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Gladiators’ School
When we see the effect one person can have, it is perhaps no wonder that the Lord reminded us, “Remember the worth of souls.” Evolutionary agents chart the path to the future. They prefabricate future visions, build new hives, custom make plan-its, encourage migration, and teach scientific mastery of the nervous system as an instrument to decode atomic, molecular and subnuclear processes so as to attain immortality, cloning, and extraterrestrial existence. Evolutionary agents study history because understanding out roots is important. We cannot navigate into the future with any confidence unless we understand the rhythms and coherence of past voyages. A philosopher demonstrates understanding of the past by the accuracy of predictions about the future. After we trace our roots backward—back East—it is necessary to move westward into The Future. The time has come to catch the coming waves rolling into the future. They are going to be big ones. The evolution of intelligence involves three great change processes employed by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The DNA change processes: Mutation—A species getting smarter. Metamorphosis—Individuals getting smarter. Migration—Individuals moving to a new space to better live out new capacities. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
Every time you improve, every time you change, every time a challenge increases your intelligence, you have to migrate to find a new space to live out your new capacity, to custom-make your new vision. Mobility is the classic stimulus for Intelligence Increase. Learn to be comfortable with the idea of change. Understanding how our intelligence has evolved reveals who we are. The strategy of evolution is to raise the intelligence of species. Do not let others scare you about change. We each pass through at least twelve volatile and dramatic changes during our lifetimes. Each of us possesses within our nervous systems twelve primitive brains that emerge in sequence as we develop—evolve if you will—from infancy to adult maturity. Cryptography decoding of the DNA helix suggest that each of us has twelve post-terrestrial brains scheduled to activate in sequence as we move into a prefabricate the post-hive future! Terrestrial theologians recognize the supernatural and otherworldly powers of great Evolutionary Agents like Jesus Christ that separate them in time and potency from the hive reality. “Supernatural” is jargon to describe anything beyond hive-platitude. Often Evolutionary Agents must endure long periods of quiescence and obscurity. These can be times of grave peril, obstruction or hive-disgrace. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
Evolutionary Agents, also known as Out-Castes, have been selected on the basis of their capacity to face and survive experiences that would be judged unendurable by terrestrials. Agents’ childhoods abound in anecdotes of precocious sagacity, strength, and independence from hive-mortals. The scandalous escapades of Jesus Christ, the prowess of Hercules, the boyish wisdom of Einstein, the early verbal cleverness of the Galileo, and the patience of Robert Goddard are a few examples. Human beings, pre-selected from each gene pool, are having their neural circuits activated—usually without their awareness—to fabricate future realities as well as future gene pools. These individuals are genetically tempted to live much of the time in the future. They are, to a large extent, alienated from current hive realities. Unaware of their genetic assignment, many Agents feel agonizingly out of step. Some are shunned and even locked up by the gene pools they serve. Those who are lucky enough to recognize their post-human genetic caste attain a level of great prescience and humorous insight. They understand that they are time travelers, literally walking around in past civilizations—a most entertaining and effective role to play. While they have little power to change the ripples of history or the waves of evolution, they surf them with increasing skill. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
As out-castes they are cast out, thrown forward, pushed up, above and beyond, contemporary hive realities. Such Evolutionary Agents are best described as Out-Castes. They are cast out, thrown forward, pushed up, above and beyond, contemporary give realities. As evolution accelerates increasing numbers of Evolutionary Agents are emerging. In the 1960s every gene pool cast out its Futique Agents. We are now learning to identify these out-castes and how to benefit from their contribution to the species. The word “Agent” has been in well-deserved ill-repute, especially in political, diplomatic and showbiz circles. It suggests an unscrupulous bureaucratic scoundrel devoid of creativity, aesthetics, principles or talent who, by virtue of shameless cunning, places himself in central positions of power and control. The raison d’etre of the agent is, of course, the deal. The deal involves the alchemy of link-up, package and connection. The agent’s tools are persuasion, negotiation, bluff, manipulation, and salesmanship. The Agent Caste has existed throughout human history, dating back to the Neolithic period when artifacts, abstract-concepts, symbols, intertribal barter systems, and paperwork began to replace direct face-to-face interactions within tribe exchanges. As left-hemisphere technological society emerged, each gene pool produced Agents to represent the assets and interests of the sperm-egg collective in dealing with other gene-colonies. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
In Feudal times, agents represented the Crown of the Lord in dealing with serfs, peasants, tenants, traders and the agents of other Lords. The sordid odor attributed to agents probably dates back to their role as ruthless tax-collectors, dishonest traders, not to forget the many incidents in which agents betrayed their masters to seize power. The Caste of Agents took on more importance and a more attractive appearance during the emergence of democratic societies when agents became political representatives of the various classes, castes, guilds, brotherhoods, and gene pools which sought to share power in a democratic tradition. The history of civilization is the history of agentry, which is to be expected since agents cunningly arrange for the publication of the history books. Wars are won and lost by generals, but when the smoke clears and the bodies are dragged off the battlefield, the real bottom-line stuff happens—the peace treaties, the Councils of Nice, Trent, Versailles, Vienna, Geneva—all managed by agents. When the autobiographies are written and generals from both sides peddle their memoirs, it is the gents who make the deals. The high-points in the annals of agentry have always come at moments of species mutation. Who has not marveled at the astuteness of Algy Plankton, the renowned Paleozoic agent who put together the first oxygen commercial which led to shoreline migration? #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
In every act of rebellion, the rebel simultaneously experiences a feeling of revulsion at the infringement of his rights and a complete and spontaneous loyalty to certain aspects of himself. Thus, he implicitly brings into play a standard of values so far from being gratuitous that he is prepared to support it no matter what the risks. Up to this point he has at least remained silent and has abandoned himself to the form of despair in which a condition is accepted even though it is considered unjust. To remain silent is to give the impression that one has no opinions, that one wants nothing, and in certain cases it really amounts to wanting nothing. Despair, like the absurd, has opinions and desires about everything in general and nothing in particular. Silence expresses this attitude very well. However, from the moment that the rebel finds his voice—even though he says nothing but “no”—he begins to desire and to judge. The rebel, in the etymological sense, does a complete turnabout. He acted under the lash of his master’s whip. Suddenly he turns and faces him. He opposes what is preferable to what is not. Not every value entails rebellion, but every act of rebellion tacitly invokes a value. Or is it really a question of values? Awareness, no matter how confused it may be, develops from every act of rebellion: the sudden dazzling perception that there is something in man with which he can identify himself, even if only for a moment. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
Rebellion can sometimes lead to trouble and incarceration. New prisoners generally remain in the Reception Center for an average of six weeks. After psychological testing, observation, and case worker interviews a decision is made as to the long-term prison. Usually, the counselors are the deciding voice. Sometimes, the government likes to throw the book at drug cases. The prison administration can deal with armed robbers, murderers, and normal criminals but not the defiant, guiltless, long-haired dopers. The guards say armed robbers and murderers have guts. Drug users are cowardly escapists. Each inmate had a file called “The Jacket.” Every unusual action by the prisoner is entered in The Jacket. However, the case worker’s recommendation is the key. I found out about the network of the California prison system, listening to sad vacation discussion about the selection of prisons continually reviewing the escape possibilities. Tehachapi Prison is in the mountains. Fresh air, no smog, new buildings. Too remote for visitors. They send young cons there. There are guns in the towers. It is escape-proof. The California Institute for Men, abbreviated CIM, offers colour TV, a golf course, a swimming pool. No Wall. They will never send you there with a ten-year federal hold. CIM is treatment oriented. They call you mister. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
San Quentin is the Monte Carlo glamour, pleasures of the flesh, dope prison of the system. Near San Francisco. Plenty of action. Gambling, educational courses, and special visitors from San Francisco. They might 7send you to Quentin, making an example out of you. There is no escape from Quentin. Then there is Folsom Prison. The best joint is Folsom; any experienced confidence man will tell you that. No kids there. You do you time quietly. Then there is Soledad. Dread pit of solitude for the toughest gunsel muscle benders. They call it the “Gladiators’ School.” When you check in there, they issue you a sword and a garbage can lid. A continual fight to prove how tough you are. Homosexual rape of soft kids. Soledad. The name itself sends a chill through every spine. CMC East—California Men’s Colony, San Luis Obispo is the science-fiction prison. Four separate quads, TV monitors. Big brother eyes watch every move. It is called medium security, but do not believe it. Huey Newton was there. Gun towers with sharpshooters guards can kill at a mile range. No one escapes. CMC West—California Men’s, Colony, San Luis Obispo is the old man’s home. They send professional long-term prisoners there. It is a country club for elite confidence men. The best prison in the World. It is an easy escape. No wall. The highway runs nearby. They send only nonviolent prisoners there. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
They will never send you to CMC West with two dimes hanging round your neck. There is a rule that with a federal hold, they cannot send you to minimum security. The State of California owes the Feds ten years of your life. The Vacaville main line is a mental hospital for violent maniacs. They might send you there to use your psychological training. It is maximum security. No one escapes from there. Then there are the Forestry Camps. That is ideal. You work up in the healthy mountains. There is plenty of dope, no fences, you work along the highway. It is simple to run away. Confidence men jump Forestry Camp all the time but they get caught. They always run back home. They get a Dear John letter from their wives or suspect their wives fooling around, they flip, take off, and hitchhike home. They walk in the door and bang the State Police are waiting. If you escape, the first thing they do is stake out your home. There is no chance they will send you to a Forestry Camp, not with all the time you brough here. They will take no chances with you. The Vacaville Prison is a bawdy sexual paradise for some. The beautiful queens of Vacaville dig the cells with mirrors. Before the salves rebel, they accept all the demands made upon them. Very often, they take orders, without reacting against them, which are far more conducive to insurrection than the one at which he balks. He accepted them patiently, though he may have protested inwardly, but in that he remained silent, he was more concerned with his own immediate interests than as yet aware of his own rights. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
However, with loss of patience—with impatience—a reaction begins which can extend to everything that he previously accepted, and which is almost always retroactive. They very moment a slave refuses to obey the humiliating orders of his master, he simultaneously rejects the condition of slavery. The act of rebellion carries him far beyond the point he had reached by simply refusing. He exceeds the bounds that he fixed for his antagonist, and now demands to be treated as an equal. What was at first the man’s obstinate resistance now becomes the whole man, who is identified with and summed up in this resistance. The part of himself that he wanted to be respected he proceeds to place above everything else and proclaims it preferable to everything, even to life itself. It becomes for him the supreme good. Having up to now been willing to compromise, the slave suddenly adopts (“because this is how it must be…”) an attitude of All or Nothing. With rebellion, awareness is born. However, we can see that the knowledge gained is, at the same time, of an “all” that is still rather obscure and of a “nothing” that proclaims the possibility of sacrificing the rebel to this “All.” The rebel himself wants to be “all”—to identify himself completely with this good which he has suddenly become aware and by which he wants to be personally recognized and acknowledged—or “nothing”; in other words, to be completely destroyed by the force that dominates him. As a last resort, he is willing to accept the final defeat, which is death, rather than be deprived of the personal sacrament that he would call, for example, freedom. Better to die on one’s feet than to live on one’s knees. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
Writing as shorthand + for O.K. and – for not-O.K., the convictions read: I + or I – ; You + or You –. The possible assortments of these give the four basic positions from which games and scripts are played, and which program the person so that he has something to say after he says Hello. I + You +. This is the “healthy” position (or in treatment, the “get well” one), the best one for decent living, the position of genuine heroes and princes, and heroines and princesses. People in the other position have more or less frog in them, a losing streak put there by their parents, which will drag them down again and again unless they overcome it; if they are not rescued by a miracle of psychiatric or self-healing, in extreme cases, they will waste themselves. I + You + is what the hippies were trying to tell the policeman when they gave him a flower. However, the I + is genuine or merely a pious hope, and whether the policeman will accept the + or will prefer to be – on this particular scene, is always in doubt. I + You + is something the person either grows into in early life, or must learn by hard labour thereafter; it cannot be attained merely be an act of will. I + You –. I am a prince; you are a frog. This is the “get rid of” position. These are the people who play “Blemish” as a pastime, a game, or a deadly procedure. They are the ones who sneer at their spouses, send their children to juvenile hall, and times war, and sit in groups finding fault with their real or fire their friends and retainers. They start crusades and some-imagined inferiors or enemies. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
This is the “arrogant” position, at worst a killer’s, and at best a meddler’s for people who make it their business to help the “not-O.K. others” with things they do not want to be helped with. However, for the most part it is a position of mediocrities, and clinically it is paranoid. I – You +. This is psychologically the “depressive” position, politically and socially a self-abasement transmitted to the children. Occupationally, it leads people to live by choice on favours large and small and enjoy it with a vengeance, that being the poor satisfaction of making the other pay as much as possible for his O.K. stamp. These are melancholic suicides, losers who call themselves gamblers, people who get rid of themselves instead of others by isolating themselves in obscure rooming houses or canyons or by getting a ticket to prison or the psychiatric ward. It is the position of the “If Onlys” and “I Should Haves.” I – You –. This is the “futility” position of the Why Notters: Why not kill yourself, Why not go crazy. Clinically, it is schizoid or schizophrenic. These positions are universal among all mankind, because all mankind nurses at his mother’s breast or bottle and gets the message there, and later has it reinforced when he learns his manners, whether in the jungle, the slum, the condominium, or the ancestral halls. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
Even in the small unlettered communities which anthropologists study for their “cultures,” where everyone is raised according to the same long-established rules, there are enough individual differences between mothers (and fathers) to yield the standard harvest. For winners, there are chiefs and medicine men, captains and capitalist who own a thousand head of cattle or are worth a hundred thousand yams. The losers can be found in the mental hospital at Papeete or Port Moresby or Dakar, or perhaps in Her Majesty’s Gaol at Suva. For each position already carries with it is own kind of script and its own kinds of endings. Even in this country, where there are ten thousand “cultures,” there are only a few endings, none different, really, from any other country’s. Because each person is the product of a million different moments, a thousand states of mind, a hundred adventures, and usually two different parents, a thorough investigation of his position will reveal many complexities and apparent contradictions. Nevertheless, there can usually be detected one basic position, sincere or insincere, inflexible or insecure, on which his life is staked, and from which he plays out his games and script. This is necessary so that he can feel that he has both feet on solid ground, and he will be as loath to give it up as he would the foundation of his house. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
To take one simple example, a woman who thinks it very important that she is poor while others are rich (I — They +) will not give this up merely because she acquires a lot of money. That does not make her rich in her own estimation; it merely makes her a poor person who happens to have some assets. Her classmate who thinks it is important to be rich, in contrast to the underprivileged poor (I + They -) will not abandon her position if she loses her money; this does not make her a poor person, but merely a rich person who is temporarily embarrassed financially. This tenacity, as we shall see later, accounts for the life led by Cinderella after she married her prince, and it also accounts for the fact that men in the first position (I + You +) make good leaders, for even in the utmost adversity they maintain their universal respect for themselves and those in their charge. Thus, the four basic positions, I + You + (success); I + You – (arrogant); I — You + (depressive); and I – You – (futility), can rarely be changed by external circumstances alone. Stable changes must come from within, either spontaneously or under some sort of “therapeutic” influence: professional treatment, or love, which is nature’s psychotherapy. However, there are those whose convictions lack convictions, so that they have options and alternations between one position and another; from I + You + to I — You —, or from I + You — to I — You +, for example. These are, as far as position is concerned, insecure or unstable personalities. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
Secure or stable ones are those whose positions, good or deplorable, cannot be shaken. In order for the idea of positions to be of any practical use, it must not be defeated by the changes and instabilities of the insecure. The transactional approach—finding out what was actually said and done at a certain moment—takes care of that. If A behaves at noon as though he were in the first position (I + You +), then we say that “A is in the first position.” If he behaves at 6.00pm as though he were in the third position (I – You +), then we say “In the noon setup A is in the first position under 6pm circumstances he is in the third.” From this we can conclude that A is insecure in the first position, and that if he has symptoms, they occur under special conditions. If he behaves under all circumstances as through he were in the first position, then we say that “A is stable in the first position,” from which we predict that A is a winner, that if he has been in treatment, he is now cured, and that he is game free, or at least that he is not under compulsion to play games, but has social control—the option of deciding for himself at each moment whether or not he wants to play. If B behaves under all circumstances as though he were in the fourth position, we say that “B is stable in the fourth position” from which we predict that B is a loser, that it will be difficult to cure him, and that he will be unable to stop himself from playing those games which prove that life is futile. All this is done by careful analysis of actual transactions engaged by A and B. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
Once the predictions are made, they are easily tested by more observation. If later behaviour does not confirm them, then either the analysis was faulty or the theory of position is wrong and will have to be changed. If it does confirm the predictions, then the theory is strengthened. The evidence so far supports it. Reality is what we take to be real. This, in turn, is powerfully influenced by what significant other people have told us is true, real, and important in the World. We are continuously told by newspapers, comics, friends, and family members, movies and television programs about the way things are. Sometimes this influence is subtle; someone merely describes some aspect of the World to us, and we find that this description impels us to see that World as we were told it is. One teacher played a classroom game; she asked the children to pretend that blonde, blue-eyed children were evil. In time, the black-haired children came to loathe the blondes, who in turn felt inferior. Other people, then, can so influence one’s ways of perceiving, and of attaching meaning and value, that one loses one’s own autonomous perspective. If other people are strong, with high status, they may invalidate one’s own perspective on reality; the weaker person accepts the perspective of the stronger. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
For example, when high school seniors in the minority are confronted by perceptions or judgments from a majority identified as college students, the high schoolers conform to the perceptions of the higher status college student. A person may need to disengage from other people and go into solitude, in order to separate other people’s perspectives on reality from one that is more truly individual. An excessive humility or a morbid self-depreciation may present a man from seeking outside help. This too is a manifestation of the ego, which cunningly uses such emotion to keep him away from a contract which threatens its rule. This quality of a continuous calmness—so highly prized by self-actualized Christians—is hard to come by but exceedingly precious when gained. He who possesses it, who is unfailingly one and the same not only toward others but also toward himself, becomes a rock of upholding strength in their crises, an oasis of hidden comfort in his own. This beautiful serenity makes many other qualities possible in his own development while leaving a benedictory afterglow of encouragement with all those who are still struggling with their own refractory emotions and passions. Emotion is an unreliable adviser but refined, purified, and liberated from egotism, it becomes transformed into intuition. As all worries and fears are aroused in the ego, they are lulled when, by meditation, the ego-thought is lulled and the mediator feels peace. However, when the ego is rooted out by the entire philosophic effort, they are then rooted out, too. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
The Sacramento Fire Department educates and prepares Sacramento County residents and visitors for all emergencies, through public education, community outreach, and training. “It was a hot summer night. I had to work the day tour the following morning, and the phone rang just as I was getting into bed. A friend called me and told me to turn on the radio. Two firefighters had been killed in a fire, and the names weren’t released pending notifications. I called my own firehouse, where the grapevine had carried the news. I found out who they were. I drove down to the bar, then. It was early morning, an hour or so past midnight. I was thinking of X’s children. He had eight of them, and was known as a great father. Y, one of the partners, was there. He was crying, and put his arms around me, connecting, I guess, to the brotherhood of the job. We decided to drive up to the firehouse. There were guys off duty there, he knew, and they would appreciate the company. It was a classy thing, I thought. We went up to the top floor of Rescue A. Z was there, and a bunch of firefighters who had driven in as soon as they heard the news. Z told us they had been on the roof of a five-story tenement. A young firefighter who had been working on the top floor, the fifth, had been separated from his boss, a lieutenant who happened to be B, my friend and one of the most decorated men in the department. A back room was lit up completely, and C was caught. He was at a windowsill, yelling, and Rescue A heard him. The fire was lapping up the side of the building, licking over the rooftop. D tied his own small, forty-foot, personal rope to a pipe, attached it to his safety harness, and went over the rooftop. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
“He knew there was not much he could do, because the personal role could not take the weight of two men. The manuals said it was to be used for escape purposes only, and in extreme emergencies. But D just wanted to be with C. X stepped right up, and he went over the roof, six stories above the solid concrete of the backyard below. Z was looking down over the roof parapet. They lowered him down to where D and C were now framed by the fire. ‘I have him,” X said to D. C held fast around X’s neck, and they both became one, a kind of pendulum escaping the fire. Then something happened, no one knew what. It was an imperfect rope. It just snapped, and X and C fell. It was hard for D to tell the story, we all knew, but we also knew that it was all in the family. It was the straight stuff, because there’s no point in holding back from the family. After having some Lipton’s ice tea, the men were relaxed a little. There was not much for any of us to do. Rescue A would have to prepare for the funeral, and all those official investigations and reports. But now the men just wanted to regain their breath. Z and I worked for a long time with a man named F, who had been promoted out of Engine G, and who was a good friend of X. Z suggested I call him, rather than have him hear the news in the morning from a radio, the Internet, or TV reporter. I went to the phone to dial his number, and it then struck me. What if he’s not home? What would his wife H think about a phone call at three in the morning? What momentary pain would that cause? I wanted to hang up as the phone was answered. I heard her voice, and the first thing I said was “This has nothing to do with F.” It turns out he was working that night as a covering officer, and had listened to the alarms as they came over the department radio. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
“Then I thought, who was going to ring the bell of X’s house this sad night? And, what extraordinary pain would the ringing of that bell bring to so many people?” The Sacramento Fire Department provide fire protection, rescue, and medical services to the community. They also ensure the safety and well-being of residents through their dedicated efforts. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. The Spirit of America is often found in a deep sense of patriotism, where people show enduring loyalty to their country and their fellow citizens. This love for one’s country goes beyond just celebrating national holidays; it is seen in how people treat each other and work for the community every day. Please raise your children to love America. When patriotic feelings are genuine and inclusive, they can transcend individual interests and foster a collective identity. It is also important to teach your children to love God and Jesus Christ. American almost universally view God as a loving parent. The desire to emulate God’s love moderates religious disagreements among the great majority of Americans. Also, buying a car is a huge expense, so it makes sense to support America and buy a car made in this county. Luckily, there are plenty of American cars worth buying, whether you are looking for something reliable for your small family, a truck to haul your trailer, or a sports car. Furthermore, as patriotic Americans, everyone must make a commitment to respect laws, legal authorities, legal signage and signals, and courts. Imagine if everyone in your community decided that they did not want to be bothered by traffic laws and signals, for example. The streets in your community would quickly become a chaotic and less safe place. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
The young should honour their elders as “superiors in age and gifts. Contrary to the way of the World, we put a premium on age, not youth. We value the wisdom that comes from life experience. Seniors should strive to be worthy of such honour, walking in faith, love, and wisdom. And youth should remember to take their education seriously. It will help them achieve financial stability. 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. Children need to know that having faith in the Saviour and following Him will help them receive peace in this troubled World. We are grateful for the opportunities we have. Children need to experience the Light of Christ so they can choose light and resist the darkness. There are two kinds of inner peace. The first is somewhat like that which the ancient Stoics cultivated: the result of controlling emotions and disciplining thoughts, the result of will and effort applied to the mastery of self. It brings with it, at best, a contentment with what one has, as least, a resignation to one’s lot. The second is much deeper, for it comes out of God. It is the blessed result of Divine Grace liberating one from the craving for existence. To attain this inner equilibrium, the emotions need to be brought under control. It is not enough to repress them by will alone: they need also to be understood psychologically in a far deeper sense than the academic one. It is not enough to analyse their obvious surface causes and workings: their relationship to the real self at the centre of being must become quite clear. The “I” who experiences them must be sought. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
The Winchester Mystery House
On occasion, caretakers are left alone in The Winchester Mystery House to close the mansion up. During the summer, it does not bother some of them because as they are closing the windows, they can hear sounds from the street and do not feel alone. However, when the chills of autumn set in, and the windows have to be closed to keep it out, one of the caretakers because gradually aware that he was not really alone on those lonely nights. One particular night, early in his employment at the house, he was alone and heard rapid, firm footsteps starting at the front door, inside the house, and coming through the parlor and the dining room, and finally approaching the room he was in down the hall. He leapt out into the hall, wondering with sheer terror what the intruder would do. However, no one came. More to calm himself than because he really believed it, the caretaker convinced himself that he must have been mistaken about those footsteps. It was probably someone in the street. With reassuring thoughts, he continued to lock up the mansion. The next day, he did not tell anyone about the nocturnal event. After all, he did not want them to think they hired a strange man! However, the footsteps returned, night after night, always at the same time and always stopping abruptly at the morning room. Rather than facing his employers with the allegation that he was working in a haunted house, he bravely decided to face the intruder and find out what this was all about.
