles have come to represent the traditional society. God owns the Garden—which many think is where the idea of The American Dream and nuclear family came from—and allows Adam and Eve their tenancy there. He has the right to ban them from the garden for disobeying His laws. God puts his warrior guards on the periphery of His turf to scare off intruders. God exemplifies stage five demanding with the intelligence of a Lion. A post-terrestrial God would not be concerned with possession of territory. Such a DNA ecological-engineer God would understand that all creatures must evolve through the marine, territorial, artifact, and social technologies and that they must self-actualize at each evolution, passing the second stage infant fish-brained mentality, the fifth stage mammalian-brained demanding, the eight-stage detailed-brained pedantic juvenile and eleventh stage domesticated adult, as well as those advanced stages of self-divinity. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

When their precious little baby says, “My…and mine” wise parents smile because it is the beginning of the definition of reality and self in terms of territory. When the like stage eight detailed-brained juvenile humanoid proudly presents a crayon drawing or some original symbolic creation, every wise parent smiles praise. When the children fool around with the Tree of Good and Evil—the socio-sex rituals of the local give-it is true that terrestrial parents get upset. However, this is no reason to throw the children out of the house and put a flaming torch at the front door to keep the poor errant youngster from contritely creeping back. The God has not reached the technological level of the civilized stage of parental cultural transmission. The fact that pleasures of the flesh is not a concern of the Genesis supports the suggestion that in this folk legend we are dealing with the reality of a seventh stage parrot-brained Paleolithic-herding tribe obsessed with territory-moving uneasily into an eight-stage inventive self-actualization brain. Thus, the Holy Bible is revealed to be the word of God. It is a collection of sacred books written by ancient prophets and historians. These authors recorded the relationship between God and His people for over 4.000 years. The inspired words are what we know today as the Holy Bible. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

The power of the Christians who follow the Bible that emerged from the Old Testament tradition is rural, pre-urban. Fundamentalist Christianity appeals to pre-civilized, prudish tribal people who are not Worldly and not ready for urban feudal pleasures. The Bible becomes a valuable ethological document to help us locate the evolutionary stage which emerged in the Middle East at biblical times. The Principle of Correspondence keeps us from rejecting the Judeo-Christian Bible as erroneous. The same power which, when misgoverned, drags men down into materialism, also lifts them into spiritual awareness when directed upward. Where all a man’s acts are merely the reflex behaviour dictated by his sense-impressions, he has hardly any life higher than an animal one. It is the business of this quest to insert the influence of consciousness of the causes and results of his actions, reason, and will into such behaviour. There are certain indestructible truths which reveal themselves through the ages to every man who, for a time at least, sufficiently masters his animal self and sufficiently quietens his human self. Those which we most need to learn today are simple and ancient, yet completely relevant to the modern scene and completely adequate to the modern need. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

It is everywhere the state today that most people are automatons, merely reacting to the outward World of the five senses in a mechanical manner. They do not really control what is happening to them but merely drift with the forces playing through the sense-stimuli. The consequence is that they do not actually possess or use the power of free will. They are puppets on Nature’s stage. When any emotion takes full possession and reaches an extreme stage, it becomes a passion. One does not easily discard the various passions. The decision to do so does not lead, or even contribute much, to their conquest. It merely announces the beginning of a long war. They return, in spite of one’s wishes, again and again for they belong to the animal body which, itself, cannot be discarded. However, in the end a man must claim his birthright to a higher kind of life, must fulfil his nobler possibilities, must set up reason and intuition as his most reliable guides. If your thoughts are energized by a noble passion and your deeds inspired by a lofty enthusiasm, they are the better for it. However, if your thoughts are distorted by a foolish passion and your deeds wasted by a misdirected enthusiasm, they are the worse for it. The same ambition which stretched his mind and capacity for money-making power-hunting can, when transformed into aspiration, stretch them for truth-seeking and character building. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

It is not even that he has to give up all desires but that he has to purify them and put them all under the dominance of his one supreme desire for attainment—which may or may not mean their extinction. The Victorian periods was not only a haunted age, lending itself to every type of illusions, event at the level of bricks and mortar. One autumn evening in 1890, I found myself at the Observational Tower. It was dark, the Tower has a kind of airy vastness about it. That night, at the witching hour, the three doors to one of the rooms were firmly closed and the curtains drawn as I sat down in the company of my niece Daisy, and dog Zip. The room, its walls nearly nine feet deep, were the home to the most formidable ghosts. The fireplace projected far into the room, and an oil painting hung over it. Daisy set with her back to the fire, as I cried out “Good God—what is that?” Hanging above the oblong table was what I can only describe as a translucent cylinder about three inches in diameter, and within it a bluish and white colour commingled in constant flux. It moved behind Daisy, and she shrank away from it, exclaiming, Oh Christ!! It has seized me!” One of the servants swiftly jumped into action and hurled a chair towards it just as it crossed the upper end of the table and vanished into the recess of a window. He dashed out of the room and summoned more servants. Even now when writing I feel the fresh horror of the moment. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

The Tower held spirits that were thought to have been dead and tortured for thousands of years. However, some of the Tower’s ghosts were more subtle—a baby crying; a hand on the shoulder while sitting in a bath; the smell of incense and horse sweat coming from nowhere—but the rest make up a tableau of blood. Screams are heard emanating from the Tower and servants often see a woman being pursued by a headsman, who eventually hacks her to the ground. Pools of blood that appear on the floor come from a fourteenth century nobleman who died of his wounds after battling the French incursions which made the Isle of Wight almost uninhabitable during that period. One particularly harrowing night, I woke to find myself not in my bed, but standing at the entrance to one of the basements. The heavy wooden door creaked open of its own accord, revealing a staircase that seemed to descend into infinite darkness. From below came the sounds of chains rattling and distant, agonized moans. As I stood there, paralyzed with fear, I felt an unseen force beginning to pull me down the stairs. It took every modicum of strength I had to resist, to turn and flee back to the safety of the upper floors. Daisy found herself drawn to the ancient mirror in her room, spending hours staring into its depths. She began to see things in its silvered surface—glimpses of the past, of the atrocities committed by the Winchester Rifle. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

However, more terrifying were the glimpses of possible futures, each more horrific than the last. In one, she saw a creature of darkness, a vicious monster, stained with blood, stalking the halls alongside other spirits. In another, she witnessed the gruesome demise of my estate at the hands of a spectral baron. His eyes ranged over us; his mouth formed into a cruel smile. He laughed, deep and loud, and with a sudden careless gesture dropped my entire home to the ground. Not only did we all perish, but legions of the dead had just lost their home. The specter then wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth with his arm, and smiled again. It was as he smirked in triumph that he held out a small gold crucifix. Daisy ran to me in tears. “Aunt Sarah,” she said, “I understand nothing except horror and misery!” “Things will get better,” said I gently, “when we have done what we have to do.” Cautiously, I moved nearer to Daisy. Her eyes blazed with fury. With a grisly grin, she back away from me to the door-to-nowhere. Daisy delivered a horrible squeal. Her withering body seemed to fade into tiny specks, forming a floating shape which slipped under the narrow crack at the bottom of the door. Stepping up to the door, I stood blinking in astonishment. I stretched out my arms to her, but she did not return. Putting my head in my hand, I sobbed. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

The trapdoor in the floor now opened of its own accord, the darkness below calling to me with promises of release from the terror—if only I would descend those winding stairs. I went down into the darkness, and at the very bottom, lighting a candle. The room became a prison. The walls seemed to close in on me, the ancient bricks whispering secrets that threatened to drive me mad. I tried everything I could think of to bring Daisy back and rid myself of this evil presence. I brought in priests to perform exorcisms, but the holy water turned to blood as soon as it touched the floors of Llanada Villa. Crucifixes twisted themselves into pentagrams. Mediums fled as flames from the fireplace took on a life of their own, forming themselves into fiery apparitions that chased them through the halls and sent them screaming from the property, speaking in malevolent tongue. As the sanity of the servants began to fray, they would find themselves slipping into fugue states, coming to awareness hours later with no memory of what had transpired. I squeezed Mr. Hansen’s arm as we traversed the miles and miles of hallways and rooms looking for my dear Daisey. Mr. Hansen gasped when we opened on of the doors. There was Daisey. In the quiet of one of the beds, resting from the horrible impulses which made her stalk the night. She was beautiful. Her eyes were closed, her expression serene. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

“Is she dead?” Mr. Hansen breathed. “No,” I replied. “She is not dead. But my home will never be at peace until we release Llanada from this evil cruse. My family and I will die, and new victims and multiplying evils will be unleashed on this World. Souls are in torment. Mr. Hansen, I need you to perform an act of great love and great courage. For although my home is the size of many mansions, if we do not continue to build, we will all be killed!” Mr. Hansen stepped forward. “I’m ready,” he said. Mr. Hansen took a small book from his pocket and began to recite a prayer. The ancient words of worship echoed around the labyrinth. A hideous, blood curdling screech came from Daisy’s open lips. The house shook and twisted wildly; it bones groaning in agony. Mr. Hansen picked up a hammer, retrieved my notes from the bureau and called the carpenters back to work. The foul things that had taken over Daisey’s body had gone, and in its place lay the real Daisy. Her face was very beautiful, but she was ravaged with pain and suffering. “So we did the right thing,” one of the carpenter said. “Did you doubt it?” asked Mr. Hansen. The evocative language of cutting and shaping wood produced a distinct rustling sound. High-pitched whines evoked an urgency and intensity. The crisp slicing of the saw, the rhythmic thumping of the hammering and nailing which reverberated through the air, and as well as the creaking chorus of grating and groaning wood produced a symphony that was very soothing and invigorating. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

A week later, in the downstairs study, Mr. Hansen was sitting at the desk frowning in concentration. He had called the carpenters all together for an important meeting. “One part of our work is over,” he said. “But a greater task remains. It is imperative that the haunting groan of timber, the ominous creek of stained wood, the hypnotic beat of the hammer, continues to carry its emotional weight, never ceasing. That is the only way we can stop the author of all our sorrow. And…”He paused, looking slowly at the expectant faces in front of him. “And keep Mrs. Winchester and her family alive,” Mr. Hansen said vehemently, to murmurs of agreement. Now that the battle was finally out in the open, I regained all my strength and spirit. I no longer felt like I was alone in the World, battling this curse on my own. I now had a team. “We all know what happened to poor Annie and Mr. Winchester,” Mr. Hansen said gravely, “and those of you who weren’t already familiar with Sarah Winchester’s journal have now read it. Very few people,” he said with admiration, “have faced what she has faced and lived to tell the tale. Her journal provides an invaluable insight into the powers and habits these ghosts and demons on humanity.” Mr. Hansen began to pace up and down the length of the study, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “I have made it my task to learn as much as possible about the many dangers we face in The Winchester Mansion. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

“Arkie will testify to the days and night I have spent in this room, in that chair, reading Mrs. Winchester’s diagrams and interpreting her architectural notes, reading books and papers untouched for centuries. My purpose in calling this meeting is to shape my knowledge—my knowledge of the ghosts killed by Yellow Boy.” Abruptly he stopped pacing up and down, stood behind his chair and thumped the table. “There are such beings as demons, ghouls, and ghosts. Spring Heeled Jack is the greatest and most evil demon there has ever been. He is as strong as twenty men and has the cunning that comes from living over a thousand years. He has claws, eyes as red as fireballs, and wings.” I suddenly interrupted. “Correct. He can rip anyone to shreds with his bare hands. And he has other tricks. He can cause fogs, he can fade into the walls. All he was wants to do is harm the living. So, please, keep building nonstop.” A chilling wind whipped around us, carrying with it the echoes of tormented souls. Spectral hands clawed at the carpenters from the shadows, leaving icy trails across their faces. “Be careful,” Mr. Hasen warned, his grip on his hammer tightening. “Try not to get too impatient or angry.” They all fell silent. With steadfast purpose they walked in a single file from one room to another, gathering tools to continue construction. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

After the men returned to work, I buried my noise in my old books. I wanted to keep myself busy so I would not worry about the curse. I needed to know as much as possible about the enemy. The men were systematically working. The book frightened me. I snaped it shut and decided to go to bed. What I needed was a good night’s sleep. In the process of working on the west wing, the men had become too confident. “Saw a ghost just then,” Emrys observed, as he nailed wood to the wall. “A ghost over there,” Silas said. “Masses of them here,” Ambrose said a little lighter, just as he was opening his toolbox. Of the fifteen men that were on duty, only four remained. The men glanced up from their work and looked around the room. Ghosts were appearing from nowhere, floating and hovering across the mansion’s floor, horribly flying over their heads. Mr. Hansen heard their screams and came running into the room. “We must continue building!” he shouted, looking at the horror of the ghosts around them. “Now prepare for blood to flow,” an incarnate voice said. “Shut up!” Arkie shouted, desperately running from the room. “Hurry!” Mr. Hansen called from the door. The other three men had already run out of the room. Arkie made a last, frantic lunge, and just managed to get safely into the hallway. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

Immediately ghost converged into the hallway, and in less than a second, they were smothered in complete darkness. They felt as if they were being frozen to death. The ghosts were clawing at their faces, whispering in their ears. They tried to fight their way out of it. The men thought this was the end. At that moment, the lights came on and the ghosts vanished. While I was sleeping, the chambermaid witnessed a white mist. It came creeping under the door, low like a snake, and pressed itself against the walls and windows. Then it seeped into the new room through the wall. She looked down at me and was pleased that I was sleeping so soundly. However, in the morning, as the chambermaid was telling me about the night’s events, Mr. Hansen noticed I did not look very well. “Mrs. Winchester, are you coming down with something?” he asked. I admitted, “I feel so tired and weak.” “Although I am very thankful to be employed in your service, I was going to ask you if I could take leave?” “For how long, Mr. Hasen?” “Permanently.” “Good architects are the very devil to find these days, Mr. Hansen,” I said, “and there can be no one else like you. Do stay on, there’s a good chap. I would be lost without you.” By all rights, Mr. Hansen should have long ago retied, spent his savings on a country cottage and devoted the rest of his life to his own garden. However, I had been insistent that he should stay on. So many employees had disappeared. His place being taken over by someone else sounded strange, unfathomable. I could not have him absent from the house. Mr. Hansen was a good-heated old soul, and his job was secure for as long as he wished it to be. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13

The Winchester Mystery House

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Weak One Minute, Dead the Next?

Some people are raised in vicious crumbling corners of the city, where their chances of survival are only as good as the strength in their muscles of the quick wits in their head. Those who have both—physical strength and size are lucky. However, it also helps to have calculating intelligence. It is also important not to get caught in the syndrome of unemployment, drugs, and despair. When live in an age when, as the Lord foretold, men’s hearts are failing them, not only physically but in spirit. Many are giving up heart for the battle of life. Death by suicide ranks as a major cause of deaths to college students. As the showdown between good and evil approaches with its accompanying trials and tribulations, the adversaries are increasingly striving to overcome the Saints with despair, discouragement, despondency, and depression. Sometimes this happens when a person’s spouse leaves them, the paychecks stop coming in, and the payments on the Corvette fall months behind. This is when it is most important to remember God and have assurance that he is directing us through the troubled times ahead. “He that remaineth steadfast and is not overcome, the same shall be saved,” reports Matthew 1.11. Also, never forget your intelligence, your education, and your competitiveness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16

Even people who are successful and feel like they own the World fell like something very important is missing. Some fell alone, like a spaceship rocketing to the stars with nothing but emptiness all around them. They may also feel out of touch with themselves, with who they are. It is often times like a spaceship that has no pilot, no crew—just an engine driving it mindlessly ever upward to nowhere. Many people are, as always, a success. They have energy, style, charisma. They seem to have it “all together.” And they fool everyone but themselves. On top of that, they carry a deep, gnawing guilt. In the rise to the top, one must often leave many people behind: their friends from poor neighbourhoods, their spouse, and sometimes even their families. These individuals know something is wrong with them personally. They want to relax, but cannot. They want to be loved, but have no idea how a person goes about doing that. They get sick and tired of competing, keeping up, looking good, winning for the sake of winning alone. “Wickedness never was happiness,” reports Alma 41.10. Sin creates disharmony with God and is depressing to the spirit. Therefore, a man would do well to examine himself to see that he is in harmony with all of God’s laws. Every law kept brings a particular blessing. Every law broken brings a particular blight. Those who are heavy laden with despair should come unto the Lord, for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16

Strong. You want to know that you are strong all the time. Not just when things are going smoothly. However, if you tell yourself—all the time—that you are strong, then after a while you will believe it. You will really know it. So when something unfortunate happens, you will know you can handle it. However, no one is strong all the time. There are times when you will be weak. Look man, not everyone has the luxury of being weak. Weak, for some, is like one step from being dead, you understand? You will be weak one minute, and you will be dead the next. However, prayer in the hour of need is a great boon. From simple trials to our Gethsemanes, prayer can put us in touch with God, our greatest source of comfort and counsel. “Pray always that you may come off conqueror,” Doctrine and Covenants 10.5. This is also a key to use in keeping depression from destroying us. In the lives of some people, there are a number of direct polarities, that is, opposites which are independent, but at the same time complementary. With regard to their outside World, there are the polarities of their two cultures: one, the poverty-ridden low-income neighbourhood and the other, the World of business. They know their roots are in one culture, but their everyday life is in the other. Their inability to be in both of these Worlds, alternately, as the situation might demand, is a source of great conflict, guilt and embarrassment to them. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16

The other polarity exists in their own perception of themselves: the polarity of strength and weakness. Having grown up in an environment where strength was equated with survival, some come to see weakness as something to be avoided at all costs. Thus they will deny their own weakness and set about structing their lives such that one could demonstrate only strength to oneself and others. To understand this, we have to focus on the exact meaning of the word polarity, which is different from the concept of duality. Polarities exist at either end of a continuum. One such continuum might have “yes” at one end and “no” at the other, with degrees of “maybes” in between. Another continuum might have strength at one end and weakness at the other. (There is a zero point in the center and the intensity of the strength and weakness increases as each moves away from the other. Differences exist only in degree. On the other hand, a duality is a complete separation of two entities into mutually exclusive or contradictory conditions such as: Alive of Dead.) These are related by their oppositeness—an oppositeness which is independent, but not complementary. Also, there cannot be degrees of deadness. Something is either dead, or alive. It cannot be a “little bit” dead. Many people often mistake polarities for dualities. In the minds of some, there are two kind of people “ghetto” and successful businessmen. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16

Since some people view themselves as successful businessmen, they cannot allow themselves to be viewed as “ghetto,” as they perceive the people left in the less affluent hometowns. To these successful men, it is necessary to embrace one and reject the other. Some cannot see that one does not have to do that. Rather, one can hold the two polarities in tension, appreciating both Worlds. One can be human and ambitions, cool and successful. One can speak in slang dialect to their friends and family and slide into their university English when he is in the executive suite. He can be both at the same time without guilt. Recognizing that he need not constantly fight the situation as a duality, but allow both to exist in creative tension, will lead to a dissolving of what could become a neurotic conflict. The Universe is literally held together by such dynamic tension. For every positive charge in a molecule, there is an equal and opposite negative one. For every planet that is spinning wildly, straining to hurtle off into space, there is another planet holding it to its orbit. The positive does not reject the existence of the negative. It uses the negative to hold itself in place. The Universe uses both the positive and the negative to accomplish a variety of useful tasks. The result of this dynamic tension between polarities is balance and balance is literally “what makes the World go ‘round.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 16

If everything exists in a state of dynamic tension, then why not out inner life, our own being? Should not out being also thrive best in a condition of dynamic tension on a nurturing continuum of feeling and growth, rather than at a rigidly fixed position which seeks to deny the existence of another, opposite position? In that the children of Cain have triumphed, increasingly, throughout the centuries, the God of the Old Testament can be said to have been incredibly successful. Paradoxically, the blasphemers have injected new life into the jealous God whom Christianity wished to banish from history. One of their most profoundly audacious acts was to recruit Christ into their camp by making His story end on the Cross and on the bitter note of the cry that precedes His agony. By this means it was possible to preserve the implacable face of a God of hate—which coincided far better with creation as the rebels conceived it. Until Dostoievsky and Nietzsche, rebellion is directed only against a cruel and capricious divinity—a divinity who prefers, without any convincing motive, Abel’s sacrifice to Cain’s and, by so doing, provokes the first murder. Dostoievsky, in the realm of imagination, and Nietzsche, in the realm of fact, enormously increase the field of rebellious thought and demand an accounting from the God of love. Himself. Nietzsche believes that God is dead in the souls of his contemporaries. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16

Because Nietzsche believes that God is dead in the souls of his contemporaries, he attacks, like his predecessor Stirner, the illusion of God that lingers, under guise of morality, in the thought of his times. However, until they appear upon the scene, the freethinkers, for example, were content to deny the truth of the history of Christ (“that dull story,” in Sade’s words) and to maintain, by their denials, the tradition of an avenging god. On the other hand, for as long as the Western World has been Christian, the Gospels have been the interpreter between Heaven and Earth. Each time a solitary cry of rebellion was uttered, the answer came in the form of an even more terrible suffering. In that Christ had suffered, and had suffered voluntarily, suffering was no longer unjust and all pain was necessary. In one sense, Christianity’s bitter intuition and legitimate pessimism concerning human behaviour is based on the assumption that overall injustice is as satisfying to man as total justice. Only the sacrifice of an innocent god could justify the endless and universal torture of innocence. Only the most abject suffering by God could assuage man’s agony. If everything, without exception, in Heaven and Eart is doomed to pain and suffering, then a strange form of happiness is possible. However, from the moment when Christianity, emerging from its period of triumph, found itself submitted to the critical eye of reason—to the point where the divinity of Christ was denied—suffering once more became the lot of man. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16

Jesus Christ profaned is no more than just one more innocent man who the representatives of the God of Abraham tortured in a spectacular manner. The abyss that separates the master from the slaves opens again and the cry of revolt falls on the deaf ears of a jealous God. The freethinkers have prepared the way for this new dichotomy by attacking, with all the usual precautions, the morality and divinity of Christ. Callot’s Universe sums up quite satisfactorily this World of hallucination and wretchedness whose inhabitants begin by giggling up their sleeves and end—with Moliere’s Don Juan—by laughing to high Heaven. During the two centuries which prepare the way for the upheavals, both revolutionary and sacrilegious, of the eighteenth century, all the efforts of the freethinkers are bent on making Christ an innocent, or a simpleton, so as to annex Him to the World of man, endowed with all the noble or derisory qualities of man. Thus the ground will be prepared for the great offensive against a hostile Heaven. The adept who attains perfect inner serenity can do so only by paying the price of forgoing the emotional agitations, attractions, and repulsions which constitute much of the inner life of most people. Having attained it himself, he can lead other to it only by pointing towards it as a reachable goal for them, too. He may not yield to personal favouritism or egotistic caprice based on likes and dislikes in selecting those whom he is to help. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16

