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We Love and Will the World as an Immediate and Spontaneous Totality
The mysterious process by which our Earthly life instructs us for another state of being is the informing act of the soul. Between soul and its powers, as well as between the powers themselves, there is only a formal distinction. What are American institutions? Everything is an institution. Having iced water to drink in every room of the house is an institution. Having hospitals in every town is an institution. Travelling altogether in one class of railway cars is an institution. Saying sir is an institution. Plenty of food is an institution. Getting drunk is an institution in a great many towns. Lecturing is an institution. This formal distinction, which obtains between entities that are not exactly the same and yet cannot be separated from other another, also obtains between being and its transcendentals, between animality and rationality in humans, between common nature and haeceitas (material and spiritual substance), between essence and attributes in God, and between the divine attributes themselves. The unique and absolute infinity of God is the attribute that best distinguishes him from creatures and constitutes his absolute perfection. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
While creation is primarily an act of the divine will, so that things exist and are good because God wills them, creation is also a rational act based on the divine intellect. Because of the essential contingence of creatures, God can dispense humans from those precepts of the natural law that concerns his duties toward our fellow creatures, but not from those concerning their relationship to God. Human’s ultimate end consists in love of, rather than in knowledge of, God, for it is the will and not the intellect that is the superior power in human beings. In recent years, philosophers have produced arguments designed to prove that not all human behavior can be predicted or otherwise known in advance, and these arguments have been taken to be relevant to the problem of freedom of the will as well as to the question whether there can be genuine behavioral sciences. Specifically, it is argued that in certain circumstances it is logically impossible that one should come to know decision, and actions for whose occurrence decisions are necessary conditions, in advance of the occurrences of such decisions. This have been interpreted as a refutation of determinism. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
It is a familiar fact that some prophecies and predictions are self-fulfilling in the sense that the prediction itself produced the predicted event—for example, when all the stock market tip sheets predict that stock x will drop sharply in the next few weeks. We also know, for similar reasons, that some predictions are self-defeating. For example, Jones predicts that he will, as usual, take the easy way out of a difficulty, but then, to prove to himself that he can do better, he does just the opposite. This prediction affected his deliberation and caused him to make a decision opposite to the one he had predicted. Now, the argument which follows does not maintain that person’s predictions of his own future decisions are necessarily or always self-defeating; instead, it maintains that it is logically impossible that by considering cause a person should come to know that his final prediction of what he will decide is not self-defeating, and it maintains that the attempt to achieve such knowledge involves an infinite regress. In other words, this antipredictive argument purports to prove that predictions of one’s own future decisions on the basis of antecedent causal conditions cannot possibly be scientifically complete. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
For some the strain of contemporary life is already too great. Medicine links the stress ailments—heart disease, mental aberration, ulcers—to the tempo of modern life. I am convinced there is a way to cope with any problem. It is first recognizing what the problem is in terms of non-verbal reality, then stating it so clearly and so concisely that you have directed yourself towards changing what can be changed. And when you have changed what can be changed, you learn to accept the rest. Most psychologist agree that the causes of emotional disorders are severe stress of conflict, overuse of the defense mechanisms common to all of us, and just plain loneliness and alienation from other people. These are elements present in the life of every person, to a greater or lesser extent. The difference between emotional health and illness, then, consists largely of differences in individuals’ ability to cope with these common factors—and perhaps in whether the methods used in coping are called normal by society. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
All of human experience is on a single continuum or scale. We need to understand all parts of that scale—including me and thee and those who are much farther up or down the scale of relative mental health than we are. Sometimes we endure more stress than we can handle and internalize it, but when you are sober, extremely tired, feel like you are drunk, weak, and have a headache, it is important to take a step back because you could be having symptoms of a stroke. When one feels sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body, sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech, sudden trouble seeing in one eye or both eyes, sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination, and sudden severe headaches with no known cause, you could be in danger of having a stroke. So, contact your doctor and take time off of work and relax, or remove yourself from the troubling situation. We love and will the World as an immediate, spontaneous totality and we love it, give it affect, energy, power to love and change as we model and change it. This is what it means to be fully related to one’s World, so take care of yourself so that it will always be around for you. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Traumatized people often have enormous difficulty telling other people what has happened to them. Their bodies reexperience terror, rage, and helplessness, as well as the impulse to stand your ground, or escape, but these feelings are almost impossible to articulate. Trauma by nature drives us to the edge of comprehension, cutting us off from language based on common experience or an imaginable past. It is enormously difficult to organize one’s traumatic experiences into a coherent account—a narrative with a beginning, a middle, and an end. When words fail, haunting images capture the experience and return as nightmares and flashbacks. God, we have done all we know how to do. Now, we are presenting our case based on your word, knowing that you are faithful and true to what you said. God, you did not hide your light under a basket, but let it shine for the whole World, for all the centuries to see. We may not suffer torture in our lives the way you did, but we are still called to let the light of our Christianity illumine our daily lives. Please help us to have the courage to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationship, our conversation—every corner of our day. The rest of our lives will be the best of our lives because of the greatness of God’s power. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Imagined Security is the Forerunner of Destruction