One night he deliberately waited for the new familiar brisk footfalls. The clock struck nine, then nine-thirty. In the quiet of the night, he could hear his heart pounding in his chest. Then the footsteps came close, closer and closer, until they got to the entryway of the morning room. At this moment, he snapped on the light, and tore the door wide open. There was nobody there, and no retreating footsteps could be heard. He tried it again and again, but the invisible intruder never showed himself once the door was opened. The winter was bitterly cold, and they were in the habit of having two caretakers close up the house at night. One night the additional caretaker left the basement and said, “Why were you walking around in the freezing basement and didn’t answer when I called out to you?” Of course he had not been down in the basement, and told her as much. Then they discovered that she, too, had heard footsteps, but had thought it was him walking restlessly about the basement. She heard the footsteps whenever she was in the basement, and they would suddenly cease, but no one would be around. Since everything was always securely locked, and countless attempts to trap the ghost had failed, the caretakers shrugged and learned to live with this peculiar boarder. Gradually the steps became part of the atmosphere of the Victorian house, and the terror began to fade into the darkness of night.
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/
Demise of the American Empire
We believe in being honest. Complete honesty is necessary for our salvation. If we accept salvation on the terms it is offered to us, we have got to be honest in every thought, in our reflections, in our meditations, in our private circles, in our deals, in our declarations, and in every act of our lives. God is honest and just in all things. “I perceive that it has been made known unto you, by the testimony of His word, that He cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath He a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, His course is one eternal round,” reports Alma 7.20. Honest people love truth and justice. They are honest in their words and actions. They do not lie, steal, or cheat. If you do what is righteous, when you think about it, there would be to reason to lie. Those who choose to cheat and lie and deceive and misrepresent become slaves of the enemy. Lying is intentionally deceiving others. Bearing false witness is one form of lying. The Lord is not pleased with dishonesty, and we will have to account for our lies. “And our spirits must have become like unto Him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness,” reports 2 Nephi 9.9. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
The altruistic ideal is set up for aspirants as a practical means of using the will to curb egoism and crush its pettiness. However, these things are to be done to train the aspirant in surrendering his personal self to his higher self, not in making him subservient to other human wills. The primacy of purpose is to be given to spiritual self-realization, not to social service. This above all others is the goal to be kept close to his heart, not meddling in the affairs of others. Only after he has attended adequately—and to some extent successfully—to the problem of himself can he have the right to look out for or intrude into other people’s problems. This does not mean, however, that he is to become narrowly self-centered or entirely selfish. On the contrary, the wish to confer happiness and the willingness to seek the welfare of mankind should be made the subject of solemn dedication at every crucial stage, every inspired hour, of his quest. However, prudence and wisdom bid him wait for a more active altruistic effort until he has lifted himself to a higher level, found his own inner strength, knowledge, and peace, and has learnt to stand unshaken by the storms, passions, desires, and greeds of ordinary life. “And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—He will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbour; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God,” reports 2 Nephi 28.8. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
Hence it is better for the beginner to keep himself any pretension to altruism, remaining silent and inactive about them. The dedication may be made, but it should be made in the secrecy of the inmost heart. Better than talk about it or premature activity for it, is the turning of attention to the work of purifying himself, his feelings, motives, mind, and deeds. Just as the word compassion is so often mistaken for a foolish and weak sentimentality, so the words egoless, unselfishness, and unself-centeredness are equally mistaken for what they are not. They are so often thought to mean nonseparatness from other individuals or the surrender of personal rights to other individuals or the setting aside of duty to us for the sake of serving other individuals. This is often wrong. The philosophical meaning of egoism is that attitudes of separateness not from another individual on the same imperfect level as us but from the one universal life-power which is behind all individuals on a deeper level than them all. When we allow the personal ego to rule us, when we allow the personal self to prevent the one universal self from entering our field of awareness, we are separated from that infinite mind. Jesus’ preachment of love of one’s neighbour as oneself is impossible to follow in all fullness until one has attained the height whereon his own true self dwells. #RanolphHarris 3 of 22
Obedience to it would mean identifying oneself with the neighbour’s physical pain and emotional suffering so that they were felt not less keenly than one’s own. One could not bear that when brought into contact with all kinds of human sorrow that shadow of life. It could be borne only when one had crushed its power to affect one’s own feelings and disturb one’s own equilibrium. Therefore, such love would bring unbearable suffering. By actively identifying oneself with those who are sorrowing, by pushing one’s sympathy with them to its extreme point, one gets disturbed and weakened. This does not improve one’s capacity to help the sufferer, but only lessens it. To love others is praiseworthy, but it must be coupled with balance and with reason or it will lose itself ineffectually in the air. Not to let his interest in other matters or his sympathy with other persons carry him away from his equilibrium, his inner peace, but to stop either when it threatens to agitate his mind or disturb his feelings, is wisdom. Love of the divine is our primary duty. Love of our neighbour is only a secondary one. Compassion is the highest moral value, the noblest human feeling, the purest creature-love. It is the final social expression of man’s divine soul. For he is able to feel with and for another man only because both are in reality related in harmony by the presence of that soul in each one. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
There must be an end, a limit to his sacrifices on behalf of others. They must not play upon his kindness to the extent of ruining his own life. He may help them, certainly, but there are various other ways to do so than by surrendering what is essential to his own life to satisfy their emotional demands or material desires. For this notion of love is a sadly limited one. To bestow it only on a wife or a child, a sweetheart, or a sister, is to bestow it in anticipation of its being returned. Man finds in time that such giving which hopes for a getting is not enough. Love cannot stop there. It seeks to grow beyond the restricted circle of a few friends and relations. Life itself lead him on to transcend it. And this he does firstly, by transcending the lure of the pitiful transient flesh and secondly, by transforming love into something nobler and rarer—compassion. In the divine self-giving of this wonderful quality and in its expansion until all mankind is touched, love finally fulfills itself. Jesus taught, “Thou shalt not steal,” reports Matthew 19.18. Stealing is taking something that does not belong to us. When we take what belongs to someone else or to a store or to the community without permission, we are stealing. Taking merchandise or supplies from an employer is stealing. To become completely honest, we must look carefully at our lives. If there are ways in which we are being even the least bit dishonest, we should repent of them immediately. When we are completely honest, we cannot be corrupted. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
The ideas of activation, responsibility, participation—that is, of the humanization of technological society—can find full expression only in a movement which is not bureaucratic, not connected with the political machines, and which is the result of active and imaginative efforts by those who share the same aims. Such a movement itself, in its organization and method, would be expressive of the aim to which it is devoted: to educate its members for the new kind of society in the process of striving for it. The first step would be the formation of a National Council which could be called the “Voice of America Conscience.” I think of a group of, say, fifty Americas whose integrity and capability are unquestioned. While they might have different religious and political convictions, they would share the humanist aims which are the basis for the humanization of technological society. They would deliberate and issue statements which, because of the weight of those who issued them, would be newsworthy, and because of the truth and rationality of their contents would win attention from at least a large sector of the American public. Such Councils could also be formed on a local level, dealing with the general questions bet specifically with the practical questions relevant for the city or state which they represented. One could imagine that there might be a whole organization of Councils of the Voice of American Conscience, with a nationally representative group and many local groups following basically the same aims. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
The National Council would deal with the broad aspects of national affairs, that is, foreign and domestic policies, while the local councils would take up the questions relevant to state and communities, again concerned with broad aspects rather than with details of execution. For example, the National Council would debate the question of the Afghanistan War, our foreign policy in Asia, our assistance to the development of less affluent nations and Ukraine, the reconstruction of our cities, the problems of values, education, and culture. The local councils would debate problems of conservation, city planning, slum clearance, relocating industries, etcetera. These debates would not be conducted on a general and abstract level. On the contrary, they would constitute the best thinking of the best minds in America. Often the Counsil would form subcommittees to study special problems and call upon specialists for advice. It would be up to the Voice of American Conscience (1) to clarify the issues, (2) to show the real possibilities and alternatives, (3) to recommend solutions, (4) to respond to statements and actions by other important social bodies, and to any criticism of their own recommendations. The examination of the issues and the recommended solutions would be rooted in the rationality and humanist values which the best in American culture stands for. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
These Councils would balance the structure based on political power represented by the government, the legislature, and the political parties. They would be the voice of reason and conscience, addressing themselves to the organs of power and to the population. Whenever the Councils did not arrive at unanimous solutions, one or more minority reports would be issued. It is easy to underestimate what such Council could do by pointing out that they would have no power. This is true in an obvious sense; it is not quite so true in a more subtle sense. Technological society, more than any society before, rests upon knowledge, on education in science and rational thought. While the average professional is not a true scientist but a mere technician, the development of scientific ideas depends on the development of scientific theory; this means that economic and political progress rest in the long run on the progress of culture. Those who represent culture have no direct power; but since the progress of society depends on their contribution, their voice will be taken seriously by a new class of people with college educations (teachers, technicians, programmers, laboratorians, research workers, professionals, etcetera) whose cooperation is a vital necessity for the functioning of the social system. Extreme importance should be attached to the training of will-power and the habit of making firm decisions, also the habit of being always ready to accept responsibilities. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
The deliberate training of fine and noble traits of character in our schools today is almost negative. In the future much more emphasis will have to be laid on this side of our educational work. Loyalty, self-sacrifice, and discretion are virtues which a great nation most possess. And the teaching and development of these in the school is a more important matter than many other things now included in the curriculum. To make the children give up habits of complaining, whining, and howling when they are hurt, etcetera, also belongs to this part of their training. If the educational system fails to teach the child at an early age, when the boy has grown to be the man and is, for example, in the trenches, the postal service is used for nothing else than to send home letter of weeping and complaint. If our youths, during their years in the primary schools, had had their minds crammed with a little less knowledge, and if instead they had been better taught how to be masters of themselves, it would have served us well during the 2020-2024 years. Lacking an influential military caste, the United States of America never developed a strong military cult audacious enough to glorify war for its own sake. Such outbursts as Roosevelt’s “Strenuous Life” speech were rare; and it was also rare for an American writer to extol war for its effects upon the race, although Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce, one of Mahan’s patrons, once declared that war is one of the great agencies of human conflict and that “strife in one form or another in the organic would seems to be the law of existence…Suspend the struggle, well called the battle of life, for a brief space, and death claims the victory.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
Most writers on war seemed to agree with Spencer that military conflict had been highly useful in developing primitive civilization but has now long outlived its value as an instrument of progress. The advocates of preparedness did not usually take the stand that there is anything inherently desirable in war, but rather quoted the old maxim, “If you wish for peace, prepare for war.” “Let us worship peace, indeed,” conceded Mahan, “as the goal at which humanity must hope to arrive; but let us not fancy that peace is to be had as a boy wrenches an unripe fruit from a tree.” Others took the position that strife is inherent in the nature of things and must be anticipated as an unhappy necessity. Once the martial fever of the short and easy war with Spain had subsided, the psychology of the American people between 1898 and 1917 was surprisingly nervous and defensive for a nation that was rapidly rising in stature as a World power. Encouraged by the eugenics movement, men talked of racial degeneracy, of race suicide, of decline of western civilization, of the effeteness of the western peoples, of the foreign peril. Warnings of decay were most commonly coupled with exhortations to revivify the national spirit. The higher races can live only live in the temperate zone, and will be forever barred from effective colonization in the tropics. Overpopulation and economic exigencies will give rise to state socialism, which will extend its tentacles into every corner of western national life. Because of the increasing dependence of the citizen upon the state, nationalism will grow, and religion, family life, and old-fashioned morality will decline. There will also be a consolidation of peoples into great centralized empires, for only these will have the capacity to survive. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
Large armies, great cities, huge national debts will hasten cultural eclipse. The decline of competition, coupled with state education, will render the intellectual more mechanical in its operations and deprive it of the initiative that alone is capable of outstanding achievement in the arts. The result will be a World of old people, scientific rather than esthetic, unprogressive, stable, without adventure, energy, brightness, hope, or ambition Meanwhile other races will not fail in vitality, for biology shows that some are more fertile than others. Genocide is a horrible idea, but other nations will on the contrary be likely to challenge the supremacy of western civilization by industrial rather than military means. Perhaps the best that the governing races can do is face the future with courage and dignity. If all this should come to pass, it is idle to say that our pride of place will not be humiliated. “We were struggling among ourselves for supremacy in a World which we thought of as destined to belong to the Aryan races and to the Christian faith; to the letters and arts and charm of social manners which we have inherited from the best times of the past. We shall wake to find ourselves elbowed and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside by peoples who we looked down upon as servile, and thought of as bound always to minister to our needs. The solitary consolation will be that the changes have been inevitable. It has been our work to organize and create, to carry peace and law and order over the World, that others may enter in and enjoy. Yet in some of us the feeling of caste is so strong that we are not sorry to think we shall have passed away before it arrives,” reports Charles Pearson. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
Pearson’s fears were the beginning of a reaction from the optimism expressed by Fiske and Strong in the 1880’s. For middle-class intellectuals, reeling under the shock of the panic of 1893 and the deep social discontents of the prolonged depression that followed, his prophecies of doom had a ring of truth. They were particularly suited to the morbid mood that overcame Henry Adams in the 1890’s. He wrote to C.M. Gaskell: “I am satisfied that Pearson is right, and that the dark races are gaining on us, as they have already done in Haiti, and are doing throughout the West Indies and our Southern States. In another fifty years, at the same rate of movement, the white races will have to reconquer the tropics by war and nomadic invasion, or be shut up, norther of the fortieth parallel.” Pearson’s fears are once again being heard echoing through Congress. Republicans realize that with the southern border being invaded by 20,000,000 illegal immigrants in the past four years, and national security being threated that is Donald Trump does not win the 2024 election, not only will they lose the nation, but it could also be the demise of the American Empire. The American Empire will have to fight for its existence. It will not gain or secure nor secure this existence by singing documents like that of The American Rescue Plan. However, for its existence and defence it will precisely need those things which our present system believes can be repudiated. The more worthy its form and its inner national being, the greater will be the envy and opposition of its adversaries. The best defence will not be in the arms it possesses but in its citizens. Bastions of fortresses will not save it, but the living wall of its men and women, filled with an ardent love for their country and a passionate spirit of national patriotism. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
Americans must realize that the science may also be a means of promoting a spirit of pride in the nation. Not only the history of the World but the history of civilization as a whole must be taught in the light of this principle. An inventor must appear great not only as an inventor but also, and even more so, as a member of the nation. The admiration aroused by the contemplation of a great achievement must be transformed into a feeling of pride and satisfaction that a man of one’s own race has chosen to accomplish it. However, out of the abundance of great names in American history, the greatest will have to be selected and presented to our young generation in such a way as to become solid pillars of strength to support the national spirit. The spirit of nationalism and a feeling for social justice must be fused into one sentiment in the hearts of the youth. Then a day will come when a nation of citizens will arise which will be welded together through a common love and a common pride that shall be invincible and indestructible forever. The dread of chauvinism, which is a symptom of our time, is a sign of its impotence. Since our epoch not only lacks everything in the nature of exuberant energy but even finds such a manifestation disagreeable, fate will never elect it for the accomplishment of any great deeds. If they had not been inspired by ardent and even hysterical passions, the greatest changes that have taken place on this Earth would have been inconceivable, but only by the bourgeois virtues of peacefulness and order. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
One thing is certain: our World is facing a great revolution. The only question is whether the outcome will be propitious for the American portion of mankind or whether the everlasting Democrat will profit by it. By educating the young generation along the right lines, the American Empire will have to see to it that a generation of mankind is formed which will be adequate to this supreme combat that will decide the destines of the World. That nation will conquer which will be the first to take this road. If they are allowed to go on, not only do certain life courses have predictable outcomes, but a certain dialogue of specific words spoken a certain way is necessary to establish the proper motivation for the outcome. In both the theater and in real life, the cues must be memorized and spoken exactly right so that other people will respond in a way that justifies and advances the action. If the hero changes his lines and his ego state, the other people respond differently. The two of them might then take off together instead of skulking around the castle—a bad play, but probably a better life. A script must be rehearsed and rewritten before it is ready for the most dramatic performance. In the theater there are readings, rewrites, rehearsals, and tryouts before the big time. A life script states off in childhood in a primitive form called the protocol. Here the other players are limited to parents, brothers, and sisters; or in an institution or foster home, to tablemates and those in charge. These all play their roles rather rigidly because every family is an institution, and the child does not learn much flexibility from them. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
As he moves into adolescence, he begins to meet more people. He seeks out those who will play the roles his script requires (they will do it because he plays some role their scripts require). Currently, he rewrites his script to take account of his new environment. The basic plot remains the same, but the action is a little different. In most cases (except for adolescent suicide or murder), this is rehearsal—something like a small-town tryout. Through several such adaptations, he gets it into final form for the biggest production of all—the farewell performance, the final payoff on the script. If it is a “good” one, it takes place at a farewell dinner. If it is a “bad” one, he says good-by from a hospital bed, the door of a prison cell or psychiatric ward, the gallows, or the morgue. The whole organization of education and training which the American Empire is to build up must take as its crowing task the work of instilling into the hearts and brains of the youth entrusted to it the racial instinct and understanding of the racial idea. No boy or girl must leave school without having attained a clear insight into the meaning of patriotism and the importance of maintaining chastity unadulterated. Thus, the first indispensable condition for the preservation of our nation will have been established and thus the future cultural progress of our people will be assured. Almost every script has roles for “good guys” and “bad guys,” and for “winners” and “losers.” What is considered good or bad, and what is a winner or a loser, is something peculiar to each script, but it is noticeably clear that every script has these four characters, sometimes combined in two roles. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
In a cowboy script, for example, the good guy is a winner, and the bad guy is a loser. Good means brave, quick on the draw, honest, and pure; bad may mean cowardly, slow on the draw, crooked, and interested in girls. A winner is someone who survives; a loser is hanged or gets shot. In a soap opera, a winner is a girl who gets a man; a loser is a girl who loses a man. In a paper-shuffle opera, the winner is the man who gets the best contract or the most proxies; a loser is a man who does not know how to shuffle papers. In script analysis, winners are called “princes” or princesses,” and losers are called “frogs.” The object of script analysis is to turn frogs into princes and princesses. To do this, the therapist has to find out who the good guys and the bad guys are in the patient’s script, and also what kind of a winner he can be. The patient fights being a winner because he is not in treatment for that purpose, but only to be made into a braver loser. This is natural enough, since if he becomes a braver loser, he can follow his script more comfortably, whereas if he becomes a winner, he must throw away all or most of his script and start over, which most people are reluctant to do. All scripts, whether in the theater or in real life, are essentially answers to the basic question of human encounter: “What do you say after you say Hello?” The Oedipal drama and the Oedipal life, for example, both hinges entirely on this question. Whenever Oedipus meets an older man, he first says Hello. The next thing he has to say, driven by his script, is: “Wanna fight?” If the older man say “No,” Oedipus has nothing further to say to him, and can only stand dumbly wondering whether to talk about the weather, the conduct of the current wars, or the terrible display on the Olympics mocking Christianity. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
The easiest way out is to mumble “Pleased to meetcha,” “Si vales bene est, ego valeo,” or “Everything in moderation,” and go on his way. However, if the older one says “Yes,” Oedipus answers “Groovy!” because now he has found his man and he know what to say next. To conceptualize something is to fit it into a class. Such abstracting and classifying is essential in human existence, because it frees a person to act in service of needs once the person has classified what has just been perceived. If I classify a person over there as a woman, and a married woman at that, I act differently toward her than if I classify her as an unmarried woman. When we conceptualize, however, we “close down” our perception, and we no longer notice the continuing disclosure of the being in question. Once I identified someone as “Mother,” I assume I know her, know what to expect of mothers in general and of mine in particular. In fact, concepts of persons and things inevitably go out of date, because every person and everything is more than we presently believe to be the case’ and everything changes in time. My mother today is not identical with my mother yesterday. In self-analysis resistances express themselves in the same three ways, but with an inevitable difference. Clare’s self-analysis produced only once an open and direct resistance, but it produced a great deal of diversified inhibition toward the analytical work and much evasive maneuvering. Occasionally, Clare felt a conscious emotional reaction to her analytical findings—such as her shock at discovering her sponging attitude to loved ones—but such reactions did not prevent her further work. And I believe that this is a typical picture of the way resistances operate in self-analysis. At any rate, it is a picture that we might reasonably expect. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
Emotional reactions to the findings are bound to occur: the person will feel apprehensive, ashamed, guilty, or irritated about what he discovers in himself. However, these reactions do not assume the proportions they do in professional analysis. One reason for this is that there is no analyst with whom he can engage in a defensive fight, or whom he can make responsible: he is thrown back upon himself. Another reason is that he usually dies with himself more gingerly than an analyst would: he will sense the danger far ahead and almost automatically shrink back from a straight approach, resorting instead to one or another means of avoiding the problem for the time being. What does the patient want? If he has serious symptoms such as psychogenetic headaches, or a wash compulsion, or if he suffers from impotence, he wants to be cured of his symptoms. This is what motivated most of Dr. Freud’s patients to seek analytic help. In general, it is not too difficult to cure such symptoms psychoanalytically and it is, if anything, an underestimation to assume that at least 50 percent of such patients are cured. However, in the last eighty years, these patients with symptoms no longer constitute the majority of those seeking the help of the psychoanalyst. An increasing number of people come who do not suffer from any “symptom” in the traditional sense, but who suffer from what the French called over a century and a half ago la maladie du siècle; they suffer from a general unhappiness, from lack of satisfaction in their work, from lack of happiness in their marriages, from the fact that “they are without joy in the midst of plenty,” to use a Biblical expression. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
This new type of patient often seeks nothing but the relief which the psychoanalytic procedure can give, even when it is not successful; the satisfaction of having somebody to talk to, of “belonging” to a cult, having a “philosophy.” The aim of therapy is often that of helping the person to be better adjusted to existing circumstances, to “reality” as it is frequently called; mental health is often considered to be nothing but this adjustment or, to put it differently, a state of mind in which one’s individual unhappiness is reduced to the level of the general unhappiness. The real problem, of man’s loneliness and alienation, of his lack of a productive interest in life, need not even be touched in this type of psychoanalysis. The purpose of most helping professions, including guidance counseling, is to enhance the personal development, the psychological growth toward a socialized maturity, of its clients. The effectiveness of any member of the profession is most adequately measured in terms of the degree to which, in his work with his clients, he achieves this goal. Our knowledge of the elements which bring about constructive change in personal growth is in its infant stages. Such factual knowledge as we currently possess indicates that a primary change-producing influence is the degree to which the client experiences certain qualities in his relationship with his counselor. In a variety of clients—normal, maladjusted, and psychotic—with many different counselors and therapists, and studying the relationships from the vantage point of the client, the therapist, or the uninvolved observer, certain qualities in the relationship are quite uniformly found to be associated with personal growth and change. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
These elements are not constituted of technical knowledge or ideological sophistication. They are personal human qualities—something the counselor experiences, not something he knows. Constructive personal growth is associated with the counselor’s realness, with his genuine and unconditional liking for his client, with his sensitive understanding of his client’s private World, and with his ability to communicate these qualities in himself to the client. These findings have some far-reaching implications for the theory and practice of guidance counseling and psychotherapy, and for the training of workers in these fields. Compassion is an emotion felt by one ego when considering the suffering condition of another ego. However, spiritual development eventually lifts itself above all emotions, by which I do not of course mean above all feeling. The wish to help another person should not spring out of compassion alone, nor out of the aspiration to do what is right alone, nor out of the satisfaction derived from practicing virtue for its own sake alone. It should certainly come out of all these, but it should also come even more out of the breaking down of the ego itself. With that gone, there will be a feeling of oneness with all living creatures. This practice of self-identification with them is the highest form of love. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
The mission of the Sacramento Fire Department is to provide a sustainable quality of life for the entire Sacramento community. They achieve this by protecting and preventing the loss of life and property through professional and efficient planning, preparation, training, fire prevention, public education, and deliver of emergency services. “In my early days, I never realized the heat and the smoke conditions in a fire and the punishment the fellows take in there. And along with that was the damage. You see people’s treasures just absolutely destroyed. Again, when you have people burned and killed, it isn’t that detaching thing it was before you got involved. And seeing the teamwork of the men, it’s fantastic. I loved from a quiet engine company to the downtown district of Sacramento. Down there is where I grew on the job, because of the experience in various types of fire. We got everything from ships to grain elevators to high rises and warehouses, and slum housing. I thought it was great. The guys are certainly aware of the dangers and are safety conscious. Once you become an officer, you become even more acutely aware of it. It’s a different thing to go diving in yourself, from sending somebody else in there. And as you go higher in rank, you’re sending more and more people into danger. There are times when the responsibility is awesome. But of course, when you get to the scene of the fire, you are methodically thinking of different things, and it really doesn’t enter your mind. It’s in the back of your mind, but you can’t dwell on it. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