Indeed, because of this it is said that he is not more interested in mankind collectively rather than as individuals. Now if he had to commit emotional suicide to reach his present height, it is unreasonable to expect that he should flatter or encourage those who, although seeking the same height, seek also to preserve or nourish their egoistic emotions. The latter are nearly always closely linked to egoistic desires. An inward detachment from all eagerness for Earthly life is the grim price that must be paid before entry into the kingdom of Heaven can be got. Such detachment requires soft sentimentality to yield to hard recognition must assuredly lead the seeker far away from conventional points of view concerning his personal duties, his family relations, and his social behaviour. It is not that he will not feel desires and aversions, attractions and repulsions, but that he will not be moved by them. They will be under control, not only of the ego but of a power higher than the ego. Thus the tensions which animate him, will not be present. It is an error to regard him as inhuman, as lacking in feeling. What he rejects is negative feeling: what he seeks to overcome is animal wrath, lust, hatred; what he affirms is positive feeling of the best kind—delicate, sensitive, aesthetic, compassionate, and refined. Thus his stoic imperturbability is not rigor mortis. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16

To talk of his condition as simply being one of controlled emotion is not quite correct; much rather it is one of balanced emotion—which is markedly different. The idea of a philosopher being an utterly aloof person, coldly indifferent and quite unapproachable, a man who restricts his human feelings to the degree that hardly any are left, is applicable only to those who follow narrow, rigid, and incomplete systems. The notion that a philosopher is melancholy is arguable: there is no reason why he should not show joy and appreciate humour. However, since he is a balanced person, he will put the governor of deep seriousness to control these qualities. If a human price has to be paid for such emotionless behaviour, let us remember that it must also be paid for too emotional behaviour. A portentous gravity is not at all a hallmark of the self-actualized Christian. Is mental tranquility indistinguishable from emotional death? Is it not better to guide feelings, educate desires, and uplift emotions into the proper channels than to kill them? Such questions show a confused comprehension of the philosophic discipline. The latter’s aim is not to produce an insensible human stone but a true human being. If a child is boxed in by contradictory controls, there may be only one way out which allows him some measure of self-expression. He is then forced into that kind of activity or response no matter how inappropriate it may be. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16

In such a case, it is often evident to the people around him that he is responding to what is in his head rather than to the external situation, and he is then said to be in a bag. If his bag is backed up by some talent or ability, and by a winning payoff command, it may be a winner’s bag, but in most cases people in a bag are losers because their behaviour is nonadaptive. A person who breaks out of a bag (or “container,” as it sometimes called) will immediately proceed to do his thing, that is, whatever he has always wanted most to do. If that happens to be adaptive and is controlled with some Adult rationality, he may turn out to be a winner, but if he indulges too often and too well, he will end up being a loser. In fact, when a person starts to do his thing, after he break out of his bag, his payoff command will determine whether he does it judiciously so as to be a winner, or overdoes it like a loser. In some cases, however, he may be able to leave his payoff command in the bag along with the rest of his parentally programmed script apparatus, and then he is really his own man and can decide his own destiny. However, it is difficult to know, without the appraisal of an objective outsider, whether he is really a maverick of liberated person, or is only an angry rebel, or maybe even a schizophrenic who has jumped out of his bag and into a bottle, with or without pulling the cork in after him. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16

To ask about the purpose of human life is to raise an existential question, rather than one answerable through experiment or logic. Existential questions are answered by the way one lives. Every person’s life, and the daily actions and decisions that comprise it, represent that person’s answer to the question, “How, then, shall I live?” These answers are almost by definition the embodiment of a person’s religion. The chief function of religion is to provide ultimate answers to the questions that existence pose. In the absence of credible and lifegiving answers to the questions, “How shall I live, and why?” a person enters the state called noogenic neurosis—a kind of despair or cynicism. Much depression and neurotic suffering stem from a failure to find meaning in life or to find new meaning when old goals have been consummated or have lost their inspiriting power. Fromm regards “a frame of orientation and devotion” to be as essential to healthy personality as food. The process of self-actualizing, of which Maslow wrote, and the achievement of selfhood (in Jung’s sense) appear to be impossible without such a religious orientation. Of course, it does not matter whether the religion is theistic, and it is possible to judge whether or not a person’s objects and ways of worshiping are life-giving. However, life for human beings is impossible without something to live for. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16

The mission of the Sacramento Fire Department is to serve the community by protecting lives, property, and the environment in a safe, efficient, and professional manner. The Sacramento Fire Department also insures to provide timely, effective and efficient fire protection, suppression, prevention, education, and investigation services to the citizens of Sacramento. “It was a fire in a high school at two o’ clock on a Monday morning, and one of our rescue crews was coming back from the hospital, where they had a job. They smelled smoke. They drove all around looking for the fire, but they just couldn’t find it. The trouble was that this school, like many buildings in South Sacrament, was completely windowless, for reasons of vandalism and air-conditioning. So they couldn’t see the fire. At six in the morning we got the run. This fire had been burning in a windowless structure for twelve hours. We felt the door, and it was hotter than hell itself. We stretched our preconnected line, a long stretch, and we put it into position. Then we forced open the door and felt the air rush in. Right there, I knew that was the closet we had ever come to blowing ourselves to kingdom come. Why that building didn’t backdraft, I don’t know. We crawled in with the line, and the smoke was real black, almost to the floor. We were in the library learning center. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16

“I got close to the wall, and there was a telephone on one of the desks, just above the level of our heads. It was melted to a blob. Now our ears were burning, really tingling, because we weren’t using helmets with earflaps and we didn’t have any ventilation. We went along way in, thinking, cover your ears, cover them up and push the line along. By this time everything was in a smoldering state and picking up. We stretched that thing, we must have stretched it a hundred feet. This other guy and I were up front, and the rest of the guys were twenty or thirty feet back. We cracked that line, and the water upset the thermal balance. The stream came down, and we couldn’t see a damn thing. The steam rolled down, and I told the guy, ‘I got to leave, I’m burning up.’ He didn’t get the burns I did. I said, ‘I got to go, I’m burning up.’ I turned around and tried to follow the hose line out, but it was all tangled around a chair we had knocked over on the way in. It was being a receptionist’s desk, and I remember going there. In retrospect you say, ‘Feel the male and female coupling, and you know you’re heading in the right direction.’ When you’re burning up, you don’t feel anything. I started to stand up, and I was telling myself to get back down. This was the closet I have ever come to losing control of myself because I was burning up. I finally did get outside. To be honest, I had left that guy on the line. I had told him, ‘Come on, come on, come on.’ He came out a minute later and was okay. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16

“They worked on me in the emergency room at the hospital, and they put ice packs on my ears. They were second-degree burns. Why we didn’t kill ourselves by forcing that door and letting that air in, I don’t know. I think it was just God saying, ‘Hey, it’s not your time to get killed.’ There are always other times, though. Like, we had a sire in another of those Sacramento Country houses, where a lady and a baby were trapped inside. So the guys pulled the line, they were good firemen, but they were attacking the fire at the front. It’s hard to make yourself go around back of the fire when the fire’s in the front. I said, ‘Hey, X, if there is anybody alive, they’re in the back of the house. Go there.’ Well, anyway, the firemen went in the back and found the lady while I was getting my self-contained mask on. They came out and they were burned. They were helping the lady, but the baby was still in there because I could hear it crying. I went in with a line. The fire was one of those where it was burning up over your head. I intentionally didn’t open the line, because I knew that steam would come down and I wouldn’t be able to see the kid. Also, I would steam the hell out of myself. This time I did have my earflaps down. I could hear the baby crying and I said, ‘Oh, man.’ I jumped through doorways, and I melted the eye shield on my helmet. I found the baby. It was in the back bathroom. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16

“I got burned, but I eventually found the baby. That was the first experience in which I heard a baby crying, and I thought, ‘Well, you just better stay in here, and you just better suffer until you find the baby.’”  Not only does the fire department save lives and reduce property loss, but they also prevent harm. Public education and prevention is of equal importance to fire suppression in the role of the fire service in the community. You can help the Sacramento Fire Department’s mission by making a donation. Americans love to see America prosper. Please remember to raise your children to love America, love God and Jesus Christ and to be patriotic. Also, to keep America strong, it is important to buy American cars and other goods and services produced by Americans, such as American beef, poultry, dairy, produce and other products. In order to keep our city streets safe, remember to respect law and order, and always treat your elders with dignity and reverence. Getting an education will help you maintain stability as an adult, and you can and will use everything you learn in school. Reading your assigned textbooks before class will help your grades improve, help you to understand the material, teach you critical thinking skills and make class more interesting because you will be able to engage with the teach and other students and the time will fly by. As always, remember to be thankful for being an America and never forget how armed forces have made it possible to live in peace. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16

The Winchester Mystery House

The nearer one gets to visit a haunted place, the more frantic do the restless ones become, to make sure, perhaps, that you do not overlook them!

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

What a Lot of Life We Waste

Life can throw all kinds of obstacles in your way, and sometimes these obstacles can take the shape of toxic individuals. A big part of manipulation is intention—the mental effort of trying or striving. As soon as we get intention involved, our focus shifts from the spontaneity of the present to the goal-orientation of the future. Instead of expressing ourselves right now, we manipulate people according to the way we expect them to be in the future. Instead of relating to people—that is, being with them, we are manipulating, or doing to them. Any act can be an expression of relating or manipulation. I can smile out of joy in seeing you, or I can smile to make it look that way. I can cry out of genuine sorrow for you, or I can cry to make you feel guilty. Expression is a welling up, and unrehearsed outpouring; it needs no response. Manipulation is calculated and demands response. Expression is a fountain; manipulation is a whirlpool. With expression I feel moved; with manipulation I feel sucked in, drained…with manipulation life becomes a wrestling match, with expression, it is more like a dance. Relating without manipulating is the experience of expressing yourself effortlessly. It is doing without striving. It is based on the assumption that if we become aware of our core feeling sin the heart, the belly, the “guts,” the awareness of these feelings, you will have to train yourself a bit. You will have to take yourself along the road from manipulation to mastery. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

As you take this fascinating journey, you will unquestionably be surprised at what you may find. You may find that your present system of dealing with certain types of problems is entirely useless, that you have no mechanism in your background to help you learn who you are. You may find that, without thinking about it, you have donned a suit of psychological armour which prevents you from getting in touch with other people as well as yourself. And finally, you may find that who you are—who you really are—is someone quite different from who you think you are. While these surprises may be at first unsettling, they will ultimately be quite pleasant. You will be delighted to discover your uniqueness, the qualities which make you different from anyone who has ever lived or will every live. You will also be pleased—and comforted—to learn that deep down, we are all essentially the same. It is inevitable that you will see parts of yourself in other people. Many of them, like you, are travelers on the road from manipulation to mastery. Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become as they draw near to their eternal home. Ours is a culture that reveres, indeed idolizes strength. Our heroes are warriors, boxers and football players. Not surprisingly, this attitude encouraged many people to seek refuge in their own strength and rely upon it to get along in the World. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

If you are a person who allows strength to take on such exaggerated importance, chances are you are a manipulator with regard to that value. You depend solely upon your own physical prowess and intelligence, while not allowing others the opportunity to use their brawn or brains. You refuse to acknowledge your failings, fears, inadequacies or weaknesses. You do not allow other to be strong because to do so threatens your self-image of exclusive power. Assuming that you are the only one who knows how to get things done, you tend to be dominating and dictatorial. Chances are you are also guilt-ridden. When you succeed, you bask in the admiration of others, but when things go awry, you withdraw and hide until you can renew your illusions of omnipotence. Yet, you never feel quite strong enough. So you manipulate others into constantly reacknowledging your strength. For you, life is a constant cold war. If you are a master, on the other hand, you must submit your will to God’s will. Strength comes when we seek His will, not our will. He tenderly tells us to “be humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answers to thy prayers,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 112.10. God is the way, and only through Him will we succeed. Therefore, to choose strength is not to deny weakness, and to choose weakness is not to abdicate your strength. One must be willing to acknowledge his failings and weaknesses. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

Unthreatened by the strength of others, you will them to be strong. As a master, you recognize strength and weakness as polarities—opposite ends of the same pole. They are both a part of you. When you accept your weakness, you are better able to accept all of yourself—a step toward learning to love yourself unconditionally. When you accept, rather than deny or diminish, the strength of others, you are able to appreciate them, to work and play with them in a communion of mutual respect. You can be forceful and expressive of what you want, but without being dominating. At the same time, you can allow others to be strong and competent, but without playing weak or helpless yourself. To the man you are about to meet, strength was “life.” However, life eventually taught him otherwise. You have to learn the prison lesson. Patience. Your impatience will cause others to hurry all around the state exposed to amphibious slug creatures evolved from recessive mutations and mechanical rape. Your written words must be about to jump about like stranded fish, fusing into fantastic moving sculptures, rearranging themselves in palindromes that read the same from any angle. You phone is tapped. The sound system is operated by spider men, coil-headed pink lizards who weave the mercurial plasma along which the sound is carried. Cool it. Be patient. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

Small minds are the victims of every trying situation because they are the victims of every immediate reaction to it. The student of philosophy, with his metaphysical powers and personal self-discipline, is not. He looks many years ahead of it and much more deeply into it. He does not blindly accept the first feelings about it that arise within himself or are suggested to him by others. The need is to live according to principles, not according to impulses. Men who seek a higher kind of life must practise self-restraint whatever faith they hold or to whatever religious society they belong. Those who demand the freedom to live as they wish, who seek to be undisciplined and unregulated by any authority, ask too much. No one can avoid sometimes reacting badly to outer experiences or circumstances, but the aspirant should not react without trying to practise self-control. With regard to the emotions, the path is a crucifixion of the personal ego. The aspirant’s heart must be searched and searched until it is free from all reservations and utterly surrendered to the higher self. It is impossible to pass through such a process without undergoing the terrible ordeal of crushing some feelings and surrendering others. The adept is indeed that man who has triumphed over his emotions, but it would be an indefensible and inexcusable error to think he lives in a complete emotional vacuum, that he is a man without feeling or sensibilities of any kind. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

Let us not make the mistake of believing that the adept does not know the meaning of ecstasy. He does, but he knows them all within the higher self, which rules them. The only emotions he does not know are those lower ones, such as anger, resentment, hatred, prejudice, bitterness, lust, pride, and intolerance. Yes!—the philosophical life does not lack emotional content but it is not the kind of narrow, selfish, vacillating emotion so many human beings are accustomed to. If a man is to attain a durable peace, he must commit emotional separation. However, does mean he is to become utterly devoid of all feelings? Not at all. It is only the lower emotions that have to be liquidated. Yet it is these which play so large a role in human life today, whether in their grossest form of hatred or their most refined form of romantic nonsense miscalled love. The frenzies passion let loose, the manias of the lower emotions run wild are never again to be known to him. This high standard is the goal. It may seem unattainable to a human entity, yet history and biography prove that it is not. It might be thought that the philosophic discipline seeks to eliminate emotion. The truth is that it seeks to maturate emotion. The disciple’s feelings—no less than his thoughts—must grow up and assume their philosophic responsibilities. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

It will be easy for critics to misunderstand the statement that he is to become intellectually feverless and emotionally passionless. We do not mean that he is to be deprived of all feeling, bereft of all enthusiasm, incapable of all affection. We mean that he is to seek an inward serenity which no feeling, no enthusiasm, and no affection can distract. From this point of view, the New Testament can be considered as an attempt to answer, in advance, every Cain in the World, by painting the figure of God in softer colours and by creating an intercessor between God and man. Christ came to solve two major problems, evil and death, which are precisely the problems that preoccupy the rebel. His solution consisted, first, in experiencing them. The man-god suffers, too—with patience. Evil and death can no longer be entirely imputed to Him since He suffers and dies. The night of Golgotha is so important in the history of man only because, in its shadow, the divinity abandoned its traditional privileges and drank to the last drop, despair included, the agony of death. This is the explanation of the Lama sabactani and the heart rending of Christ in agony. If it had been alleviated by hopes of eternity, the agony would have been mild. For God to be a man, he must despair. Ghosticism, which is the fruit of Greco-Christian collaboration, has tried for two centuries, in reaction against Judaic thought, to promote this concept. We know, for example, the vast number of intercessors invented by Valentinus. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

However, the aeons of this particular metaphysical skirmish are the equivalent of the intermediary truths to be found in Hellenism. Their aim is to diminish the absurdity of an intimate relationship between suffering humanity and an implacable god. This is the special role of Marcion’s cruel bellicose second god. This demiurge is responsible for the creation of a finite World and of death. Our duty is to hate him at the same time to deny everything that he has created, by means of asceticism, to the point of destroying, by sexual abstinence, all creation. This form of asceticism is therefore both proud and rebellious. Marcion simply alters the course of rebellion and directs it toward an inferior god so as to be better able to exalt the superior god. Gnosis, owing to its Greek origins, remains conciliatory and tends to destroy the Judaic heritage in Christianity. It also wanted to avoid Augustinism, by anticipating it, in that Augustinism provides arguments for every form of rebellion. To Basilides, for example, the martyrs were sinners, and so was Christ, because they suffered. A strange conception, but whose aim is to remove the element of injustice from suffering. The Gnostics only wanted to substitute the Greek idea of initiation, which allows mankind every possible chance, for the concept of an all-powerful and arbitrary forgiveness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

The enormous number of sects among the second-generation Gnostics indicates how desperate and diversified was the attempt on the part of Greek thought to make the Christian Universe more accessible and to remove the motives for a rebellion that Hellenism considered the worst of all evils. However, the Church condemned this attempt and, by condemning it, swelled the ranks of the rebels. To think about anything without experience is nothing. In the early years of World War II, General Petain, Marshall of France and Chief of State, was condemned for having collaborated with the Germans when they invaded France. It did seem “bad” because of the way that it was presented to us. However, when I sat alone at night with my sleeping children after Pearl Harbor, expecting invasion, and considered what I would do when it came, then Mr. Petain looked very different to me. I tried, most honestly, most searchingly, to know what I should do when invasion came. Should I take the children and run to the hills? Should I fight the Japanese when they came to my door? Should I go out to fight them? Should I make friends with them and hope through that to be able to ameliorate matters for others besides myself? I still do not know what I would have done because it never happened (to me). If I found a burglar in the house, when I was young, I had notions about what I would do. My friends and I used to talk about things like this and say what we would do. What a lot of life we waste! #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

When I actually did meet a burglar in my home—opening the door to my bedroom, I found him directly on the other side, looking into a top bureau drawer with a flashlight—I stood there and exclaimed, “What do you call this?”   When it is obvious what anyone calls it, the words sound idiotic, but they were an apt expression of my astonishment. All my thinking about meeting a burglar had left me totally unprepared for the fact itself. When war came to Hawaii and I experienced it, I thought “All that I have read about war,” “All that I have heard about war,” “All that I have thought about war,” “And it is not anything like that at all (to me) I am completely unprepared.” When I might have been living, I had the feeling of waste—of wasted life, of wasted time. As I lived within war, close to others within the same war, I saw how different it was for each of us. A year later, when one evening I felt like writing about it, my story began, “There is no story of Pearl Harbor. It is many stories, each man is his own, made up of his position at the time, his consciousness of war about to come, whether he was alone or had a family to fear for, his own inherent sensitivity to pain, his quickness of perception.” (I would not leave out the word inherent.) The awareness I did not have in the early morning of December 8th.  I knew that many people were living in agony. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

However, on that morning after the Japanese attack, and having been awake all night while the children slept, I was so filled with my World that “the end of everything for me” defeated me. “For me.” Within my World it might be the end of all of us. I was painfully afraid, and having to stop the forming fantasies of what might happen to the children. At the same time, I had a sense of grace that so far, we had been spared, and a misery for those whose lives had been chopped off so senselessly. I was concerned about our friends on the other side of the island, about whom we knew nothing. Many people got swept into the agony of others, their suicidal chaos, and all the World became morbid for some in a most frightening, unmitigated and unmitigable way—everything going haywire and out of control. So many people because suicidal. Provocation or seduction is what makes lechers, addicts, criminals, gamblers, and others with losing scripts. For a boy it is the real Odyssey scene of a living Ulysses, mother as a Siren luring him to his doom, or as Circe turning him into a swine. For a girl it is father as the Dirty Old Man. In early years it starts out as a general invitation to be a loser: “He sure is clumsy, ha ha,” or “She sure is a sh*t walker, ha ha.” Then it moves on to more specific jeers and teases. “He is always baning his head, ha ha,” or “She is always losing her pant, ha ha.” In adolescence it is promoted into personal transactions. “Take a good look, baby!” (and maybe an accidental or on-purpose feel), “Have a drink,” “Now is your chance,” “Throw it all in, what is the difference,” each accompanied by its ha ha. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

The come-on is the Parent’s voice whispering to the Child at the critical moment: not to stop thinking about pleasures of the flesh or money, not to let them get away with that. “Come on, baby. What have you got to lose?” This is the demon in the Parent, and the demon in the Child responds. Then the Parent does a quick switch, and Jeder falls flat on his face. “There you go again,” say the gleeful Parent, and Jeder answers “Ha ha!” with what is colloquially called “a sh*t eating smile.” The come-on is what promotes hang-ups in children, and for that it must start early. The parent takes the child’s yen for closeness and turns it into a yen for something else. Once this perverted love is fixed, it becomes a hang-up. We do not have to look aloft to flying saucers to find alien intelligence. We are all UFOs—Unidentified Flying Organisms. The first step in interspecies diplomacy is to recognize the species differences among us, exchange basic vocabulary cues as to each other’s realities and establish interspecies diplomatic courtesies so that the womb-planet Earth can be shared harmoniously, and abandoned gracefully. Then new plan-its, carefully designed to fit the differing realities of different species, can be fabricated in High Orbit. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

To keep American hivers from understanding the blunt facts about genetic robot-hood, human castes produce public relations experts, sometimes called philosophers or theologians. From the evolutionary point of view, philosophy is post-hive human ethology. The task of an ethological philosopher is to define the different species of humans and to explain how they interact to assure the survival of the gene pool and of each caste. The dom-species is not yet ready for that. The caste spokespersons for each caste describes reality from the perspective of their species. Since each caste inhabits a very different reality, moral outrage is endemic—Poor, Gays, Holocaust obsessed Zionists, left-wingers, irate homeowners/ Each caste lives in a different time zone. The dogma of the Paleolithic did not work in technological America, but this did not discourage the attempt by our species to impose its hunter-gatherer reality on others. Most bewildered are the retiring liberal humanists who keep shouting: “We are all one! Brotherhood of Man! We are all equal and homogenous.” Genetic heterogeneity has, of course, always been obvious to those geared to look for it. As you walk through the forest, you do not expect each species you meet to be the same or to play survival games by your rules. The insightful ethologist admires each lifestyle—the radar speed of a rabbit, the innocent grace of a wolf, the levity of a bird, the sincere cunning of a spider. The same honour can be extended to each human caste you meet as you swim through the urban coral reef. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

The next eleven people you meet probably belong to eleven different species in mutation—living in different time zones, at different levels of contelligence. Just as human beings need intense involvement to foster full functioning and growth, they also need disengagement. They need to get away from their customary consciousness of themselves and their World. The “getting away” can be literal, as in travel; but it can also take the form of what are now called altered states of consciousness. There are two ways to alter one’s consciousness of one’s situation. One of these is literally to change situations. The other is to suspend the customary way of experiencing a situation, to allow new modes of consciousness to appear. One’s situation functions hypnotically, influencing a person to perceive, recall, think, and even imagine in stereotype ways. One way to break the quasihypnotic spell is to engage in prayer. In prayer, new aspects of the situation are perceived, and they can imagine, think, and remember in more flexible ways. Human beings cannot endure ambiguity or contradiction in their knowledge. In the face of uncertainty, they seem impelled to construct answers, because they can act only when they have made a satisfactory interpretation of the situation. Their interpretation may not be valid, but it seems true that humans prefer a false interpretation to one. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