When each individual has subdued one’s own spirits, then there will be no war and no other enemies to conquer. Life and mind, being closely connected with the functioning of the body, must be conceived of in a way that does justice to the peculiar intimacy of this relationship. The fundamental issue in resolving traumatic stress is to restore the proper balance between the rational and emotional brains, so that you can feel in charge of how you respond and how you conduct your life. When we are provoked into states of hyper—or hypoarousal, we are pushed into an uncomfortable zone, where we are not able to tolerate as much as we usually are able to, and we are no longer in a range of optimal functioning. We become reactive and disorganized; we are not always able to hold back our emotions and may say things out of anger or react unusually. Sounds and lights bother us, unwanted images from the past invade our minds, and we panic, get nervous or become outraged. Our bodies may feel numb, our minds may slow down, and we may not be able to process information as easily, we may lose balance and have trouble standing, sitting, and walking because the chemistry in our bodies is in a state of shock. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
The noblest of all victories, that over ourselves. Human behavior falls under the concept of motion, which is widely applicable in the natural World. The soul is virtually the principal of all life, and there are different levels of life. The soul is that which keeps a person alive and it leaves the body when a person dies. It is connected with breathing. Spirit, on the other hand, is thought of as the generator of movement; it is connected with the movement of the limbs and with emotional states. The spirit is quite distinct both from the soul and from the mind, which is regarded as the source of images and ideas. In mathematics, the soul grasps forms that are eternal and nondeceptive. As like can be known only by like, the soul, in its rational aspect, must also be eternal. The slave is being made to remember what one had known previous to one’s embodiment. Reason, spirit, and desire represent different levels of being alive. To be alive is to possess a self-originating tendency toward an end. This is exhibited at the lowest level in nutrition and reproduction. Thus, plants have a low-grade soul. Animals have sensation, locomotion, and desire superimposed upon nutrition and reproduction. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Humans, in addition, have reason, or mind, by means of which a rule or plan is imposed upon desire. By mind is meant self-direction in accordance with a rational formula. The lower soul is a necessary condition for the higher and the possession of a higher type of soul also changes the way in which the lower functions. Because people are rational, they feed, reproduce, perceive and act in a manner which differs from that of animals. The rational soul is an active agency which inhabits the body for a brief period, it is located in the head because the head is round (the most perfect shape, and hence, an appropriate place for the seat of reason) and the part of the body nearest the Heavens. It makes contact with the brain, which is conceived as a kind of marrow encased in the skull. The irrational soul makes contact with the marrow of the spinal cord in its bony sheath. The better part of the irrational soul, spirit, inhabits the heart and functions in such manifestations of life as energy, courage, and ambition; the worse part, desire, functions below the diaphragm, in appetite nutrition, and reproduction. The rational and irrational parts affect each other through the liver, which acts as a sort of mirror of thought. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Over their passions and their weaknesses, mortals cannot keep a curb too strong. In sleep, the soul is shut up, and its motions subside. A few agitations remain, however, and produce dreams. Usually dreams are the expressions of desires which are suppressed. The good person controls their desires sensibly and so is not unduly disturbed by them in sleep. In sleep, the rational soul, if not troubled by irrational desires, can attain truths not otherwise revealed. It is not the dream that creates the phantasy, but the activity of unconscious phantasy that plays the leading part in the formation of the dream-thoughts. Almost everything that is ascribed to the dream-work is attributable to the activity of the unconscious during the day, which instigates dreams no less than neurotic symptoms. We have involved ourselves by our advance into the dark regions of psychology. This proves that the most complex mental operations are possible without the cooperation of consciousness—a truth which we have had to learn anyhow from every psychoanalysis of a patient suffering from hysteria or obsessions. These dream-thoughts are certainly not in themselves incapable of consciousness; if we have not become conscious of them during the day, this may have been due to various reasons. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The act of becoming conscious depends upon a definite psychic function—attention—being brought to bear. This seems to be available only in a determinate quantity, which may have been diverted from the train of thought in questions by other aims. If we want to change posttraumatic reactions, we have to access the emotional brain and do limbic system therapy: repairing faulty alarm systems and restoring the emotional brain to its ordinary job of being a quiet background presence that takes care of the housekeeping of the body, ensuring that you eat, sleep, connect with intimate partners, protect your children, and defend against danger. Learning how to breathe calmly and remaining in a state of relative physical relaxation, even while accessing painful and horrifying memories, is an essential tool for recovery. We believe that a certain quantity of excitation, called cathectic energy is displaced from a purposive idea along the association paths selected by this directing idea. The only way we can consciously access the emotional brain is through self-awareness, i.e. by activating the medial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that notices what is going on inside of us and thus allows us to feel what we are feeling. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Most of our conscious brain is dedicated to focusing on the outside World: getting along with others and making plans for the future. However, that does not help us manage ourselves. Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going on inside of ourselves. Sensation is a transmission of motions. The human body receives an impression from without and responds with an inner motion. Some parts of the body—for instance, the hair and the nails—are subject to shock but do not respond with inner movements. Sense organs, however, are good conductors of motion. Thus, hearing, for instance, is the end product of a kind of shock. By means of air in the cavities of the body a blow transmitted through the ears to the blood and brain and then the soul. Knowledge does not consist just in sensation, but in the activity of the soul in relation to what is transmitted. This transmission is complicated by the intervention of memory, imagination, feeling, and association, all of which act as intermediaries between reason and sensation. Emotional regulation is the critical issue in managing the effects of trauma and neglect. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Randolph Harris II International 