“I’ve been to many funerals of friends of mine who were killed. You know that it can happen, you read about it all the time, but when it happens to a firefighter it’s just like a person in your family dying, completely unexpected, like possibly in an auto accident. You know it’s there, but you kind of think it isn’t going to happen to you. And when it does, it’s an awful blow. But I have it, the danger, really affect the job. I’ve never worried about it going to a fire, or worried about myself. When you come back, though, you kind of second-guess everything—should I have done this, what if that happened—and you learn that way.” Exceeding the needs and expectations of those they serve with the highest level of valor, integrity and commitment is what the Sacramento Fire Department is dedicated to doing. Please donate to the Sacramento Fire Department and you could save lives and property. They provide optimum prevention and protection to our community. There lives a God! Each finite creature proclaims His rule on sea and land; throughout all changing forms of nature is clearly shown His mighty hand. In every place is heard the call: The Lord of Host has made us all. 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. Remember to raise your children to love America, to love God and Jesus Christ, to respect law and order, buy goods made in America, and be kind and respectful to everyone, especially their elders. There lives a God! #RandolphHarris 22 of 22
The Winchester Mystery House
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/
War Worn World
What depressed me more than anything when I was a youth is that I had been born into an age that honored only criminals and those who do not accept the norms of society. The surge of large waves of crime needs to calm down so that the future will belong only to peaceful competition. More and more California and New York have begun to resemble businesses that mutually undercut the federal government, steals customers and orders, and try to outwit the federal government in every way, by making protests are loud as they are dangerous. This development has not only seemed to progress, but the United States of America is being transformed into a huge department store for the most skillful manipulators and most ruthless executives. Charles A. Conant, a prominent journalist and economist troubled about the necessity of finding an outlet for surplus capital, “if the entire fabric of the present economic order is not to be shaken by a social revolution,” argued that “the law of self-preservation, as well as the of the survival of the fittest, is urging our people on in a path which is undoubtedly a departure from the policy of the past, but which is inevitably marked out by the new conditions and requirements of the present.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 25A
If the country did not seize upon its opportunities at once, Conant warned against the possibility of decadence. Another writer denied that a policy of colonial expansion was anything novel in American history. We had colonized the West. The question was not whether we should shift our colonizing heritage into new channels. “We must not forget that the Anglo-Saxon race is expansive.” Although the Anglo-Saxon mystique was called upon in the interests of expansion by might, it also had its more pacific side. Its devotees had usually recognized a powerful bond with England; the historians of the Anglo-Saxon school, stressing the common political heritage, wrote about the American Revolution as if it were a temporary misunderstanding in a long history of common political evolution, or a welcome stimulant to flagging Anglo-Saxon liberties. One outgrowth of the Anglo-Saxon legend was a movement toward an Anglo-American alliance which came to rapid fruition in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Despite its unflagging conviction of racial superiority, this movement was peaceful rather than militaristic in its motivation; for its followers generally believed that an Anglo-American understanding, alliance, or federation would usher in a “golden age” of universal peace and freedom. No possible power or combination of powers would be strong enough to challenge such a union. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
This “English-speaking people’s league of God for the permanent peace of this war-worn World,” as Senator Beveridge called it, would be the next stage in the World’s evolution. Advocates of Anglo-American unity believed that Spencer’s transition from militant to pacific culture, and Tennyson’s “Parliament of Man the Federation of the World,” were about to become a reality. James K. Hosmer had appealed in 1890 for an “English-Speaking Fraternity,” powerful enough to withstand any challenge by the Slavs, Hindus, or Chinese. This coalescence of like-minded states would be but the first step toward a brotherhood of humanity. Yet it was not until 1897 that American interest in an English alliance resulted in a movement of consequence, which received the support of publicists and statesmen as well as litterateurs and historians. During the war with Spain, when continental nations took a predominantly hostile attitude toward American interest, Britain’s friendliness stood out in welcome relief. Common fears of Russia and a feeling of identity of interests in the Far East were added to the notion of a common racial destiny. The Anglophobia which had been so persistent among American politicians—Roosevelt and Lodge had been among the bitterest—was considerably relieved. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
The antiimperialist Carl Schurz felt that what he rather prematurely took to be the complete dissipation of anti-English feeling was one of the best results of the Spanish-American War. Richard Olney—who as Cleveland’s Secretary of State during the Venezuela dispute had defiantly told Britain that the fiat of the United States of America is a law in the Western Hemisphere—now wrote an article on “The International Isolation of the United States” to point out the benefits of British trade and to warn against pursuing an anti-British policy at a time when our country stood alone in the World. Arguing that “family quarrels” were a thing of the past, Olney expressed his hope for Anglo-American diplomatic cooperation, and reminded his readers: “There is a patriotism of race as well as of country.” Even the navalist Mahan approved of the British, and although he had felt for some time that a movement for union was premature, he was sufficiently friendly to be content to let the British retain naval supremacy. For a short time at the close of the century the Anglo-Saxon movement became the rage among the upper classes, and statesmen who seriously of a possible political alliance. The Anglo-Saxon cult, however, had to pull against the great mass of the population, whose ethnic composition and cultural background render them immune to its propaganda; and even among those of Anglo-Saxon lineage the dynamic appeal of the cult was confined to the years of excitement at the turn of the century. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
The term “Anglo-Saxon” offended many people, and meetings of protest against Anglo-Saxonism were called in some of the western states. Suspicious of England, traditional in American politics, could not be overcome. John Hay complained in 1900 of “a mad dog hatred of England prevalent among newspapers and politicians.” When the movement for Anglo-American Union was revived again during the First World War, the term “English-speaking” was used in preference to “Anglo-Saxon,” and racial exclusiveness was no longer featured. The powerful undertow of American isolation that followed the war, however, swept away this movement once again. Anglo-Saxonism is politics was limited both in scope and in duration. It had its day of influence as a doctrine of national self-assertion, but as a doctrine of Anglo-Saxon World order its effects were ephemeral. Even the benevolent ideal of the dreamers of a Pax Anglo-Americana found practical meaning only as a timely justification of a temporary reproachment inspired by the needs of Realpolitik. The day had not come when World peace could be imposed by a “superior” race confident in its biological blessings and its divine mission. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
By letting President Biden meander and babble, tripping and falling all over the place for the entire World to see, then allowing Kamla Harris to steal his place as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 Presidential Election, allow these old criminals and disloyal assassins of justice opportunity to collect themselves for their next strike. The serpent can then go on working, more cautiously than before, but this makes the Democrats more dangerous. While honest people dream of peace and security, the lying criminals are organizing a revolution. I am more than dissatisfied with the fact that officials have settled on a set of terrible half-measures to deal with the problem, but many do not even realize how horrible the result will be. Then what should be done next? The leaders of the Democratic party should be put under lock and key immediately. They should be put on trial and the nation freed from them. Every resource of military power should be used to brutally exterminate this epidemic and put an end to illegal immigration. The Marxists parties should be dissolved, and the leaders of the Democratic party brought to reason at the point of the bayonet if necessary. Or better yet, they should be immediately abolished. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
Just as the Republic cancels people today, they have even more reason to restore to these means. After all, the destruction of the nation and an entire people is at stake! This certain raises another question: Can intellectual ideas be destroyed by a sword at all? Can violence be used to combat a “World-Concept?” I have asked myself these questions more than once since Biden stole the White House. After a certain point in their development, concepts, and ideas as well as movements of a spiritual nature, whether true or not, can never be broken by force. The only exception is when force is used to replace these ideas with fresh, new idea, thought, or World-Concept that burns even bright and stronger than the one it replaces. The use of force without driving power of a strong spiritual or intellectual concept can never destroy an idea or even slow how fast it spreads, not unless force is used for a complete extermination of every supporter and absolute destruction of all related traditions that linger. We all need the strength of a young missionary idea to again rescue our nation from the entanglement of the international serpent and to stop the contamination of our blood. Only then will we be able to protect our nation and prevent the last catastrophe from ever again being repeated (meaning the revolution). #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
It is madness to unite with the Democrats who are ruled by the very enemy who means death to our future. If we are willing to talk into it, how can we free our nation from slavery of this poisonous embrace? When we choose our allies the very organization of this evil plan and acknowledge it as equal, how can the American worker come to understand that the Democratic party is a damnable crime against humanity. The display they put on at the Olympics, the invasion at the southern border, inflation, and the homeless crisis. We cannot drive out Satan by using Beelzebub. For almost the past four years, I have stood breathless, observing the enormous human serpent twisting its way past me. By reading and watching the Democrat Social press daily, I have been able to study the inner train of its thought better than any form of theoretical literature. What the difference between the glitter phrases in the theoretical writing about freedom, beauty, and dignity, and these words Democrats use creates an illusion of profound wisdom with some difficulty due to the disgusting moral tone, all written with a brazen claim of prophecy. The brutal daily press of this doctrine claimed to be the salvation of a new humanity, but is full of vileness, using every kind of slander, and absolutely full of lies! The Democratic theory is intended for stupid dupes of the middle and upper “levels of intelligence”; the more vile and based sections were targeted at the masses. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
Another way of spreading ideas, which has already been used to a considerable extent, but which can still be enhanced, is the method of news sheets, which are relatively cheap to publish and to send to a certain limited public. Certain radio stations have also proved to have given a much larger voice to new and progressive ideas than others. Overall, new technical factors work in favour of the dissemination of new ideas. A variety of inexpensive printing techniques have developed, and inexpensive neighbourhood radio stations have been organized, as well as podcast, and social media outlets. Only if they appear in the flesh, do ideas become powerful; an idea which does not lead to action by the individual and by groups remains at best a paragraph or a footnote in a book—provided the idea is original and relevant. It is like a seed stored in a dry place. If the idea is to have influence, it must be put into the soil, and the soil is people and groups of people. To me, dwelling on the literature and press of this doctrine and organization meant finding my way back to my own people. What seemed an impassable gulf now created in me a love greater than before. Only a fool, once he knows about this enormous work of corruption, could still condemn the victims. If given too much, the masses are seldom to make much use of freedom and are likely to neglect it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
Ideally speaking, the state and the Church are supposed to be the embodiment of social and religious ideas. However, this is true only in the most restricted sense. At best, these organizations embody the minimum of the ideas they proclaim. It is precisely for this reason that they do not fulfill the function of helping the individual in the development and realization of the values they proclaim. Political parties today claim that they express values and ideas more specifically than the state, but by their bureaucratic structure and the need to make compromises, the fail to offer the citizen a place where he can feel at home intellectually and spiritually; where he can be active beyond the merely organizing-bureaucratic functions. This view does not deny the importance of activity within political parties; it only claims that this activity is not sufficient to give the individual a chance to participate, to feel at home, and to become aware that his ideas represent a style of life shared by others, and expressed in common actions. Furthermore, I do not believe that the forms of participatory democracy are by themselves sufficient to bring about necessary changes. The face-to-face groups which I have described above must approach problems in a new spirit and with new ideas, but these ideas must be cultivated and spread so that they influence these groups. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
I realize that the infamous intellectual terrorism of the Democratic movement targets the privileged class, which is neither morally nor spiritually a match for such attacks. They tell a barrage of lies and slander against the individual adversary is considers most dangerous and keep it up until the nerves of the group being attacked give in and sacrifice the hated figure just to have peace and quiet again. However, the fools still do not get peace and quiet. The game begins and is repeated until fear of the villain becomes a hypnotic paralysis. Since the Social Democrats know well the value of power from their own experience, their storming is directed mainly at those whose character has the same quality. Conversely, the praise every weakling on the other side, cautiously, then loudly, according to the intellectual qualities they see or suspect. They fear an impotent, weak-willed genius less than they fear a forceful nature with only modest intellect. Their highest recommendation goes to the weakling in both mind and nature. They are successful in creating the illusion that given-in is the only way to win peace and quiet from them, while they quietly, cautiously, but unerringly, conquer one position after another, either by quiet extortion or by actual theft when the public attention is on other things. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
The public is distracted and unwilling to be interrupted or they consider the situation too small to worry about and believe it is not worth provoking an angry foe. These are tactics planned by exact calculation to exploit every human weakness, and it is almost mathematically sure to be successful unless the other side can learn to fight poison gas with poison gas. To those who are weak in nature, it can only be said that this is a simple question of survival or non-survival. To me, the physical terrorism toward the individual and the masses is plain to see. Terrorism on the job, in the factory, in the meeting hall, and at mass demonstrations, will always be successful unless equal terrorism opposes it. When the socialist party encounters opposition, it screams bloody murder and yells for help from the state, only to get what they want in the end. It finds some idiot of a high official who hopes to befriend the Marxists and is willing to crush the current adversary of the socialist party to gain the party’s favour. The followers’ and rebels’ success can only be understood by a man who knows the soul of the people, not from books, but from life. The result of this Democratic seduction of mankind can only be described as victimization. They masses are unconscious of the shameless intellectually terrorizes them as they are of the outrageous mistreatment of their human liberty. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
The modern individual, even more isolated and lonely than his grandfather was, finds a solution in psychoanalysis. First, he is a member of a somewhat esoteric cult; he is one of the “initiated” who has gone through the ritual of analysis, now knows all the secrets worth knowing, and thus is part of a cult. Furthermore, he has the satisfaction of having found somebody who listens sympathetically and without accusing him. This factor is particularly important in a society where hardly anybody listens to anybody. While people talk to each other, they do not listen to each other, except for a superficial and polite “hearing” of what the other says. In addition, the psychoanalyst’s significance has been inflated by the person being analyzed (“transference”); the analyst is converted into a hero whose assistance in living is as important as the of the priest was in a religious World, or by the big or small Fuehrer in certain political systems. Beyond that, psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on early childhood experiences as being the case for later development, tended to relieve many persons of a sense of responsibility. They believed that all one had to do was to talk and talk until one had recalled the childhood traumas—after which happiness would follows as a matter of course. Many people believed in this achievement of “happiness by talking” and forgot that nothing in life is achieved without effort, daring to take risks and often some suffering. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
Paying the analysts, talking for five hours a week on the couch, and some anxiety produced when the resistance grows, were often considered as the equivalent of the effort and daring. However, if at all, they are a rather insufficient equivalent. This holds especially true for the upper middle class, for which neither the money nor the time represents any serious sacrifice. Isabella was a neighbour of Sarah’s, in her late twenties, and led much the same kind of domestic life. However, her husband, a salesman, traveled a lot. Sometimes when he was away, Isabella would start drinking and end up far away from home. She “black out” these episodes, and as is common in such cases, she knew what happened only because she would find herself in strange places with the names and telephone numbers of strange men in her purse when she came to. This not only horrified her, but terrified her, since it meant that she could ruin her life some day by picking up an indiscreet or evil man, Scripts are planned early in childhood, so if this was a script, it must have had its origins there. Isabella’s mother died when she was little and her father was away all day, working. Isabelle did not get along very well with other kids in school. She felt inferior and led a lonely life. However, late in childhood she discovered a way to be popular. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Like Sarah, she bought the trendiest clothes, had the best hair, and the most stylish shoes. She had never thought of a connection between those school days in the party house and her current behaviour. However, all along in her head she was carrying the outline of her life in drama. Act I: The setup. Fun and Guilt in the party house. Act II: An outbreak of script. Fun and Guilt While Drunk and Irresponsible. Act III: The payoff. Denunciation and Ruin. She loses everything—husband, children, and position. Act VI: The final release. Suicide. Then everybody feels sorry and forgives her. Both Isabella and Sarah lived in their peaceful countersscripts with a feeling of impending doom. The script was a tragic drama which would bring them release and reconciliation. The difference was that Sarah was waiting patiently for an act of God to fulfill her destiny—salvation; while Isabella, propelled by the compulsion of her inner demon, was hurrying impatiently towards hers—damnation, death, and forgiveness. Thus, from the same beginnings (“popular videos girls”) these two women were moving by diverse means to different ends. The psychotherapist is sitting in his office like a wise man and is getting paid to do something about all this. If somebody dies, both Sarah and Isabella will be free, but his job is to find a better way to free them. He leaves his office and walks down the street past the stockbroker’s, the taxi stand, and the saloon. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
Nearly everybody he sees is waiting for a Big Killing. In the grocery store a woman is shouting at her daughter: “How many times have I got to tell you not to touch that?” while somebody admires her little boy: “Isn’t he cute!” When he gets to the hospital, a paranoid says: “How do I get out of here, doctor?” A depressive says: “What am I living for?” and a schizophrenic answers: “Don’t diet, liveit. I’ not really that stupid.” That’s what they all said yesterday. They’re stuck, while the ones on the outside are still hoping. “Shall we increase his dose of medication?” asks a medical student. Dr. Q turns to the schizophrenic and looks him in the eye. The schizophrenic looks back at him. “Shall we increase your medication?” asks Dr. Q. The boy thinks a while and then replied: “No.” Dr. Q puts out his hand and says: “Hello.” The schizophrenic shakes hands with him and says: “Hello.” Then they both turn to the medical student, and Dr. Q says: “Hello.” The medical student looks flustered, but five years later, at a psychiatric meeting, he walks up to Dr. Q and says: “Hi, Dr. Q. Hello.” We experience the World in a variety of ways, or modes, all of which are essential for the fullest personal functioning. The most fundamental mode of experiencing is perception. Our sense organs, like the radio with many stations, permit us to receive a many-faceted disclosure of the World. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
With our eyes, we receive the impressions of things that are transmitted by light refraction. Our ears receive the sound of things, brought about by vibration. With our olfactory and tastes receptors, we receive the scents of flavours emitted by things, and our touch receptors receive impression produced by direct physical contact—texture, pressure, and pain. The state of our muscles and joints and the location of our arms, hands, legs, and feet are communicated to our reflective awareness by means of kinesthetic sense organs. Our position in relation to vertical posture is mediated by receptors located in the semicircular canal of our ears (equilibratory senses). Finally, the condition of our body—its comfort and discomfort, our fullness and emptiness, the need to eliminate—is detected and received by visceral receptors located in our stomach, intestines, and other hollow organs of the body. A most unique and important development in this history of the reflective consciousness of the human is seen in the biofeedback movement. The enthusiastic advocates of this approach have been able to successfully demonstrate that the person can control many more internal functions once he or she is heled to “hear” or “perceive” them with a range of instruments. Thus, persons can speed up or slow down their respiration rate, their heartbeat, and even their blood pressure. We consider this to be a significant step in the development of the human being’s independence through knowledge of self—in this case, knowledge of internal physical aspects of self. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
“Know thyself,” originally found on the temples of Isis and Osiris in North Africa, has become a commandment of the humanistic movement. Its history and its current usage in biofeedback suggest further ways in which a person can control and maximize the self. What we perceive, and the sensory modalities by means of which we receive disclosure, depend on what is there, what we have been told is there, and on our needs and projects of the moment. The salient figure in our field of perception is always related to our immediate needs and goals. Everything else is blurred into the background of experiencing. When we perceive, that is, receive the disclosure of, something, we always give it meaning. We name the objects and person in the World and make inferences about what the World is “promising” or “threatening” to do to us. We experience the World “inviting” us to do some things and not others and to be in some way. Perception, whether visual, tactual, auditory, or visceral, is kind of hearing. All our sense organs function in a way analogous to the hearing of speech. In a profound sense, we do not merely see the World; we read the World as we read a sign or a letter. Just as writing is a form of speech, so seeing something and calling it an Ultimate Driving Machine is analogous to the BMW saying, “I am an Ultimate Driving Machine; drive me.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
If all our sense organs are variable ways of hearing, then there is a sense in which our entire body functions as a voice, speaking our replies to the “voices” of the things and beings heard in the World. Our acts, seen by ourselves or by others, have meanings equivalent to speech. To kiss someone can be another way of saying, “I am found of you,” and it can mean “hello” or “good-bye.” The act of giving meaning to the perceived beings in our World is called construing. As indicated earlier, construing is a kind of listening. We give the meanings to things in the World that our parents and teachers have given them. If mice are frightening to our mothers, then we will hear mice say “Beware,” metaphorically speaking, every time we see them. There is a sense, more than metaphorical, in which the World speaks with a voice, with warnings and invitations. Some whole systems of humanistic psychology have been based upon perception, notably that created by Snygg and Combs, and by Combs, Richards, and Richards. They have suggested that all behaviour of humans can best be understood in terms of the subject’s perceptions of self and of the outside World. Thus, a teacher who knows that a child in kindergarten has seen running water only in a health clinic understands why the child would run away at the first sight of the tiled bathroom. The child is perceiving it as a place to be hurt. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
Knowing that your roommate perceives something you say as an insult enables you to understand his or her refusal to talk to you. Our behaviour and that of others can be best understood in the light of the perception of the event or activity. Dramatic differences in the way two persons behave amid the same event are explainable in terms of their differing perceptions. Your father may perceive your current boyfriend as someone who is taking his daughter away from him; you will perceive the boyfriend as a white knight from the Crusades. The differences in perception will demand difference in behaviour between your father and yourself in relationship to the boyfriend. The first type of resistance, the open fight, is sufficiently clear and familiar to need no elaboration. Another type, defensive emotional reactions, is particularly significant in professional analysis, for there such reaction can be concentrated on the analyst. There are several ways in which a resistance may express itself in emotional reactions regarding the analyst. Sometimes a patients will have a suspicion that he is being misled. In others, the reaction may be an intense but vague fear of being injured by analysis. Or it may be only a diffuse irritation, or a contempt for the analyst on the grounds that he is too stupid to understand or to help. Or it may take the form of a diffuse anxiety which the patient tries to allay by striving for the analyst’s friendship or love. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
The startling intensity that these reactions sometime assume is due in part to the fact that the patient feels threatened in something essential to the structure he has built, but it is due also to the strategical value of the reactions themselves. Such reactions serve to shift the emphasis from the essential job of finding causes and effects to the much safer business of an emotional situation with the analyst. Instead of going after his own problem the patient concentrates his efforts on convincing the analysts, winning him over, proving him wrong, thwarting his endeavours, punishing him for having intruded into territory that is tabu. And along with this shift of emphasis the patient either blames the analyst for all his difficulties, convincing himself that he cannot progress with anyone who treats him with so little understanding and fairness, or puts all responsibility for work on the analyst, becoming himself inert and unresponsive. Needless to add, these emotional battles may go on undercover, and it may take a great deal of analytical work to bring them to the patient’s awareness. When they are thus repressed only the resulting blockage makes itself felt. Thus we can now say with some assurance and factual backing that a relationship characterized by a high degree of congruence or genuineness in the counselor, by sensitive and accurate empathy on the part of the counselor, by a high degree of regard, respect and liking for the client by the counselor, and by an absence of conditionality in this regard, will have a high probability of being an effective, growth-promoting relationship. This statement holds, whether we are speaking of maladjusted individuals who come to their own initiative seeking help, or whether we are speaking of chronically schizophrenic persons with no conscious desire for help. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
This statement also holds whether these attitudinal elements are rated by impartial observers who listen to samples of the recorded interviews, or whether they are measure in terms of the counselor’s perception of the qualities he has offered in the relationship or whether they are least in the case of the nonhospitalized client. To me it seems to be quite a forward stride to be able to make statements such as these in an area as complex and subtle as the field of helping relationships. These studies have significant implications for the training of counselors and therapists. To the extent that the counselor is seen as being involved in interpersonal relationships, and to the extent that the goal of those relationships is to promote healthy development, then certain conclusions would seem to follow. It would mean that we could endeavour to select individuals for such training who already possess, in their ordinary relationships with other people, a high degree of the qualities I have described. We would want people who were warm, spontaneous, real, understanding, and non-judgmental. We would also endeavour so to plan the educational program for these individuals that they would come increasingly to experience empathy and liking for others, and that they would find it increasingly easier to be themselves, to be real. When the adept views those who are suffering from the effects of their own ungoverned emotion or their own uncontrolled passion and desire, he does not sink with the victims into those emotions, passions, and desires, even though he feels self-identity with them. He cannot permit such feelings to enter his consciousness. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