Thus, a person may hear unidentifiable noises in the sky. The experience of not knowing may fill the person with anxiety. He or she may be virtually paralyzed until the noise is explained. In addition to the need for some interpretation of situations, human beings need consistency among their presently held belief. When new cognitions—perceptions and knowledge—are not compatible with those already held, the state of cognitive dissonance is said to exist. Cognitive dissonance influences behaviour like any other basic need. When there is a conflict between present knowledge and new information, people may deny and distort truth to eliminate dissonance. Healthier personalities can tolerate ambiguity better than unhealthy personalities; they resolve cognitive dissonance in ways that do the most justice to logic and evidence. The Sacramento Fire Department protects life and properties through the unwavering commitment of service to all. “When I first went on the rescue squad, we had the old-fashioned Cadillac ambulances because they were the best for heavy-duty work and would stand up best under the wear and tear a hard-running service was going to give it. Of course, in later years, we have gone for a totally different type of ambulance with the modular unit and have gone into a much more advanced type of emergency medical care with EMTs and paramedics. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

“When I first started out with the fire department, the only thing we could do for somebody who had a heart attack was to give him oxygen or, in the case of first aid, put a tourniquet on if there was severe bleeding and patch them up the best we could. I can remember a time when there were no ambulances in Sacramento, and people would lie in the street for forty-five minutes, waiting for a police paddy wagon to come and pick them up. We have come a long, long way in this country, and the fire service has been the main operator of emergency medical service. One time we were at the dinner table, and we had with us one of the local fire investigators and a retired captain. An alarm came in, an older, run-down area in Sacramento with many fires. We were greeted at the street by some frantically waving civilians. They pointed to the rear of the house, screaming, ‘He’s in the back, he’s in the back.’ So I grabbed a Halligan bar and went to the rear of the house, which was two stories in the rear and one story in the front. The people were pointing to the cellar stairs. There were six or eight steps down to the basement. It was a basement fire that had already spread up the interior stairs to the first floor and on up to the attic and roof. So I descended the cellar stairs and opened the door. The fire had already taken the whole basement, it had flashed over and the entire ceiling was involved. As I opened the door, the fire was licking out and going up the siding of the house. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

“I felt the wind drawn in from the doorway behind my back. The smoke was down low, but the wind cleared the air a bit, and I was able to get down low enough to get under the smoke. At floor level it was fairly clear, and I could see because the fire was so bright. I could also see that it was a heavily fire-loaded building. The man was more or less a packrat. He cut up his kindling wood down there with a chain saw. So there were stacks of wood and motor vehicle parts, a conglomeration of junk. Also a large bed. The victim was over by the stairway, about twenty-five feet in, lying face down. Later investigation showed that he was filling his gasoline-powered chain new a large potbelly stove. There was probably a vapour explosion and a flash fire. I was by myself, and the hose line had not yet been stretched to cover me. The man was unconscious and severely burned. His clothes had apparently fused to his body. He was a big man weighing 250 pounds. I weigh 150, so it was a lot of work to get him out of there. By the time I had dragged him to the doorway at the bottom of the outside steps, he was completely naked, because the flash fire had turned his clothes into part of his skin. I did not know if he was dead or alive, just that he was a dead weight. I was able to get him out the door, and I closed the door behind us. I got him as high up the steps as I could, then couldn’t go any further. It took three other men to get him up. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

“I stayed with him and performed first aid. I turned him over and opened his air passages. I looked for a pulse, and, much to my surprise, I found one. He wasn’t breathing real great, so we assisted his breathing with oxygen and began treating for burns. We wrapped him in burn sheets and wet him down. On the way to the hospital, from my understanding, he was sitting up and talking. I felt good about that. Unfortunately, his burns were too severe. He only lived about four days before he died. At the time, I had about ten years’ experience. School is great and training classes also, but experience is the teacher. So observing the conditions and mentally adding up the risks, I had elected to go in. I don’t know how long I was in there. I was struggling with him so much I just wanted to get out. I was able to do that. You just have to concentrate on what you’re doing. I had seen his injuries, and in the back of my mind I was surprised that he had lived the night. So when I saw the obituary four days later, I was sadden, but I had done everything I could do. That’s one way I get by these things. As long as I’ve done all I can do, it’s out of my hands. It helps me cope with losses like that.” The Sacramento Fire Department dedicates themselves to a lasting partnership with the community, to support a higher quality of life through public education, loss prevention, and service response. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember, parents, teach your children to love America and be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ, to buy American made goods and services and cars, to respect law and order, and teach others with compassion, respect, and dignity, especially their elders. Release all captives, we beseech Thee, Lord whose mighty hand doth set men free; and hear the glad acclaim of all Thy people who praise and glorify but Thee. Preserve the righteous ones who seek Thee, and, in love, Thy unity proclaim; O guard and bless with Thine abundant goodness, Thy people who revere Thy name. Thou, Lord, who art alone exalted, please turn to us and hearken to our plea. We bless Thee, Thou who knowest all things hidden, Thy kingdom is unto eternity. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, One Nation, under God, Indivisible with Liberty, and Justice for all. O Guardian of American, guard the remnant of America; let not American people perish, the people which proclaims: Hear, O America. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18

The Winchester Mystery House

Feeling a little wrapped up today? Our haunt is open tonight, today and Sunday starting at 6:30pm PST.

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Should I Use Force to Escape Death?

The joyful news for anyone who desires to be rid of the consequences of past poor choices is that the Lord sees weaknesses differently than He does rebellion. Whereas the Lord warns that unrepented rebellion will bring punishment, when the Lord speaks of weaknesses, it is always with mercy. Prison often leads to thoughts of violence. Should I use force to escape death? Is self-defense against the lethal machine an act of violence? Two thousand years of Christian strict and rigid doctrines? Politics keeps Christ on the cross? Hummingbirds spin by ripping off insects. Cycles of eating and being eaten. Spanish conquistadores and Norman crusaders and Southern Baptists. Should we resist? If an enslaved person defends against the slave master, is he violent? Passive submission to slavery? Personal suicide? Racial genocide? Socrates in the hemlocked death cell? Would I kill to be free? Some people learn to deal with their circumstances. They come up with escape plans that are not criminal. They are occult. Powers of consciousness. They leave the physical plane entirely. Many people do not understand what they are doing here on Earth in physical bodies anyway. Living as a beautiful soul is the goal. The idea is focusing of consciousness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

As a ritual, these people meet regularly. Some night, when the astrological situation is perfect, these individuals form a circle with someone in the middle, and they center their cosmic consciousness with and with the group as a launching pad, they ascend into the astral plane. From whence Blessed One, God will in his mercy and compassion send down assistance to them. Usually, there are ten middle-aged men in prison garb under a full moon chanting the individual in the center over the fence. This is a form of “Martian thinking.” Martian thinking enables the child to find out what the parents “really” want, that is, what they will respond most favourably to. By using it effectively, he insures his survival and expresses his love for them. In this way he builds up the ego state known as the Adapted Child. The Adapted Child wants and needs to behave in an adapted way, and tried to avoid nonadaptive behaviour or even nonadaptive feelings, which will get less than the best responses from those around him. Meanwhile his self-expressed or Natural Child must be held in leash. The balance between the two forms of behaviour is held by the Adult in the child, which must behave like an exceedingly agile computer in order to decide what is necessary and what is permissible from moment to moment in each situation. This Adult becomes very adept at figuring out what people want or will tolerate, or at worst, what they will get the most excited or angry about, or perhaps feel the most guilty, helpless, scared, or hurt about. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

Thus, the Adult in the child is a keen and perceptive student of human nature, and is therefore called the Professor. In fact, he knows more practical psychology and psychiatry than any grown-up professor does, although after many years of training and experience, a grown-up professor may know as much as thirty-three percent of what he knew when he was four years old. After he has learned Martian thinking, so that he has a sound Adapted Child, the Professor turns his attention to egal thinking, in order to find more ways for the Natural Child to express himself. Legal thinking starts during the plastic years, but reaches its fullest development in later childhood, and if encouraged by the parents may persist into maturity, giving rise to lawyers. Legal thinking is colloquially called cop-out thinking. (“Cop-out” has several meanings: to arrest, to settle for a lesser sentence, such as a “cop-plea”, to talk too much “fink out, and to find an alibi or a crooked way out.) Cop-out thinking is particularly common in personal sexual ethics. Thus, a girl who is instructed by her parents not to lose her virginity may have mutual masturbation, or perform fellatio or a variety of other sexual acts which enable her to obey the letter of the parental law, although she may know that the parents “really meant” not to get sexy. (However, if she gets pregnant or an STI, then she is in hot water.) #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

If the parents warn her against “pleasures of the flesh,” she may have intercourse without orgasm. (But that is still a violation of the Law of Chastity.) The classical sexual cop-out was that used by the prostitutes of Paris at the beginning of this century. (It may still be used, for all I know.) When they went to confession, they were excused for their profession on the grounds that it was a matter of business, providing they did not get turn on. Only if they enjoyed it was it treated as a sin. What parents do is give a prohibition which they think will cover the situation, not giving enough credit to the shrewdness which they themselves have usually taught to their offspring. Thus, a boy who is told “Do not mess around with women” may take this as a permission to mess around with other boys, or in some cases with sheep or cows, and in a legal way thinking he is in the clear, since he is not doing anything his parents have forbidden. A girl who was told “Do not let boys touch you,” decided that meant it was all right to touch herself. By this cop-out her Adapted Child remained complaint to her mother’s wishes, while her Natural Child enjoyed the pleasures of masturbation. A boy who was similarly told, “Do not fool around with girls,” took this as permission to fool around with himself. Neither of these people was actually breaking a parental prohibition. Because the child treats such restrictions as a lawyer would. Looking for the cop-out, they are often called in script analysis by the legal term “injunction.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

Some children enjoy being compliant and do not look for cop-outs. Others have more interesting things to do. However, just as many people devote themselves to the problem of how to transgress without breaking the law, so many children are interested in the question of how to be naughty without actually disobeying their parents. In both cases, this kind of shrewdness is taught and encouraged by the parents themselves, and is part of the parental programming. In some cases, this may result in the formation of an anti-script, whereby the child succeeds in reversing the while intent of the script, without actually disobeying any of the original script directions. Metaphysical rebellion, in the real sense of the term, does not appear, in coherent form, in the history of ideas until the end of the eighteenth century—when modern times begin to the accompaniment of the crash of falling ramparts. However, from then on, its consequences develop uninterrupted and it is no exaggeration to say that they have shaped the history of our times. Does this mean that metaphysical rebellion had no significance precious to this date? In any event, its origins must belong to the remote past, in that we like to believe that we live in Promethean times. However, is this really a Promethean age? #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

The first mythologies describe Prometheus as an eternal martyr, chained to a pillar, at the ends of the Earth, condemned forever because he refuses to ask forgiveness. Aeschylus adds still further to his stature, endows him with lucidity (“no misfortune can fall upon me that I have not myself already foreseen”), makes him cry out his hatred of all the gods, and plunging him into “a stormy sea of mortal despair,” finally abandons him to thunder and lightning: “Ah! See the injustice I endure!” It cannot be said, therefore, that the ancients were unaware of metaphysical rebellion. Long before Satan, they created a touching and noble image of the Rebel and gave us the most perfect myth of the intelligence in revolt. The inexhaustible genius of the Greeks, which gave such a prominent place to myths of unity and simplicity, was still able to formulate the concept of insurrection. Beyond a doubt, certain characteristics of the Promethean myth still survive in the history of rebellion as we are living it: the fight against death (“I have delivered men from being obsessed by death”), Messianism (“I have instilled blind hopes into men’s minds”), philanthropy (“Enemy of Zeus…for having loved mankind too much”). However, we must not forget that Prometheus the Fire bringer, the last drama of Aeschylus’ trilogy, proclaimed the reign of the pardoned rebel. The Greeks are never vindictive. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

In their most audacious flights, they always remain faithful to the idea of moderation, a concept they deified. Their rebel does not range himself against all creation, but against Zeus, who is never anything more than one god among many and who himself was mortal. Prometheus himself is a demigod. It is a question of settling a particular account, of a dispute about what is good, and not of a universal struggle between good and evil. Socialization—the imprinting of harmonious, collaborative behaviour—is tool used by DNA to increase intelligence. A characteristic of advanced socialization is Caste Division—an essential element of socialization and an effective survival device. A species that has developed caste differentiation and enculturation based on multistage imprinting divides into survival specialties—thus complexifying and expanding performance. The two most successful life forms of this planet—insects and humans—are obvious examples of caste specialization. Caste differentiation: Structural Caste defines Alpha Reality, which is defined as genetic hardwiring. Temporal Caste defines Beta Reality, which is the developmental staging of the wiring. The most successful-intelligent species manifest both structural and temporal castes. Until our human species understood how these two-caste systems work, we were unable to understand human psychology and thus unable to manage our own, evolving destiny. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

When I move into other societies, or even sub-cultures withing my own society, I am often astonished by their tabus. I got into one group of people this past year who live in a World that I have pretty much kept myself away from, out of a feeling of not belonging, not being in accord with, having different values. Several people in the group were visibly and audibly shocked when I referred to myself as old. It is only very recently that I have begun to see as tabus those experiences which in my own society must not be talked about, and myself a victim of the edicts of the gods of Science and Reason that have been set up in the western World, superseding all other gods. It seems to me neither scientific nor reasonable exclude any human experience, anything that occurs to any me. However, that is what I have been doing. I have been excluding not only from others but from me those experiences of my life which are tabu. I told myself that they did not happen, and so lost touch with them myself. During the past seven years, I have increasingly found these experiences to be acceptable—although certainly not to everyone—and this acceptance has made it possible for me to accept them in myself and live with them. My life feels much more alive and livelier and freer. First feed the face and then talk right and wrong. The human has needs for survival, food, shelter, and so one that are shared in common with animals. He or she also has needs for self-development, for the appreciation of beauty, that are very characteristic of a high-level or human existence. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

Healthy personality calls for competence at gratifying basic needs. One is then free to pursue goals beyond personal security. It is difficult to be concerned with truth, justice, or beauty when one is starving or frightened for one’s life. First things come first. In similar fashion, those interested in helping others must first demonstrate that they can take care of themselves. The person who can meet his or her needs through individual skill is independently secure. The child relies on grownups to devote their time and skill to its needs; to the extent that the parents can do this, the child is dependently secure. As the child grows and becomes an adult, he or she gradually takes over more and more of the security needs—providing sustenance, buying a car, earning a living. A young adult who remains dependent upon others to meet his or her basic needs (except for love and companionship) may pay dearly for their intervention; this person may be obliged to conform to restrictive demands, which call for unhealthy suppression of action and repression of experience. Immature dependent security is costly. To be deprived of basic need gratification is painful. There is no denying the agony of starvation, fiery thirst, or terror from someone who is threatening your life. Other needs of a different order, such as love, companionship, freedom from political tyranny, and unfettered artistic and thought expression are to be considered in understanding the healthy personality. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

The development of the healthy personality extends beyond the basic needs alone. The healthy person is one who partakes generously of all the joys that life provides—including the artistic or aesthetic satisfactions. Some people try to deal with the pain of deprivation of basic needs by denying that it exists or by anesthetizing themselves to their sufferings with drugs, alcohol, or immature religion, but these responses only postpone the inevitable recognition that problems and pain do not go away until one has acted. The term basic needs usually refer to those needs that have to be satisfied first, before other, usually higher, need can be dealt with. While there are many systems of basic need classification, most agree that the body needs—safety, survival, food, shelter, and so on—are the basic needs. While personal freedom or political freedom and artistic creativity are often thought of as higher order needs, there are many examples of individuals who would give up their safety, their bodily needs, to satisfy the need for political or personal freedom. There are also many instances of starving artists who prefer to paint rather than take jobs that would permit them to eat more regularly. However, these cases are rather rare, and the concept of the basic needs, the bodily needs, including expression of pleasures of the flesh, is of reasonable validity for some people. #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

For some, however, they must adhere to the Law of Chastity. Chastity is sexual purity. Those who are chaste are morally clean in their thoughts, words, and actions. Chastity means not having any pleasures of the flesh before marriage. It also means complete fidelity to husband or wife during marriage. Physical intimacy between husband and wife is beautiful and scared. It is ordained of God for the creation of children and for the expression of love within marriage. Many people today believe that sexual intimacy outside marriage is acceptable. However, in God’s sight, it is a serious sin. It is an abuse of the power He has given us to create life. The prophet Alma taught that sexual sins are more serious than any other sins except murder and denying the Holy Ghost. If the participants love one another, sometimes people try to convince themselves that sexual relations outside of marriage are acceptable. This is not true. Breaking the Law of Chastity and encouraging someone else to do so is not an expression of love. People who love each other will never endanger one another’s happiness and safety in exchange for temporary personal pleasure. When people care for one another enough to keep the law of chastity, their love, trust, and commitment increase, resulting in greater happiness and unity. In contrast, relationships built on pleasures of the flesh are immoral and sour quickly. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

Those who engage in sexual immortality often feel fear, guilt, and shame. Bitterness, jealousy, and hatred soon replace any beneficial feelings that once existed in their relationship. Our Heavenly Father has given us the Law of Chastity for our protection. Obedience to this law is essential to personal peace and strength of character and to happiness in the home. Those who will keep themselves sexually pure will avoid the spiritual and emotional damage that always comes from sharing physical intimacies with someone outside of marriage. Those who keep themselves sexually pure will be sensitive to the Holy Ghost’s guidance, strength, comfort, and protection and will fulfill an important requirement for receiving a temple recommend and participating in temple ordinances. To recognize truth is not primarily a matter of intelligence, but a matter of character. The most important element is the courage to say no, to disobey the commands of power and of public opinion; to cease being asleep and to become human; to wake up and lose the sense of helplessness and futility. Even and Prometheus are the two great rebels whose very “crimes” liberated mankind. However, the capacity to say “no” meaningfully, implies the capacity to say “yes” meaningfully. The “yes” to God is the “no” to Caesar; the “yes” to man is the “no” to all those who want to enslave, exploit, and stultify him. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

I believe in freedom, in man’s right to be himself, to asset himself and to fight all those who try to prevent him from being himself. However, freedom is more than the absence of violent oppression. It is more than “freedom from.” It is “freedom to”—the freedom to become independent; the freedom to be much, rather than to have much, or to use things and people. Man must bring the forces of nature and of society under his conscious and rational control; but not under the control of a bureaucracy which administers things and man, but under the control of the free and associated producers who administer things and subordinate them to man, who is the measure of all things. The alternative is not between “capitalism” and “communism” but between bureaucratism and humanism. Democratic, decentralizing socialism is the realization of those conditions which are necessary to make the unfolding of all man’s powers the ultimate purpose. One of the most disastrous mistakes in individual and social life consists in being caught in stereotyped alternatives of thinking. “Better dead than red,” “an alienated industrial civilization or individualistic preindustrial society,” “to rearm or to be helpless,” are examples of such alternatives. There are always other and new possibilities which become apparent only when one has liberated oneself from the deathly grip of cliches, and when one permits the voice of humanity, and reason, to be heard. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

The principle of “the lesser evil” is the principle of despair. Most of the time it only lengthens the period until the greater evil wins out. To risk doing what s right and human, and have faith in the power of the voice of humanity and truth, is more realistic than the so-called realism of opportunism. Man must get rid of illusions that enslave and paralyze him; he must become aware of the reality inside and outside of him in order to create a World which needs no illusions. Freedom and independence can be achieved only when the chains of illusion are broken. Today there is only one main concern: the question of war and peace. Man is likely to destroy all life on Earth, or to destroy all civilized life and the values among those that remain, and to build a barbaric, totalitarian organization which will rule what is left of mankind. To wake up to this danger, to look through the doubt talk on all aides which is used to prevent men from seeing the abyss toward which they are moving is the one obligation, the one moral and intellectual command which man must respect today. If he does not, we all will be doomed. If we should all perish in the nuclear holocaust, it will not be because man was not capable of becoming human, or that he was inherently evil; it would be because the consensus of stupidity has prevented him from seeing reality and acting upon the truth. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

Evenness of temper is a valuable possession where it comes from self-mastery and not from a low vitality physically. When you feel these fits of depression and despondency coming on, you must learn to stand aside from them and refuse to identify yourself with the emotions which express them. They are simply other forms of ego manifestation. With time and practice, you will be able to do this. This Short Path affirmations and meditations are essential at such a time, for they help you to acquire the detachment necessary to recognize the moods for what they are. One student asked: “But how can one identify oneself with something one does not know?” Another replied: “That is where faith in something beyond the intellect comes in!” Yes, if faith is intense enough it will be sufficient to lead to the desired result. If not, if one cannot have faith in the Overself, then a Teacher is necessary. It is through faith in the Teacher that the student is helped to knowledge of the Overself which he finds so difficult to reach by himself. In this matter of sadness and depression, one should also be careful not to take on the moods of others. Sometimes, people who are sensitive do this. If extra-sensitive, they can even take on for a short time the symptoms of their ailments. I believe in the perfectibility of man, but I doubt whether he will achieve this goal, unless he awakens soon. “Watchman, what of the night? The watchman says: Morning comes and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire: return, come back again,” reports Isaiah 21. #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

The mission of the Sacramento Fire Department is to save lives, protect property, and serve their community as professionals with courage, commitment, and compassion. ‘I’ve been on quite a few medicals. When the alarm comes in, I drop everything. All my gear’s already in my car. Depending on where it’s at, I either respond to the scene or to the hall, whichever is closer. Recently we were sitting down to a big family dinner. I had my parents over, and my sister and wife. We had just sat down to eat when my tones went off. It said there was a man down on the street, only a quarter mile for my house. So I jumped up from the table and said, ‘Sorry, guys.’ And I took off. When I got to the scene, a man was lying on the front lawn having difficult breathing, unconscious. Within two minutes he went into a full arrest. I was the only one there. The police, fire, and ambulance had not responded yet. So I took it upon myself to do one-man mouth-to-mouth and CPR. I revived him. The oxygen came, and they transformed him to the hospital. I was told that I did make the difference, that this man would not have lived if I had not started CPR on him. If I had waited, or if I had gone to get a truck, which was about four and a half miles away, I never would have made it back in time to save him from possible brain damage, or even to revive him. He was a young man, like thirty-two, and he had two little children. His wife was so thankful, and that was really neat. It was quite a bit later that I got back to the family dinner.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

When critical moments arrive in man’s life, his best recourse is first to calm, not to panic, second to remember and turn towards God. In that way, he does not depend on his own small resources alone, but opens himself to the larger ones hidden in his subconscious. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. Donations made to the Sacramento Fire Department are used for volunteer support and operations, purchases of apparatus, such as an ambulance, community fire safety events, and activities and towards construction of new fire stations, which we desperately need, as the last 15 months have been the hottest on record. Parents, to stabilize America and retain American values, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ, to buy American made cars and other goods and services, to respect law and order, to get their education and read books, and treat others with care, dignity, and respect. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Lo! the spring joy doth bring; winter’s frosts are ended. Gladness reigns, life remains, with sweet pleasure blended. God doth bear what His care and His love defended. Let Thy will guide us still, let Thy love be o’er us, let Thy light in our night, show Thy paths before us. Ours Thy love, from above, and Thy light that leads us. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17

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They Put Him on Hot File

Unfortunately, words can be thoughtless, hasty, and hurtful. Once said, we cannot take them back. They can wound, punish, cut down, and even lead to destructive actions. They can weigh heavily on us. And sometimes words, as well as actions, can land people in jail. Once you are in jail, you lose all of your rights and privacy. Anytime a prisoner gets bad news, they put him on hot file to watch him close in case experiences death by suicide or escapes or gets in fights. If he gets bad news, sometimes they go as far as to transfer a person to maximum security. Sometimes people are not allowed to bail out of jail, and it just takes time, and when you are incarcerated, you have plenty of that. It is best to learn from the animals. Weave a soft cocoon around you and hibernate. Some people spend their time behind bars well. They spend years working as patient slaves until a coffee runner job opens up. Smart people learn to accept authority and tailer their reactions perfectly. After a while, they learn how the authority figures think. It is not hard. It took one guy two years to get the job as a coffee-running. Then he started pushing the coffee cart into the offices of the guys who have all the power. Assistant Superintendent, Captain, every counselor in the build. Even the parole board. They were always in desperate need of caffeine in the morning and their glazed eyes would light up when they saw him. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

People think it is easy to escape from jail. Being sure to keep their voices soft, eyes moving, they always are alert to approaching cons or guards. However, this prison is crawling with snitches. The walls are paper. Anyone mentions escape, they will be transferred to Folsom in a second. Some prisons are considered “good.” People dig the grass and the flowers and the blue sky. And they have all the dope they need. Freedom to move around after evening chow. It is considered a paradise. In Folsom, you do not relate to sun for weeks at a time. Escape is a desperate fix. There are gun trucks. At each corner of the compound from six evening until six morning park the gun trucks. Armed guards watching five hundred feet of roadway leading up to the fence. Those gun-truck guards are killers. They always put the meanest bulls out to the gun trucks. Those guys are accused of stirring up trouble with the cons so they can sit outside all night with their fingers on the trigger. There is no way of getting over the fence without your being seen. By time you are at the road, there is an alarm that puts a hundred squad cars on the highway looking for you. During the day, they deal snitches to watch each section of the fence. You can see them sitting with mobile phones just watching the fence. They see someone go over, in thirty seconds they are on the phone creaming to Control. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

People snitch because that is their trip for getting out. Bootlicking. They get little favours. Canteen ducats. Most of those guys have no family or friends outside that care about them. To hustle those fifty or sixty dollars a month for cigarettes, they do the snitch trick. There is another thing. In the custody building there is this Escape Room. They have a map of California and the western states, with a series of rings centering on San Luis Obispo. When the escape whistle blows automatic plans go into action. They have phones hooked up to local, country, and state police and FBI. They estimate the time of arrival of the escapee at different distances from the prison. It is simple. They just call out roadblocks. At plus ten minutes, they seal off all roads withing a fifteen-mile radius. At plus thirty minutes, they start blocking state highways. The prison is strategically located. It is out in the middle of nowhere halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Just two highways north and south. Escape is the million-to-one shit. Use you time in prison to learn what you do not know. Learn more about God. Learn about Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. It will do some good, it does no harm. Religion is the best way to escape. Get a Christian Bible or The Book of Mormon and read it. However, do not be seen hanging out with trouble makers. That is how you all get in trouble. The rebel slave will help us to throw light on this point. He established, by his protest, the existence of the master against whom he rebelled. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

However, at the same time, he demonstrated that his master’s power was dependent on his own subordination and he affirmed his own power: the power of continually questioning the superiority of his master. In this respect, master and slave are really in the same boat: the temporary sway of the former is as relative as the submission of the latter. The two forces assert themselves alternately at the moment of rebellion until they confront each other for a fight to the death, and one or the other temporarily disappears. In the metaphysical rebel ranges himself against a power whose existence he simultaneously affirms, in the same way he only admits the existence of this power at the very instant that he calls it into question. Then he involves this superior being in the same humiliating adventure as mankind’s, its ineffectual power being the equivalent of our ineffectual condition. He subjects it to our power of refusal, bends it to the unbending part of human nature, forcibly integrates it into an existence that we render absurd, and finally drags it from its refuge outside time and involves it in history, very far from the eternal stability that it can find only in the unanimous submission of all men. Thus, rebellion affirms that, on its own level, any concept of superior existence is contradictory, to say the least. And so, the history of metaphysical rebellion cannot be confused with that of atheism. From a certain point of view, it is even confused with the contemporary history of religious sentiment. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

The rebel defies more than he denies. Originally, at least, he does not suppress God; he merely talks to Him as an equal. However, it is not a polite dialogue. It is a polemic animated by the desire to conquer. The slave begins by demanding justice and ends by wanting to wear a crown. He must dominate in his turn. His insurrection against his condition becomes an unlimited campaign against the Heavens for the purpose of bringing back a captive king who will first be dethroned and finally condemned to death. Human rebellion ends in metaphysical revolution. It progresses from appearances to acts, from the dandy to the revolutionary. When the throne of God is overturned, the rebel realizes that it is now his own responsibility to create the justice, order, and unity that he sought in vain within his own condition, and in this way to justify the fall of God. If necessary, then begins the desperate effort to create, at the price of crime and murder, the dominion of man. This will not come about without terrible consequences, of which we are so far only aware of a few. However, these consequences are in no way due to rebellion itself, or at least they only occur to the extent that the rebel forgets his original purpose, tires of the tremendous tension created by refusing to give a positive or negative answer, and finally abandons himself to complete negation or total submission. Metaphysical insurrection, in its first stages, offers us the same positive content as the slave’s rebellion. What becomes of this positive content of rebellion in the actions that claim to originate from it and where is the fidelity or infidelity of the rebel to the origins of his revolt, where will this finally lead him? #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

The “word of God” surpasses all other expressions. It has been so since the Creation of the Earth when the Lord spoke: “Let there be light: and there was light.” From the Saviour came these assurances in the New Testament: “Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” And this: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” And from Mary, the mother of Jesus, came this humble testimony: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; by it unto me according to thy word.” Believing and heeding the word of God will draw us closer to Him. If you will study His words, your ability to be more like Him will increase.” Do we all not want to be, as the hymn says, “more blessed and holy—more, Saviour, like thee”? When you are confronted with a dilemma, think celestial! When tested by temptation, think celestial! When life or loved ones let you down, think celestial! When someone dies prematurely think celestial! As you think celestial, your heart will gradually change, you will view trials and opposition in a new light, and your faith will increase. When we think celestial, we see things as they really are, and really will be. In this World burdened with confusion and contention, we all need that perspective. The obligation that we make when we raise our hands is a most sacred one. It means that we will stand behind him; we will pray for him; and we will strive to carry out his instructions as the Lord shall direct. In other words, we will diligently act upon our prophet’s words. May we think celestial, letting Thy Spirit prevail in our lives, and strive to be peacemakers always. The Lord is reminding us to think celestial, let the Spirit prevail, strive to be peacemakers. Words of the prophet matter to the Lord and to us. Believe me, in our emoji-filled World, our words matter. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

Evolutionary agents have worked for centuries to decipher the DNA code—to unravel the secrets, techniques and tactics used by the Life-Intelligence to improve our species. This ancient and honourable philosophic specialty has acquired a new professional title—Ethology. Ethology studies the survival of behaviour of living organisms, species and gene pools in their natural environment. The extraordinary success of humanity is due to the combinatorial complexity of structural and temporal castes in our species. During the Neurogenetic Renaissance (1976-1986) human ethology shot ahead of religion, philosophy, sociology, psychology, personology, astrology, psychiatry and every other primitive system of behavioural theory and practice. Previous theories of human behaviour were regulated to antiquity by the emergence of concepts such as temporal and structural caste in social animals, the key role of migration, population-swarming, hive-limited culture, the emergence of new post-human species, and human robotry. The Wilsom Brothers, Edward and Robert—who performed for psychology what Einstein did for physics—were the parents of this first scientific philosophy. Edward’s book, Sociobiology, is generally considered the first conscious text on human behaviour ever published. Individual human beings evolve, stage by stage, as higher circuits of the Central Nervous System (CNS) are activated. Post-hive consciousness allows humans to grasp the aesthetics of the DNA blueprint. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

The aim of DNA is to increase intelligence. The gift of DNA is that although we are templated as genetic-robots—structural caste—we are equipped with a 24-caliber brain that allows us to imprint or fabricate every Alpha Reality available to every major life form that preceded us and to imprint every major life form to come. DNA has given us the equipment to recapitulate-precapitulate the major DNA solutions—past and future. However, more than that, DNA has given us access to both CNS and RNA (ribonucleic acid) equipment so that we can creatively re-imprint each of the twenty-four CNS Beta Realities and then restructure our structural caste. Migration and metamorphosis are obviously effective techniques for improving intelligence. Migration provides varied territorial options and leads to the growth of musculature and neurotechnology that makes accelerated, accurate locomotion possible. Migration selects for nobility-mobility and thus creates new more mobile cultures. The young nervous systems of every frontier caste are imprinted with the independent-individuality of migrant Out-Castes. Individual human beings evolve, stage by stage, as higher circuits of the central nervous system (CNS) are activated. It is fascinating to me to listen to someone else’s non-verbal World. Its existence is very familiar to me. I mean, it is a familiar to me. I remember someone asking me about the BMW, did I like it, and I said, “Yes. I find it more responsive than most people are.” And I do not consider this a withdrawal from people, but another kind of love, as for landscape or country (cultural, not patriotic) or built things (the love expended on The Winchester Mystery House)—a sustaining kind of love, like work can be sustaining. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

“Like work can be sustaining”—the problem of words again, for of course I can be sustained by work if I am using it to fill the void that has come about through my inability to love, or the inability of those around me to love which cuts me off from my love. Or, I may be sustained by my work because I have done it with love. As Gendlin says of therapy, “Not what, but how.” There are two ways to ride a horse (or drive a car, or clean house, or take care of a garden, or wash dishes, or teach, or build, or anything else). One rider demands that the horse be obedient to him, he makes the horse a “thing.” If he has any feeling for the horse, it is the feeling of possession, of “mastery.” The other kind of rider is, with his horse, more like a centaur—horse and rider move together, responding to each other in a way that makes them move as one, they understand each other. When I can live with people in this way—and there are some people with whom I can do this most of the time—there is joy, and what is to me the peace that passeth all misunderstanding. I myself become a “centaur”—body and mind move as one, not “myself” making my body do what “I” (or others) want it to do. It seems to me that this is the way that we are built to be, moving as one with my body, as one with others. What we call “work” or “being practical” has had a lot to do with pushing us out of this. At this time, when cybernation is taking over so much more, why not let it? Why should I be tired in a country which can turn out too much of everything? Why should I not rest when I am tired—for whatever time it takes until I feel rested? Why should my body be overruled by me? #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

At this time, we have a chance to be human and discover what “human” is. If we do not do this voluntarily, we may even be forced to be human because there is nothing else left for most of us to do. If not release to a feeling of ease, of completeness, and a release of the talent that I know I have for responding to all the World, including people, what is it that I want? Is there anything I want more than to feel fully alive and living? Many aspirants pass through fluctuating moods, because they have yet to face the battle of Reason against Emotion, and to make their emotions the servants of their thought-out principles of living. If he had strong emotions naturally, his problem is to check, guide, and rule them where they are of the lower humankind. However, of course, the highest and noblest emotions need not be checked, and he may safely give himself up to them. He must get a better balance of temperament by disciplining his feelings, cultivating the moments of calmness which come to him, and by developing the reasoning faculty. He should also practise the exercise of constantly thinking over his past. However, his thoughts should be tranquil, impersonal, self-critical, and he should be eager to learn the lessons to be gained from this practice. Especially should he look for the mistakes made, the faults displayed, and—by studying the results to which they led—try to get ride of these weaknesses of character. There is nothing wrong with the human desire for affection, companionship and marriage. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

However, he who has embarked on the spiritual path should remember that more is expected from him than from ordinary people. He is expected to have a definite measure of control over his emotions and impulses and must not be carried off his feet into extremes where he loses balance. It is not possible to make good progress on the spiritual path unless some triumph over the impulsive nature is secured. The next time a friend does something that puzzles you, try thinking about how he or she has perceived that situation and see if you can understand the behaviour better. To really exercise this principle, try inferring the perception of someone who is quite distant from you ethnically and make a real effort to understand the person. The experience of being in a marginalized personality is an extremely healthy one, provided you can stalwartly resist efforts of those of higher statues or authority to make you change your mind. Be sure, of course, that you are taking the position because of your genuine perception of what is the right thing to do, rather than merely to be inflexible. This is the kind of experience that makes for true intellectual integrity—an important component of the high-level functioner. One of the exercises Gestalt therapists ask their patients to engage in is really looking at someone familiar to them. This is a way to break up one’s concepts so that one really sees what is there, not what is said to be there. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

Be careful what you believe to be true, because as long as you believe it, then for you it is true. However, your beliefs about reality, your attributions of reality or your ontic projections, profoundly influence your life. Of especial importance for healthy personality are those beliefs about limits, about your weaknesses and lack of aptitude. If you believe you cannot learn to play a musical instrument because you lack talent, get a musical instrument and learn to play it. If you believe you cannot do without food for three days, go on a five-day fast (consult your doctor first), Challenge your own beliefs, especially about yourself and others, because what you believe to be true about self and others functions more as persuasion than as description. Healthy personality depends upon accurate perception of and knowledge about the World. One of the best ways to help understand another person’s behaviour is to know how that person has perceived the situation. Our perception and our thinking is subject to influence by needs and emotions, and we are vulnerable to confusion of perception with imagination. Consequently, our perception may be very selective and distorted, and our beliefs unfounded. Reality testing is the technique of verifying our perceptions and beliefs by seeking further information and by engaging in rational thinking about the implications of our perceptions. Other people can influence our perspective, even to the point of replacing it with their own. Reality testing entails disengaging oneself from action and querying one’s views of a situation to discern whether they are compatible with fresh perceptions and with reason. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

Satan promises to give his votaries all they desire; knowledge, wealth, honours, pleasures, vengeance upon their enemies; and all that he can give is disappointment, poverty, misery, ate, the power to hurt and destroy. It is evident that President Biden and Comrade Kamala have been worshipping Satan and I guess they did not kiss his buttocks or got too big for their britches because the state of the nation is an utter disaster. As the contracts between the ports and about 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association have expired, dockworkers at ports from Maine to Texas are on strike over wages and automation. If the strike goes on for more than a few weeks, it could reignite inflation, some are still feeling, and causes shortages of goods. Hurricane Helene leaves more than 200 dead as hope fades in search for survivours. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama are severely flooded and FEMA has no money to help them. At this very moment, people are living in houses that have up to ten feet of water in them. FEMA has no money to help Americans because they spent nearly $1 billion supplying housing from illegal immigrants from 2023-2024. Not only did the democrats not ask voters how they felt about allowing more than ten million people to illegally cross our southern border, they did not take into account that America is $35 trillion in debt and a supply shock or natural disaster could create a crisis. The democratic party has failed over and over again to put Americans first and this is just tragic. Not only that, but former President Trump was almost assassinated twice within just a few weeks of the election due to government negligence. While Mr. Biden and Kamala Harris were riding high and laughing at the mess Bidenomics created, they did not see the harm they were causing to hundred of millions of innocent Americans. With the Democratic party depleting the national treasury and threatening America’s supremacy, by making America look weak and foolish, Americans worry about American dominating ending, and many feel their fears have been justified. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

The iron principle that the Fatherland comes first and then the Party must always apply. A power that has any self-respect and expects more from an alliance than to pay commissions to interest-hungry parliamentarians will not allow its country to be invaded and treasury to be depleted; this is something they simply cannot do. As it has happened so often in history, America is again in the middle of struggle for resources. Our people and our state have become victims of these money-obsessed bloody tyrants, and the whole World is becoming ensnared by this octopus. The Democratic Party is hollow and has many arms or tentacles. The Democratic Party is a polyp, an abnormal growth and spreading of tissue, and has left Americans again in the middle of a huge struggle. The foolishness of maintaining such a party is even greater because they do more harm than good. Many followers have been won over to the movement by propaganda. Americans and people all over the World are dying because of the Democratic propaganda. However, I believe that the development of man in the last four thousand years of history is truly awe-inspiring. He had developed his reason to a point where he is solving the riddles of nature, and has emancipated himself from the blind power of the natural forces. However, at the very moment of his greatest triumph, when he is at the threshold of a very new World, he was succumbed to the power of the very things and organizations he has created. He has invented a new method of producing, and has made more production and distribution his new idol. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

Man worships the work of his hands and has reduced himself to being the servant of things. He uses the name of God, of freedom, of humanity, of socialism, in vain; he prides himself on his powers—the bombs and the machines—to cover up his human bankruptcy; he boasts of his power to destroy in order to hide his impotence. Only one force can save us from self-destruction and that is reason; the capacity to recognize the unreality of most of the ideas that man holds, and to penetrate to the reality veiled by the layers and layers of deception and ideologies; reason, not as a body of knowledge, but as a “kind of energy, a force which is fully comprehensible only in its agency and effects,” a force whose most important function consist in its power to bind and dissolve. Violence and arms will not save us; sanity and reason may. Reason cannot be effect unless man has hope and belief. Goethe was right when he said that the deepest distinction between various historical periods is that between belief and disbelief, and when he assed that all epochs in which belief dominates are brilliant, uplifting, and fruitful, while those in which disbelief dominates vanish because nobody cares to devote himself to the unfruitful. No doubt the thirteenth century, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, were ages of belief and hope. I am afraid that the Western World in the twenty-first century deceives itself about the fact that it has lost hope and belief. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

Truly, where there is no belief in man, the belief in machines will not save us from vanishing; on the contrary, this “belief” will only accelerate the ends. Either the Western World will be capable of creating a renaissance of humanism in which the fullest developments of man’s humanity, and not production and work, are the central issues—or the West will perish as many other great civilizations have. Maybe we need to learn from our children. Children think Martian until they are discouraged from doing it by their parents. That is why their uncorrupted thoughts seem so fresh and new. A child’s job is to find out what his parents really mean. This helps to maintain their love, or at least their protection, or in difficult cases, his mere survival. However, beyond that, he loves his parents, and his chief aim in life is to please them (if they will let him), and in order to do that he has to know what they really want. Hence, from each and every American, we need a leader who will truly hear them and give them what they want. People cannot want to shell out thousands and millions of dollars in taxes each year to support people who do not belong in this country, are criminals, nor do they want to pave the roads with gold while their leaders laugh and joke about national security. The parallel with the pimp and the prostituted is striking. She would rather be exploited and suffer with him, and get whatever satisfaction she can out of that, than venture unto the unknown World without his protection. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

The American people are treating them Democratic Party like alcoholic father who sits down at the dinner table and tells them with a contemptuous smile: “You’re so stupid.” As a result, the American people have decided that the thing to do is to act stupid, since the Democrats have made it clear that they do not want any “smart asses” around the house. What they are really saying is: “You’d better act stupid when I’m around here,” and the American people know it, but they still vote Democrat. Remember, sometimes rebellion can be good. You could stand up for yourself and your rights by rebelling and voting for Republicans in the upcoming elections. Do not live like the pimp and the prostitute. Do not let Mr. Biden and Comrade Kamala bully you into voting for them. Rebell. Vote Republican. Britney Spears rebelled and now that she is free, she is looking better and doing better than ever and working less. She is happy. The Sacramento Fire Department’s mission is to provide the best possible emergency services to protect life, property, and the environment. The department’s values include professionalism, stewardship, and teamwork. “It was an oil bulk plant. That’s complex of storage tanks holding fuel for various consignees, part of the delivery setup. They had about a hundred thousand gallons of gasoline and fifteen thousand in diesel fuel. And they had a big warehouse full of greases and oils and other petroleum products. The bad thing about the plant was that they had horizontal tanks instead of vertical. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

Most storage tanks hold thirty thousand gallons, and they sit vertically on a concrete pad. So if you have a fire around them, you have a hazardous situation, all right, but nothing you cannot handle, because the fire cannot really get them hot enough. You can keep them cool. Also, if they are holding a lot of fuel, the fuel will tumble inside the tank, and that will help them cool. In our particular case, the tanks were horizontal, about seven feet off the ground. So what they acted like was a big cooker. And we had a fire under one of them. And, my God, what do you do with something like that? If that tank had ruptured, we would have lost a minimum of twenty firemen. And if it blew toward town, we probably would have had two blocks of instant fire. The fire had started out as a small, controlled burn of grasses in the yard. When we made the call, there was no fire in the warehouse, though the fire had sneaked underneath the warehouse and gotten involved there. We stripped off panels to get down in there, and I stepped outside to bring a truck around to that side, and, my God, I heard this explosion. I turned around and looked. Right where I had been in that warehouse was solid fire. If I had waited another minute, I’d have been right in that damn thing. Now we had a fire under a tank, and the hell with the warehouse. We had to keep that tank from rupturing. We had five two-and-a-half-inch lines trained on that one tank, everything we had. I had firemen at both ends of that tank, holding hose lines. And, boy, not one of them broke. They hung right in there. And we were able to keep it from blowing.” Please donate to the Sacramento Fire Department. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18

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Note Everything that the Primitives Say

Genetics is not about fate; it is about opportunity. It is the genius—genetic-volatility—of humanity that, although each of us is a genetic-robot, we pass through twelve stages as we mature. What a wondrous package, indeed is WoMan! Woman in Mandarin Chinese means “we.” Each of us represents one of the twelve intelligence-survival solutions and each of us, in maturing, passes through and relives all twelve solutions. Genetic consciousness allows us to discard the old outmoded hive-reality maps, to file away and retire, every previous theological and philosophic blueprint—except those which are based on continual evolution. This does not mean that you should reject empirical data or close-off information or ignore opinions. Be open to every stupidity, savagery, rigidity of the Newtonian natives. Listen to the Christian Fundamentalists when they shout that the Christian Holy Bible and  Book of Mormon are word-for-word revelations and you gain insight into the parroting, Paleolithic, humanoid brain. Not everything that the primitives say, then check your own behaviour for parrot-brained rote repetition. Study and then file-away orthodox Darwinian blind-selection theories, while respecting the field reports of evolutionists and ethologists. Play with the notions of structural and temporal caste as they affect you. Admire this clever twelve tactic process that allows each of us to recapitulate evolution and to move ahead to create The Future. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

Alpha reality—for now let us assume that your genetic template determines your structural caste which, in turn, determines your lifelong reality attitude. Attitude is used in the high-altitude, high-velocity aeronautical context—angle of approach. Your structural caste is your Alpha Reality. A nineteen-year-old woman once consulted me, seeking help with a problem that was bothering her. She believed her roommate was stealing her money, jewelry, and even stationary. She noticed various items missing from her dresser from time to time, and she concluded her roommate was guilty. However, she dared not confront the roommate with her suspicion. Instead, she felt distrust and resentment and struggled to conceal these feelings from her. Their relationship gradually deteriorated to one of formality, forced politeness, and false expressions of friendship. I asked the young woman why she did not bring the whole issues out into the open. She stated that if she did this, her roommate would hate her, and she could not stand this. I asked if there were any other possible way of interpreting the loss of her money and jewelry. She replied that she had not thought of any. Rather, she had concluded that if her things were missing, they must have been stolen by the person closet to her. When I suggested that her roommate might be saddened at the way their friendship had deteriorated and that she might welcome some frank talk to settle things, the young woman admitted that this might be possible, but she was afraid to talk about the problem. However, she agreed to broach the subject. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