If he does not shrink from his own suffering, it is hardly likely that the adept will shrink from the suffering of others. Consequently, it is hardly likely that the emotional sympathy which arises in the ordinary man’s heart at the sight of suffering will arise in precisely the same way in the adept’s heart. He does not really regard himself as apart from them. In some curious way, both they and he are part of one and the same life. If he does not pity himself for his own sufferings in the usual egoistic emotional way, how can he bring himself to pity the sufferings of others in the same kind of way? This does not mean that he will become coldly indifferent towards them. On the contrary, the feeling of identification with their inmost being would alone precent that utterly; but it means that the pity which arises within him takes a different form, a form which is far nobler and truer because emotional agitation and egotistic reaction are absent from it. He feels with and for the sufferings of others, but he never allows himself to be lost in them; and just as he is never lost in fear or anxiety about his own sufferings, so he cannot become lost in those emotions or the sufferings of others. The calmness with which he approaches his own sufferings cannot be given up because he is approaching other people’s sufferings. He has bought that calmness at a heavy price—it is too precious to be thrown away for anything. And because the pity which he feels in his heart is not mixed up with emotional excitement or personal fear, his mind is not obscured by these excrescences, and is able to see what needs to be done to relieve the suffering ones far better than an obscured mind could see. He does not make a show of his pity, but his help is far more effectual than those who do. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
Since the mid-1800s, even before Sacramento was a city, the Sacramento Fire Department has protected lives and properties of residents. The Sacramento Fire Department’s pledge to the citizens of this city is to provide the highest level of emergency services to mitigate incidents which arise form fire, medical, hazardous material, or environmental mishaps either on land or water. “There have been sixteen firefighters who have lost their lives in the fifteen years I’ve been in the department. I attend the funerals whenever I was able to. It’s a ought situation, because these guys are family, almost as if they were part of your own personal family. You take the death of a firefighter brother almost as deeply as you would a personal relative. After the funerals, there are no big station parties. There might be something at a battalion level, but mostly everybody just kind of goes their own way. As far as firefighters hanging out together is concerned, I don’t think it’s done as much as today as it was in the past. It depends largely on the geographical location of the station. Often you’ll work at a station where a lot of the guys live in the same general area; then at the next station you’re assigned to, everybody may life in twelve different directions from the stations. So it just kind of depends on the station. I got into photography shortly after I got on the job. It became readily apparent to me that fire scenes were areas of great excitement, and the photographic possibilities were endless. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
“There are continually things going on that the average person doesn’t see. When the fire department arrives, you’re looking at a very chaotic scene. Then, by the extinguishment of the fire, the rescue of people, and the evacuation of the building, we bring a more normal semblance of order to the scene. These kinds of things can be quite dramatic in a photographic sense, whether it be a recue or a heavy stream of water being applied to the fire.” 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 25 of 25
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The Winning of the West
Christopher Columbus was indeed looking for “spices,” but her most certainly was not lost. It is quite a special secret pleasure how the people around us fail to realize what is really happening to them. It is also possible to classify long series of transactions, extending even to a whole lifetime, so that significant human social behaviour can be predicted, both short term and long term, can be predicted. Such chains of transactions take place, even when they yield little instinctual satisfaction, because most people become very uneasy when they are faced with a period of unstructured time; hence, they find cocktail parties, for example, less boring than being by themselves. The need to structure time is based on three drives or hunger. The first is stimulus or sensation hunger. Far from trying to avoid stimulating situations, as some people have claimed, most organisms, including human beings, seek them out. The need for sensation is the reason why roller coasters make money and why prisoners will do almost anything to avoid solitary confinement. The second drive is recognition hunger, the quest for special kinds of sensations which can only be supplied by another human being, or in some cases, by other terrestrial beings. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
That is why milk is not enough for baby monkeys and human infants; they also need the sound and smell and warmth and touch of mothering or else they will wither away, just as grownups do if there is no one to say Hello to them. The third hunger is structure hunger, which is why groups tend to grow into organizations, and why time-structures are among the most sought after and the most highly rewarded members of any society. An interesting example combining both stimulus hunger and structure hunger is found among rodents raised in a state of sensory deprivation, that is, in complete darkness, or in a constantly lighted white cage with no variation. Later in the lives of these animals, after they had been put in ordinary cages with “normal” rodents, it was found that they would go to food in a maze if it were placed on a checkerboard, but they would not go to food is it was placed on a simple background. Normally raised rodents would go to the food regardless of the background. This showed that the hunger of the deprived rodents for a structured stimulus was more important than their hunger for food. The experimenters concluded that the need for structured stimuli (of as they put it, for “perceptual experience”) may involve biological processes just as basic as food hunger, and that the effects of early sensory deprivation may persist throughout life in the form of a strong attraction to complicated stimuli. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
There are four basic classifications for the short-term structuring of time in human social behaviour, with two limiting cases. Thus, if two or more people are in a room together, they have six possible kinds of social behaviour to choose from. At one extreme the limiting cases is withdrawal, in which the people do not overtly communicate with each other. This may occur in such diverse situations as a subway train or a therapy ground of withdrawn schizophrenics. Next to withdrawal, in which everyone remains wrapped in his own thoughts, the safest form of social actions is rituals. These are highly stylized interchanges which may be informal or may be formalized into ceremonies which are completely predictable. The transactions which make up rituals covey little information, but are more in the nature of signs of mutual recognition. The units of a ritual are called strokes, by analogy with the way in which infants are recognized by their mothers. Rituals are programmed from outside by tradition and social custom. The next safest forms of social action are called activities, what is commonly called work, in which the transactions are programmed by the material that is being worked with, whether it be wood and concrete, or problems in arithmetic. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
Work transactions are typically Adult-to-Adult, oriented toward the external reality—that is, the subject of the activity. Next in the order are pastimes, which are not as stylized and predictable as rituals, but have a certain repetitive quality and are in the nature of multiple-choice, sentence-completion interchanges, such as take place at cocktail parties where people do not know each other very well. Pastimes are largely socially programmed by talking about acceptable subjects in acceptable ways, but individual notes may creep in, leading to the next form of social action, which is called games. Games are set of ulterior transactions, repetitive in nature, with a well-defined psychological payoff. Since an ulterior transaction means that the agent pretends to be doing one thing while he is really doing something else, all games involve a con. However, if there is a weakness it can hook into, handle or “gimmick” to get a hold of in the respondent, such as fear, greed, sentimentality, or irritability, only then does a con work. After the “mark” is hooked, the player pulls some sort of switch to get his payoff. The switch is followed by a moment of confusion or crossup while the mark tries to figure out what must happen to him. Then both players collect their payoffs as the game ends. #Randolphharris 4 of 21
The payoff, which is mutual, consists of feelings (not necessarily similar) which the game arouses in both the agent and the respondent. Unless a set of transactions has these four features, it is not a game—that is, the transactions must be ulterior so that there is a con, and the con must be followed by a switch, a crossup, and a payoff. We recently saw in example of this when the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from President Trump, then he was replaced by Joe Biden, whom everyone knew was mentally incompetent, and as time drew closer to the 2024 election, the con was followed by a switch, putting Vice President Kamala Harris in office for a crossup, and a payoff. This can be represented by a formula. C+G=R–>S–>X–>P (Formula G). The cons hooked into a gimmick, by all the sudden making it public that they wanted President Biden to step down because he was mentally unwell. The democrats then pulled the switch, by making Kamla the new democrat nominee by default because they knew she could not legally earn the ticket, this was followed by a moment of confusion, and both players got to collect their payoffs. Biden gets to remain president and Kamala has a chance at becoming the next president. Whatever fits this formula is a fame, and whatever does not fit it is not a game. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
For example, the mere fact of repetition or persistence by President Trump in running for re-election in 2024 does not constitute a game. This, in a therapy group, if a scared patient repeatedly asks the therapist for reassurance every week (“Tell me I will get better, doctor”) and when he receives it, says “Thank you,” that is not necessarily an ulterior transaction. The patient has stated his need frankly and has had it gratified, and does not take advantage of the situation in any way, but gives a courteous response. These transactions, therefore, do not constitute a game but an operation, and operations, no matter how often they are repeated, must be distinguished from games, just as rational procedures must be distinguished from rituals. If another patient, however, asks the therapist for reassurance, and upon receiving it, uses the response to make the therapist look stupid, that constitutes a game. For example, a patient asked: “Do you think I will get better, doctor?” and the sentimental therapist replied, “Of course you will.” At that point, the patient revealed her ulterior motive in asking the question. Instead of saying, “Thank you,” as in a straight transaction, she pulled the switch with: “What makes you think you know everything?” This reply crossed the therapist up and threw him off balance for a moment, which is what the patient wanted to do. Then the game ended, the patient feeling elated at having conned the therapist, and he is feeling frustrated; and those were the payoffs. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
In a sense, Kamala is the patient. She knew all along that President Biden was mentally unfit to run the country, but took so long to admit it because she wanted to pull the switch and throw the American people off balance. Now Kamala is feeling elated at having conned the White House and the American people, and Biden is left feeling frustrated. If Biden is unfit to be the democratic nominee, then how can he be fit to fulfill the remainder of his presidency. Furthermore, you remember President Trump predicted this would happen. Everything his says is truth and he often can see into the future. Some people will say, “President Trump lies. He said that he wanted to lock Hilary up, then when asked about it said that he did not say that.” Well, what happened is he said, “The people said that.” These people could have been his campaign contributors, and he did not send Hilary to jail. Therefore, Trump did not lie, nor does he. The game Kalama played followed Formula G precisely. The con was pretending not to know Joe Biden was unfit to be president, and the gimmick was the country’s sentimentality. When the con hooked into the gimmick, the American people responded in the way she expected. Then she pulled the switch, causing a crossup, after which each collected a payoff. So, C+H=R–>S–>X–>P. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
This is a simple example of the game called, from the patient’s side, “Slug Him,” or “Whammy,” and from the therapist’s side, “I am Only Trying To Help You.” Colloquially, the payoff is called a trading stamp. “Good” feelings are spoken of as “gold” trading stamps and distressing feelings are said to be “brown” or “blue trading stamps. In this case the Kamala got a counterfeit-gold trading stamp for a counterfeit triumph or success, and the President Biden got a brown one, which is not unusual. Each game has a slogan or motor by which it can be recognized, such as “I am Only Trying To Help You.” This slogan is colloquially called a “sweatshirt.” Usually, the same of the game is taken from its slogan. Beyond games lies the other limiting case of what can take place between people, which is called intimacy. Bilateral intimacy is defined as a candid, game-free relationship, with mutual free giving and receiving and without exploitation. Intimacy can be one-sided, since one party may be candid and freely giving, while the other may be devious and exploitative. Activities involving pleasures of the flesh offer examples which cover the whole spectrum of social behaviour. It is ecident that they can take place in withdrawal, that they can be part of a ritualistic ceremony, or that they can be all in a day’s work, a pastime for rainy day, a game of mutual exploitation, or acts of real intimacy. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
Theredore Roosevelt, who had been a Burgess’ student at Columbia Law School was also inspired why the drama of racial expansion. In his historical work, The Winning of the West, Roosevelt drew from the story of the frontiersman’s struggle with the Indians the conclusion that the coming of the whites was not to be stayed and a racial war to the finish was inevitable. “During the past three centuries,” wrote the young scholar-in-politics, “the spread of the English-speaking peoples over the World’s waste spaces has been not only the most striking feature in the World’s history, but also the event of all others most far-reaching in its effects and its importance.” This great expansion he traced back many centuries to the days when German tribes went forth to conquest from their marshy forests. American development represents the culminating achievement of this mighty history of racial growth. The writings of John Fiske, one of the earliest American synthesizers of evolutionism, expansionism, and the Anglo-Saxon myth, shows how tenuous could be the boundary between Spencer’s ideal evolutionary pacifism and the militant imperialism which succeeded it. A kindly man, whose thought was grounded in Spencer’s theory of the transition from militancy to industrialism, Fiske was not the sort to advocate violence as an instrument of national policy. Yet even in his hands evolutionary dogma issued forth a in bumptious doctrine of racial destiny. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
In his Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, Fiske had followed Spencer in accepting the universality of conflict (outside of family relationships) as a fact in savage society; he believed it an effective agent in selection. However, the superior, more differentiated, and integrated societies had come to prevail over the more backward by natural selection, and the power of making war on a grand scale had become concentrated in the hands of “those communities in which predatory activity is at the minimum and industrial activity at the maximum.” So warfare or destructive competition gives place to the productive competition of industrial society. As militancy declines, the method of conquest is replaced by the method of federation. Fiske, who had long believed in Aryan race superiority, also accepted the “Teutonic” theory of democracy. This doctrine sanctified any conquest incidental to Anglo-Saxon expansion. English victories over France in the eighteenth-century colonial struggles represented a victory over Spain and the acquisition of the Philippines Fiske interpreted as a high point in a conflict between Spanish colonization and superior English methods. In 1880, when he was invited to speak before the Royal Institute of Great Britian, Fiske gave a series of three lectures on “American Political Ideas” which became widely known as a statement of the Anglo-Saxon Thesis. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
Fiske praised the ancient Roman Empire as an agency of peace, but argued that it had been inadequate as a system of political organization because it failed to combine concerted action with local self-government. The solution to this ancient need could be provided by representative democracy and the local self-government embodies in the New England town. By retaining the rustic democracy of America’s Aryan forefathers, American federal organization would make it possible an effective union of many diverse states. Democracy, diversity, and peace would be brought into harmony. The dispersion of this magnificent Aryan political system over the World, and the complete elimination of warfare, was the next step in World history. With characteristic Darwinian emphasis upon race fertility, Fiske dwelt upon the great population potential of English and American races. America could support at least 700,000,000; and English people would within a few centuries cover Africa with teeming cities, flourishing farms, railroads, telegraphs, and all the devices of civilization. This was the Manifest Destiny of the race. Every land on the globe that was not already the seat of an old civilization should become English in language, traditions, and blood. Four-fifths of the human race would trace its pedigree to English forefathers. Spread from the rising to the setting sun, the race would hold the sovereignty of the sea and the commercial supremacy which it had begun to acquire when England first began to settle the New World. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
If the United States of America would only drop that its shameful tariff and enter a free competition with the rest of the World, it would exert such pressure, peacefully of course, that the states of Europe would no longer be able to afford armaments and would finally see the advantages of peace and federation. Thus, according to Fiske, would man finally pass out of barbarism and become truly Christian. Reverend Josiah Strong was dissatisfied with American’s spiritual life. He was against immigrants, Catholics, Mormons, saloons, tobacco, large cities, socialists, and concentrated wealth—all grave menaces to the Republic. Still, he was undaunted in his faith in universal progress, material and moral and the future of the Anglo-Saxon race. He employed the economic argument for imperialism; and a decade before Frederick Jackson Turner he saw in the imminent exhaustion of the public lands a turning point in national development. It was Anglo-Saxonism, however, that brought him to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The Anglo-Saxon people, the bearers of civil liberty and pure spiritual Christianity, said Strong, “is multiplying more rapidly than any other European race. It already owns one-third of the Earth, and will get more as it grows. By 1980 the World of Anglo-Saxon race should number at least 713,000,000. Since North American is much bigger than the little English isle, be the seat of Anglo-Saxondom. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
“If human progress follows a law of development, if ‘Time’s noblest offspring is the last,’ our civilization should be the noblest; for we are ‘the heirs of all the ages in the foremost files of time,’ and not only do we occupy the latitude of power, but our land is the last to be occupied in that latitude. There is no other virgin soil in the North Temperate Zone. If the consummation of human progress is not to be looked for here, if there is yet to flower a higher civilization, where is the soil that is to produce it?’” Strong went on to show how a new and finer physical type was emerging in the United States of America, bigger, stronger, taller, than Scots or Englishmen. Darwin himself, Strong noted triumphantly, had seen in the superior vigor of Americans an illustration of natural selection at work, when he wrote in The Descent of Man: “There is apparently much truth in the belief that the wonderful progress of the United States, as well as the character of the people, are the results of natural selection; for the more energetic, restless, and courageous men from all parts of Europe have emigrated during the last ten or twelve generations to that great country, and have there succeeded best. Looking to the distant future, I do not think that the Reverend Mr. Zincke takes an exaggerated view when he says: ‘All other series of events—as that which resulted in the culture of mind in Greece, and that which resulted in the empire of Rome—only appear to have purpose and value when viewed in connection with, or rather as subsidiary to…the great stream of Anglo-Saxon emigration to the west.’” #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
Returning to his theme that the unoccupied lands of the World were filling up, and that population would soon be pressing upon subsistence in the United States of America as in Europe and Asia, Strong declared: “Then will the World enter upon a new stage of its history—the final competition of races for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled. If I do not read amiss, this powerful race will move down upon Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon the islands of the sea, over upon Africa and beyond. And can anyone doubt that the result of this competition of races will be the ‘survival of the fittest’?” Life is precsrious and unpredictable, and the only way to live it is to make every effort to save it as long as there is a possibility of doing so. However, we must put a stop to the idea that it is part of everybody’s civil rights to say whatever he pleases, and it should be illegal to burn the American flag. Indeed, it is part of the probability that the improbable happens. A real possibility means that there are psychological, economic, social, and cultural factors which can be demonstrated—if not their quantity, at least their existence—as the basis for the possibility of change. There is a reason democrats are allowing an invasion at the southern border. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
A violent revolution in the style of the French or Russian revolutions, which means the overthrow of the government by force and the seizure of power by revolutionary leaders is not currently possible for several reasons. First, there is no mass base for such a revolution. Even if all the radical students, including military marginalized populations, were in favour of it—which, of course, they are not—this mass base would be completely lacking because together they constitute only an exceedingly small minority of the American population. If a small, desperate ground tried a Putsch or a kind of guerilla warfare, its suppression would necessarily follow. Those who think in terms of a guerrilla war of the marginalized populations against the majority in the cities forget Mao Tse-tung’s basic insight that guerrillas can be successful only if they work within a population favourable to them. It need not be stressed that the real circumstances are precisely the opposite condition. Furthermore, it is most doubtful that even if the two factors mentioned so far did not exist, a violent revolution could succeed. An extraordinarily complex society like that of the United States of America, based on a large group of skilled managers and managerial bureaucracy, could not function unless equally skilled people took the place of those who run the industrial machine now. Neither the students nor the marginalized masses offer many men with such skill. That is why Kamala had to steal with election and they are allowing 20 million migrants to invade America. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
However, a “victorious revolution” would simply lead to the breakdown of the industrial machine of the United States of America and defeat itself, even without the forces of the state, which would suppress it. Veblen, in The Engineers and the Price System, already states this essential point over one hundred years ago. He wrote: “No movement for the dispossession the of Vested Interests in America can hope for even a temporary success unless it is undertaken by an organization which is competent to take over the country’s productive industry as a whole, and to administer if from the state on a more efficient plan than that no pursued by the Vested Interests; and there is no such organization in sight or in immediate prospect.” He adds an observation which is particularly relevant to today, when there is talk of revolution by sabotage and guerilla warfare. “Wherever the mechanical industry has taken decisive effect, as in America and in the two or three industrialized regions of Europe, the community lives from hand to mouth in such a way that its livelihood depends on the effectual working of its industrial system from day to day. In such a case a serious disturbance and derangement of the balanced process of production is always easily brought on, and it always brings immediate hardship on large sections of the community. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
“Indeed, it is this state of things—the ease with which industry can be deranged and hardship can be brought to bear on the partisan organizations as the A.F. of L. It is a state of things which makes the sabotage easy and effectual and gives it breadth and scope. However, sabotage is not revolution. If it were, then the A.F. of L., the I.W.W.. the Chicago Packers, and the U.S. Senate would b e counted among the revolutionists. To take effect and hold its own even from the time being, any movement of overturn must from before hand provide for a sufficiently productive conduct of the industrial system on which the community’s material welfare depends, and for a competent distribution of goods and services throughout the community. Otherwise, under existing industrial conditions, nothing more can be accomplished than an ephemeral disturbance and a transient season of accentuated hardship. Even a transient failure to make good in the management of the industrial system must immediately defeat any movement of overturn in any of the advanced industrial counties. At this point, the lessons of history fail, because the present industrial system, and the manner of close-knit community life enforced by this industrial system have no example in history.” It is important to consider the difference between the technical aspects of industrial society in 1968 and of Russian society in 1917, or even German society in 1918. These were societies which were by comparison much less complex and where, indeed, the apparatus of the government and of industry could have been taken over by intelligent and capable people from outside. However, in 2024, in the United States of America, what we thought was impossible, we are seeing take place before our eyes. RandolphHarris 17 of 21
We touch again here on the problem of violence. It is a most amazing and bewildering paradox that in a situation where violence is losing it rationale—in international relations because of the existence of thermonuclear weapons and within a state because of the complexity of its structure—it is looked upon as a method of solution, although only by a small minority. This popularity of violence is an outcome of the psychic and spiritual despair and emptiness, and the resulting hate against life. It is greatly furthered by the literature which portrays man as driven to violence by his innate and almost uncontrollable destructive instinct. On the other hand, the change in society cannot be accomplished simply by the publication of books advocating it or even by ideas spread by gifted speakers or orators. Unless such ideas can be translated into specific plans and actions, they may win the sympathies of several people who will, however, become even more disappointed when they see that these ideas in themselves have had no influence on reality. What, then, is the basis for the “real possibility?” Generally speaking, this real possibility can be formulated in a simple fashion: that it is possible to “move” public opinion to such a degree that it makes itself felt in the decision making of the executive and the legislative branches; that by its influence it restrains further expansion of the policies we are now embarked on’ that eventually it gains a majority of voters; and thus that those who represent the ideas of the new movement become the political leaders of the country. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
What are the conditions which form a real possibility to achieve this end? First, there are certain psychological conditions which have been on the increase for some time, and which have become still more visible in the American people. I refer to the widespread dissatisfaction of people of all classes and ages with our way of life—its bored and lack of joy. However, if it were not for the presence of a positive condition, namely, that of a longing for new directions, for a renewal of values, for the end of the dehumanized, bureaucratic method, for a new psychospiritual orientation— this negative psychological condition would be much less effective. The second condition is that our democratic system continues to function. Even though it does not live up to its promises, it is not insensitive to major swings in public opinion. Even our professional political bureaucracy—self-seeking as many of its members may be—wants to be re-elected and hence needs to pay attention to what people think and want. The first concrete condition, then, of achieving our aim is to preserve that minimum of democratic structure which we have got and to fight at every point where it is threated. The new constituency of the forces which want a new direction in American life exists already. It has such a great power as a potential precisely because it is not restricted to one political party, social class, or age, but comprises a wide sector of the American population, from conservatives to radicals. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
The Sacramento Fire Department is a team whose members are effective, empowered, and enthusiastic in their service. They have been recognized as regional leaders by their community, neighbours, and peers. They enthusiastically supported by their community, which views them with pride, respect, and confidence. Their mission is accomplished by a physically fit, healthy, and increasingly diverse work force, well trained in a in a multitude of specialized skills, and empowered with a high level of involvement in their success. Theu equipment is dependable, capable, and consistent with the needs of the community, embracing cutting-edge technology and emphasizing firefighter safety. “The Sacramento Fire Department has been very good to me, good to my family. I have excellent benefits, but there’s still a lot I desire. Coming up from Santa Clara, you want to see some changes, but every department has its own little ways of doing things, and you can’t make the changes. I went through the riots of COVID pandemic. I was in the at the north end. I saw a lot of destruction. They were doing it against their own people and communities. They didn’t care who they were destroying, because it was all in their own area. They were putting people out of business, their own people, and it was very said. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
“I was never really in a situation where I felt I’d never see my children again. I’ve learned from experience, and I know my limitations. Many times, in a fire you’re with somebody and then you’re not with somebody. They might have backed out of something happened. But I never really felt I was alone. It’s almost like having an angle there with you. I’ve been in situations where I was alone and I had gone deeper into a fire than I should. But I never really felt I was alone. It was almost life a tap on the shoulder: this is enough, back.” The Sacramento Fire Department core value is to always be respectful while keeping their community safe. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. Also, please remember to raise your children to love America, be patriotic, respect law and order, and to treat everyone with respect and dignity, but know when to say, “No.” Love of the divine is our primary duty. Love of our neighbour is only a secondary one. Behold, I am prepared, ready to fulfill the commandments of my Creator. 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 21 of 21
The Winchester Mystery House
Day by day, the amazing manifestations of Mrs. Winchester’s tormenting spirits were noted down. In between the new and full moon disturbances in Llanada Villa were worse. It is no secret that Mrs. Winchester was being treated by psychic experts. One night after a particularly exciting day, Florence Farr magnetized her head and quietened her, and suggested that Mrs. Winchester should go to bed. Going up the stairs a small table and a crystal vase crashed over, and a little later a great noise of banging and tearing was heard in Mrs. Winchester’s room. When Florence went into the room, it looked as if a tornado had swept over it.