The next time I saw her, she was happy to report that she had discussed the whole affair. She learned that her roommate was puzzled by the way their relationship had changed. Moreover, she was glad to discuss the loss of the articles with her and she was able to clear herself of any blame. In fact, the roommate too had been missing some money, and investigation by the dormitory counselor brought forth the fact that other women had been robbed and that the guilty party was a cleaning woman, who was promptly discharged. The example illustrates how some initial, untested beliefs that one person forms about some aspect of the World—in this case, about another person—can lead to misunderstanding in interpersonal relationships and to considerable unhappiness. At first, the woman was afraid to carry out any efforts at reality testing to see if her assumption of the guilt of her roommate was warranted. This illustrates another aspect of reality testing; frequently, people may be reluctant to go after the information that is crucial to the formation of accurate beliefs. Yet, if a person gives in to the fear of getting at the truth, that person is almost sure to become increasingly out of touch with reality. The search for the “real” reality in contrast to the perceived reality is a difficult one even for the scientist. Here are some rules that may help you become fare more effective in reality testing: State the belief clearly. Ask, “What evidence is there to support this belief?” Ask, “Is there any other way of interpreting this evidence?” Try to determine how consistent the belief is with other beliefs that are known to be real. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

Reasons for rebellion do seem to change, in fact, with periods and civilizations. It is obvious that a Hindu pariah, an Inca warrior, a primitive native of central African, and a member of one of the first Christian communities had not at all the same ideas about rebellion. We could even assert, with considerable assurance, that the idea of rebellion has no meaning in these particular cases. However, even if they differed about the reasons for it, a Greek slave, a serf, a condottiere of the Renaissance, a Parisian bourgeois during the Regency, a Russian intellectual at the beginning of the twentieth century, and a contemporary worker would undoubtedly agree that rebellion is legitimate. In other words, the problem of rebellion seems to assume a precise meaning only within the confines of Western thought. It is possible to be even more explicit by remarking, like Scheler, that the spirit of rebellion finds new means of expression in societies where inequalities are very great (the Hindu caste system) or, again, in those where there is absolute equality (certain primitive societies). The spirit of rebellion can exist only in a society where a theoretical equality conceals great factual inequalities. The problem of rebellion can exist only in a society where a theoretical equality conceals great factual inequalities. The problem of rebellion, therefore, has no meaning except within our own Western society. If the preceding remarks had not put us on our guard against this conclusion, one might be tempted to affirm that it is relative to the development of individualism. On the basis of the evidence, the only conclusion that can be drawn from Scheler’s remark is that, thank to the theory of political freedom, there is, in the very heart of our society, an increasing awareness in man of the idea of man and, thanks to the application of this theory of freedom, a corresponding dissatisfaction. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

Actual freedom has not increased in proportion to man’s awareness of it. We can only deduce from this observation that rebellion is the act of an educated man who is aware of his own rights. However, there is nothing which justifies us in saying that it is only a question of individual rights. Before of the sense of solidarity we have already pointed out, it would rather seem that what is at stake is humanity’s gradually increasing self-awareness as it pursues its course. In fact, for the Inca and the pariah the problem never arises, because for them it has been solved by a tradition, even before they had had time to raise it—the answer being that tradition is sacred. If in a World where things are held sacred the problem of rebellion does not arise, it is because no real problems are to be found in such a World, all the answers having been given simultaneously. Metaphysic is replaced by myth. There are no more questions, only eternal answers and commentaries, which may be metaphysical. However, before man accepts the sacred World and in order that he should be able to accept it—or before he escapes from it and in order that he should be able to escape from it—there is always a period of soul-searching and rebellion. The rebel is a man who on the point of accepting or rejecting the sacred and determined on laying claim to a human situation in which all the answers are human—in other words, formulated in reasonable terms. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

From this moment every question, every word, is an act of rebellion while in the sacred World every word is an act of grace. It would be possible to demonstrate in this manner that only two possible to Worlds can exist for the human mind: the sacred (or, to speak in Christian terms, the World of grace) and the World of rebellion. The disappearance of one is equivalent to the appearance of the other, despite the fact that this appearance can take place in disconcerting forms. There again we rediscover the All or Nothing. The present interest of the problem of rebellion only springs from the fact that nowadays whole societies have wanted to discard the sacred. We live in an unsacrosanct moment in history. Insurrection is certainly not the sum total of human experience. However, history today, with all its storm and strife, compels us to say that rebellion is one of the essential dimensions of man. It is our historic reality. Unless we choose to ignore reality, we must find our values in it. It is possible to find a rule of conduct outside the realm of religion and its absolute values? That is the question raised by rebellion. Dying on the prison mattress, this inmate’s mind peered at itself through the window of a luxurious beach house in Santa Monica. She was lying scantly clad in front of the fire. A famous singer sings from a vinyl record on a low womb-shaped table almost buried amongst the furs. The breath of the fire moistens the room. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

“All I want is to feel good,” she says and falls back amongst the cushions. He is nervous. “I haven’t been intimate with a woman in a month, baby.” “Just keep me high, she murmurs. Guilt is an abstraction, pleasure is real.” She lay unmoving, evidently under the effect of some kind of narcotic. He raised her leg, walked to the window and pressed his face against the glass. She stood naked in front of the fire, weeping. It was three o’clock in the morning. A flashlight whispering yellow. Get up! You are on the lost for transfer. Roll up gear. Report below. Your cell’s unlocked. He left the rodent cage, ran right down the molecular runway, left down lattice stairs turn right. Forty-eight men in blue waiting in a dark tunnel of the maximum-security prison, rolling weed, coughing smoke, reciting their sorrows. Career cons. The impenitent nobility. Gallant slaves. As the World of an empress is decked with pennants, Hers was decorated with desire. Wherever she went She was invested with this could of male vitality. He walked the length of the Release Room of the State Prison, a naked captive, carrying shoes to the exit cage counter. “Gentlemen, I’m checking out. Could you have my bill ready?” he says. The guard frowns down at levity. “Yeah, you owe us ten long years.” Forty-eight men dressed in white jump suits, from a gray line waiting for the bus to long-term. All aboard for CMC East, CMC West, grim Soledad, San Quentin, Folsom, and Forestry Camps north. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

Each man walks shivering in the morning fog to the loading platform. Searched, handcuffed. After a pat-down, the inmate we are focused on holds hands up for bracelets. The Lieutenant grumbles. “Skip the cuffs for him. He’s minimum security,” he told the guard. Speaking to our focus inmate, the Lieutenant then says, “You pass out matches and rolling smokes.” He walked down the bus aisle. “Fasten seat belts gentlemen and ladies. Select your weed. Inside dope. Acapulco Gold. Tehachapi Red. Quentin Green. Metal-clad hands reach up beseeching nicotine.” As the mobile prison rumbles along the polluted L.A. freeways, they look down at commuters droning to work. Around Ventura the bus bursts out the L.A. smog to wide blue Pacific seascapes, sparkling visions for prison eyes. Slender girl twisting long sunny hair on the Ventura streets. Their shackled slave wagon climbed the hill to a white-marbled courthouse. Picking up long-hair parole violators. In the rear-cage compartment the armed guard pushes brown-paper food snacks through a metal slot. Our focus inmate serves lunch and as a good trustee gets a double helping. However, he gave it to a young African America carrying a life sentence. Even people who are down on their luck are kind enough to show compassion. Compassion means to for love and mercy toward another person. It means to show sympathy and relieve the suffering of others. It means to show kindness and tenderness towards another. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

Whoever prolongs resentment belongs to past years and chapters long left behind, himself adds to the injury he suffered. Such brooding brings on negative moods. Personal feelings must be studied and analysed, not to become more neurotically self-wrapped but to correct, discipline, and lift them to a higher level. The more emotional a person is, the more easily is he hurt. The way to lessen such hurts is to bring up reason to the same strength and to deepen calm. The more he practicses keeping calm in the confrontations of Worldly stress, the less difficult will it be to practise prayer. The practise not only makes it easier for intelligence to operate but also for thoughts to come under control. A panicky feeling disorganizes the whole of man, throws him into confusion. If one cultivates inner calm constantly, this is avoided. He cannot afford to imitate those who show a calm exterior while raging furiously within themselves. Not necessarily—nor only—for the sake of appearances or personal advantage does he remain calm, but also because the ideal of self-control is very close to his heart. However, although philosophy refuses to accept a wild emotionalism or an unbalanced one or an egotistic one, it would be a grave mistake to think that it refuses to accept emotion altogether in its own sphere. On the contrary, it asserts that without the most intense possible feeling, a genuine devotion to the Overself cannot be given. And without such devotion, the Overself in turn is unlikely to give its Grace. What philosophy does ask, however, is that emotion should be balanced, purified, and deepened. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

Pessimism will corrode our better nature, optimism may disillusion itself in the end. The middle way is the better way—and also the truer way—for it gives both sides of the case. It is not only in practical life that emotional control will be needed but also in mystical life. The very intensity of his emotions—however noble and aspiring they be—will confuse the reception of the truth during prayer and mingle it with the meditator’s own preconceptions. We believe first and think out our belief afterwards. This is because emotion rather than reason is our driving force. Reason actuates us from a deeper level and is therefore slower to arouse and harder to keep going than feeling. The Stoics in old Europe tried to put the emotions under the absolute control of reason. Jesus Christ tried to do exactly the same. However, whereas the Stoics did this in order to meet the every day alternations of fate, health, and fortune with great courage, the self-actualized Christians did it in order to escape from those alternations. The Stoics were practical men who accepted the World but sought to conquer it through the power gained by conquering themselves. The self-actualized Christians rejected the World, and like the desert monks of early Christianity, wanted to be done with its struggles and afflictions. If he sulkily takes constructive, well-intentioned criticism as if it were a personal insult, if his emotional self falls discouraged into a slough of despond at the smallest discovery of his own faults and weaknesses, then he is likely not ready for this quest. Some self-preparation is first needed. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

If not quickly subdue them, merely to recollect that he is on the quest should soften his angers. They should deliberately face whatever it is they fear. When they become frightened, they should not seek escape, but, in times of prayer and meditation, should turn full attention on its cause. Then, they should call upon latent resources and if the cause is made in the right way, the response will appear in their conscious will. Thus equipped, they will be capable of compelling fears to subside and, in time, of overcoming them. This inner quiescence, this emotional calm, this being at peace with oneself, this refusal to be upset or feel hurt, is one of those conditions which make possible the discovery of the true being. The truth crushes all the falseness and all the deceptiveness in sentimentality and emotionality, but leaves intact what is sound in them. The ego eagerly wants to nourish itself with these pitiful illusions, therefore. It is even helpful in certain cases to put the physical body under the strain of hard manual labour, or hard physical exercise for some weeks. This counterbalances the mental tension. To eradicate anger, he should cultivate it opposite—forgiveness. According to ethics of the hidden teaching, hatred and anger are twin branches on the same tree. How immense the distance from self-mastered Founder to self-indulgent follower! The often-used word “freedom” is conveniently misunderstood, its true meaning twisted to suit their sensual appetites. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

Conduct is a deliberate, consciously purposeful, and willed activity whereas behaviour is general, casual, and not specifically directed. When in the development of the script, one of the most important things to do is find a plot with the proper ending, an answer to the question: “What happens to someone like me?” The child knows, because he is taught, whether he is going to be a winner or a loser, how he is supposed to feel about other people, and how other people are going to treat him, and that is what is meant by “someone like me.” Sooner or later, he hears a story about “someone like me,” and that tells him what he is headed for. It may e a fairy tale read to him by his mother, the story of Sleeping Beauty told to him by his grandmother, or a street-gang legend he hears on the corner. However, whatever he hears it, when he hears it, he knows it, and he says: “That is me!” That story will then be his script and he will spend the rest of his life trying to make it come to pass. Thus, on the basis of early experience with the breast or the bottle, in the bathroom or outhouse, in the bedroom and kitchen and living room, the child acquires his convictions, makes his decisions, and takes his position. Then from what he hears and reads, he chooses a prediction and a plan: how he will go about being a winner or a loser, on what grounds, and what the payoff will be; and that is the first clear version of his life script. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

Subverbal interaction refers to communication that occurs without the use of words. I spent nearly six months of bi-weekly meetings which consisted of my standing next to a man on the ward. Whenever I asked him to come into the office with me, he became verbal, but only to tell me to go away and leave him alone. Yet, when I would come only to stand next to him where he stood on the ward, he would usually remain for the whole hour despite the fact that he knew I would leave if he walked away. During such an hour we would exchange many glances, motions, and a few sentences. Often—that is to say, every few silent minutes—I might say something of the tension I felt, and of my wish that our silences would be or feel all right, as well as of my wish to hear from him, and my knowledge of his discomfort and tension with me. After a while I did usually receive a sentence or two, often in the nature of summaries that seemed to stem from much ongoing inner turmoil, feeling, and thinking, such as: “Maybe I am crazy,” or, “someone must a have a use for a person,” or “If you are for me or against me, I do not know,” or “they just do not have a heart,” or, “I would wake them up.” Some hours passed without such expressions. Sometimes he would accept my responses to these statements, more often he would show me that I could more easily be talked to if I was quiet: he would say, “do not pressure me,” or, “it is awful hot today.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

At slight movements, or unsureness, or verbiage from me, he would react with sudden black looks or leap away three feet. So I learned to be quiet while he talked; perhaps a few minutes later I might tell him something of what I thought about it. When I stood next to this man in silence, it was not the case that nothing happened when we were silent. Clearly, he was very active inside himself, and to me it was also clear that I had a great deal to do with the process, and with the quality of this process, within him. It is this kind of interaction which I termed “subverbal.” The development from early to later interviews involves the establishment of subverbal interaction. In our research, the proportions of speech and silence do not change from second to thirtieth interviews. However, not only do the silence come to be subverbally important and therapeutic, but the verbalizations also become more significant, as the findings on the Kirtner and Experiencing Scales show. Subverbal interaction is thus not a giving up of verbal therapy, but rather a reaching for the deeper and wider feeling processes which occurs in every individual at every moment, and within which psychotherapy occurs. Words, no matter how relevant or irrelevant, are only messages from this deeper feeling process, only symbolizations of experiencing. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

The Democratic Party will not fight for the future of America in a political battle because they believe the future is secured adequately through increasing the $38 trillion-dollar federal deficit, which increased by $2 trillion in 2024. This kind of debt spending is unheard of and will have unknown ramifications. Not only will your children be responsible for paying this money back, and the rest of your family for generations, America could go bankrupt. All of those handouts the Democratic party has given to the 20,000,000 illegal immigrants that have allowed to waltz into America is costing us all dearly. The Democratic Party’s plan is to just keep raising taxes. However, how our tax dollars are spent should be a matter left up to voters. Politicians should not be able to go wild and spend our hard earn money anyhow they please on programs that are not even necessary nor desirable. No one can “save” his fellow man by making the choice for him. All that one man can do for another is to show him the alternatives truthfully and lovingly, yet without sentimentality or illusion. Confrontation with the true alternatives may awaken all the hidden energies in a person, and enable him to choose life as against death. If he cannot choose life, no one else can breathe life into him. There are two ways of arriving at the choice of the good. The first is that of duty and obedience to moral commands. This way be can be effective, yet one must consider that in thousands of years only a minority have fulfilled even the requirements of the Ten Commandments. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

Many more have committed crimes when they were presented to them as commands by those in authority. The other way is to develop a taste for and a sense of well-being in doing what is good or right. By taste for well-being, I do not mean pleasure in the Benthamian of Freudian sense. I refer to the sense of heightened aliveness in which I confirm my powers and my identity. I believe that education means to acquaint the young with the best heritage of the human race. However, of this heritage is expressed in words, it is effective only if these words become reality in the person of the teacher and in the practice and structure of society. Only the idea which has materialized in the flesh can influence man; the idea which remains a word only changes words. I believe in the perfectibility of man. This perfectibility means that man can reach his goal, but it does not mean that he must reach it. If the individual will not choose life and does not grow, he will by necessity become destructive, a living corpse. Evilness and self-loss are as real as are goodness and aliveness. If he chooses not to realize his primary potentialities, they are the secondary potentialities of man. Only exceptionally is man born as a saint or as a criminal. Most of us have dispositions for good and for evil, although the respective weight of these dispositions varies within individuals. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

Hence, our fate is largely determined by those influences which mold and form the given dispositions. The family is the most important influence. However, the family itself is mainly an agent of society, the transmission belt for those values and norms which a society wants to impress on its members. Hence, the most important factor for the development of the individual is the structure and the values of the society into which he has been born. Society has both a furthering and an inhibiting function. Only in cooperation with others, and in the process of work, does man develop his powers, only in the historical process does he create himself. However, at the same time, most societies until now have served the aims of the few who wanted to use the many. Hence, they had to use their power to stultify and intimidate the many (and this, indirectly, themselves), to prevent them from developing all their powers; for this reason, society has always conflicted with humanity, with the universal norms valid for every man. Only when society’s aim will have become identical with the aims of humanity, will society cease to cripple man and to further evil. Every many represents humanity. We are different as to intelligence, health, talents. Yet we are all one. We are all stains and sinners, adults and children, and no one is anybody’s superior or judge. We have all been awakened with Jesus Christ, we have also be crucified with Christ, and we have all been burned at the stake and robbed with the witches of Salem, Massachusetts. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

Man can visualize the experience of the whole universal man only by realizing his individuality and never by trying to reduce himself to an abstract, common denominator. Man’s task in life is precisely the paradoxical one of realizing his individuality and at the same time transcending it and arriving at the experience of universality. Only the fully developed individual self can drop the ego. The Sacramento Department of Fire Services provides the fire service, regulated industries, and individuals with training, education, prevention, investigation, and emergency responses service. This work includes training firefighters, hazardous material response, fire investigation, public education in fire and life safety, and incident support. “The fire was in a two-and-a-half-story frame dwelling. My company was on the second alarm, so when we got there the fire was well involved. I reported to the chief and went through the normal procedures. The whole upper floor, a converted attic, was on fire, and part of the second floor. We took a two-and-a-half-inch hand line down the left side of the building to the rear kitchen—myself, my pipe man, and my leadoff man. The pipe man is the nozzle man. We take the line in dry to the place where we’re going to use it—it’s easier to maneuver without the water in the line. We get to the back kitchen, and I pick up my radio to call the pump operator to get water in the line. As it happens when there are so many additional alarms, it gets so busy that the pump operator is swamped with calls, and radio communications is the biggest problem. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

“First I sent out my lead man, then I went out, and I told the pump operator to put water in the line. I waited a minute to make sure that he did, because sometimes they are so busy they don’t always comprehend what’s going on. As soon as the two-and-a-half got charged up, I straightened out a couple of kinks and started back along the side of the building. I felt a couple of embers or wood brands dropping, and I just kind of pulled my shoulders up and dropped my head and just kept moving. Then, bam. Instantly the whole world stopped. It seemed the entire building dropped, and it came right down on me. It was unreal. The whole left side of the building and the roof came down on me. It just kicked out. I had never heard of this happening before, but since than I have read articles about the collapse of frame buildings and how fast they just kick out. I straightened up, and I could feel all of my weight pushing back as hard as I could, and there was just no way that I could stop it. Thank the Lord, right where I stood was a tree and a fence that ran down the side of the property. I must have swung around so I was right at the tree, and when the wood and the roof came down it hit the tree and acted like a lean-to. And instead of squashing me flat, it just pushed me down into the tree and wedged me down there. I was facedown into the roots of the tree, which was about eight or ten inches in diameter. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

“The weight of the falling building just snapped it over, and I was wedged against it. But my arm was up, like half over the fence. I don’t know if I had tried to leap over the fence or what, but the arm was pinned separately from the rest of my body. The other guys thought I was dead, for sure. I had to be. It was just unreal, the amount of debris that was piled on top of me. The radio on my hip was caught in an open position. Afterwards the chief said it was the one thing that showed I was still alive. All they could hear was a string of good, rotten words, one after another. I was in severe pain. Terrible pain. I thought, ‘This is it, this is the end of my world.’ My ribs, my side, my arm, everything was hurting but my head. My head wasn’t hurting, or if it was I couldn’t feel it. ‘God, I hope they get me out of here,’ I thought. I was trapped, no way I could move an inch. I’m a good-sized fellow, and I’m wedged against the tree into the ground. There is all this roof and wood pile on me. Luckily, there was no fire right in that area. The fire was still maybe four or five feet behind me. I began to think about a secondary collapse. The way it was piled on me and the tree, I thought, ‘If this son of a gun drops, I mean, that’s it.’ There was no way I could hold any more weight: if it let loose a second time, I would have been gone. For a few minutes I talked to God. ‘Well, sure, I’m going to die,’ I told him. I didn’t know how badly I had been injured. I just knew I had been hurt so bad it was beyond hurting. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

“Suddenly a mob of people were there, and some of the fellows were coming g up on top of the stuff that’s on top me. I could feel more pressure. I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, get off of the collapse.’ Everything gets chaotic. I mean I’m pinned under there, and I can picture in my mind everybody running around and everybody trying to help. That’s the first thing when one of yours is down. Everybody wants to get in. I’ve been on a number of rescues of civilians, but when it’s one of yours it’s just a little bit different. There’s a little more adrenaline flowing. Everybody was just disregarding everything else, trying to get in as quickly as possible. I heard somebody say, ‘Truck Company, get a saw.’ And the company answered, ‘Our saw’s down in the shop.’ I thought, ‘Oh, crud, here I am trapped, and their saw is down in the shop.’ A couple of things went through my mind down there. The first thing I thought was, ‘Oh, God, let me just get back with my family. Just one more shot. Just give me another shot at it.’ Finally the Rescue Company sets up the airbags, which were new in the department at the time. They were to stabilize the rest of the building so it wouldn’t come down. Now I was concentrating on their methods to get me out. They got a couple of saws going, and they started cutting the fence down to get into me. I said to the lead rescuer, “A1, A1, hold up a minute. My arm’s pinned separately.’ #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

“I just pictured them cutting this fence and grabbing me and pulling me out, and my arm was going to stay there. All I could think of was, ‘God Almighty, if they pull me out and leave my arm there, I would rather just stay.’ It took them about thirty minutes to get everything under control, to get me out. That’s how long I was trapped, and I stayed conscious the whole time. I never really screamed. I tried to stay as clam as I could, hoping that would help them in extricating me a little quicker than otherwise. The lieutenant said afterward that I said a couple of things that didn’t make sense to him. Maybe I was going out of my head a little but, I don’t know, but that was his terminology. I thought I handled it pretty well. One of the funny things I thought afterwards was, ‘Damn, this is my last night in.’ It was the end of a four-night trick. Then we get two days off in a row. They had to drag me out. They raised and secured the wood that was lying over me enough so that they could slide me out. Only then could they stabilize me on a backboard. It was a big job because I’m six-two and weigh 240. The guys said afterwards, ‘God, X, don’t get trapped again. You’ll kill us getting you out again.’ The doctors at the hospital say my size is one of the things that helped save my life. I mean, I’m a big man, and I’m big-boned, and as this stuff came down on me I tightened up to keep in from crushing me. So they got me out to the ambulance. The two paramedics were excellent. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