While touring The Winchester Mystery House, mysterious ceremonies may infuse, as it were, something of a ritual during the Victorian times, and the Devil himself may appear in the form of a human being. Join us for our summer Flashlight Tour, happening for one night only. Do not miss out or you will be left in the dark…literally! Our Final Flashlight tour of the year 27 July 2024. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
The Big, Blonde, Democratic Teuton
The expression of compassion for others is the essence of the gospel of Jesus as the Christ. It is meaningful to observe that Jesus’s compassionate acts were not occasional, nor mandated manifestations based on a list of tasks to be completed but everyday expressions of the reality of His pure love for God and His children and His abiding desire to help. One of the most poignant examples of kindness in the Christian Bible is when Jesus showed compassion at the grave of Lazarus. When Jesus saw Lazarus’ friends weeping, he wept alongside them (John 11.33-35). Over and over, our Lord Jesus felt compassion on people, healing them and comforting them. He saw the large crowd as sheep without a shepherd and he came to give them purpose and shelter. As the Son of God, Jesus possessed more than we can ever imagine. Even so, he gave up everything, voluntarily and selflessly sacrificing Himself for us so that we can have eternal life. In that sacrifice, we see the greatest example of compassion in the Bible. The stories of compassion in the Bible should motivate us to put compassion into action. Those who cannot make the leap and rise above human love to their higher self—with its impersonality and immateriality—may continue to draw a happiness from it. However, the limitations will be there, inexorable, unconquerable, of time and body, relativity, and change. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
One of the most important scriptures in the Bible is Hebrews 13.2, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Now, what are angels? Angels are messengers of God. Therefore, what this scripture could also mean is to show compassion to others, not only does how you treat people reflect on your and your family, but you could also be entertaining people who have great power and influence in this World. If you want to get ahead in life, the right way, it is important that people see you as a good person. Fear weakens a man, hate destroys him in the end, but love brings him his best. If everyone in the World would practice universal love, then the whole World would enjoy peace and order. We must learn to rise above our emotions, and understand by this kind of love a state of mind, not a state of emotion. When two people confront each other, there are six ego states involved, three in each person. Since ego states are as different from each other as actual people are, it is important to know which ego state is active in each person when something takes place between them. The exasperating response is where someone who wants sympathy gets facts instead. This is known as a child/parent-adult/adult. Impudence is where someone who expects compliance gets what is consider a “smart aleck” response instead, in the form of a factual statement. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
There are 812 or 6561 different types of duplex transactions possible. For example, if we engage in only three transactions, and each time we have a choice among 6597 varieties, then we have our three transactions in 65973 ways. This gives us about 300 billion different ways of structuring our three exchanges with each other. That certainly gives us all the room we need to express our individualities. Since most people engage in hundreds or thousands of transactions every day, each person has trillions and trillions of combinations at his disposal. Even if he has an aversion to 5000 of the 6597 possible types of transactions, and never gets into them, there is still plenty of room to maneuver in, and there is no necessity for his behaviour to be stereotyped unless he himself sets it up that way. If he does so, as most people do, that is not the fault of transactional analysis, but of others influences that form the chief subject matt of this report. Since this system, in all its branches, is referred to as transactional analysis, what has been described above, the analysis of single transactions, is called transactional analysis proper, which is the second step after structural analysis. Transactional analysis proper gives a rigorous definition of the system, which will be of interest principally to those trained in scientific methodology. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
A transaction consisting of a single stimulus and a single response, verbal or non-verbal, is the unit of social action. It is called a transaction because each party gains something from it, and that is why he engages in it. Anything that happens between two or more people can be broken down into a series of single transactions, and this gives all the advantages which any science attains when it has a well-defined system of units. Transactional analysis is a theory of personality and social action, and a clinical method of psychotherapy, based on the analysis of all possible transactions between two or more people, on the basis of specifically defined ego states, into a finite number of established types (nine complementary, 72 crossed, 6480 duplex, and 36 angular). Only about 15 of these commonly occur in ordinary practice; the rest are largely of academic interest. Any system or approach which is not based on the rigorous analysis of single transactions into their component specific ego states is not transactional analysis. This definition, in effect, purports to set up a model for all possible forms of human social behaviour. This model is efficient because it follows the principle of scientific economy (sometimes knows as “Occam’s razor”), making only two assumptions: that human beings can change from one ego state to another, and that if A says something and B says something shortly thereafter, it can be verified whether what B said was a response to what A said. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
It is also very effective because, so far, no examples have been found among thousands or millions of interchanges between human beings which could not be dealt with by the model; and it is rigorous as well, because it is limited by simple arithmetical considerations. The best way to understand the “transactional viewpoint” is to ask: “What would a one- or two- or three-year-old child do that would correspond to this grownup’s behaviour?” Eastern philosophers are fond of pointing out how Westerns live with a “divided” consciousness, experiencing a gulf between mind and body, between self and nature. Divided consciousness is a chronic self-consciousness, such that the person is always aware of self. Whether the person is watching a sunset, enjoying pleasures of the flesh, or playing a game of tennis, he or she is always aware of self as the “subject, whereas that which the person is noticing is experienced as the “object,” as “out there,” distance from the self. Even our language, with its grammatical structure, encourages us to enter a chronic state of self-consciousness, of reflection upon our experiencing. A child, before taking on language, apparently has the capacity to perceive in selfless fashion. Eventually, the child learns to monitor experience and action, after having learned that he or she will be called on to give an account of thoughts and actions. The child is to become a spy or witness of his or her own actions, and is to give a report to parents upon request. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
As the child grows older, such self-vigilance becomes habitual, and the rift in consciousness that hinders spontaneity has been permanently inserted. When a happening fully absorbs someone’s attention, the person may re-experience the long-lost mode of unreflective, unself-conscious perception. This is a terrible way to live—always to be watching one’s self. The capacity to be self-conscious is unique to human beings, because of the relative seize of the human cerebral cortex. Doubtless, the ability to observe the flow of one’s experiencing has some adaptive and adjustive value. However, chronic self-consciousness is agonizing, and it destroys enjoyment of living; in extreme instances, self-consciousness can so limit a person that he or she becomes unable to act at all until having first checked and rechecked the proposed action or communication. When self-consciousness is carried to this extreme, the individual may become nearly paralyzed by doubt and indecision, as in a pattern of neurosis called doubting compulsion. When used to “mirror” self and know how you are perceived by others, the gift of reflecting consciousness is helpful. Prayer to God and His Son, Jesus Christ, was developed as a means of healing the breach in consciousness. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
The purpose of prayer is to help a person “transcend” the ego and experience a unification of self with all that exists. When such enlightenment and unification occur, the person becomes more capable of effortless action, grace of movement, and power of reason, because the person is not doing two things at once, that is, doing something and reflecting upon what is being done. Prayer is one of the greatest blessings we have while we are here on Earth. Through prayer we can communicate with our Heavenly Father and seek His guidance daily. Prayer is a sincere, heartfelt talk with our Heavenly Father. We should pray to God and to no one else. We do not pray to any other being or to anything made by man or God. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the water under the Earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,” reports Exodus 20.3-5. Prayer has been an important part of the gospel from the beginning of the World. An angel of the Lord commanded Adam and Eve to repent and call upon God in the name of the Son. “Wherefore, thou salth do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore,” reports Moses 5.8. This commandment has never been taken away. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
Prayer will help us draw closer to God. All our thoughts, our words, and our actions are influenced by our prayers. The experience of overcoming chronic fixation upon a self-conscious, reflective state of awareness, so that one begins to smell and taste, and remember and imagine with greater vividness, can easily be described as “an enlargement of the World,” a rebirth, or a self-unification. Yet reflection, or self-witnessing, helps a person to learn skills. Self-consciousness may rob action of its spontaneity and of its joy. The aim of healthy personality is to be able to reflect upon experience when it is appropriate to do so, and to engage unself-consciously like a child in action, and in personal relationships, when there is no need to reflect. Action is one way to obtain temporary respite from self-consciousness. Warm-up exercises, followed by intense involvement in a game of tennis or basketball, or in dance, enable a person to be engaged without reflection. Other means for temporarily suppressing the act of reflection include listening to music, engaging in hobbies, and absorption in a book or a drama on a video steaming service or DVD. Dialogue with another person that fully engages one’s attention is also a means of overcoming self-consciousness. When such dialogue is going on, each person is responding to the other without premediated efforts to produce a particular impression in the experience of the other. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
The Darwinian mood sustained the belief in Anglo-Saxon racial superiority which obsessed many American thinkers in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The measure of World dominion already achieved by the “race” seemed to prove it the fittest. Also, in the 1870’s and 1880’s many of the historical conceptions of the Anglo-Saxon school began to reflect advances in biology and allied developments in other fields of thought. For a time, American historians fell under the spell of the scientific ideal and dreamed of evolving a science of history comparable to the biological sciences. The keynote of their faith could be found in E.A. Freeman’s Comparative Politics (1874), in which he allied the comparative method with the idea of Anglo-Saxon superiority. “For the purposes of the study of Comparative Politics,” he had written, “a political constitution is a specimen to be studied, classified, and labeled, as a building or an animal to be studied, classified, and labeled by those to whom buildings or animals are objects to study.” If political constitutions were to be classified and compared by Victorian scholars as if they were animal forms, it was highly probable that the political methods of certain peoples would be favoured over others. Inspired by the results of the comparative method in philology and mythology, particularly by the work of Edward Tylor and Max Muller, Freeman tried, using this method, to trance the signs of original unity in the primitive institutions of the Aryans, particularly in the “three most illustrious branches of the common stock—the Greek, the Roman, and the Teuton.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
When Herbert Baxter Adams set up his great historical seminar at John Hopkins, it was with the official blessing of Freeman; and Freeman’s dictum, “History is past politics and politics is present history,” was emblazoned on the historical studies that came pouring forth from Adams’ seminar. A whole generation of historians receiving their inspiration from the John Hopkins school could have said with Henry Adams, “I flung myself obediently into the arms of the Anglo-Saxons in history.” The leading notion of the Anglo-Saxon school was that the democratic institutions of England and the United States of America, particularly the New England town meeting could be traced back to the primitive institutions of the early German tribes. Despite differences in detail, the Hopkins historians were in general agreement on their picture of the big, blonde, Democratic Teuton and on the Teutonic genealogy of self-government. The viewpoint of the school was given a fitting popular expression in 1890 with the publication of James K. Hosmer’s Short History of Anglo-Saxon Freedom, which drew upon the home literature of Anglo-Saxondom to establish the thesis that government of the people and by the people is of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
Wrote Hosmer: “Though Anglo-Saxon freedom in a partial form has been adopted (it would be better perhaps to say imitated) by every nation in Europe, but Russia, and in Asia by Japan, the hopes for that freedom, in the future, rest with the English-speaking race. By that race alone it has been preserved amidst a thousand perils; to that race alone is it thoroughly congenial; if we can conceive the possibility of the disappearance among peoples of that race, the chance would be small for that freedom’s survival.” Hosmer shared the optimism of his English contemporary John Richard Green, who believed that the English-speaking race would grow in enormous numbers and spread over the New World, Africa, and Australia. “The inevitable issues,” concluded Hosmer, “is to be that the primacy of the World will lie with us. English institutions, English speech, English thought, are to become the main features of the political, social, and intellectual life of mankind.” Thus would the survival of the fittest be written large in the World’s political future. What Hosmer did for Anglo-Saxon history, John W. Burgess did for political theory. His Political Science and Comparative Constitutional Law, published in the same year as Hosmer’s book, serves as a reminder of German as well as English influences in the American Anglo-Saxon cult; for Burgess, like Herbert Baxter Adams, had received a large part of his graduate training in Germany. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
The peculiarity of his work, Burgess declared, it was method. “It is a comparative study. It is an attempt to apply the method, which has been found so productive in the domain of Natural Science, to Political Science and Jurisprudence.” It was Burgess’ contention that political capacity is not a gift common to all nations, but limited to a few. The highest capacity for political organization, he believed, has been shown, in unequal degrees by the Aryan nations. Of all these, only “the Teuton really dominates the World by his superior political genius.” It is therefore not to be assumed that every nation must become a state. If we may judge from history, The political subjection or attachment of unpolitical nations to those possessing political endowment appears to be as truly a part of the World’s civilization as is the national organization of states. I do not think that Asia and Africa can receive political organization in any other way…The national state is…the most modern and complete solution of the whole problem of political organization which the World has yet produced; and the fact that it is the creation of Teutonic political genius stamps the Teutonic nations as the political nations par excellence, and authorizes them, in the economy of the World, to assume the leadership in the establishment and administration of states. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
The Teutonic nations can never regard the exercise of political power as a right of man. With them this power must be based upon capacity to discharge political duty, and they themselves are the best organs which have yet appeared to determine when and where this capacity exists. We see the beginnings of this, for instance, in songs like “We Shall Overcome,” which are living rituals, not just songs. A ritual like that of common silence as it has been practiced by the Friends as the center of their religious service could be acceptable to large groups of people; it could become a custom that every meeting of significance begins or ends with five or fifteen minutes of common silence given to prayer and concentration. It is not too farfetched an idea to suggest that, instead of prayers or patriotic formulae, classes in schools and special occasions in universities could be introduced by a period of common silence. We also have shared symbols, such as the dove and the outline of a human figure as symbols of peace and respect for man. There is no point in speculating about further details of possible common rituals and symbols outside church life, because they will grow naturally once the soil is prepared. In the field of art and music, there are innumerable possibilities for the creation of new ritual and symbolic expressions. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
Whatever new psychospiritual systems may arise, they will not be “fighting” religion, although they will be a challenge to those in the various religions who have made an ideology of religious teachings and an idol of God. Those who worship the “living God” will have no difficulty in sensing that they have more in common with the “unbelievers” than they have in what separates them; they will have a deep sense of solidarity with those who do not worship idols and who try to do what the believers call “God’s will.” I expect that to many the hope expressed here for new manifestations of man’s psychospiritual needs are too vague to form the basis of hope that such a development will happen. Those who want certainty and proof before they can take any hope seriously are right in reacting negatively. However, those who believe in the reality of the yet unborn will have more trust that man will find new forms of expressing vital needs, even though at this moment there is only a dove with an olive branch indicating the end of the flood. It is the rule rather than the exception in the historical process that ideas deteriorate into ideologies; mere words take the place of the human reality; these words are administered by a bureaucracy which thus succeeds in controlling people and gaining power and influence. And usually, the result is that the ideology, while still using the words of the original idea, in effect expresses the opposite meaning. This fate has happened to the great religions and to philosophical ideas; it has happened to Marx’s and to Dr. Freud’s ideas. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
What was Dr. Freud’s original system? First, it was radical thought; radical, in the original sense of the word, meaning going to the roots and—as Marx said—since the root is man, going to the very nature and essence of man. Dr. Freud’s psychoanalysis was critical thought; critical first, of existing psychiatric ideas which took consciousness as the basic datum of psychiatry. However, Dr. Freud’s thought was critical in a much broader sense. It attacked many of the values and ideologies of the Victorian age; it attacked the notion that pleasures of the flesh were not a subject for rational and scientific investigation; it attacked the insincerity of Victorian morality; it attacked the sentimental notion of the “purity” and “innocence” of the child. However, its most important attack was directed against the notion that there is no psychic content transcending consciousness. Dr. Freud’s system was a challenge to existing ideas and prejudices; it opened a new era of thought corresponding to the new development in the natural sciences and in art. It might be called in this sense a revolutionary movement, even though despite his criticism of some aspects of society Dr. Freud did not transcend the existing social order, nor did he think of new social and political possibilities. What became of this radical and critical movement after the first thirty years of its existence? #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
First, psychoanalysis has become very successful, especially in the Protestant countries of Europe and in the United States of America, while, until the end of the First World War, it was mocked and derided by most “serious” psychiatrists and by the public in general There were many reasons for the growing success of psychoanalysis. The fact is that the movement, ridiculed during the first twenty years of its existence, came to be considered respectable in psychiatry, accepted by many social scientists, and popular among many literary men, some of whom—Thomas Mann, for example—were quite outstanding. However, this academic and intellectual recognition was not all; psychoanalysis became popular with the public; psychoanalysts found it difficult to take all the patients who asked for their help; in fact, the profession of psychoanalysis because one of the most rewarding from the economic standpoint and from that prestige. This successful development, however, was by no means paralleled by a corresponding richness and productivity of psychoanalytic discoveries as regards theory and therapy. In fact, it many be surmised that the very success of psychoanalysis contributed to its deterioration. Psychoanalysis lost is original radicalism and its critical and challenging character. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
An ability to recognize resistances demands some definite knowledge of their sources and their expressions. Hence it appears appropriate to recapitulate all that has been said about the subject in scattered places throughout this report—often without explicitly mentioning the term “resistance”—and to add certain points that are of special interest for self-analysis. The sources of resistance are the sum of a person’s interests in maintaining the status quo. These interests are not—and emphatically not—identical with a wish to remain ill. Everyone wants to get rid of limitations and sufferings, and in that wish, he is all for change, and for a quick change at that. What he wants to maintain is not “the neurosis” but those aspects of it which have proved to be of immense subjective value to him and which in his mind hold the promise of future security and gratification. The basis factors that no one wants to modify one iota are, briefly, those that concern his secret claims on life, his claims for “love,” for power, for independence and the like, his illusions about himself, the safety zones within which he moves with comparative ease. The exact nature of these factors depends on the nature of his neurotic trends. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
In professional analysis the provocation for resistance is, in the great majority of cases, something that has occurred in the analysis itself. If strong secondary defenses have developed, the first resistances arise as soon as the analysts questions the validity of these defenses, that is, as soon as he casts any doubt on the rightness, goodness, or unalterability of any factor in the patient’s personality. Thus a patient whose secondary defenses consist in regarding everything concerning himself, faults included, as excellent and unique will develop a feeling of hopelessness as soon as any motivation of his is questioned. Another patient will react with a mixture of irritability and discouragement as soon as he encounters, or the analyst points out to him, any trace of irrationality within himself. It is in accordance with the function of the secondary defenses—protection of the whole system developed—that these defensive reactions are elicited not merely when a special repressed factor is in danger of being uncovered but when anything is questioned, regardless of content. However, if the secondary defenses are not of such vital strength, or if they have been uncovered and faced, resistances are for the most part a response to attacks on specific repressed factors. As soon as any domain is approached, closely or remotely, which is tabu for the patient he will react emotionally with fear or anger and will automatically set going a defensive action to prevent further trespassing. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
This encroachment on a tabu need not be a specific attack but may be result merely from the analyst’s behaviour. Any thing he does or fails to do, says or fails to say, may hurt one of the patient’s vulnerable spots and create a conscious or unconscious resentment which for the time being blocks the co-operative work. However, resistances to analytical work can be elicited also by factors outside the analytical situation. If outside circumstances change during analysis in such a way as to favour a smooth functioning of the neurotic trends, or even to render them positively useful, the provocation for resistance is greatly increased; the reason is, of course, that the forces opposing change have been strengthened. However, resistance can be provoked also by unfavourable developments in daily life. If a patient feels, for example, that he has been unfairly dealt with by someone in his circle his indignation may be so great that he refuses any effort in analysis to seek the real reason why he felt injured or insulted, his entire energy being concentrated on revenge. If a repressed factor is touched upon, either specifically or remotely, a resistance may be produced by developments outside as well as within the analytical situation. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
Measurement is important using the Relationship Inventory. The Inventory contains statements regarding the degree to which the counselor is acceptant, empathic, and congruent, and the client responds by evaluating the statement on a six-point scale from “strongly true” to “definitely untrue.” Examples concerning empathy are: “He generally sense or realizes how I am feeling;” “He understands my words but does not realize how I feel.” In relationship to congruence sometimes items are: “He pretends that he likes me or understands me more than he really does.” The Inventory is scored for each of the four attitudinal elements, and there is also a total score. The counselor is the most significant factor in setting the level of conditions in the relationship, though the client, too, has some influence on the quality of the relationship. Clients who later show more change perceive more of these attitudinal conditions early in the relationship with their counselor or therapist. The more disturbed the client, the less he is likely to (or able to?) perceive these attitudes in the counselor. Counselor or therapists tend to be quite consistent in the level of attitudinal conditions which they offer to each client. The major finding from all of the studies is that those clients in relationships marked by a high level of counselor congruence, empathy and unconditional positive regard, show constructive personality development. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
These high levels of conditions are associated with positive changes on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scales and indices, including ego-strength; positive change from the pre- to post-test battery as rated by clinicians working “blind”; decrease in anxiety scores and in a self-consciousness score; a higher level of Process Scales designed to measure process in therapy; and positive changes in counselor’s ratings. Clients relationships characterized by a low level of these attitudinal conditions show significantly less positive changes on these same indices. The client’s perception is the best predictor of change. This finding does not hold for the schizophrenic client, whose inner disturbance makes it difficult for him accurately to perceive the conditions offered by our conscientious and experienced therapist. With our schizophrenics, the rating of the conditions made by the unbiased raters is the best predictor of change. An unexpected finding with the schizophrenic clients is that low conditions in the relationship are associated with negative change in several respects. The clients not only fail to show constructive change but become worse in the judgment of clinicians rating their pre- and post-test batteries; show an increase in anxiety; are worse off than their matched no-therapy controls. Whether this finding holds for clinical clients who come for help has not yet been determined. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
As might be expected, more experienced counselors, when compared with inexperienced counselors, offer a higher level of these conditions, and are more successful in communicating these to their clients. Thus they are perceived as offering higher conditions, and their clients show more change over the course of the interviews. Many people are sent to counseling for romantic problems. Those who glorify romantic lover avert their eyes from the truth that there is a negative side to it. However ignored, it will one day come into focus. There is a common notion that love, to be worth its name, must be highly emotional and dramatically intense. That, of course, is one kind but it is not the best kind, which is calm, unchanging, and unexcited. The sentimental gush which is talked so often and so freely in religiomystic circles about loving one’s fellow humans is usually quite shallow and will not stand deep analysis. Nor is it the most important of all the virtues as such circles seem to believe. When a woman comes to a man for spiritual help or even spiritual companionship, he should not ask her for more than the chance to serve. Even if she is not conscious of having been sent to him for this purpose, or even if she mistakes the spiritual attraction for merely a human one, this remains true. It would be a spiritual failure on his part to ask for more then the opportunity to serve her. The service he gives must be given with a pure motive. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
Therefore, he appearance in his life is a test for him. Should he fall in love with her the test still holds good, but its character may change. He is to keep the relationship at a high level. He is not to attempt to possess her but to be content with knowing and loving her. He must accept the situation with calm resignation and complete nonattachment. Does the unified man have to like everyone he meets? Some students believe that Jesus as the Christ commanded us to “love thy neighbour as thyself” and this question ought to be answered with a resounding Yes! However, in actual life we find that some unified men succeed in doing this whereases others frankly do not feel that way nor make any such effort. To make the love of everybody else a compulsory ethic ought not to be demanded even from a quester, much less from the masses! To make the cultivation of goodwill desirable as a general attitude would be more reasonable. Even so it should grow naturally out of the cultivation, not be forced. When a man discovers that the same Overself dwells in his enemy as in his own heart, how can he ever again bring himself to hate or injure another? It is easy to believe more softness to be compassion. It is easy to deceive oneself in this way. However, a vigorous analysis of one’s thoughts and observation of their results in action will expose the very real differences between them. “Do not day: O God, I thank thee that we are better than our brethren; but rather say: O Lord, forgive my unworthiness, and remember my breathren in mercy—yea, acknowledge your unworthiness before God at all times,” reports Alma 38.14. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to providing citizens with a professional fire service that meets or exceeds professional standards and best practices from across the nation. “The State Department asked me to go to Russia and several other communist countries to speak about contemporary American literature to the writer’s unions, and to the English-speaking clubs of the universities. It was a great trip, because the Russian people are gregarious and full of subtle humor, though, before glasnost, the Russian authority seemed dark and pervasive, like a giant shadow. Consequently, I liked the people and the architecture but felt uncertain about the country. I kept asking to visit a Moscow fire station, and the authorities kept stonewalling me. Finally, after a week of telephone calls, they agreed to take me to one of their huge centralized fire stations where there are ten or so fire companies. This was pretty unusual, for the fire department is quasimiliatry, that is, run by and attached to the army, and they do not normally take Americans to military installations. A reporter came, but they wouldn’t let him in to the station, which was rimmed by a high wall, and he wrote a long story about it in the magazine. I was taken to a reception hall, where I met a group of pretty congenial officers, a general and some colonels, who ran the Russian Fire Service. I was pretty impressed, though I just wanted to talk to a few back-step firefighters. I wanted to hear what the Russian firefighters felt about false alarms or nuisance fires—if, indeed, they existed in that country. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
“I sat at the head of a long table and began talking about the problems of fighting fires in a large city, in overcrowded buildings where impoverished people lived, where false alarms were as frequent as changing traffic signals, where my one company would respond to forty calls a day, every day. I talked a little about the personal challenge of firefighting, the renewed confrontation, never really resolved, one fire after another. The general stood and pointed to a colonel sitting down the table. The colonel stood as the general related with great price that this man personally had been in more than a hundred fires. ‘Very good,’ I said, ‘congratulations,’ thinking but of course not saying, that to us in Sacramento, a hundred fires represented not a lifetime’s work but a single weekend in July.” The Sacramento Fire Department strives to sustain and improve the health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the citizens of Sacramento and to plan for the future development of the community. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember parents, raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus, respect law and others, treat others with dignity and respect, and the remind them of the importance of education. Every single thing they learn in school can and will apply to the real World. 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. Our Father, our King, be gracious unto us and answer us, for we are wanting in good deeds; deal with us in charity and lovingkindness, and please save us. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
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Does the Unified Man Like Everyone He Meets?