“I was in shock trauma twenty-one days and off the job for eleven months. Then I came back on regular duty, and I’ve been working ever since. At times, I hurt. Particularly when I’m wearing a mask at a fire. For two days after, my shoulders hurt, my back hurts, my side hurts from wearing the tank and just the general punishment you go through. But I’m not ready to go out yet.” The Sacramento Fire Department works hard to save lives and property and often risk their own lives. Awaken compassionate thoughts and actions by helping others realize that, like our Saviour, they too have compassion for others.  Please make donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to asset them in their fire prevent duty and other programs. To help keep America a God loving, Christian community, please raise your children to love America and to love God and Jesus Christ. In a afford to help America pull through the massive national deficit, please buy American made cars and other American made good and services. Also, please remember to respect law and order and treat your elders with the utmost dignity and kindness possible. And take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

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The Alchemical Magic Spread Swiftly

Our knowledge of human neurogenetics is so primitive that we have only recently realized that structural and temporal castes exist. Sociobiologist and ethologists define their professions as the study of behavioural genetics. However, neurogenetics is a more accurate description because what is inherited is not behaviour but neural templates that determine use of the anatomical-technology. Local hive behaviour cues—languages, customs, artifacts, and the like are not genetically inherited—they are cultural imprints. Only the caste-circuits are inherited not the behaviours, which are acquired in a cultural context. Until ethologists understand the difference between neurogenetic castes and local-social-imprints, their brilliant observations cannot be mapped. This insight is changing our conceptions of human nature and society. It is probable that we are neurologically programmed so that understanding of castes becomes part of species contelligence—consciousness + intelligence—only at the time that space migration occurs. Plan-It Colonies in High Orbit provide the new ecological vacuum in which human castes differences can blossom without the friction and crowded competition that has coloured Earthly racial-class-sexual-caste differences. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25

You must realize that we are a genetic-caste-robot to understand your own personal development. John Lilly articulates this beautifully in Programming the Human BioComputer. We are templated by DNA to play a certain role. We are outfitted with a 24-gear brain that is very different from 92 percent of other human brains. Values, according to good authorities, “most often represent a transition from facts to rights, from what is desired to what is desirable (usually through the intermediary of what is generally considered desirable).” The transition from facts to rights is manifest, as we have seen, in rebellion. So is the transition from “this must be” to “this is how I should like things to be,” and even more so, perhaps, the idea of the sublimation of the individual in a henceforth universal good. The sudden appearance of the concept of “All or Nothing” demonstrates that rebellion, contrary to current opinion, and though it springs from everything that is most strictly individualistic in man, questions the very idea of the individual. If the individual, in fact, accepts death and happens to die as a consequence of his act of rebellion, he demonstrates by doing so that he is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of a common good which he considers more important than his own destiny. If he prefers the risk of death to the negation of the rights that he defends, it is because he considers these rights more important than himself. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25

Therefore, he is acting in the name of certain values which are still indeterminate but which he feels are common to himself and to all men. We see that the affirmation implicit in every act of rebellion is extended to something that transcends the individual in so far as it withdraws him from his supposed solitude and provides him with a reason to act. However, it is already worth noting that this concept of values as pre-existent to any kind of action contradicts the purely historical philosophies, in which values are acquired (if they are ever acquired) after the action has been completed. Analysis of rebellion leads at least to the suspicion that, contrary to the postulates of contemporary thought, a human nature does exist, as the Greeks believed. If there is nothing permanent in oneself worth preserving, why rebel? It is for the sake of everyone in the World that the slave asserts himself when he comes to the conclusion that a command has infringed on something in him which does not belong to him alone, but which is common ground where all men—even the man who insults and oppresses him—have a natural community. (The community of victims is the same as that which units victim and executioner. However, the executioner does not know this.) Two observations will support this argument. First, we can see that an act of rebellion is not, essentially, an egoistic act. Of course, it can have egoistic motived. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25

However, one can rebel equally well against lies as against oppression. Moreover, the rebel—once he has accepted the motives and at the moment of his greatest impetus—preserves nothing in that he risks everything. He demands respect for himself, of course, but only in so far as he identifies himself with a natural community. Then we note that rebellion does not arise only, and necessarily, among the oppressed, but that it can also be caused by the mere spectacle of oppression of which someone else is the victim. In such cases there is a feeling of identification with another individual. And it must be pointed out that this is not a question of psychological identification—a mere subterfuge by which the individual imagines that it is he himself who has been offended. On the contrary, it can often happen that we cannot bear to see offenses done to others which we ourselves have accepted without rebelling. The suicides of the Russian terrorists in Siberia as a protest against their comrades’ being whipped is a case in point. Nor is it a question of a feeling of community of interests. Injustices done to men who we consider enemies can, actually, be profoundly repugnant to us. There is only identification of one’s destiny with that of others and a choice of sides. Therefore the individual is not, in himself alone, the embodiment of the values he wishes to defend. It needs all humanity, at least, to comprise them. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25

When he rebels, a man identifies himself with other men and so surpasses himself, and from this point of view of human solidarity is metaphysical. However, for the moment we are only talking of the kind of solidarity that is born in chains. Many rebels do end up in chains. At the Friday night movie in prison, some sit suicidally depressed in the front row eating trustee popcorn. And there is dope. The lunch pail express, sideline of bribed guards who keep the flow of illegal contraband moving in and out. Prisons are a quest for the serpent who swallows his own tail. It is just a matter of connecting neural wires. Many people spend every free moment on the prison yard either at handball, yoga, or lifting metal weights to the point of pain-strain. Prisoners often talk about their case, their arrest, their trial, and the next destination. Everyone has a hope habit of one kind or another. You can even get to know the permanent work crew trustees. For the most part, they are older white-collar criminals with potbellies. Some trustees have big red calendars on the wall. Each day a number is removed. The big red arrow always points to tomorrow. However, there is no number for the current day. In confidence men’s terminology, when you wake up in the morning, that day is as good as over. Half of the prisoners, the young half, are dopers, guiltless spirits, Black and White, totally detached from the system, certain of their alchemical beliefs. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25

The alchemical magic spreads swiftly. After ten years, there are millions who choose the superstitious perspective, seeking to stay high. The prison guards are retired enlisted men. They act like motel clerks opening the dining room, locking and unlocking doors for the prisoners. They walk the tiers at night while inmates’ sleep; fatigued men with flashlights slipping mail under their cell doors. Their work centers around keys. The lawyers say that any day the California Supreme Court will grant some of these men bail. However, advisers often shrug skeptically. Often, guards get down on these men. They order them to the barbershop, search their cells, find dust, then orders them back to the barbershop for a closer trim, writes them up for petty misdemeanors. As prisoners swing high and happy down the cavernous hall of the main line, guards will often make them remove personal effects. Some of these men get an attitude and stand in the prison corridor looking at the guard, as the guard looks back at them dull with tired hatred before muttering, “Watch yourself.” Well, that is the basic confrontation of politics. The guard and the prisoner. Two men looking into each other’s eyes defiantly across the abyss of slavery. Everyone in the World is on the side of the guard or on the side of the prisoner. Police, lawyers, judges, prison guards. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25

Criminals are the opposing militia. The forces are exactly even. Law-and-order people control the press and the media of communication and education but they fool no one. At any moment, at least half of the World population is in open conscious opposition to the government. Most police accept that it is a war on crime. So do most prisoners. It is obvious, that in most cases, rebellion pays bad dividends. It can inevitably result in a sense of emptiness that often leads to alcoholism, drug addiction, bizarre religious practices, flagrant immortality, broken homes, incurable diseases, and despair. Sadly, many experience the high cost of putting what they call “my way” above “God’s way.” To live as if there is no God is foolish, for it leads to pain, despair, and eternal death. However, to live in the “fear of God” is wise, for it leads to satisfaction, rejoicing, and everlasting life. You must decide, so choose wisely! “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction,” reports Proverbs 1.7. When the client gives me nothing intimate, or self-expressive—it is then that I must draw on my own momentary reservoir to find within me my response to him—a clear, intimate expression of me in this moment with him. However, when the client is in the process of expressing himself to me, then I find within me chiefly my sense of his expression and I try to tell him with unmuddied simplicity what I understand him to feel and think. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25

It is just as important that I sense and state his experience as his (as purely as possible from his own frame of reference), as it is to make clear that my experiential self-expression are mine, when that is the case. Very often, when the client is in the course of expressing himself, a response that simply states what the therapist understands the client to think or feel is a powerfully effective response. Often it is the only possible helpful response. If anyone does–with schizophrenics and with many others, it is the therapist who will initiate the relationship, will begin open and expressive interaction, and will first express warmth, care, interest, and a person-to-person quality. If the therapist must sit passively, or argue intrusively, I do not think he is likely to form a relationship with an individual who does not already wish for therapy or for a relationship. The therapist’s moment-to-moment expressiveness largely determines the quality of the interaction, at least at first, and especially with unmotivated individuals. Even if the client is consistently silent or expresses only trivia, the therapist’s self-expression can make the interaction eventful, personal, and even expressive. The therapist’s expressions—the events occurring in himself—will concern the interaction and will deepen it, when they are spoken. Both persons tend to experience an eventful, open and personal interaction even while only one of them is verbalizing his felt side of the interaction. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25

In order to verify predictions, it is necessary to define success, that is, winners and losers. A winner is someone who succeeds in what he says he is going to do. A loser is someone who fails to accomplish what he sets out to do. A man who says: “I am going to Reno and gamble,” is only committed to getting there and betting, regardless of whether he wins or loses. If he says: “I am going to Reno and this time I am going to win,” then he comes out a winner is he wins and a loser if he does not, depending upon how much money he has in his pockets when he gets back on the pavement. A woman who gets a divorce is not a loser unless she has said “I will never get a divorce.” If she has declared: “Some day I am going to quit my job and I will never work again,” then her alimony will signify that she is a winner, because she has accomplished what she set out to do. Since she had made no statement as to how she would do it, no one can fault her with being a loser. Each language provides words that sensitize a person to those aspects of the World that are most important for survival in that place. Thus, we have only one word for snow, whereas Inuit people have many, corresponding with different qualities of snow, which indicate whether hunting or igloo building is possible. We do not see the World; rather, we “read” the meanings of what we see, just as we read the words in a book. These meanings are provided for us as we grow up by the person who teaches us to speak our “mother tongue.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 25

It is our mothers who give the first meanings to our World, who gives the World the “voices” with which it tells us of dangers and gratifications. In developing countries like Indonesia or India, each child learns three languages, each of which highlights some aspects of the World more than others, and which gives different meanings and emotional qualities to the perceived World. Thus, a child will learn the language of the village from his or her mother; in India or Indonesia, it will be one of the several hundred local languages, which differ so much that people fifty miles apart cannot understand one another’s mother tongues. At school an Indonesian child will learn Malay, and an Indian child will learn Hindi—both languages are the national tongue, which facilitates communication throughout the country. Finally, both Indonesian and Indians may learn English, which makes communication beyond national boundaries possible. In each case, the language that is spoken affects perception. In order really to perceive what is there in the World, a person will have to suspend language and really look and listen, to discern the reality beyond language. For many, to sustain an inner calm is not easy. Many a time, in test situations, he will fail. However, even when the negative, explosive, or depressive emotion asserts itself strongly, he is not to show it in behaviour no express it in speech. For this is a step toward that control of self, that impersonality, which is what the quest means. If mind influences body, body also influences mind. From the physical control he may proceed to the mental. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25

When calmness has been well practiced for a sufficient period, it will occasionally of itself lead the practiser into sudden brief and ecstatic experiences of a mystical character. He should calmly recognize that suffering has its allotted function to perform in the divine plan, that other people have their lessons to learn through it when they will learn in no other way, and that the spectacle of its operation should, in such cases, be met with intelligent understanding rather than with neurotic sentimentality. He should face the fact that many people will not learn from reason, intuition, or teaching and that no one can really liberate them from their sufferings except themselves. Every other kind of liberation is a false one. Others may effect it today only to see the same condition return tomorrow. He should not, in certain situations calling for hard decision, for instance, show unjustifiable weakness under the belief that he is showing forbearance, nor submit to antisocial egotism under the thought that he is practising love, nor abandon his highest duties for the sake of making a false and superficial peace with interfering ignorance, nor passively accept a flagrant wrong because God’s will must always be borne. The lower emotions and the moods they produce are his first enemies. Every antagonism and envy, every wrathful temper and animal lust, every self-injuring desire and socially harmful greed bars his way. And it will not move out of the way without a long fight. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25

This spiritual quest takes the aspirant through many moods. He will alternate at times between blank despair and exalted joy. Though naturally affected by these moods, he ought nevertheless to try to keep a certain balance even in their very midst, to cultivate a kind of higher indifference towards them, and patience towards their results. This can be achieved more easily by obtaining a firm conviction of the transient character of such moods. Both emotion and reason have their proper place in practical life, but in the philosophic life where the Quest is for truth alone and not for satisfaction, there is no place for emotion other than a secondary one. Its power over man is so great however that it will continually come into conflict with this ruling, it will struggle desperately to resist reason and to silence its voice, it will contradict the dictate of calm considered judgment and seek by sheer force to dominate the mind. Again and again the uprush of emotion will disturb the would-be philosopher and destroy his equanimity, thus rendering impossible a correct appreciation of the truth he seeks. The melancholy feeling that he is missing something joyous in life, that a happiness which so many others have captured is running away from him with the years, so one of the emotional snares likely to beset the aspirant’s path. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25

If he yields to its self-pitying suggestiveness, it will weaken his resolve and disturb his peace. From that it is only a step or two to descend into a painted and delusive animality. Those who waste themselves in emotional excesses weaken themselves spiritually, for the power of feeling is an essential part of the higher nature. With the pressures brought down upon them by his total philosophic effort, the grosser desires will gradually be flattened out anyway. If he deliberately and directly assists them to enter that condition, it will not be to his detriment. If we are to command our deeds, we must command our thoughts, but much more, we must command the emotional impulses behind those thoughts and those deeds. When he is tempted to be angry with some irritating person, he is faced with two choices: either to identify himself with this lower emotion or with his higher aspirations. If, following bad habit, he succumbs to the first, he weakens himself still further. If, following good resolve, he overcomes the temptation, he strengthens himself for the future. Strong emotional attachment to another person may only tighten the ego’s hold, may narrow, limit, warp, or prevent the seeing of the truth. This happens all-too-often in family relationships and in the affections of the young. It can even happen in guru-disciple relationships. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25

When it comes to relationships, it is the responsibility of the national leaders to forge that sword through their foreign policy. The purpose of this foreign policy must be the securing of weapons and finding allies. The state is only a result of human forces, only a work of our thoughts, but man is the force of the source itself and the creator of the thought. As the deputy of all humanity whose heart beats, for all mankind, our passion must be the World and future generations. At a time when everybody is bust erecting new Fatherlands, the Fatherland of the man who thinks without prejudice and can rise above his time is nowhere and everywhere. However, nationalism killed humanism. The nation and its sovereignty have become the new idols to which the individual has succumbed. With all the new technology, the revolution of the colonial peoples, communication by air, the radio, etcetera, have shrunk the globe to the proportions of one continent or, rather, one state as they existed one hundred- and seventy-years ago. The One World which is in the process of being born is, however, not one World because of the friendly and brotherly relations that exist among its various parts, but rather because of the fact that missiles can carry death and destruction to almost any part of the World in a matter of hours. The one World is one, so far, inasmuch as it is one potential battlefield, rather than a new system of World citizenship. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25

We live in one World, yet in his feelings and thoughts contemporary man still lives in the nation state. His loyalties are still primarily to sovereign states and not to the human race. This anachronism can only lead to disaster. It is a situation similar to that of the religious wars before religious tolerance and coexistence became an accepted principle of European life. If the One World is not to destroy itself, it needs a new kind of man—a man who transcends the narrow limits of his nation and who experiences every human being as a neighbour, rather than as a barbarian; a man who feels at home in the World. Why is this step so difficult? Man’s life begins in the womb. Even after birth he is still part of mother, just as primitive man was part of nature. He becomes increasingly aware of himself as separate from others, yet he is deeply drawn to the security and safety of his past. He is afraid of emerging fully as an individual. Mother, the tribe, the family—they all are “familiar.” The stranger, the one who is not familiar through the bonds of blood, customs, food, language, is suspected of being dangerous. This attitude toward the “stranger” is inseparable from the attitude toward oneself. As long as any fellow being is experienced as fundamentally different from myself, as long as he remains a stranger, I remain a stranger to myself, too. When I experience myself fully, then I recognize that I am the same as any other human being, that I am the child, the sinner, the saint, the one who hopes and the one who despairs, the one who can feel joy and the one who can feel sadness. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25

I discover that only the thought concepts, the customs, the surface are different, and that the human substance is the same. I discover that I am everybody, and that I discover myself discovering my fellow man, and vice versa. In this experience, I discover what humanity is, I discover the One Man. Until now the One Man may have been a luxury, since the One World had not yet emerged. If the One World is to live, now the One Man must emerge. Historically speaking, this may be a step comparable with the great revolution which was constituted by the step from the worship of many gods to the One God—or the One No-God. This step was characterized by the idea that man must cease to serve idols, be they nature of the work of his own hands. Man has never yet achieved this aim. He changed the name of his idols and continued serving them. Yet he changed. He made some progress in understanding himself, and tremendous progress in understanding nature. He developed his reason and approached the frontiers of becoming fully human. Yet in this process he developed such destructive powers, that he may destroy civilization before the last step is taken toward constructing a new humanity. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25

Indeed, we have a rich heritage which waits for its realization. However, in contrast to the men of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who had an unfailing belief in the continuity of progress, we visualize the possibility that, instead of progress, we may create barbarism or our total destruction. The alternative of socialism or barbarism has become frighteningly real today, when the forces working toward barbarism seem to be stronger than those working against it. However, it is not the “socialism” or managerial totalitarianism which will save the World from barbarism. It is the renaissance of humanism, the emergence of the new West which employs its new technical powers for the sake of man, rather than using man for the sake of things; it is a new society in which the norms for man’s unfolding govern the economy, rather than the social and political process being governed by blind and anarchic economic interests. Until the joyful time comes when negative moods or thoughts have ceased to cross the threshold of his consciousness, man must struggle with them by a combination of different methods. First, his will must follow them at once after their entry and remove them forcibly. Second, his imagination and reason must attack them in the prayer period set aside each day for that purpose. Whether or not it is possible to attain a perfection of calmness that is secure against all assaults, it is surely possible to attain sufficient calmness to keep off many or most of the emotional disturbances and mental turmoil which derive from the petty incidents of everyday life. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25

The Sacramento Fire Department protects the lives and property of Sacramento residents and visitors by serving as fires responders to fire, public safety, medical emergencies, and other emergency related situations. “It was a five-alarm fire, a four-story building that had at one time been a manufacturing plant but now had a bar and a restaurant on the first floor and a menagerie of rooms upstairs. It was a gay bar, and the guy who owned the place was gay. The top three floors were his playground. The night of the fire he picked up this kid over at the park, took the kid out, wined and dined him. The kid wanted money, but the guy didn’t want to pay anything. So the kid beat him up and left him there in the building, left him for dead. He then set the fire to cover his behind. I was acting battalion chief at the time, and I covered the fire on the second alarm. The first-alarm company got there and found the guy. He was all bloody. They laid him on the sidewalk at the side of the bar, and he kept saying that the boy was still in there. The police sent the dogs in. They found the kid and chewed him up a bit, but the firemen got him out. The call that came in said they had a small fire on the second floor. Well, the first-alarm chief saw the smoke pumping out beams. No fire, but a lot of smoke coming out of the eaves on the fourth floor. He knew he had more than just a small fire, so he called for the second alarm. I was the second chief in and was assigned to the rear of the building. We were back there, and we had master streams in operation. About then the fire was blowing out all of the windows in the back and front and coming through the roof in one corner. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25

“About an hour later the majority of the fire was out, so we shut the big lines down to get inside and do some interior firefighting. I had the company stretched hand lines and inch-and-a-half up the aerial ladders and into the windows. I was at the top of the ladder, and there was a guy from X Engine, (who we will call Z), who was having trouble with his air mask. He was below me on the ladder. The department had just switched over to a new self-contained air mask, and we were having problems with this one fitting where the face piece connected to the regulator. Z did’nt have it just right. It kept popping loose on him. ‘Well, look,’ I said, ‘get your mask straightened out. I’m going to go inside, and when you get done bring your line up and I’ll meet you in there. I’ll see what we’ve got to do.’ So he went back down. I was on the fourth floor, and I looked into the window with my hand light to see the floor. It was black, all black. I straddled in, leg over windowsill, and had my feet on the floor. Real good sound floor, nice and solid. The darkness was pitch black, as black as it might be inside a collapsed mine shaft. I took two septs, and I started falling. I just started falling. Looking back on it when the doctor asked what happened and going back and looking at it after the fire, I figure out what had happened. But here I was, falling in this complete darkness. Halfway down, about thirty feet, I hit something, straddling it. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25

“Thirty feet and I stopped short between my legs.  That is where I fractured my pelvis in for placed. I momentarily stayed in that position, but the momentum of my fall kept me going off there and down another thirty feet. I was now down five stories, and in the basement. I landed on my back in about three feet of water. I landed hard, and I broke my back in two placed. The doctor said that the mask on my back was what saved me. Without it I would have been killed. I had fallen down an elevator shaft. The building was originally a factory where they made automobile tires. The shaft was for one of those huge freight elevators that you could drive a care into, and take it up to different floors and have the tires changed on it. That window I had climbed into opened into the shaftway. The law says that windows opening into shafts must be barred, and I think it was originally barred, but the guy, when he bought the building, did all this renovation work up there, either on the sly or whatever. What I was stepping on was a floor that was probably three feet wide with a steel beam around it, and the car would come up and stop at that floor, that’s why it was still there. The elevator was caught in the fire and was burned out, like the whole bottom of the car was burned out. The only thing left of the car was the metal frame. It was the beam at the top of the elevator that I straddled and flipped off of at the second floor and fell through the elevator to the bottom, that second thirty feet. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25

“So I was lying in three feet of water. I couldn’t stand up, my legs wouldn’t move, nothing. I said to myself, calmly, ‘Well, I’ll just lie here.’ I’m lying there, then I realize I’m being pulled down. My coat is being saturated, and the weight of the coat started pulling me down, and down, and down. Suddenly, my nose is under water. I was trying to float, but I couldn’t because the coat was pulling me down and the boots were full of water and I couldn’t stand. I was beginning to drown. My regular job was captain of the rescue unit, and I knew about scuba and had a lot of water experience. I said, ‘Keep your cool, keep your cool. Don’t panic. Get your coat off.’ I was in no pain. I couldn’t feel a thing. I was just worried about drowning. I went completely under water then, knowing it was my only chance, unsnapped my coat, got one arm out and got the other arm out. The coat dropped away, the heavy mask canister with it. I thought that would save me. Then I started reaching out, and I touched this wall. It was an unfinished wall, just plain bricks. I put my fingertips in the mortar joints and started pulling my head up. I realized I was in a corner, and I’m like, ‘There’s got to be a way out of here.’ So I started going around like this, pulling with my fingertips. I hit another corner, made another turn, and there was a ladder there, a ladder in the wall. ‘Great,’ I said, ‘stay here and wait.’ The water was still cascading in from the streams, getting deeper and deeper. ‘Great’ I’m saying, ‘if the water rises, I’ll rise with it up the ladder.’ #RandolphHarris 21 of 25