The greater the crime perpetrated by the leadership, the less likely it is that the people will ever believe their leaders to be capable of perpetrating such an event. Fictional character, Henry Regan, on the popular CBS television show Blue Bloods, confessed that when he was an office back in the early 1900s, that his officers would ride around and when they saw someone they wanted to terrorize, they would put on pink bunny ears and beat the tar out of them. He admits that it sounded so ridiculous that no one would ever believe them. If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the most crude and stupid things. The brutality of all national development is apparent, and we make no excuse for it. To conceal it would be a denial of fact; to glamour it over, an apology to truth. There is little in life that is not brutal except our ideal. As we increase the aggregate of individuals and their collective activities, we increase proportionately their brutality. In this World the nation that has trained itself to a career of unwarlike and isolation ease is bound, in the end, to go down before other nations which have not lost the manly and adventurous qualities. In 1898, The United States of America waged a three-month war with Spain. It took the Philippine Islands from Sapin by treaty and formally annexed the Hawaiian Islands. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
In 1899, the United States of America partitioned the Samoan Islands by agreement with Germany, and expressed its policy toward western interests in China in the “Open Door” note. In 1900, Americans took part in suppressing the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. By 1902, the Amry had finally suppressed insurrection in the Philippines; and in that year, the islands were made an unorganized territory. As the United States of America stepped upon the stage of empire, American thought turned once again to the subjects of war and empire; opponents and defenders of expansion and conquest marshaled arguments for their causes. After the fashion of late nineteenth-century thought, they sought in the World of nature a larger justification for their ideas. The use of natural selection as a vindication of militarism or imperialism was not new in European or American thought. Imperialists, calling upon Darwinism in defense of the subjugation of weaker races, could point to The Origin of Species, which had referred in its subtitle to The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Darwin had been talking about pigeons, but the imperialists saw no reason why his theories should not apply to men, and the whole spirit of the naturalistic Worldview seemed to call for a vigorous and unrelenting thoroughness in the application of biological concepts. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
Had not Darwin himself written complacently in The Descent of Man of the likelihood that backward races would disappear before the advance of higher civilization? Militarists could also point to the harsh fact of the elimination of the unfit as an urgent reason for cultivating the material virtues and keeping the national power dry. After the Franco-Prussian War both sides had for the first-time invoked Darwinism as an explanation of the facts of the battle. “The greatest authority of all the advocates of war is Darwin,” explained Max Nordau in the North American Review in 1889. “Since the theory of evolution has been promulgated, they can cover their natural barbarism with the name of Darwin and proclaim the sanguinary instincts of their inmost hearts as the last word of science.” It would nevertheless be easy to exaggerate the significance of Darwin for the theory of militarism either in the United States of America or in Western Europe. Neither the philosophy of force nor doctrines of Machtpolitik had to wait upon Darwin to make their appearance. Nor was racism strictly a post-Darwinian phenomenon. Gobineau’s Essai sur L’Inegalite des Races Humanies, a landmark in the history of Aryanism, was published in 1835-55 without benefit of the idea of natural selection. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
As for the United States of America, a people long familiar with Indian warfare on the frontier and the pro-slavery arguments of Southern politicians and publicists had been thoroughly grounded in notions of racial superiority. At the time when Darwin was still hesitantly outlining his theory in private, racial destiny had already been called upon by American expansionists to support the conquest of Mexico. “The Mexican race now see in the fate of the aborigines of the north, their own inevitably destiny,” an expansionist had written. “They must amalgamate or be lost in the superior vigor of the Anglo-Saxon race, or they must utterly perish.” This Anglo-Saxon doctrine because the chief element in American racism in the imperial era; but the mystique of Anglo-Saxonism, which for a time had a particularly powerful grip on American historians, did not depend upon Darwinism either for its inception or for its development. It is doubtful that such monuments of English Anglo-Saxon historical writings as Edward Augustus Freeman’s History of the Norman Conquest of England (1867-79) or Charles Kingsley’s The Roman and the Teuton (1864) owed much to biology; and certainly John Mitchell Kemble’s The Saxons in England in England (1849) was not inspired by the survival of the fittest. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
Like other varieties of racism, Anglo-Saxonism was a product of nationalism and the romantic movement rather than an outgrowth of biological science. Even the idea that a nation is an organism that must either grow or fall into decay, which doubtless received an additional impetus from Darwinism, had been invoked before 1859 by the proponents of “Manifest Destiny.” Still, Darwinism was put in the service of the imperial urge. Although Darwinism was not the primary source of the belligerent ideology and dogmatic racism of the late nineteenth century, it did become a new instrument in the hands of the theorists of race and struggle. The likeness of the Darwinian portrait of nature as a field of battle to the prevailing conceptions of a militant age in which von Moltke could write that “war is an element of the order of the World established by God…[without which] the World would stagnate and lose itself in materialism,” was too great to escape attention. In the United States of America, however, such frank and brutal militarism was far less common than a benevolent conception of Anglo-Saxon World domination in the interests of peace and freedom. In the decades after 1885, Anglo-Saxonism, belligerent or pacific, was the dominant abstract rationale of American imperialism. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
The radial humanists have the conviction that there is a hierarchy of values in which those of the lower orders follow from the highest value, and these values are binding and compelling principles for the practice of life—individual and social. There may be difference in the radicalism about the affirmation of these values in the practice of one’s life, just as there are in Christianity or in Buddhism among those who lead the monastic life and those who do not. However, all these differences are relatively unimportant beside the principle that there are certain values which cannot be compromised. I submit that if people would truly accept the Ten Commandments as the effective principles to guide their lives, a dramatic change in our whole culture would take place. There is no need at this point to argue about details of the values which need to be practiced, for what matters is to gather those who accept the principle of practice rather of submission to an ideology. Another common principle is the solidarity of all men and the loyalty to life and to humanity which must always take precedence over the loyalty to any group. In fact, even this way of putting it is not correct. Any true love for another person has a particular quality: for I love in that person not only the person but humanity itself, or, as a Christian or Jewish believer would say: God. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
In the same way, if I love my country, this love is at the same time a love for man and mankind; and if it is not that, it is an attachment based on one’s incapacity for independence and, in the last analysis, another manifestation of idolatry. The crucial question is how these new-old principles can become effective. Those inside religion hope that they can transform their religion into the full practice of humanism, but many of them know that while this may prove to be true for some sectors of the population, there are others who for many obvious reasons cannot accept the theistic concepts and rituals so closely interwoven with them that it is almost impossible to separate the two. What hope is there for that part of the population which cannot even enter the ranks of the living Church? Can a new religion be founded which has no premises such as those in Revelation, or any kind of mythology? Obviously religions are manifestations of the spirit within the concrete, historical process and the specific, social, and cultural circumstances of any given society. One cannot found a religion by putting together principles. Religions are founded by rare and charismatic personalities of extraordinary genius. Such a personality has not appeared yet on today’s horizon, although there is no reason to assume that he has not been born. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
However, in the meantime, we cannot wait for a new Moses or a new Jesus; we must make do with what we have, and perhaps at this moment of history this is all to the good because the new religious leader might too quickly be transformed into a new idol and his religion might be transformed into idolatry before it had a chance to penetrate the hearts and minds of men. And we then left with nothing but some general principles and values? I do not believe so. If the constructive forces within industrial society which are choked by a deadening bureaucracy, by artificial consumption, and manipulated boredom are released by a new mood of hope, by the social and cultural transformations discussed in his report, if the individual regains his confidence in himself, and if people make contact with each other in spontaneous and genuine group life, new forms of psycho spiritual practices will emerge and grow which might be unified eventually in a total and socially acceptable system. Here, as well as with reference to many other points we have discussed, all depends on the courage of the individual to be fully alive and to seek solutions to the problem of his existence without waiting for the bureaucrats or the concepts to give him answers. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
For Dr. Freud, as we have indicated before, growing civilization means growing repression—hence social evolution does not lead to the dissolution of repression but rather to its reinforcement. For Marx, on the other hand, repression is essentially the result of contradictions between the need for the full development of man and the given social structure—hence the fully developed society in which exploitation and class conflict have disappeared does not need ideologies and can dispense with repression. In the fully humanized society, there would be no need for repression, hence there would be no social unconscious. According to Dr. Freud, repression increases; according to Marx, it decreases in the process of social evolution. There is another difference between Freudian and Marxian thought which has not been sufficiently emphasized. Through rationalization one tries to make it appear as though an action is motivated by reasonable and moral motives, thus covering up the fact that it is caused by motives which contrast with a person’s conscious thinking. The rationalization is mostly sham, and has only the negative function of permitting a person to act wrongly, yet without awareness that he is acting irrationally or immorally. The ideology has a similar function, yet in one point there is an important difference. Take the example of Christian teaching: the teachings of Christ, the ideals of humility, brotherly love, justice, charity, etcetera, were once genuine ideals which moved the hearts of people to such a degree that they were willing to give their lives for the sake of these ideals. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
However, throughout history these ideals have been misused to serve as rationalizations for purposes which were their very opposite. Independent and rebellious spirits have been killed, peasants have been exploited and oppressed, wars have been blessed, hatred of the enemy has been encouraged in the name of these very ideals. Inasmuch as this was the case, ideology was not different from rationalization. However, history shows us that an ideology has also a life of its own. Even though the words of Christ were misused, they were kept alive, they remained in the memory of the people, and again and again they were taken seriously and retransformed, as it were, from ideologies into ideals. This happened in the Protestant sects before and after the Reformation; it is happening today in those Protestant and Catholic minorities which are fighting for peace and against hate in a World which professes to hold Chrisitan ideals, yet uses them as ideologies. The task of the critique is not to denounce the ideals, but to show their transformation into ideologies, and to challenge the ideology in the name of the betrayed ideal. The basic interest of transactional analysis is the study of ego states, which are coherent systems of thought and feeling manifested by corresponding patterns of behaviour. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Each human being exhibits three types of ego states. Those derived from parental figures, colloquially called the Parent. In this state, he feels, thinks, acts, talks, and responds just as one of his parents did when he was little. This ego state is active, for example, in raising his own children. Even when he is not actually exhibiting this ego state, it influences his behaviour as the “Parental influences,” performing the functions of a conscience. The ego state in which he appraises his environment objectively, and calculates its possibilities and probabilities on the basis of past experience, is called the Adult ego state, or the Adult. The Adult functions like a computer. Each person carries within a little boy or little girl, who feels, thinks, acts, talks, and responds just the way he or she did when he or she was a child of a certain age. This ego state is called the Child. The Child is not regarded as “childish” or “immature,” which are Parental words, but as childlike, meaning like a child of a certain age, and the important factors here is the age, which may be anywhere between two and give years in ordinary circumstances. It is important for the individual to understand his Child, not only because it is going to be with him all his life, but also because it is the most valuable part of his personality. Through careful study it is evident that two Parental components in most cases, one derived from the father, the other from the mother; it will also uncover within the Child ego state the Parent, Adult, and Child components which were already there when the Child was fixated, as can be verified by observing actual children. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
This second order analysis reveals that the separation of one feeling-and-behaviour pattern from another in diagnosing ego states is called structural analysis. The extent to which a person is factually helpless toward resistances depends not only on their overt but also on their hidden strengths—in other words, the degree to which they are discernible. To be sure, they may be discovered and met in open battle; a patient may be fully aware, for example, that he has a resistance against coming to analysis, or he may even realize that he is fighting tooth and nail against relinquishing a neurotic trend, as Clare did in her eventual battle for and against her dependency. More often resistances sneak up on him in disguised forms, without his recognizing them as such. In that case he does not know that resisting forces are operating; he is merely unproductive, or feels listless, tired, discouraged. And he is, of course, helpless when he is thus confronted with an enemy which is not only invisible but, as far as he knows, does not even exist. One of the most important reasons why he may not recognize the presence of a resistance is the fact that defensive processes are set in motion not only when he is directly confronted with the problems involved, that is, when his secret claims on life are laid bare, his illusions questioned, his security measures jeopardized, but also when he remotely approaches these domains. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
The more intent he is on keeping them intact, the more sensitive he is to an approach even from the far distance. He is like a person who is frightened by thunderstorms and who is not only terrified by thunder and lightening but reacts with apprehension even to a cloud that appears on the far horizon. These long-distance reactions escape attention so easily because they arise with the emergence of a subject that is apparently innocuous, one that does not seem likely to stir up strong feelings of any kind. Certainly, the professional person who holds the view that individuals are essentially objects to be manipulated for the welfare of the state, or the good of the educational institution, or “for their own good,” or to satisfy his own need for power and control, would not experience the attitudinal elements I have described as constituting growth-promoting relationships. So, these conditions are congenial and natural in certain philosophical context but not in others. Members of the psychotherapeutic professions can function as representative of prevailing views of truth and reality; they are not agents for enlightenment and growth, but agents of social control, dismissing dissenting perspectives as “insane.” A person’s perspective is vulnerable to being so altered, through contact with others, that the person’s action no longer serves his or her own need, but those of the other persons. When this happens, the person is said to be mystified. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
The idea that ordinary people can love one another, including those they have never met as well as those they meet day after day, is a pleasant piece of sentimentalism. It sounds well when solemnly uttered by ministers of religion before their respectful congregations or when published as advice by professional psychologists. However, where are the individuals who succeed in following it? If we look at history or at the cities and villages we already know, we find that the only form where something like it is discovered is that of organized philanthropy. This is excellent, this is commendable, but still it is not strictly love. Most ordinary people cannot get closer than this to the full sympathetic identification which another person which love really is. Only saints can achieve complete empathy; only they can wash the leper’s sores. For all others, the idea is vague and unreal, although convenient to use in talk at Christmas time. Karamazov, a character in one of Dostoevski’s Russian novels, drily said, “One can love one’s neighbour in an abstract way occasionally perhaps, even from afar, but in close contact, almost never…It is precisely the neighbour, the one who is physically close to us, whom one cannot possibly love. At best, one can love those who are far away.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
Now this may be a little exaggerated but it does speak openly of the difficulty many people experience in their attitude towards those with whom they are in daily contact. If they are forced to live with unscrupulous or unliked people, it is still more difficult. Then it will be all they can do to numb their revulsions. However, ordinary people must come to terms with their associates or have at least to take care not to show their dislike. They must particularly learn to endure others who are thoroughly repulsive to them. Unless they do achieve this capacity, there is no hope for the human race, which most otherwise go on fighting and warring until, with the frightful weapons now coming into its hands, it destroys itself. Such tolerance is still only the first station of the route to that active goodwill which the more idealistic persons who take the Quest seriously must try to achieve eventually. Many of them find it hard to each even this first halt. They are sensitive, they are often heterodox, and they cannot warm up to those whose ideas, habits, mannerisms, or orthodoxies irritate them. The Quester who does not eat meat, for instance, may not enjoy sitting down at table with those who delight in it. If he has the fortunate circumstances to do as he likes, he need not do so. However, most are not so free. He may put up with meat-laden table and its diners with bad grace or good grace, but put up with them he must. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
Or take another case, that of having perforce to associate with someone who indulges in frequent sniffles when such a personal habit is felt to be most repulsive. Again, if he is a Quester and if he is free to do as he likes and to avoid the other person, he is entitled to do so. However, suppose he is not free? Instead of straining himself in the futile task of trying to love unlovable people, it is better to learn how to give them enough goodwill to tolerate them. This is withing his capacity. If he must live with them, or associate with them, he must try to put up with them, which means trying to put himself in their place. And that is a most desirable spiritual exercise, an advanced stepping-stone toward love itself. The practice of goodwill helps the practiser by attracting more of God’s grace and shaping good character. The thought of it, habitual and sustained, helps those who touch, or move within, his orbit. The profound meditation upon it repays him with blissful feelings and mystical harmony. If a man can be nothing else, let him be kind to others. Each time he does this he goes out of his own little ego. He comes a little closer to expressing the spiritual self-dwelling hidden in his heart. Some people believe that love shown to a terrorist would call forth its like from him. This is a typical belief among mystics down through the centuries. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
When tested by experience, we find that it is successful in some cases but failure in many more. And where it fails it harms the criminal because he believes the more strongly that his crimes go unpunished, and it harms society because it is a misapplication of a good ideal. Everything, even love, must be applied at the right time and at the right place, for when misapplied even a virtue becomes a vice. We must not forget that wise old Latin proverb which warms us that when the best is corrupted it becomes the worst of all. The love for all humanity which many religionist professes to feel would not need much testing to find out the shallowness of its reality. The saint possessed by his higher self may, perhaps out of excessive kindness, be able to give it to the undesirable and the disgusting types. However, the more impersonal philosopher has a wide goodwill, which is not the same as love. When one’s love for another is of the highest type and leads to an expansion of understanding, compassion, and tolerance of others, he has glimpsed the greater purpose of personal love: how the surrender of his “heart” may lead to its opening to, and becoming united with, Universal Love. Being aware of the weaknesses or faults of another does not necessarily mean we love him less. It is an essential part of the message of love that we learn how to forgive surface characteristics by contemplating the essence of the beloved, to see what “is,” while also seeing deeper to what truly IS—the Divine evidenced in a particular form. Only when love ceases to be personal and becomes impersonal, when it passes out of the local into the universal, does it fulfill itself and attain its own unmixed and unadulterated integrity. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
The Sacramento Fire Department helps people every day. They focus on the value and safety of people as they strive for excellence in providing service to their neighbourhoods and community. “What does it mean to a firefight to work in low-income neighborhood? It means that most of the firefighters you find there are the most dedicated ones. They have a higher rate of activity, more fire activity, and they are in more danger. And there were times, not so much recently but five of six years ago, when some of the citizens did not appreciate us being here. Now that has changed. I tell this when I teach recruits in firefighting. Did you ever notice, when you get a kitchen fire in a nice suburban neighborhood, they make sure to put themselves up in the Marriott for a few months? When they come back, did you ever notice their house? It’s nicer than it was before. New curtains, new draperies, new wallpaper, new granite countertop. They probably lit the thing to begin with, either intentionally or they were just careless. Probably intentionally. Let’s face it, most of our fires are. What about a poor person? They haven’t got a pot to pee in. When you look at that burned-out hulk, you know they are going to be sleeping in that house tonight. So, the harder we work and the more diligent we are in fighting the fires in poor areas, the more those people are going to be materially benefitted. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
“I thank God I was born into a family with good economic means. These people are less fortunate. They didn’t ask to be born into a horrible situation, but they were. In a way, it makes you feel good to help people who really need the help. I think that most firefighters who work in those neighborhoods, whether they’re churchgoing folk, Christians, or whatever, feel the same way. We’ve had training and classes on the problem of AIDS and hepatitis B in medical emergency situations, and we take precautionary measures. We’re required to wear rubber gloves, and if it’s a situation that warrants it, we’ll put on goggles or glasses to protect our eyes. And we’ll even wear a mask or a bandanna to protect our lungs. I don’t recollect that I’ve ever been exposed to those two things, but I was on the rescue unit where there were a lot of medical emergences of various types, so I’ve been exposed to some things. And I’ve been tested to make sure I haven’t contracted those things. I did it on my own. I went in a could of weeks ago for a personal checkup and a blood test, just to make sure. I think all firefighters should do that one time to time. One of the nurses down at the hospital drew blood one a patient who had infectious hepatitis and ended up getting stuck by the needle and died. Our fire department takes pretty good care of us in that they provide us with nutritional training. They have our physical evaluation every year where they measure our body fat, see how much weight we can push, and have us do a series of push-ups and that sort of thing. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
“As this AIDS thing becomes more prevalent, if they have any questions about it, firemen should check it out. We fill out injury slips or exposure reports when we get hurt or get smoke in our lungs. So we would pursue thing new stuff through a doctor. If we have any question that we’ve been exposed to AIDS, I believe that guys—women, too—should pursue the testing for their own health” The Sacramento Fire Department continues to grow and evolve throughout their careers in public service. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember, parents, raise your children to love God, Jesus Christ, and America. Every child should grow up proud to be citizen of the United States of America. Also, we must remember to respect the property of others, respect law and order, treat others with respect, especially our elders. Real love is not something to be withdrawn abruptly when the person who is its object annoys or offends you. If the human race had not yet learnt to love its neighbour, it is not likely to take the farther step of loving its enemy. 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. Rock of Ages, let our song praise Thy saving power; Thou amidst the raging foes, wast our shelt’ring tower. Furious they assailed us, but Thine arm availed us, and Thy word broke their sword when our own strength failed us. Children of the martyr-race, whether free or fettered, wake the echoes of the songs, where ye may be scattered. Yours the message cheering that time is nearing which will see all men free, tyrants disappearing. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
The Winchester Mystery House
Energetic and enthusiastic scare actors who love Halloween and wish to join our spooktacular team for speaking and non-speaking roles can apply today for our 2024 Halloween experience! In person auditions will be held on Friday, August 2nd from 4pm to 9pm and Saturday, August 3rd from 12pm to 4pm. See link in bio for more details.