The next thing was. The smoke started banking down. I said ‘Oh God. I’m going to suffocate.’ I started coughing, and I got down closer to the water. I was okay, I had this much room at first, and then the smoke was banking down farther and farther. I was down to the water again, my nose just touching it. Then I could hear the debris falling. The first thing I thought was that Z had done the same thing I did. I went back and started feeling around to see if he’s there. I heard people hollering up there. I heard Z holler in the window that the floor was going and that something was wrong. I still didn’t know where I was. I lost my portable radio on the way down. They found that hanging between the second and third floor where a piece of metal was sticking out. I fell and I just missed the metal, but it grabbed the radio and pulled it off my coat. It was hanging there. I lost my helmet, and they later found a piece of it, the plastic eye protection part melted. It had fallen into the fire on the second floor, which was still burning up there. Like I said, I hear all this debris falling, and I thought it was Z, and I went out to look to see if it was. I tool a little step and realized that I just couldn’t do it, I couldn’t stand. So I started calling to see if it was him. Nobody answered. Then I heard somebody holler, ‘There he is.’ This guy we will call A came down the ladder, and he started to touch me, and I said, ‘Don’t touch me, something is broken.’ He hollered, ‘Thrown a rope down here.’ I said, ‘Don’t tie any rope around me, something is broken and I can’t move my legs. I can’t feel anything.’ #RandolphHarris 22 of 25

“So they got the Stokes basket down there, and they floated me on that, then lifted me up and out. They put me in the medic unit, and I went right to the shock trauma center. I still don’t remember a lot of it. I don’t remember blacking out. There are times when I lie at home and I wake up and think, ‘Oh, that’s right, that happened.’ The first fall, I didn’t think that I was going to fall that far, it was only one floor. It’s not going to be even twenty feet. It’s not going to be that bad. It’s not going to be thirty feet. I’m not expecting that I’m going down a shaft, you know, right to the bottom. And when I hit, it felt like I was falling longer than I should have, but it’s pitch black and I can’t see anything, so I’m not expecting it or anything. It’s just falling into the darkness, and then when I hit, it was like, ‘Christ, oh God.’ The beam went right up into my groin. When I started falling, I was worrying about being impaled, about falling into some debris and having a two-by-four go through me. When I hit with my legs apart, the pain was intense through my groin. I was black and blue from my knees to my chest, a dark purple. My privates were swollen the size of grapefruits, because the actual impact was right there. I thought, Hey, this isn’t too bad, it’s over, I’m still alive. And then I realized that I was falling again. I still can’t see anything. I haven’t seen anything yet, no walls. I haven’t felt anything other than hitting the piece, and then I’m going again. I didn’t know I was in an elevator shaft. I had no perception of depth or how far I had fallen. I could have fallen five feet and hit something and then five more feet and been on the third floor. I had thought it was over, and I was falling again, and I realized, ‘No. It isn’t over yet.’ #RandolphHarris 23 of 25

“Another thirty feet. That’s when I did the complete somersault from straight up and down when I first fell, and the beam catapulted me over, and I was falling back first, and that’s when I impacted the water. And then it was like, ‘Oh damn, where am I now? What’s going on?’ In my scuba training I knew that when you first go down you’re apprehensive and you start breathing faster and you get yourself worked up, and you have to calm yourself down. That’s what I was doing. I was like, ‘Okay, keep your cool, you know you’re not dead, and you can get out of this.’ And then I started sinking, and I was like, ‘Oh God, you’re going to drown. You’ve got to get your coat off.’ The water was still coming in. I figure there were ten ladder pipes in service and maybe fire two-and-a-half-inch hand lines, that’s fifteen hoses shooting water in. Coming right down, you could hear it. It was like a waterfall. It’s like, okay, I have the coat off and I’m not going to drown because I have the ladder. Then I thought, ‘God, it’s filling up.’ But I felt good holding on to the ladder. If water keeps coming, I’d just float up with it, and I felt secure. Then the smoke started banking back down, and I started getting scared again. It was like you can’t breathe, coughing. Like, let’s get to the window. But, hell, I can’t move. I can’t go to a window. And I had no mask. So I got lower and lower, with my mouth and nose just above the water. It’s breathable there. It’s still pretty thick smoke, but it’s not something that I’m not used to. Then like I said, I heard the debris falling. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25

“I didn’t know whether anybody knew that I’d fallen. I didn’t know whether Z had come up the ladder or not. I had told him to some back up, but he could have gone down and had his assignment changed by another officer and just, you know, forgot about me. My relief wasn’t due until seven, and this was about four-thirty in the morning. I’m thinking, this is it, this is the way I’m going to die. Then finally I heard somebody holler, ‘There he is.’ Like I said, there was no pain at that time. They got me in a medic unit, and that is when I started feeling pain. After a long recovery time, I was still not back to work. I was on administrative leave. My detail was an office job until I could get myself back to where I could go back to firefighting. I’ll get there.” The Sacramento Fire Department works continually to upgrade fire apparatuses and technology, to educate the public in fire prevention, life safety and disaster preparedness, along with enforcing public safety codes, while ensuring a safe and secure environment to all citizens and visitors through professionalism, leadership, teamwork and partnership with all levels of Government. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25

The Winchester Mystery House

One winter night while closing up The Winchester Mystery House, a caretaker had worked up a sweat. As he was walking down a flight of stairs, the wind grabbed him, lashing at he face, and immediately the sweat on his cheeks frosted over. His hands shook uncontrollably, the lights in the mansion began to flutter. Somewhere, almost muffled by the whine of the wind, he heard a distant clanking—a dull sound echoing across the mansion. He hesitated, tried to recognize the source, but failed. His legs ached with every step. His eyes and ear stung from the frigid blasts of wind he felt inside the house. He longed to rest, but finishing his job pushed him onward. As he reached the last step, he was greeted by what sounded like a bell tolling, warning the countryside of some unseen danger. He rested for a moment. Creeping among the twisting hallways of the mansion, he noticed for the first time that it looked rather peculiar.

He moved slower now, still confident, but careful. After a few moments, he stood motionless, watching the walls shake and curtains sway, chair scraping the floor and rattling against each other. A hazy vision of dancing skeletons and demons appeared. It’s called the house built by spirits, the demons announced, glistening worms squirming from their rotten, toothless mouths. Come join us, they invited, waving long, bony fingers. Come. And he wanted to go. They sounded so inviting. Suddenly, tears streamed down his face. The mansion came to life around him, breathing for the dead. The wind gained strength. The caretaker collapsed hard to the floor. For just one moment, an ivory sliver of moonbeam slipped through the darkness, quickly disappeared. The winter sunrise was still two hours away.

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Evil Behind Smiling Eyes

Obviously, one must hold oneself responsible for the evil impulses. Therefore, beware of the evil behind the smiling eyes. As we increase our understanding and love for the Saviour, His light will illuminate everything around us. We will then see evil for what it is. Working as a special agent for the FBI, my friend investigated organized crime groups transporting illegal drugs into the United States of America. On one occasion, he and another agent approached an apartment where they believed a known drug dealer was distributing cocaine. My friend describes what happened: “We knocked on the door of the drug dealer. The suspect opened the door, and upon seeking us, tried to block our view. However, it was too late’ we could see the cocaine on his table. A man and a woman who were at the table immediately began removing the cocaine. We had to prevent them from destroying the evidence, so I quickly pushed the drug suspect who was blocking the door to the side. As I pushed him, my eyes met his. Strangely, he did not appear angry or afraid. He was smiling at me. His eyes and disarming smile gave me the impression that he was harmless, so I quickly left him and started to move toward the table. The suspect was now behind me. At that instant, I had the distinct, powerful impression come into my mind: ‘Beware of the evil behind the smiling eyes.’ #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

“I immediately turned back toward the suspect. His hand was in his large front pocket. Instinctively I grabbed his hand and pulled it from his pocket. Only then did I see, clutched in his hand, the semiautomatic pistol ready to fire. A flurry of activity followed, and I disarmed the man.” Later, in another case, the drug dealer was convicted of murder and boasted that he would have also killed my friend had he not turned around at that very moment. He was a weak sniveling punk. A born snitch. He caused my friend trouble before. He had this place near Palm Springs. Used it for a hideout. It was loaded with guns and heroin. One weekend, there was this underaged girl that the heat was looking for and they went to the door. They were looking for this girl, and he said get a warrant. My friend in the FBI said he would. So, the other dudes covered the side doors, and one of them got a shotgun and two pistols and waited at the end of the hallway. His old lady answered the door, but when the FBI came, the sixteen-year-old girl went to the door and gave herself up. So, the offenders piled the guns in the car, and drove to another location. On this planet, evil has been allowed a position of influence to give us the chance to choose between good and evil. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

The scripture says: “God gave unto man that he should act for himself. [And] man could not act for himself [unless] he was enticed by one or the other. The choice between good and evil is at the very heart of our experience on Earth.  If we are rich or poor, if we were athletic or not, if we had friend or were often forgotten, in the final review of our lives, it will not matter. The suspect with the guns in the car was apprehended. The morning after sentencing, the orders came through transferring him to the State Prison. Emigration from short-time County Jail to long-term penitentiary. In the basement holding tank, stripped of county wrappings, he dressed for the final time in mod flannels. He was stored in a special isolated holding tank until the County Jail bus drove through the smoggy freeways to the Prison Reception Center at Chino, California. The welcoming committee was grim and blunt. “Strip naked. Throw your personal belongings in the box. Bend over for body inspection. Run your hands through your hair, both your ears. Open your mouth. Wag your tongue. Lift your testicles. Turn around spread your buttocks. Left foot. Right foot. Shower,” the authorities told him. He dressed in the new prison uniform. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

A tall African American in blue danced over. He gave him ten hand-rolled cigarettes. The rumor wind was blowing around him. They were going to put him in the hole. The Captain wanted to see him. They were going to ship him to the Medical Center at Vacaville. And he would be getting bailed out the next day. The sergeant checked inmate for long hair and ordered him to the barber. He got a last mirror glimpse at forest hair and moustache. He asked the barber to leave as much as he could, but the barber grunted and clipped. “Don’t complain, man. You look twenty years younger,” he said. Our offender then took sheets and blankets and followed the sergeant to solitary confinement. It was a bad-boy lock up for him. He walked by the cages of the dangerous wild men. They shouted in pleasure to see him. An African American man shouted: “Hey man, we gotta talk to you. We cannot see each other. Just cries from cage to cage.” A nasty Brooklyn voice denounced the offender. “Oh, he’s that bad man! Hang him.” Another African American defended him. Shorty’s Brooklyn voice turned friendly. “Hey Doc, look at these pictures.” A hand from the next cell appeared holding colour snapshots. Sadeyed blue wife and clear-eyed kids. “Hey Doc, here’s a record of my trial. Read it.” “Hey Doc, you want some cigarettes.” “Hey Doc, you need some stamps and envelops.” “Hey Doc, you wanna a Playboy magazine?” #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

Dinner was passed through a slot in the bars of the narrow white counter bod. Then the evening sports. African American used mirrors to catch the setting sun, playing sunshine tag, racing reflected birds of light against the wall. Laughing and shouting. At the hour of romance, from his solitary cell a young man sadly coos a soft message and an African American voice rumbles back: “You Karl I going to get you expletive. What I’m gonna do to you girl! Hoooeee. I got me twenty inches for you. You my expletive.” “Oh no big boy, I’m my own man,” he repiles. “Great God almighty, I gotta het me some sweet white meat. I sick to death of my own right hand. Wheee—here I come Karl. Ohhhhh what I’m gonna to do to you siter. I gonna split your pink expletive girl. Stuff my tool up your belly, split yo kidneys girl. Gut you baby so you gonna never be able to walk again. Oh, Mr. Guard let that man out. Oh let him loose. I need that man.” Our offender now has a momentary reflex, fear of being trapped in a cell holocaust was calmed by the cement steel of maximum security. Next morning the offender is called to the Captain’s office; sitting watching trustees run the prison, typing, phoning, filing, serious responsible people working proudly. “We’ve finally got you, huh. You are going to be with us a long time. Ha ha. You’re smaller than on TV. I guess we cut you down to size, huh,” said the Captain. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

Prison is a very dangerous place. Be sure to think before committing an illegal act. You may think you are high and mighty, until the cell doors close on you. We can work, study, laugh and have fun, dance, sing, and enjoy many different experiences. These are a wonderful part of life, but they are not central to why we are here. The opportunity to choose good over evil is precisely why we are here. Not one of us would say, “I want to choose evil.” We all want to choose the right. However, the choice of good over evil is not always easy, because evil frequently lurks behind smiling eyes. Listen to these warnings: “Take heed…that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God.” “Ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for evil desireth to have you.” The message is: Beware of the evil behind the smiling eyes! I have known a few young men who began with every intention to stay firm in their loyalty to the Saviour but who slipped from the path because they did not see the evil behind eyes that appeared quite harmless. They saw the fun, the pleasure, the acceptance, but they did not see the other consequences. How, then, can we discern the evil being something that does not appear evil? First, talk to your parents. We fathers know we are far from perfect, but we love you, and along with your mothers, have deep interest in your choosing the right. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

Very importantly, let the Holy Ghost be your guide. The Lord has promised us that as we live righteously, the still, small voice will come into our mind and into our heart. You have felt this influence. You know this voice. The gift of the Holy Ghost is a spiritual gift. It is sensitive and will not be associated with unworthiness. You cannot offend or ignore it one day and expect it to strengthen you the next day. However, as you heed its promptings and remain righteous, it will grow stronger within you. The Holy Ghost warned my friend of physical danger; they Holy Ghost will also warn you of spiritual danger. Finally, gain your own testimony of the Saviour. Pray passionately. When no one is watching, read the Christian Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon. Take time alone to think about who Jesus Christ really is and how His life and sacrifice are important to you. If we bother to look back at America’s foreign policy after the 2020 election, we are shocked by the constant failures of our government. The August 2024 jobs report reveals a sharp contrast in employment trends between American born and foreign-born workers. Native-born Americans lost over 1.3 million jobs over the last year, while foreign-born workers gained more than 1.2 million jobs. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

New York City hands illegal immigrants $4,000 and gift cards to move out of shelters. And the Department of Justice reports an illegal immigrant used a stolen identity to vote. A man who sees the constant and incomprehensible decline of his government can only drop his head in despair, or feel the beginning of an internal desire for a flaming rebellion against such a regime. However, as we increase our understanding and love for the Saviour, His light will illuminate everything around us. We then will see evil for what it is. Children need the peace that comes from knowing they have a loving Heavenly Father, who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bring light and hope into the World. It is up to us as adults to direct children to that peace and light. From the flight against the authority of Church, State, and family which characterize the last centuries, we have come back full circle to a new obedience; but this obedience is not one to autocratic persons, but to the organization. The “organization man” is not aware that he obeys; he believes that eh only conforms with what is rational and practical. Indeed, disobedience has become almost extinct in the society or organization men, regardless of their ideology. Yet one must remember that the capacity for disobedience is as great a virtue as the capacity for obedience. #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

One must remember that, according to the Hebrew and Greek myths, human history began with an act of disobedience. Adam and Eve, living in the Garden of Eden were still part of nature, as the fetus is in the womb of the mother. Only when they dared to disobey an order were their eyes opened; they recognized each other as strangers and the World outside as strange and hostile. Their act of disobedience broke the primary bond with nature and made them individuals. Disobedience was the first act of freedom, the beginning of human history. Prometheus, stealing the fire of the gods, is another disobedient dissenter. “I would rather be chained to this rock than be the obedient servant of the gods,” he said. His act of stealing the fire is his gift to men, thus laying the very basis for civilization. He, like Adam and Eve, was punished for his disobedience; yet he, like them, has made human evolution possible. Man has continued to evolve by acts of disobedience not just in the sense that his spiritual development was possible only because there have been men who dared to say “no” to the powers that be in the name of their conscience or of their faith. His intellectual development was also dependent on the capacity for being disobedient, disobedient to the authorities who tried to muzzle new thoughts, and to the authority of long-established opinions which declared change to be nonsense. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

If the capacity for disobedience constituted the beginning of human history, obedience might cause the end of human history. I am not speaking symbolically or poetically. There is the possibility that the human race will destroy itself and all life on Earth within the next tend to fifteen years. There is no rationality or sense in it. However, the fact is that while we are living technically in the atomic age, the majority of men live emotionally still in the stone age, including most of those who are in power. If mankind commits death by suicide, it will be because people will obey those who command them to push the deadly buttons, because they will obey the archaic passions of fear, hate, and greed; because they will obey obsolete cliches of state sovereignty and national honour. By the time he gets to “I Guess I’D Better Drive You, Dear” or “Getcher Expletive Outa Bed,” or even, “I’ll Beatcher Goddam Brains Out If You Don’t,” the child already has certain convictions about himself and the people around him, especially his parents. These convictions are likely to stay with him the rest of his life, and may be summarized as follows: I’m O.K. or; I’m not-O.K; You’re O.K. or; You’re not-O.K. On the basis of these he makes his life decisions. “It’s a World, some day I’ll make it a better one”—through science, service, poetry, or music. #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

“It’s a bad World, someday I’ll kill myself”—or kill someone else, go crazy, or withdraw. Perhaps it is a mediocre World, where you do what you have to do and have fun in between; or a tough World, where you make good by putting on a white collar and shuffling other people’s papers’ or a hard World, where you sweep or bend or deal, or wiggle or fight for a living; or a dreary World, where you sit in a bar hoping; or a futile World, where you give up. I believe that we are in great danger of being converted into complete organization men, and that means, eventually, into political totalitarianism, unless we regain the capacity to be disobedient and to learn how to doubt. In working with unusually defensive, withdrawn or fearful individuals we find it even more important than ever not to impose ourselves on them. How is non-imposition consistent with a therapist who expresses more of himself more openly and actively, and who initiates relationships by expressing himself? Tentatively, if he will express himself—his own imaginings, his own feelings, desires, the events which transpire in him—and if he does this clearly and explicitly as statements about himself, or about events transpiring within him at the moment, I think the answer is: the therapist can be more active and at the same time present less imposition and threat. In this way he shares himself more openly, yet he does not impose on the client’s experience. He speaks for himself with events in the client. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

The content of our field of perception is necessarily selective; it cannot include all inner and outer reality that exists at a given moment. Only part of the ongoing flow of feelings, thoughts, and external events is defected by our sense organs and represented in our field of awareness. Our sense organs resemble TV or radio receivers, in that they are differentially sensitive to stimuli of different intensities and qualities. However, even within the receptive range of our senses, we still notice only a fraction of all the sensory information reaching our brain. Some of the important determiners of figure, that is, of our focus of attention, are unfulfilled needs. Our feelings and our needs direct our perception, thinking, remembering, and fantasy, so that the figure will be that perception, thought or memory most relevant to our needs of the moment. Our cognitive processes are thus servants of our needs. When we are hungry, we think and dream about food, we search for it, and we tend to ignore everything in the World that is indelible or that will not help us to get food. If we are deprived of pleasures of the flesh, we tend to have fantasies with erotic themes, we find it difficult to think about other things, and we look at the World from the standpoint of the gratification of pleasures of the flesh and frustration it is likely to afford. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

If we are anxious because of some threat to our security; we are too busy seeking the source of danger so that we might escape from it. There have been many experiments conducted to demonstrate how needs determine our attention and the content of our consciousness, and so we need not dwell further upon this point. More germane to our discussion is the manner in which emotions and unfulfilled needs operate to distort our perceptions and beliefs. We hear much from the moralists about the need of encouraging young men and young women to express themselves and of not letting society impose its will upon them, as we hear much from the psychoanalysts about the need of liberating them from secret inhibitions and of satisfying their repressed emotions. Both these movements are excellent. They are antidotes to the tyrannic soul-crushing, hypocrisy-breeding, and self-deceiving conventions of the old society. However, a good overdone may become an evil a virtue stretched too far may become a vice, and a method which ignores all the facts of the diamond of psychological truth except a single one may become unbalanced. The new morality may free people to the point where liberty is merely license and expression a dangerous disregard for the knowledge yielded by experience and age. The new psychoanalysis may free them to the point where mental liberation is mere lack of self-control and emotional satisfaction is dangerously anti-social. #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

This is not to say that we would belittle the value of either. Both standard points may be philosophically used, which means they may be used in a balanced manner as a part of a wider one. The whole man is the natural man. Whoever sets up a cleavage between the intellectual and emotional functions, and would ignore the latter in order to enthrone the former, is unnatural and cannot attain that truth which is the voice of nature. This is not to say that emotional or reason should run riot; it is proper and necessary to give reason the reins, but this done, any sharper division will lead to unbalance, distortion, and error. Yes, the emotions of a person who is called hard and dry may need to be released, but this applies only to the positive ones. The negative ones are not worth releasing and should be got rid of. Anger and hatred are dangerous emotions to carry about with you. Whether or not they lead to actions harmful to the person they are directed against, they are certainly harmful to you. Conquer them quickly, get these psychological poisons out of your system. There is another kind of negative trait which, although unaggressive, is only less unpleasant by a matter of degrees than the aggressive ones. It is the black and bitter mood of sullen coldness, of the self-centered, self-tormenting, self-pitying sense of being wronged by the other person, the introverted, withdrawn, sulky, resentment at being hurt, a resentment so deep as to find no fitter expression than gloomy, frozen, and tense silence. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

He places all the blame for the situation on the other and consequently adopts a grieved unconciliatory attitude towards the other. He wounds by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being boorish. The atmosphere around him is full of sustained and hostile emotional tension. It is, of course, an adolescent trait and cannot endure when spiritual maturity is really attained. What the unawakened man feels as fear, the awakened one transmutes into needful caution and careful forethought. It is a feat of emotional surgery to relinquish attachments and to renounce possessiveness. Emotions unchecked by reason may become our betrayers. Beware of them when exceptionally strong and unduly excessive. The fears which are natural or necessary should not be confused with the fears which are neurotic or excessive. If the aspirant is to remake himself effectively, he must begin by attacking the lower emotions. They must be killed and eliminated from his life scene. So long as they dominate it, so long will experience yield poisonous fruits instead of healthy-giving ones. Every fresh situation will only give fresh life to his ego because those emotions will involve themselves in that situation and cause him to misread it. The first enemies, the hidden sources of his own difficulties, are within himself. To take the attitude in a depressing situation that the only action is to sit down and be depressed by it is unphilosophical. He should never give himself up to despair, although he may give himself up in hard situations to gravest reflection and deepest resignation.  #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