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/
The Devil Had Had Connection with them
“Yes, there at first, and then…” I waved my hand nonchalantly around the room,” here, there…several placed, actually.” Mr. Hansen straightened up, “Has she ever spoken? Have you ever tried to speak to her, Mrs. Winchester?” I frowned. “My dear boy, I do not make a habit of conducting conversations with ghosts. I consider just seeing the wretched thing queer enough.” Twitching my shoulders in a shiver. “I was sitting in the library in one of the big windows that had been opened to the night air. Suddenly my peaceful evening was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. I turned my head toward the door to see who was coming. However, no form was visible. The footsteps, however, came to the doors of the library, and ceased abruptly. Mystified, I waited for the someone to enter the room. Nothing happened. “Who’s there?” I asked. There was complete silence. Half-angry and half-puzzled, I got up to look around. There was no one in the dark hallway. I heard those footsteps plainly, but did not see a soul. Perhaps there was a secret entrance that I did not know about. There has to be some place where they can hide. These walls are deep enough to contain a secret passageway. When I returned to the library, I saw a girl in this room, although she was only a haze sort of form at first, not clear at all. Definitely a girl though, in her early twenties, I would say. I say her—it—again a few days—no, not days: nights—later, much clearer this time, almost as if her presence was growing in strength. I must admit, I felt quite weak at the sight of her.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
“That sometimes happens,” Mr. Hansen replied. “Manifestations of this kind seem to draw off psychic energy from their witnesses, using it to sap energy from the atmosphere, too—that’s why the temperature of a room may suddenly drop. Their presence has even been known to affect electricity.” “Extraordinary. However, you really are speaking of ghosts, Mr. Hansen.” “No, I’m still talking about unexplained phenomena. Please go with what you were telling me.” I began to pace. “I felt there was something terribly sad about this ‘presence’… as though she were searching, or perhaps just lost…my housemaid Eleanor also had an encounter. Is that not right, my darling?” “Yes, Mrs. Winchester I most certainly did,” replied Eleanor. “I came face-to-face with the phantom lady in the library.” “I’d be interested to hear,” said Mr. Hansen as he smiled at the question, not in the least perturbed. “The library is cold and rather unpleasant,” responded. “A girl. I’ve seen her lurking or hovering or whatever these bloody things do on several occasions. That first time, I’d come down for a book and there she was, over there watching me.” She pointed and shuddered as if for emphasis. “The sight made my blood run cold, I can tell you.” “Does she look like anyone you know? Have known?” “Of course not. In fact, that’s the horrible part of this affair.” Her features contorted in disgust. “There was something wrong with her face, her figure…something awful. She appeared…I don’t know—malformed. The eyes were lifeless, and lustreless, and seemingly pupilless, and I shrank involuntarily from their glassy stare to the contemplation of the thin and shrunken lips. They parted; and in a smile of peculiar meaning, the teeth disclosed themselves slowly to my view. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
“The white ghastly spectrum of teeth. Not a speck on their surface—not a shade of their enamel—not an indenture in their edges—but what that brief period of her smile had sufficed to brand in upon my memory. I saw them now even more unequivocally than I beheld them then. The teeth!—the teeth!—they were here, and there, and everywhere, and visibly and palpably before me; long, narrow, and excessively white, with the pale lips writhing about them, as in the very moment of their first terrible development. Then came the full fury of my monomania, and I struggled in vain against it. I felt her possession and thought I could never be restored to peace, given back reason. And the evening closed in upon me thus—and then the darkness came, and tarried, and went—and the day again dawned—and the mists of a second night were now gathering around—and still I sat motionless in this solitary room—and I still I sat buried in meditation—and still the phantasma made its terrible ascendancy, as, with the most vivid and hideous distinctness, it floated about amid the changing lights and shadows of the chamber. At length there broke in upon my dreams a cry of horror and dismay; and thereunto, after a pause, succeeded the sound of troubled voices, intermingled with many low moanings of sorrow and pain. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
“I arose from my seat, and throwing open one of the doors of the library, fell to the floor. I’m usually able to see through the outward layer of ugliness that so many things have, and perceive the beauty within, but it was impossible. I’ve had to clean up blood in the kitchen. I was told not to ask questions because it was safer I didn’t know anything. So I didn’t ask.” Mr. Hansen looked up from the typewriter with his reading glasses balanced precariously on the end of his nose. His face was anxious. His hand suddenly shook as with ague, as with terror. Her calamity, indeed, gave me pain, and, taking deeply to heart, staringly changes were wrought in my mind. During the brightest days of unparalleled beauty, there were no towers in the land more time-honoured than those of Llanada Villa. Our line had been called a race of visionaries; and in many striking particulars—in the character of the family mansion—in the frescos of the chief saloon—in the tapestries of the dormitories—in the chiseling of some buttresses in the armory—but more especially in the gallery of antique paintings—in the fashion of the library chamber—and, lastly, in the very peculiar nature of the library’s contents—there is more than sufficient evidence to warrant the belief. I did not fail to ponder, frequently and bitterly, upon the wonder-working means by which so strange a revolution had been so suddenly brought to pass. And now—now I shudder in her presence, and grew pale at her recital. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
An icy chill ran through my frame; a sense of insufferable anxiety oppressed me; a consuming curiosity pervaded my soul; and, sinking back upon the chair, I remained for some time breathless and motionless, with my eyes riveted upon her person. After some time, I found myself alone in the library. I knew that it was now midnight, and I was well aware, that my home was replete with horror—horror more horrible from being vague, and terror more terrible from ambiguity. It was a fearful page in the record of my existence, written all over with dim, and hideous, intelligent recollections. And like the spirit of a departed soul, a shrill and piercing female voice seemed to be ringing in my ear among the whispering echoes of the chamber. I knew this was not in the physical dimension and I had to learn how past events served as a blueprint for the psychic atmosphere that made such phenomena possible. The following day, I was winding up an important meeting. Mr. Hansen walked in the room. “Mrs. Winchester,” he said excitedly. “Do you care if I break a window?” “Where?” I demanded. “What for?” There’s a window painted black down in the basement at the back of the house. I’ve finally found about a thirteen-foot discrepancy in my measurements between the outside and the inside of the basement. I’ll have to break the window to see what’s behind it. I’ll pay for putting the glass back.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
“Wait for me!” I ordered. “I will be out in a few moments.” We went down into the basement where Mr. Hansen showed me a sketch he had made to scale and pointed to the stained-glass window with a cobweb pattern and thirteen colourful orbs. From the basement floor it could only be reached by ladder, but it was only a little above ground level from the outside of the house. “I’ve got to see what’s behind it!” “What is so interesting about that? Can you not just remove it from the outside?” “I don’t want to,” he replied impatiently. “The outside wall of the house runs in a straight line but down here the basement is all cut up into these rooms. There’s about a thirteen-foot space from that window to the outside wall or my figures are off—and they can’t be!” He pulled a ladder up to the window and climbed up with a hammer in hand. I stepped out of range of falling glass as he smashed one of my most precious designs, then, working with gloves, removed the remaining pieces from the frame. He turned his lantern into the aperture and gave a sharp whistle. “Hey!” he yelled. “You’ve got to see this! You won’t believe it!” He scrambled down the ladder and handed me the lantern. Then he waited in obvious excitement for me to climb up.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
“Do you see that room?” he shouted. “Look across at that other window!” I saw it. The room looked like a vaulted crypt. It was small and unfurnished although what looked like an old altar cloth and books in the corner. Just opposite the window Mr. Hansen had broken was an identical one and this is what we had noticed from the outside of the house. It was, likewise, a stained-glass window with a spider web pattern and thirteen colourful orbs, and was a twin in its dimension of the one in the basement wall. This was the most careful job of camouflaging a secret room that one could imagine. Mr. Hansen’s excitement was contagious. Minutes later we both climbed down into the secret room. Care examination proved that there were no other windows and no other way of getting into the room. If there had been a door, it was certainly sealed over with concrete. The entire room was brick lined. There must have been a trap door in the kitchen floor above to the hiding place. However, a new floor had been laid, sealing it off completely. We left the room the way we found it. Eleanor had been loitering in the kitchen even thought it was now getting dark. “You got a new room, Mrs. Winchester. What good did it do?” Mr. Hansen and I looked at each other with perfect understanding. “No good at all, Eleanor,” I answered. “The room is useless to me. Tomorrow I will have Mr. Hasen seal it back up.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
The Winchester Mystery House
After opening the secret room, Mrs. Winchester reported that she moved bodily among unknown entities, reading terrible books. There were horrible annals of other Worlds and other Universes, and of stirrings of formless life inside the mansion. There were records and chronicles of strange orders of beings which had people the World and frightful grotesque-bodied intelligence which people the World billions of years before the first human being. Many mornings afterward, she awakened in a fever and shivering at the mysteries her home concealed; trembling at the menaces the future would bring forth. She wrote endlessly of the hauntings that took place in Llanada Villa. However, these records, written on great sheets of a curiously tenacious cellulose fabric, were bound in leather, and sold at auction with all her belongings. Now, her history is store in vaults of someone’s private collection.
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/
There isn’t a Soul in Here
I was returning home late one stormy night. The loud claps of thunder rattled among the house. The lighting quivered about the pinnacles of Llanada Villa, and shed flickering gleams over roof top. There was an evil influence hanging over me; an evil genius or spirit seeking to ensnare me and ensure my perdition. One afternoon I was lying down on the bed with a book trying to rest. Before long I was asleep. Suddenly, I awoke with a feeling of horror that seemed to start at my feet and gradually work its way up throughout my entire body and mind. The room seemed to be permeated with something terribly evil. I could neither see nor hear anything, but I had the feeling that there was a presence there and that it was very strong and about to overcome me. A succession of vivid flashes of lightning revealed it more distinctly. The scenes of blood which followed shocked my sensitive nature, disgusted me with society and the World, and I shut myself up in a Llanada Villa where I pursed my favour speculations. Sometimes I spent hours in my great library, the catacombs of departed authors, in quest of knowledge. I have seen ghosts a few times. In various parts of the house. And in the garden by the Cupid fountain. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
These apparitions are the desolate souls of those unfortunates who have left their Earthly bodies in traumatic, or perhaps even tragic circumstances. Something must have created a power vortex—the whirlwind of negative and terrible emotions that act now as a magnet for unseen entities. Maybe there are more of them than I realize. The following morning, the housemaid laid my plate before me (scrambled eggs, bacon, and mushrooms). As I sat, casting my eyes down at my own half-eaten breakfast, I contemplated the situation. In the past, I was inclined to believe the someone had been smitten with the worth of a wealth widow; or rather a marauding Tarquin, had stolen into my home to violate my purse, and rifle my strong box, when all the house should be asleep. However, now I am prepared to believe that emotions of certain distressed people can be so strong at the moment of death, whether through pain, unhappiness, or shock, that an impression is left behind. An after image that can take years, maybe centuries, to fade completely. In any event, after breakfast, I went to the library. There was a fire burning in the massive stone fireplace. As one can imagine, the crack and spark of the aromatic logs, as well as the heat itself, were very welcome. I placed myself beside the hearth and relaxed into the delicious heat. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
When I was sufficiently warmed, I made my way through the ground floor rooms without finding a living soul. Curiously, I had not dismissed the servants. I discovered a mincemeat pie on the kitchen table, and on the massive gas stove a teakettle blackened now because someone had left the flame on while all the water had evaporated. I turned offed the fire and almost seared my palm lifting the kettle to a cool spot. Now I was truly terrified. I heard it. The sound echoing eerily in the bowels of the house. Something was coming out of the shadows. The sound of its movements sent shock waves and terror running through me. I turned and ran from the room. “Oh, God,” I cried in despair, “what is going to happen to me?” There was nobody to protect me, nobody to save me. I flew down the hall and hurtled to the front door. It would not open no matter how hard I pulled and pushed. I ran into the parlour, ripped aside the heavy drapes and tried to open the window. It would not budge. I looked at the storm-swept night outside and found even that preferable to remaining in my home. In a fit of rage, I picked up a chair and threw in at the window, gasping in astonishment as the chair bounced off the pain of glass. I could not run away. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Within dreams I seemed gradually to acquire a greater and greater freedom of wandering. I floated through many rooms in Llanada Villa, going through secret passages. Sometimes I encountered those sealed trap-doors in the lowest level, around which such an aura of fear and forbiddingness clung. The next morning, as I was in the library, I looked up from my book and saw a shadow on the frosted glass of the door. When I rushed out into the hallways only to see the door across the hall closing, imagine my irritation. I walked over there, intending to knock, and find out who was in the room, but I saw a shadow withing the room, bent over a table. For some reason this stopped me, and I returned to the library. The next day the same thing happened. Then the day after that. I then refused to leave my desk. I would not chase a shadow; he would not use me in such a fashion. I soon discovered that when I did not go to the door, the shadow remained in my frosted glass all day long. He was standing outside my door all day long, every day. Once there were two shadows. That brought me to my feet immediately. However, when I snatched the door open, I discovered two housemaids busy shining chandeliers, polishing floors and furniture. Of course, after the two housemaids had left, the single shadow was back again. It was there until five. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
I am not usually given to emotion. However, the next day I lost my temper. I saw the shadow before the library door and in a fit of rage, I order him away from the door at the top of my voice. When three hours had passed and he still had not left, I began to weep. I pleaded with him. However, he was still there. I opened the door and went across the hall and was startled at what I found. Shadows moved intelligently around the room, getting books from shelves and taking them to great tables, or vice versa, and sometimes writing diligently with a peculiar rod gripped in their hands. Afterwards, I saw them everywhere through the mansion; swarming in all the great chambers and corridors; racing along the vast miles of hallways. I ceased to be afraid of them, for they seemed to form supremely natural parts of the house. Individual differences amongst them began to manifest, and a few appeared to be under some kind of restraint. Hours passed, and night fell. I stopped by a covered form, and pulled back a canvas tarpaulin. “This is my butler,” I said. His body had been dismembered. I looked at the left hand first, saw the thumb and two remaining fingers. His face, empty and expressionless. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
As for the other pieces—the torso, still joined to the upper right arm and thighs, the right forearm and hand, and the two disjointed feet and lower legs—I was not sure. Then he vanished before my eyes. Shortly after this incident, many of the servants began hearing the door-to-nowhere open by itself and close again. This was immediately followed by footsteps of someone walking through the hall. At first, they would get up to see who it was, but there was never anyone to be seen. Gradually, we realized that these were not the footsteps of a living person. The visitor would come at various times of the day or evening, and then stay away for several months. Then it would all resume. We became used to these sounds, and hardly looked up when they became audible. One day the steps continued and then we could clearly hear someone sit down in the baroque chair in the morning room! This did not bother me, but it bothered some of the servants who held less broadminded views of ghosts. However, it soon because apparent to everyone that the footsteps were not always the same: sometimes they were soft and light, as if made by a young person, while at other times they were heavy, almost clumsy steps of a big man. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
On January 16, 1892, two servants were in different parts of the mansion busy with their chores. Independently of each other, the two women saw the same figure of a man suddenly appear out of nowhere. At first, the Parlour maid saw him. He was a big man, about six feet in height, and heavy-set, dressed in black, and where his face should have been was just a black mass. However, unmistakably this was a human figure. A few moments later, he appeared to a Kitchen maid. She looked at him, and could see right through him into the other room! The women both had the impression that the man was looking at them. As he disappeared toward the rear of the house, they realized they had not heard a single sound. Since the appearance of the man in black, the footsteps were not heard again, but the door kept opening and closing as before. This too must by no means be passed over that certain servants being seduced by the illusions and phantasmal shows of demons firmly believe and openly profess that in the dead of the night, Satan assumes the shape of a man. Satan, in the form of a tall, dark man conveyed thither, and most often leaves the house by way of the chimney. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
The Winchester Mystery House
The house had been vacant for many months, but people could not help visiting it, even though it was locked. They would go up to the front steps and peer in the windows. So many people were strangely attacked to the beautiful but bizarre Victorian house. Some say they were “called” by the house as if someone inside were beckoning to them. Over the months after the death of Mrs. Winchester, strangers who had passed by the house would speak of strange tales of music emanating from the empty house. Definite tunes, song after song played by skilled hands. Eventually the house taken possession of by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. However, Mrs. Winchester’s niece, Daisy, doubted that Mrs. Winchester would move out just because the house changed hands. She felt her presence, very much alive and wholly content to live in the house. In February of 1923, a stranger went to The Winchester Mansion and rang the doorbell. When the door opened and lights appeared, he claims that he had an opportunity of contemplating Mrs. Winchester, and was more than ever intoxicated by her beauty. Her face was pale, but of a dazzling fairness, set off by a profusion of raven hair that hung clustering about it. Her eyes were large and brilliant. As far as her black dress permitted her shape to be seen, it was of perfect symmetry. Her whole appearance was highly striking, though she was dressed in the simplest style.
The only thing approaching to an ornament which she wore, was a board black band round her neck, clasped by diamonds. He spoke to her, but received no reply. He advanced to greet her. On taking her hand, it was cold—there was no pulsation. Horrified and frantic, a scene of confusion ensued. The police were summoned. Because the house had been vacant for months, they are armed with guns. Once in the foyer, they switched on the lights. As they looked around, they saw no one. The police finally went back to where the man was standing, looking dejectedly at him. “There isn’t a soul in here,” they told him flatly. They tried to soothe him, but in vain. He was possessed with the frightful belief that an evil spirit had reanimated Mrs. Winchester’s body to ensnare him. He went distracted, and died in a mad-house. This was a fact not to be doubted. The best authority said that saw him in The Great Asylum for the Insane. Perhaps he saw a manifestation of some kind. A visual representation of Mrs. Winchester still lingering. With a house this old, it would be a little unusual is there was not a skeleton or two lurking in a cupboard somewhere.
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/
The Property is a Most Desirable Residence
Sometimes certain things happen in Victorian houses that are hard to understand. Llanada Villa is one of those places. I am convinced that there is another level of consciousness or activity of some kind that occupies my home. A juxtaposition between entities in physical bodies and those in astral form. When I first purchased the original eighteen room farmhouse, there was the most peculiar thing outside. A large barn, to the south side of the house, and a stone in front of it that looked not quite natural. Upon close inspection, I wondered whether perhaps it was not an Indian tombstone, or perhaps an Indian altar of sorts. It looked far too regular to be completely shaped by nature. The original owner had no idea how it got into the garden, nor did he know anything particular about the history of the barn. All he knew was that the barn was old. Inside there was a passageway, or cave, tunnel, call it what you will, leading from one of the stables out to another part of the estate. It was shored up by four-by-fours on the side, but with very thing boards on the top; and dirt and water was trickling down these broken boards at the top. The tunnel was about seven feet tall. It was quite tall. I heard some noises and was afraid to have anyone go in. After I purchased the property and started to expand my estate, I simply had the carpenters fill it in and raze the barn. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
It was now long after nightfall, my home with lit with a wan glimmer having no point of diffusion, for in its mysterious lamination nothing cast a shadow. A strange sensation began slowly to take possession of my body and mind. However, I felt rather conscious with a mysterious mental assurance of some overpowering presence, while some supernatural malevolence swarmed about me. A shallow pool on the floor reflected in the light, as from a spill, met my eye with a crimson gleam. I dipped my fingers into it. It stained them; it was blood! Blood, I then observed, was about me everywhere. Defiling the walls and were broad maculations of crimson, and blood dripped like dew from them. All of this I observed with terror. It seemed to me that it was all in expiation of some crime. To the menaces and mysteries of my surroundings the consciousness was an added horror. So frightful was the situation—the mysterious light burned with so silent and awful a menace. From overhead and all about came so audible and startling whispers and the sighs of creatures so obviously not of Earth—that I could endure it any longer, and with a great effort to break some malign spell that bound my faculties to silence and inaction, I screamed. My voice broke into echoes and fluttered away into the distant reaches of the labyrinth, then died into silence, and all was as before. This place becomes more queer at night. Often, I must persuade myself out of the notion that eyes are watching me. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
After that time, I often knew things before they really happened—such as who would be at the door before the butler answered it, or just before the telephone rang, who would be calling. From the very first night I moved into Llanada Villa, I felt right at home in it, as if I had always lived here. Even during expansion, if before me unknown horror or behind me, with heavy tread, something moved relentlessly upon me, driving me on and down; I found it easy to move along the stairs, and in the dark without the slightest accident or need to orient myself. It was almost as if the house, or someone in it, were guiding my steps. I was always acutely aware that the house was alive: There were strange noises and creaking boards, but there were also human footsteps, and there were those doors. The doors, in particular, puzzled me. The first time I noticed anything unusual about the doors in the house was when I was reading a book late one night. Suddenly, I heard footsteps on the ceiling above my bedroom. Then the door of the stairwell opened, steps reverberated on the stairs, then the door-to-nowhere opened, and a blast of cold air hit me. I looked up, and there was no one there. Annoyed, I rose and went to check the servant’s quarters. They were indeed fast asleep. Not satisfied and thinking that one of them must be playing tricks on me, I woke them one by one and questioned them. However, they had trouble waking up, and it was evident to me that I was on a fool’s errand; the servants had not been down those stairs. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
That was the beginning of a long succession of incidents involving the doors in the house. Occasionally, I would watch with fascination when a door opened quite by itself, without any logical cause, such as wind or draft; or to see a door for me just open as I was about to reach for the doorknob! At least, for now, whatever presence there was in the house was polite: It opened the door to a lady! However reassuring it was, it could also be frightening. One evening, I was reading in the library, and an intolerable discomfort overcame me. Through the thudding of my heart, I heard the stealthy footsteps of someone echoing in the distance. Then there was a sound behind one of the bookshelves that sounded like somebody suffering—making all kinds of noises. It hurled me into sufferings almost more than I could bared. I got up and started pulling books away from the shelves and that is when I discovered a panel. It was wide enough to be a passage, and the passageway itself was blocked with a piece of concrete; maybe thirty inches wide and forty inches long. Standing for a moment listening, I could hear a faint sound like a stumble from within. Although I was filled with curiosity to find out what was beyond the wall, it did not match the desire to tear the wall apart. I slipped noisily out of the library and flattened myself against the closed door. As the grandfather clock tick-tocked in a hollow monotone, I knew that somewhere in the thick darkness there was an apparition. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
For a time, which seemed so long that the World grew gray with age and sin, and my haunted mansion, having fulfilled its purpose in this monstrous culmination of its terrors, vanished out of my consciousness with all its sighs and sounds, the apparition stood within a pace, regarding me with the mindless malevolence of a wild brute; then thrust its hands forward and sprang upon me with appalling ferocity! The manifestation released my physical energies without unfettering my will; my mind was spellbound, but my body powerful and limbs agile. For an instant, I saw this unnatural contest between a dead intelligence and a breathing mechanism only as a spectator—such fancies are in dreams; then I regained my identity almost as if by a leap forward into my body, and the straining automaton had a directing will as alert and fierce as that of its hideous antagonist. However, what moral can cope with a demon? Despite my strength and activity, which seemed wasted in a void, I felt the cold fingers close upon my throat. Borne backward against the floor, I saw above me the dead and drawn face within a hand’s breadth of my own, and then all was black. Dazed with agony, I opened my eyes. The silence was stifling. And out of that unbroken silence crept slowly to my significance sharper than any outcry, the clock had stopped ticking. In my mind’s eye I could see the key in the clock door, and then slowly, soundlessly, I began to drift toward the clock. Six paces from it I caught the dim glint of a key in the clock—my eyes were now accustomed to the darkness—and then beneath my foot a board treacherously cried out in the stillness. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
I stood there, holding my breath and as I stood, I saw the clock door slowly open, and two fingers slid round the edge of it! Lunging, I flung myself on the door. There was a strangled animal cry from within the case, the fingers jerked and vanished, and I banged the door tight and turned the key in the lock. I heard pounding on the stout mahogany door of the case as I ran to the wall switch and flooded the room with light. Blinking, I started at the tray of trinkets untouched in the window. Then appeared a gentleman, walking alone in the hallway. Thinking he was a servant, I was just about to have a word with him, when he vanished. Suddenly, a coffee cup rose from a side-table, nobody being nigh, and flew to the other side of the room, breaking itself against the wall; for my further confirmation, that it was neither the tricks of the wags nor the fancy of a servant, but the mad frolics of witches and demons. The front of the house was so haunted in all the room, that they stood empty for a long time. In the latter part of the autumn of 1887, after retiring to my bedroom about eleven o’clock, I thought I heard a peculiar moaning sound, and someone sobbing as if in great distress of mind. I listened very attentively, and still it continued; so I raised the gas in my bedroom, and then went to the window on the landing, drew the curtain aside, and there on the grass was a very beautiful young girl in a kneeling posture, before a soldier in a general’s uniform, sobbing and clasping her hands together, entreating for a pardon. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
However, alas, he only waved her away. So much did I feel for the girl that I ran down the stairway that wound down into blackness to the door opening upon the lawn, and begged her to come in and tell me her sorrow. The figures then disappeared gradually, as in a dissolving view. Not in the least nervous did I feel then; went again into my bedroom, took a sheet of writing paper, and wrote down what I had seen. The following evening, a few steps from the living room to the rear section, which was the original portion of the house, a man suddenly appeared, striding towards me, and going in a direction opposite to mine. When first seen he was standing exactly in front of the fireplace which dominated the room. Young and ghastly pale, he was dressed in evening clothes, evidently made by a foreign tailor. Tall and slim, he walked with long measured strides noiselessly. A tall white had covered thickly with black crepe, and an eyeglass, completed the costume of this strange form. The moonbeams from the skylight falling on the corpse-like features revealed a face well known to me, that of a former butler. A housemaid was in the room with me. She stopped abruptly, as if spellbound, then rushing towards the man, she gazed intently and with horror unmistakable on his face, which was now upturned to the Heavens. She indulged in her strange contemplation but for a very few seconds, then with extraordinary and unexpected she ran away with a terrific shriek and tell. However, this woman never have I seen or heard of since, and I could not explain her presence, nor the man’s. A week after this event, I was in my bedroom reading my letters, and it was very, very late. News of the butler’s death reached me. Then suddenly, the door opened, and the butler stood there looking at me reproachfully. But, he had been dead for more than a week. I screamed and went under the covers. A housemaid rushed upstairs to see what was the matter. When she arrived, the door was wide open! #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
The Winchester Mystery House
It is possible that events in The Winchester Mystery House can be charged with such powerful emotion that their traces linger in the setting where they occurred. That may at least be the explanation for the ubiquitous sighting of figures in the Grand Ballroom or gibbets upon which they have been hanged—unless of course popular superstition has attracted presumed ghosts to these localities.