The Sacramento Fire Department provides Sacramento City with the best possible all-risk emergency service in the protection of lives and property. They are and will continue to be identified by their dedication and pride in outstanding customer service, public health, safety, prevention and education. “For the last three years in fire prevention week, another firefighter and I go to all the different schools—anywhere from preschool up to twelfth grade—and teach fire prevention. The students enjoy it. It’s amazing how many students actually remember you. I’ve had kids come up to me in church, and say, ‘I remember you. Stop, drop, and roll!’ And I say, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ Then I say, ‘What do you do if you have smoke in your room?’ And they’ll tell me, ‘I stay low, and I crawl.’ To me, that’s worth every ounce of time I’ve spent with these kids. If I can just save one of these kids, ever, that’s all I can ask. I couldn’t want any more. One Christmas Eve, we came home from my family’s party, and we tucked our children in. Just like in the storybook, they were all nestled in bed. And my wife and I were being Santa’s helpers, setting out all of Santa’s gifts with their name tags on them, when I got a call that we had a house fire. I remember giving her a kiss and saying, ‘I’ll be back as soon as I can.’ And I left her sitting among all these toys that weren’t put together yet, and all this stuff scattered around, and I went on the house fire. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

“Thankfully, there was nobody in the house, they were out visiting, but their house was destroyed, a total loss. I came back home, and it was like magic: everything had been done. And there my wife was sitting, with a cup of coffee for me, and she made my Christmas really special. In fact, it was Christmas morning by the time I got back. But she didn’t complain. It didn’t upset her. There have been a lot of occasions when I’ve had to leave her. She has been really good, very supportive, and she’s proud of me, she really is.” The lives and well-being of the citizens of Sacramento, visitors, and department members is their highest priority. The Sacramento Fire Department is fiscally responsible in all they do. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. To keep our community peace, please raise your children to love America, love God, and love Jesus Christ. It is also important to be patriotic and buy American cars and other American made goods and services. In order to maintain the tranquility of our city, we must always remember to respect law and order, and treat our elders with the utmost dignity, reverence, and honour. Good neighbours play a vital role in creating a strong and resilient community. They come together in times of need, facing challenges as a united from. Good neighbours build a foundation of unity and creative a beneficial impact on the neighbourhood as a whole. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17

The Winchester Mystery House

“One Halloween night, after work, I was playing with another tour guide the front of The Winchester Mystery House. It was Autumn, and the grass was stiff; I remember it was cold that day. We were tumbling on the grass, throwing each other over our shoulders, laughing. I remember the other tour guide twirling me around. We were both getting dizzy and were laughing uncontrollably. We had wandered somewhat from the center of the lawn and started to pick the roses; the petals were stiff and dry. I could see the sun on their dry red, pink, and yellow petals. The other tour guide was laughing. I was running around chasing him, and he picked me up, a bit too fast, tumbling me over his shoulder. I remember the roses coming at my eyes like colorful orbs in slow motion, and then into them. I started screaming, hearing myself scream, and I was flailing my arms and hands, trying to pull the orbs from my eyes, sitting on the ground and screaming uncontrollably, shrieking, my entire body shaking, and then feeling hands on me. His hands were on my face, and the sticky mass of tears and blood, and then I could feel him tugging at the roses, orbs, pulling them free one at a time, gently, and there was a sound as he did it, a sucking sound. The last thing I remember seeing was my coworker’s face after he pulled the last orb free. I could see his face through blood, though I could not see very clearly. There was a look of horror on his face, and then my eyes began to unfocused, as if the world were being pulled away, taking the light with it, and I was alone and screaming. I was so alone. I was sent away to have my eyes cared for. They told me later, much later, that I had been traumatized. I was ill for a very long time, and would not eat or speak; I lived inside. I went through a lot of therapy, and there were a lot of different doctors and hospitals. I was never sent home. I remember screaming, lot of crying, and then, after a long, long time, a kind of peace came over me. I became calm. I told them I was alright, that I wanted to go home. But they wouldn’t listen to me. They wouldn’t send me home. I started to cry. I wanted to see my friend from work again, I want to see him, to tell him I was all right, that he didn’t have to have that look on his face anymore, that it wasn’t his fault. But they wouldn’t send me him. I became so hysterical again, and the therapy began again. For a whole year I didn’t speak. For another year I screamed. And then I became calm again. The other tour guide was sent to an institution. No one knows what actually happened that day. Whatever the case may be, there is no denying that The Winchester Mystery House is a truly mysterious place… and its ghosts just keep getting creepier!”

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

Disappearance of the American Type

The capacity to give and receive love is not to be destroyed, nor can it be. Nature has planted its roots too deeply for that destruction to be attempted with success or desired with wisdom. However, the man or woman who aspires to the highest cannot let it stay ungrown and benefit from its finest fruits. He should nurture it, purify it, exalt it, and spiritualize it. He should direct it toward his best self, his Overself, aspiring and yearning. And when it comes back to him in the blessed form of Grace, he should be ready and fit to receive it. Loved mixed with the sense of intimacy, or with the emotion of personal companionship, is what most people take to be love itself. They have not experienced it as it is, unmixed with anything else. Yet if its adulterated forms give them so much satisfying feeling, how much more could they get from seeking it at its source, pure and intense! Passion, with its savage insistencies and appeasements, its animalist intrusion, has no place in this serene, tender affection which unites their minds—the hushed peace, the mesmeric strangeness, and the golden felicity of this mood. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

It is by trial and error, reflection and experience, that the paradoxical art of loving without becoming possessive, of being affectionate without becoming attached, of accepting outward attachments with inward detachment, is learnt, and this applies to family. What do you say after you say hello? This childlike question, so apparently artless and free of the profundity expected of scientific inquiry, really contains within itself all the basic questions of human living and all the fundamental problems of the social sciences. It is the question that babies “ask” themselves, that children learn to accept corrupted answers to, that teenagers ask each other and their advisors, that grownups evade by accepting the corrupted answers of their betters, and that wise old philosophers write books about without ever finding answer. It contains the primal question of social psychiatry: Why do people like to be liked? Its answer is the answer is the response posed by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: war or peace, famine or plenty, pestilence or health, death or life. Since most go through life without every finding the aster to the question which precedes it: How do you say hello? it is no wonder that few people find the answer in their lifetimes. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

To say hello rightly is to see the other person, to be aware of him as a phenomenon, to happen to him and to be ready for him to happen to you. Perhaps the people who show this ability to the highest degree are the Fiji Islanders, for one of the rare jewels of the World is the genuine Fijian smile. It starts slowly, it illuminates the whole face, it rests there long enough to be clearly recognized and to recognize clearly, and it fades with secret slowness as it passes by. It can be matched elsewhere only by the smiles of an uncorrupted mothers and infant greeting each other, and, in Western countries, by a certain kind of open personality. To say Hello, you first get rid of all the trash which has accumulated in your head ever since you came home from the maternity ward, and then you recognize that this particular Hello will never happen again. It may take years to learn how to do this. To say Hello back, you get rid of all the trash in your head and see that there is somebody standing there or walking by, waiting for you to say Hello back. It may take years to learn how to do that. After you say Hello, you get rid of all the trash that is coming back into your head; all the after-burns of the grievances you have experienced and all the reach-backs of all the troubles you were planning to get into. Then you will be speechless and will not have anything to say. After more years of practice, you might think of something worth saying. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

The way people speak who are learning to say Hello is called “Martian,” to distinguish it from everyday Earth-talk, which, as history shows from the earliest recorded times in Egypt and Babylonia to the present, has led to wars, famines, pestilence, and death; and, in the survivours, to a certain amount of mental confusion. It is hoped that in the long run, Martian, properly learned and properly taught, will help to eliminate these plagues. Martian, for example, is the language of dreams, which show things they way they really are. During these same years when social Darwinism was under increasingly strong criticism among social theorists, it was being revived in a somewhat new guise in the literature of the eugenics movement. Accompanied by a flood of valuable genetic research carried on by physicians and biologists, eugenics seemed not so much a social philosophy as a science; but in the minds of most of its advocates it had serious consequences for social thought. The theory of natural selection, which had assumed the transmission of parental variations, hard greatly stimulated the study of heredity. Popular credulity about the scope and variety of hereditary traits had been almost boundless. Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, had laid the foundations of the eugenics movement and coined its name during the years when Darwinism was being sold to the public. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

In the United States of America, Richard Dugdale had published in 1877 his study of The Jukes, which although its author gave more credit to environmental factors than did many later eugenists, had nevertheless offered support to the common view that disease, pauperism, and immorality are largely controlled by inheritance. While Galton’s first inquiries into heredity—Hereditary Genius (1869), Inquiries into Human Faculty (1883), and National Inheritance (1889)—had been received here with much acclaim, it was not until the turn of the century that the eugenics movement took organized form, first in England and then in the United States of America. Eugenics then grew with such great rapidity that by 1915 it had reached the dimensions of a fad. While eugenics has never since been so widely discussed, it has proved to be the most enduring aspect of social Darwinism. At the turn of the century, there was a notable rise of interest in the social significance of hereditary characteristics. The Nation Conference on Race Betterment in 1914 showed how thoroughly the eugenic ideal had made its way into the medical profession, the colleges, social work, and charitable organizations. The ideas of the movement began to receive practical application in 1907, when Indiana became the first state to adopt a sterilization law; by 1915 twelve states had passed similar measures. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Doubtless the paid urbanization of American life, which created great slums in which were massed the diseased, the deficient, and the demented, had much to do with the rise of eugenics. The movement was also favoured by a growing interest in philanthropy and increasing endowments for the hospitals and charities and appropriations for public health. Especially stimulating the study of mental disease and deficiency was the rapid expansion of American psychiatry and social workers, it was easy to confuse the rising mass of known cases with a real increase. The influx of a large immigrant population from peasant countries of central and southern Europe, hard to assimilate because of rustic habits and language barriers, gave colour to the notion that immigration was lowering the standard of America intelligence; at least so it seemed to nativists who assumed that a glib command of English is a natural criterion of intellectual capacity. The apparent economic deceleration at the end of the century was also seen by many observers as the beginning of a national decline; and it was in accordance with the habits of a Darwinized era to find in this apparent social decline a biological deterioration associated with the disappearance of “the American type.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

The Eugenist believes that no other single factor in determining social conditions and practices approaches in importance that of racial structural integrity and sanity. Early eugenists tacitly accepted that identification of the “fit” with the upper classes, and the “unfit” with the lower that had been characteristic of the older social Darwinism. Their warnings about the multiplication of morons at the lower end of the social scale, and their habit of speaking of the “fit” as if they were all native, well-to-do, college-trained citizens, sustained the old belief that the poor are held down by biological deficiency instead of environmental conditions. Their almost exclusive focus upon the physical and medical aspects of human life helped to distract public attention from the broad problems of social welfare. They were also in large part responsible for the emphasis upon preserving the “racial stock” as a means of national salvation—an emphasis so congenial to militant nationalist like Theodore Roosevelt. They differed, however, from earlier social Darwinists in that they failed to draw sweeping laissez-faire conclusions; indeed a part of their own program depended upon state action. Still, they were almost equally conservative in their general bias; and so authoritative did their biological data seem that they were convincing to me like E.A. Ross, who had thoroughly repudiated Spencerian individualism. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

The social preconceptions of Sir Francis Galton were not seriously questioned by the early eugenists; and Galton, like Bowen, Summer, and Arthur Latham Perry, had postulated the free competitive order in which awards are distributed according to ability. He was convinced “that men who achieve eminence, and those who are naturally capable, are, to a large extent, identical.” “If a man is gifted with vast intellectual ability, eagerness to work, and power of working,” he added, “I cannot comprehend how such a man should be repressed.” Galton insisted that “social hindrances” cannot prevent men of high ability from becoming eminent, and, on the other hand, that “social advantages are incompetent to give that status to a man of moder ability.” When he estimated that heredity accounts for nine-tenths of a man’s capacity, Karl Pearson set the tone of eugenics on this point. Henry Goddard, because of his investigation of the Kallikaks, concluded that feeble-mindedness is “largely responsible” for paupers as well as criminals, prostitutes, and drunkards. David Starr Jordan declared that “poverty, dirt and crime” could be ascribed to poor human material, and added, “It is not the strength of the strong but the weakness of the weak which engenders exploitation and tyranny.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

Lewellys F. Barker, a distinguished physician, suggested that the decline and fall of nations could be explained through the relative fertility of the fit and unfit elements. Charles B. Davenport, the leader of American eugenics, challenged the environmentalist assumptions which dominated current social practice, and argued that “the greatest need of the day for progress of social science is additional precise data as to the unit characteristic of man and their methods of inheritance.” Edward Lee Thorndike did much to spread among educators the eugenists’ idea of inherited mental capacity. Thorndike believed that men’s absolute achievements can be affected by environment and training, but that their relative achievements, their comparative performances in rivalry with each other, can be accounted for by original capacity. Fundamentally it is the soundness and rationality of the racial stock that creates the environment and not vice versa. “There is no certain and economical way to improve man’s environment as to improve his nature.” For education policy this view demanded the development of the intellectual faculties of the few who have outstanding abilities, and giving limited vocational training to the mediocre. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

The consequences for social policy of the eugenic point of view were treated at some length by Popenoe and Johnson in their popular textbook, Applied Eugenics. Among the reforms they favoured were large inheritance taxes, the back-to-the farm movement, the abolition of child labour, and compulsory education. Rural living would counteract the dysgenic effect of urban society. The abolition of child labour would cause the poor to restrict their breeding. Compulsory education would have the same effect by making the child an expense to its parents; but it should not be supplemented by subsidies to children of the poor in form of free lunches, free textbooks, or other benefits that would lower the cost of childcare. The authors opposed minimum-wage legislation and trade unions on the ground that both favoured inferior workmen and penalized the superior by fixing wages in industry without regard to individual merit. They also opposed socialism for its belief in the benefits that would flow from environmental changes and for its faith in human equality; but they did break with individualism in so far as eugenics sought a social end requiring some individual subordination. When Alleyne Ireland, a noted critic of democracy, wrote in the Journal of Heredity that Weismann’s germ-plasm theory sapped the intellectual foundations of democracy by ruling out the possibility that the inferior could be improved from generation to generation by education and training, he was immediately challenged by biologists who saw no inevitable contradiction between natural inequality and democratic government. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

The concept of ostracism as the basis of repression could lead to the rather hopeless view that every society can dehumanize and deform man in whatever way it likes because every society can always threaten him with ostracism. However, to assume this would mean to forget another fact. Man is not only a member of society, but he is also a member of humanity. While man is afraid of complete isolation from his social group, he is also afraid of being isolated from humanity which is inside him and which is represented by his conscience and his reason. To be completely inhuman is frightening, even when a whole society has adopted inhuman norms of behaviour. The more human a society is, the less need is there for the individual to choose between isolation from society or from humanity. The greater the conflict between the social aims and human aims, the more is the individual torn between the two dangerous poles of isolation. To that degree which a person—because of his own intellectual and spiritual development—feel his solidarity with humanity, can he tolerate social ostracism, and vice versa. If only his material needs are satisfied, thus guaranteeing his psychological survival, but not those needs and facilities which are specifically human—love, tenderness, reason, joy, etcetera, the man does not function properly. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

Indeed, since he is also a terrestrial being, man needs first to satisfy his material wants; but his history is a record of the search for and expression of his transsurvival needs, such as in painting and sculpture, in myth and drama, in music and dance. Religion was almost the only system which incorporated these aspects of human existence. A while ago, a person who has been a member of the Church for many years asked me, “Why do I need Jesus Christ?” I keep the commandment; I am a good person. Why do I need a Saviour?” This member’s failure to understand this most fundamental part of our doctrine, this foundational element of the plan of salvation, took my breathe away. This is a good message for many to understand. There is this small matter of death. I assume you do not want your death to be your final status, and without Jesus Christ there would be no resurrection. Also, Christ teaches the importance of forgiveness and how cleansing of sin is possible only through the Saviour’s atoning grace. Many people believe in God and a postmortal existence but assume that because God loves us, it does not matter so much what we do or do not do; He just takes care of things. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

However, doing things the way the Father has planned offers us an essential mortal experience. By “mortal experience,” I mean choosing our course “tasting the bitter, that we might know to prize the good,” reports Moses 6.55; learning, repenting, and growing, becoming beings capable of acting for ourselves rather than simply being “acting upon,” reports 2 Nephi 2.13; and ultimately overcoming evil and demonstrating our desire and ability to live a celestial law. This requires a knowledge of good and evil on our part, with capacity and opportunity to choose between the two. And it requires accountability for choices made—otherwise they are not really choices. Choice, in turn, requires law, or predictable outcomes. We must be able by a particular outcome or result—and by the opposite choice create the opposite outcome. If actions do not have fixed consequences, then one has no control over outcomes, and choice is meaningless. Using justice as a synonym for law, Alma states, “Now the work of justice [that is, the operation of law] [cannot] be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God” reports Alma 42.13. It is His perfect understanding and use of law—or in other words, His justice—that gives God His power. We need the justice of God, a system of fixed and immutable laws that He Himself abides by and employes, so that we can have and exercise agency. This justice is the foundation of our freedom to act and is our only path to ultimate happiness. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

One must also accept the fact that one is a living being driven by needs and interests, and drop the illusion that one’s mind operates with a well-greased, machinelike perfection. In this process, as in so many others thoroughness in penetrating to one or another implication counts more than completeness. The implications that are missed will turn up at some later time when one is perhaps more ready to see them. Continuity of work is likely to be disturbed also by causes outside a person’s control. He mut expect interruptions because he does not live in an experimental vacuum. Any number of daily experiences will encroach upon his thinking, some of them perhaps eliciting emotional responses that call for immediate clarification. Suppose, for instance, our friend Clare had lost her job while she was working at the problem of her dependency, or that she had assumed a new position requiring more initiative, assertion, and leadership. In either case other problems than her dependency would have stepped into the foreground. All anyone can do in such circumstances is to take these interruptions in his stride and to deal with the problems arising as best he can. He may just as well, however, have experiences that help him with the problem at hand. Thus, her boyfriend Peter’s breaking of the relationship certainly stimulated Clare to do further analytical work at her problem. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Overall, there is no need to worry too much about outside interferences. I have found in working with patients that even decisive outside events deflect the course of analysis only for a short while. Rather swiftly, and often without knowing it, the patient swings back to the problem on which he was working, resuming it sometimes at exactly the point where he had left it. We need not resort to any mysterious explanation for this occurrence, such as an assumption that that problem appeals more to the patient than happenings in the outside World. It is more likely that since most experiences elicit several responses, that one which is closet to the problem at hand will touch him most deeply and thereby lead him to retrieve the thread he was about to abandon. The fact these remarks have emphasized subjective factors rather than presenting clear-cut directions may recall the criticism raised against analysis that it is more an artistic than a scientific procedure. A discussion of this argument would lead us too far astray because it would involve a philosophical clarification of terms. What counts here is a practical consideration. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

If analysis is called an artistic activity this would suggest to many people that one must be especially gifted to undertake it. Naturally, our endowments differ. And just as some people are particularly skillful in mechanical matters or have a particularly clear vision for politics, others have a special flair for psychological thinking. Yet what really matters is not an enigmatic artistic endowment but a strictly definable factor—which is one’s interest or incentive. This remains a subjective factor, but it is not the decisive one for most of the things we do? What matters is the spirit and not the rules. “The which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 88.34. However, we must admit that none of us has always and unfailingly been “governed by law.” And we really cannot look to the law or justice to preserve and perfect us when we have broken the law. “And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto me. And by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off. Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever,” reports 2 Nephi 2.5. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

So, being just but also being motivated by love, our Heavenly Father created mercy. He did this by offering His Only Begotten Son as propitiation for our sin, a sinless Being who could, with His Atonement, satisfy justice for us, putting us right with the law so that it is once again supporting and preserving us, not condemning us. “And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God Himself atoneth for the sins of the World, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be perfect, just God, and a merciful God. However, there is also a law given, and a punishment [or consequence] affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy, claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God. However, God creaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement,” reports Alma 42.15, 22.23. The penitent, of course, are those who take responsibility and accept His mercy by repenting. Or, in other words, repenting is what we do to claim the gracious gift of forgiveness that a just Father in Heaven can offer us because His Beloved Son atoned for our sins. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

We must also learn to prize others in a total, rather than a conditional way. Babies to not accept certain feelings in their parents and disapprove of others. They feel an unconditional positive regard for their parents. This is an outgoing, optimistic feeling without reservation and without evaluations. It means not making judgments. I believe that when this nonevalutative prizing is present in the encounter between parent and child, or others, constructive change and development is more likely to occur. Certain one does not need to be a professional to experience this attitude. The best of parents show this in abundance, while others do not. A friend of mine, a therapist in private practice on the east coast, illustrates this very well in a letter in which he tells me he is learning about parents. He says: “I am beginning to feel that they key to human being is the attitudes with which the parents have regarded him. If the child was lucky enough to have parents who have felt proud of him, wanted him, wanted him just as he was, exactly as he was, this child grows into adulthood with self-confidence, self-esteem; he goes forth in life feeling sure of himself, strong, able to lick what confronts him. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is an example… ‘my friends…’ He could not imagine anyone thinking otherwise. He could not imagine anyone thinking otherwise. He had two adoring parents. He was like a pampered dog who has never known rejection or harshness.  #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“Even if you should kick him, he’ll come right back at you, his tail frisker than ever, thinking you’re playing a game with him and wanting more. The animal cannot imagine anyone disapproving or disliking him. Just as unconditional regard and love was poured into him, he has it now to give out. If a child is lucky enough to grow up in this unconditionally accepting atmosphere, he emerges as strong and sure and he can approach life and its vicissitudes with courage and confidence, with zest and joy of expectation.”  However, the parents who like their children—if. They would like them if they were changed, altered, different; if they were smarter or if they were better, or if, if, if. The offspring of these parents have trouble because they never had feelings of acceptance. These parents do not really like these children; they would like them if they were like someone else. When you come down to the fundamental, the parent feels: “I do not like this child, this child before me.” They do not say that. If parents did, I am beginning to believe that it would be better for all concerned. It would not leave such horrible ravages on these unaccepted children. It is never done that cruelly. “If you were a nice boy and did this, that and the other thing, then we would all love you.” I am coming to believe that children brought up by parents who would like them “if” are never quite right. They grow up assuming that their parents are right and that they are wrong; that somehow or other they are at fault; and even worse, very frequently they feel they are stupid, inadequate, inferior. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

This is an excellent contrast between an unconditional positive regard and a conditional regard. I believe it holds as true for counselors as for parents. Our experiencing is always of some meaningful content, such as a person’s face, or the sound of a voice, or the recollection of someone’s acts. This content stands forth as figure in one’s field of awareness. Another basic characteristic of experiencing is that it always has some emotional quality. Thus, my memory of my father is accompanied by feelings of warmth, nostalgia, and sometimes laugher as I recall some of his conversation. My perception of a lovely woman is accompanied by aesthetic and sensual feelings. “Unemotional” experiencing is an outcome of the repression of affect and represents an effort on the part of the unemotional person to imitate a camera or tape recorder. Remember parents, raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ, to honour law and order, and treat all people, property and living beings with dignity. Our goal is to leave things better than we received them. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, One Nation, under God, indivisible with Liberty, and Justic for all. Father of Peace, please grant us Thy peace, please Grant us Thy blessing, Thy blessing of peace. Wherever they be, please great America peace; Merciful One, Thou art He who grantest Thy people peace. O may we see our children, our children, and their children Devoted to the Lord, to the scripture—yea, please grant America peace. Thou wondrous Counsellor, mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace! #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

Ascent at Montelena

11977 Cobble Brook Drive, Rancho Cordova, California 95742

(916) 302-8760

4 Home Design(s) Available

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