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/
A Succession of Lies Necessary to Make the World Go Forward
If you do not take interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools. From other quarters the principle of competition was defended with new subtleties. In the 1890’s, although competition was increasingly thrown on the defensive, two popular writers entered the lists on its behalf and once again attempted to fit competitive ethics into the evolutionary scheme. Two new currents in the intellectual atmosphere provoked a change in the tone of evolutionary apologetics: the growth of social protest evident in the Henry George and Edward Bellamy movements, the publication of the Fabian essays, and a growing general familiarity with Marxism; and in the field of biology the publication of August Weismann’s researches into the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Weismann had developed what he thought was conclusive evidence against such inheritance. If he was right—and most biologists believed he was—the Lamarckian features of Herbert Spencer’s philosophy were no longer tenable; men could no longer hope to evolve an ideal race by gradual increments of knowledge and benevolence handed down to their children; social evolution must be redrawn along stricter Darwinian lines; if there was to be any process at all, it must come from a severe reliance upon natural selection. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
Progress results from selection and that selection inevitably involves competition. Therefore, the central aim of a progressive civilization must be to maintain competition. For the great masses of men, however, for the underrepresented everywhere, the incentives to maintain competition grow slighter and slighter. That is why throughout history we have had swelling cries of protest. [Man’s] interests as an individual have, in fact, become further subordinated to those of a social organism, with interests immensely wider and a life indefinitely longer than his own. How is the possession of reason ever to be rendered compatible with the will to submit to conditions of existence so onerous, requiring the effective and continual subordination of the individual’s welfare to the progress of a development in which he can have no person interest whatever? Why should the red Indian or the New Zealand Māori, undergoing extermination before the advance of more progressive peoples, have an interest in progress? Or, more important for western civilization and its future, what rational sanction can there be for the “great masses of the people, the so-called lower class,” to submit to the person trials and tortures incident to social progress by way of the competitive system? #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
They are already becoming more and more aware that their individual rational interest is clearly to abolish competition, to suspend rivalry, to establish socialism to regulate population and keep it “proportional to the means of comfortable existence for all.” This antagonism between the rational interest of the mass-individual and the continued progress of the social organism cannot be reconciled by reason. However, let philosophy abandon its attempt to find a rational sanction for conduct—then the problem is seen in a new light. At the same time the social function of religion is made crystal clear. One common characteristic underlies all conceptions of religion: they revel man in some way in conflict with his own reason. The universal instinctive religious impulse serves this indispensable social function: it provides a supernatural, nonrational sanction for progress. All kinds of religious systems are associated with conduct, having a social significance; and everywhere the ultimate sanction which they provide for the conduct they prescribed is a superational one. Religion as a social institution has survived because it performs an essential service to the face: it impels man to act in a socially responsible way. Such an impulse is absent from all merely rational ways of thought. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
There is no rational sanction for altruism; its sanction is superrational, and runs counter to individual self-interest. No wonder that it is so often found in close association with the religious impulse. The altruistic impulse should be heeded, and is being heeded, for there is a growing tendency to strengthen and equip the lower and weaker against the higher and wealthier classes of the community. This is the best possible answer to the threat of socialism. Socialism, abandoning competition, would result in degeneracy and inundation by more vigorous societies. These effects of charities, and of the general trend toward strengthening the masses to compete by means of social legislation, is to stimulate competitive tension. Thus, the social efficiency of western society is increased. All future progressive legislation must lift the masses into this energetic competition. As state interference widens, mankind will paradoxically move further and further away from socialism. The state will never go so far as to manage industry or confiscate private property. From all this progressive movement will come a “new democracy” higher than anything yet attained in this history of the race. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
It was a peculiar mixture of obscurantism, reformism, Christianity, and social Darwinism that enthralls the masses. Among religious folk who want a rational foundation for their beliefs, among social Darwinists of older laissez-faire stripe, orthodox Spencerians, trained philosophers and sociologists, and rationalists of all kinds, they believer that the intellectual foundations of religion have slipped away from the orthodox church. They are not rationalists, most of them have never seriously examined the rational basis of their creed, but the disturbing influences of rational criticism have reached them in the shape of his vague uneasy feeling. Now these people, morally weak because they have relied upon dogmatic supports of conduct, are ready to grasp eagerly at a theory which will save their religious systems in a manner which seems consistent with the maintenance of modern culture. The state should equalize the chances of competition but not abolish it. Many people understress the tendency of the unfit, even without organized social assistance, to survive and grow more fit rather than suffer elimination. The wealthier classes have been inadequately understood in evolutionary philosophy. The great fault of current sociology is it speaks grossly of “mankind” or “the race” or “the nation,” without refining these terms into classes and individuals. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
With all the talk about the evolutionary progression of the whole mass society, Spencer and Kidd are guilty of disparaging the great man and losing sight of his contribution and achievements. They fallaciously belittled the stature of great leaders by attributing their deeds to the whole of society and its inherited skills and accomplishments; by the same logic the great masses of men could also be shorn of credit for their petty performances. The great man, in Mallock’s scheme, was certainly not to be identified with the physically fittest survivor in the struggle for existence. All you could say for the physically fittest survivor was that he manages to live; and while this does undoubtedly contribute to the progress of the race, it is slow and unspectacular. The great man, on the other hand, galvanizes society by acquiring unique knowledge or skill and imposing it on the mass. The physically fittest promotes progress by living while others die; the great man promotes progress by living while others die; the great man promotes progress by helping others to live. The struggle of ordinary workers to find employment is a social equivalent of the struggle for existence; it contributes but little to progress, for the greatest forward steps in the development of man have been accomplished without any improvement in the breed of its labourers. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
The industrial struggle that really promotes progress is the battle among leaders, among employers. When one of two competing employers succeeds in conquering the other, the working men of the vanquished are absorbed in the employ of the victor, and lose nothing; but the fruits of the successful leader’s skill are bequeathed to the community. It is, then, not the virtue struggle for existence but the war for domination among the well-to-do that results in social progress. Domination by the fittest is of the greatest benefit to society as a whole. In order to facilitate the process the great man must be impelled by strong motives and granted the instruments of domination. Fundamentally this is an economic problem. The great man can exert his influence by one of two economic means—the slave system and the capitalistic wage system, can do so only by founding a slavery system. They could not eliminate the struggle for domination; they could only enclose it in their cumbrous and wasteful order. To progress, a social system must retain competition between the directors of labour, the contest for industrial domination. No matter what happens to society, the domination of the fittest great men—capitalistic competition—must be ensured. Such men are the true producers. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
The fundamental condition of social progress is that these leaders be obeyed by the masses. In politics, as un industry, the forms of democracy are hollow; for whole executive agencies are designed to execute the will of the many, the opinions of the many are informed by the few. When we consider the problem of information in face-to-face groups, we must ask (a) how the necessary information can be transmitted to the group for which it is relevant and (b) how our education can increase the student’s capacity for critical thought rather than to make him a consumer of information. It would not be useful to go into details of how this type of information can be transmitted. Given sufficient concern and interests, there are no great obstacles to developing adequate methods. A second requirement for the functioning of all face-t0-face groups is debate. Through the increasing mutual knowledge of the members, the debate will lose an acrimonious and slogan-throwing character and will become a dialogue between human beings instead of a disputation. While there will always be fanatics and more or less sick as well as unintelligent people who cannot participate in this kind of debate, an atmosphere can be created which, without any force, eliminates the effectiveness of such individuals within the group. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
It is essential for the possibility of a dialogue that each member of the group not only try to be less defensive and more open, but also that he try to understand what the other person means to say rather than the actual formulation he gives to his thought. In every fruitful dialogue, each participant must help the other to clarify his thought rather than to force him to defend formulations about which he may have his own doubts. Dialogue implies always mutual clarification and often even understanding the other better than one understands oneself. Eventually, if the group did not have the right to make decisions and if these decisions were not translated into the real process of that social sector to which they belong, the information and debate would remain sterile and impotent. While it is true that to act, man must think first, it is equally true that if man has no chance to act, his thinking withers and loses its strength. It is impossible to give a blueprint of what decisions the fact-to-face groups in enterprises should be called upon to make. It is obvious that the very process of information and debate has an educational influence and changes the people who participate in it. Hence, they are likely to make more wrong decisions in the beginning than after many years of practice. It follows that the area of decision making should grow while people learn how to think, to debate, and to make judgments. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
In the beginning their decisions might be restricted to the right to ask their respective bureaucrats to explain decisions, to give specific information which is desired, and the right to initiate plans, rules, laws for the consideration of the decision-making bodies. The next step would be the right to enforce reconsiderations of decisions by a qualified majority. Eventually, the face-to-face groups would be entitled to vote on fundamental principles of action, while the detailed execution of their principles would remain essentially a matter for the management. The decision of the face-to-face groups would be integrated into the whole process of decision making, implementing the principle of central planning by the principle of the “subjects’” control and initiative. The consumer should also be represented in the decision-making process. The concept of unconscious forces determining man’s consciousness, and the choices he makes, have a tradition in Western thought going back to the seventeenth century. The first thinker who had a clear concept of the unconscious was Spinoza. He assumed that men “are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined.” In other words, the average man is not free, but he lives under the illusion of being free because he is motivated by factors unconscious to him. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
For Spinoza this very existence of the unconscious motivation constitutes human bondage. However, he did not leave it at that. The attainment of freedom, for Spinoza, was based on an ever-increasing awareness of the reality inside and outside man. The idea of unconscious motivation was expressed in a very different context by A. Smith, who wrote that economic man “is led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.” Again in a different context we find the concept of the unconscious in Nietzsche’s famous saying: “My memory says I have done this. My pride say I have not done it; my memory yields.” Actually the whole trend of thought which was concerned with uncovering the objective factors determining human consciousness and behaviour is to be looked upon as part of the general trend to grasp reality rationally and scientifically, which has characterized Western thought since the end of the Middle Ages. The medieval World had been well ordered and seemed to be secure. Man had been created by God and was watched over by Him; man’s World was the center of the Universe; man’s consciousness was the last mental, indubitable entity, just as the atom was the smallest, indivisible physical entity. Within a few hundred years, this World broke to pieces. The Earth ceased to be the center of the Universe, man was the product of an evolutionary development starting with the most primitive forms of life, the physical World transcended all concepts of time and space which had seemed to be secure even a generation before, and consciousness was recognized as an instrument for hiding thought, rather than being the bastion of truth. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
When “growing opinion” says that I am the product of my class, this makes no sense to me. Certainly, this can and does happen, but it does not have to happen. I have been conditioned, and there are ways in which I am still conditioned. However, I know when my conditioning is getting in my way, and I have been learning to do my own brainwashing. I had discovered that, although I cannot yet do it all the time, still I can, for a short period—in some circumstances longer than in other—de-condition myself by flicking my mental switch and non-cold matter-of-factly deal with the facts and persons present. My “hope for education” includes the possibility that we might begin to learn to do this in the first grade, or even in kindergarten. If education were turned “upside down,” it seems to me that education would find itself right side up. Then, it would take place through the interaction of what is inside with what is outside, which the inside coming first. We seem to forget that that is where things came from in the first place. When my daughter was twelve, I discovered that she had done a real and thorough job of research on the American cowboy. She started out just by linking cowboy stories. She read every one that she could get hold of, quite indiscriminately, but then discrimination began to take place. The one to go to was Zane Grey because “I can tell at the beginning of the book how it’s going to end.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
She became more interested in factual accounts, and in stories which were accurate in their information. In reading for her pleasure, she noticed that in different parts of the west, different names were used for cowboys’ gear and even for the cowboys themselves who were “buckaroos” in Oregon. She noticed that the gear varied from place to place, according to the terrain and the influence of the Indians and the Spaniards. All this time she had put it down so neatly that it could be grasped immediately, together with her own sketches where illustration was possible. For the first time, I thought of “research” was something not “out there” that must be learned from others, but something that in the first place came out of people in just the way that it had come out of her. How else could it have happened. Now, recalling Clare, after a while, it became clear to her that her efforts to escape humiliation had injured her dignity more than anything else. These efforts had been particularly pernicious since they involved not only an uncritical bending to Peter’s wishes but also an unconscious inflation of her feeling for him. She realized that the more her actual feeling for him diminished, the more she had worked it up to a pitch of false emotion, thus ensnaring herself still more deeply in her bondage. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
Clare’s insights into the needs that constituted this “love” had lessened the tendency toward an inflation of feelings, but it was only now that her feelings dropped sharply to their actual level; in all simplicity, she discovered that she felt very little for him. This recognition gave her a feeling of serenity that she had not had for a long time. Instead of wavering between longing for Peter and wanting to take revenge she took a calm stand toward him. She still appreciated his good qualities, but she knew that it would be impossible for her ever to be closely associated with him again. With this last finding to be reported here Clare tackled dependency from a new angle. The work done up to this point was a gradual recognition that she was dependent because of her huge expectations, this working culminating in the analysis of the “private religion.” Now she saw in addition how the loss of spontaneous self-confidence had contributed to the dependency in a more direct way. The crucial finding in this regard was the recognition that her picture of herself was entirely determined by the evaluation of others. It is in accord with the significance of this insight that it struck her so deeply that she almost fainted; the emotional recognition of this tendency constituted an experience so deep that for a short moment it almost overwhelmed her. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
The insight did not itself solve the problem, but it was the basis for recognizing the inflation of her feelings and the far-reaching significance that “rejection” had for her. This piece of analysis also paved the way for a later understanding of her repressed ambition. It enabled her to see that to be accepted by others was one way of lifting her crushed self-regard, a purpose that was served from another direction by ambition to excel others. Albert Ellis developed an approach to psychotherapy that he calls rational-emotive therapy, to highlight the fact that he is concerned with feelings, but no less concerned with sensible thinking about life problems. He regards neurotically disturbed people as individuals who talk nonsense to themselves, who refrain from vital living because they dread catastrophic consequences for ordinary self-assertiveness. They do not think clearly, and they do not check the validity of their thinking. For example, a painfully shy and lonely person may be saying to himself, “I would like to ask that girl for a date, but she might refuse me, and that would be awful.” Dr. Ellis might reply to this patient, “Well, supposed she does refuse you; what’s so terrible about that? You are ‘awfulizing,’ and that interferes with life.” By virtue of such arguments with a patient’s excuses for diminished living, and for not changing self-defeating patterns, Ellis is often able to convince the patient to try ways to live that generate satisfaction and growth. Ellis provides a wholesome reminder that, although excessive thinking can rob a life of feeling and action, wrong thinking can paralyze life itself. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
Among the moral self-restraints which an aspirant is required to practice is that of truthfulness. There are several reasons for this prescription. However, the one which affects his quest directly is the effect of untruthfulness upon his inner being. It not only spoils his character and destiny but also deforms his mind. In the lair’s mouth the very function of language becomes a perverted one. He renders defective the very instrument with which he is seeking to make his way to the Overself; it becomes spoiled. If he meets with any mystical experience, it will become mixed with falsity of hallucination. If he finds spiritual truth, it will not be the pure or whole truth but the distortion of it. Where situations are likely to arise which make truth-telling highly undesirable, the earnest aspirant should try to avoid them as much as possible by forethought. The pattern of indifference to truth-speaking must be broken up. The pattern of scrupulous respect for truth-speaking must be built up. The discipline of his ego must include the discipline of its speech. His words must be brought into correspondence with his ideals. Every word written or uttered must be diamond clad truth. If the truth is awkward or dangerous to say, then it may be advisable to keep silent. May he tell a small white lie to liberate himself from an awkward situation? “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
Not only will he refrain from telling a conscious lie of any kind, but he will not, through bragging vanity, exaggerate the truth into a half-lie. Any tendency in these directions will be crushed as soon as he becomes aware of it. He will take the trouble to express himself accurately, even t the point of making a fad of the careful choice of his words. Let him not maim his heart nor deform his mind by formulating thoughts which are false. If philosophy be the quest of ultimate truth, if the rule be broken, then it is certain that such a quest cannot be carried to a successful conclusion. We have begun to question Nature and we must abide by the consequences. However, we need not fear the advancing tide of knowledge. Its effects on morals will be only to discipline human character even more. For it is not knowledge that makes men immoral, it is the lack of it. False foundations make uncertain supports for morality. As psychiatry, psychology, and social work have tried to contribute directly to the demand for psychotherapy, they have suffered serious dilution of their basic and unique contributions. If these disciplines will take joint initiative toward the creation of a new, socially efficient and socially responsive profession, they will maintain proper consultative authority for that profession, they will help to meet the social need, and they will create the means whereby they may be freed for intensified, specialized efforts in accordance with their respective, unique and interdependent skills—to the end that we may gain better understanding, better treatment, and better prevention of mental suffering. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
As firefighters, the Sacramento Fire Department faces monumental risks in their jobs every day. There are a few ways of getting around these risks and therefore preventing many of the firefighter injuries and deaths. “In those days our training school was in a real old building, and we did our outdoor training, our ladder work, at Municipal Stadium. It was a six-week school. We run a much more extensive training school now. I was a cadet for seven years at my first station, which was a long time. My father-in-law tried to take care of me by sending me to a station that wasn’t very busy. We didn’t take many men into the department in those days, and not many guys retired. So I had to wait. It was a good learning experience. I took a promotion exam, but I didn’t do too well, because my wife had a child right before the exam and I was baby-sitting rather than studying. In those days, getting promoted was no big deal. I enjoyed what I was doing. But then you get to the point where you figure, hey, I want to improve myself. The first job we had was about three hours after I came to work. It was a mattress fire on the third floor of an apartment house. It was scary, smoky. You couldn’t see. I remember that most. I think the first really serious fire was in downtown, which turned out to be an all-nighter. Shortly after that, we had another apartment house fire. It was seven o’clock on a winter morning. We took like 117 people out of the building over ladders and down stairways. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
“I was scared as all hell when I saw so many people in real trouble, scared about doing things right. Fortunately, we had a couple of old-timers there who were pretty sharp. We carried fifty-five-foot ladders at that time. I always think about it. Under the standard now, we carry forty-foot ladders. In that particular fire, if we didn’t have a fifty-five-foot ladder, we would have lost another five people. We used the fifty-five-foot ladder, with a twelve-foot jack ladder, to get people off the sixth floor of the building. There was no access for an aerial on that side. Things just happened so fast, I didn’t then realize the magnitude of it. I just worked hard. Fortunately, this apartment house had balconies on the side. The fire was pretty well involved when we got there. I remember putting a lot of ladders up. It was icy. We put fifty-five up with four men. One of them was the captain. It was a wooden ladder than weighed about 350 pounds. Normally you use five men, and some books talk about six. Putting that ladder up under good conditions was a difficult task. This was a cold, icy morning in December. Even putting a thirty-three-footer up was tough at the time. But, we were able to get that ladder up, somehow ‘cause your muster up extra strength when you have no choice. Over the years I still think about that fire. The guys did a super job.” #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
Imagine if the Sacramento Fire Department fought fires like they did 60 years ago, with the equipment and knowledge they have now, injuries and fatalities would be a fraction of what they were. One way you can help reduce the loss of life and property and help firefighters under stressful conditions is by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. The time may come when one must choose between one’s ethical life and his material livelihood. In this agonizing experience he may choose wrongly unless his hope and belief in the benevolence of whatever Powers there be is firm and strong. However, a wrong choice will not dispose of the problem. Sooner or later, it will present itself again with more compelling insistence. For a glimpse of truth once given is like a double-edged sword: a privilege on one side, a duty on the other. A man’s allegiance to Truth must be incorruptible. Be sure to raise your children to love America, love God, respect law and order, and be kind to their elders. 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. For happily the government of the United States of America which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasion their effectual support. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
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Randolph Harris II International 