Personal avowals

• To study the meaning of man and of life – I am making significant progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays, personal correspondence (1839), cited in: Konstantin Mochulski, Michael A. Minihan, translator, Dostoevsky. His Life and Work, S. 17, 1971

• The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-born US American theoretical physicist, developer of the theory of general relativity, Nobel laureate in physics, 1921, cited in: Walter Isaacson (*1952) US American journalist, writer, Einstein. His Life and Universe, Simon & Schuster, New York, April 2007

Lingering Garden, Suzhou, Japan

• I was once [1972] directed by the Chief of Staff of the Army to prepare an analysis of the psychological causes of the My Lai atrocities and their subsequent cover-up, with recommendations for research that might prevent such behavior in the future. The recommendations were disapproved by the Army general staff on the basis that the research recommended could not be kept secret. "The existence of such research might open us up to further challenge. The President and the Army don't need more challenges at this time," I was told. Thus an analysis of the reasons for an incident that was covered up was itself covered up. Morgan Scott Peck (1936-2005) US American psychiatrist, psychotherapist, author, The Road Less Traveled, Touchstone, 1st edition 1978, Random House United Kingdom, 15. March 1990, Touchstone, 25th anniversary edition 4. February 2003

• I believe in mystery. I joyfully acknowledge the limits of my knowledge. I rejoice in the wonder of the universe and glory in a shared existence with people, plants, animals, stars, rivers, and microbes. I enjoy a more directly experienced life, without the imposition of a big story that assigns arbitrary meaning. Instead, I create meaning every day by engaging with my surroundings with honesty, curiosity, and loving responsibility. I no longer believe in a supreme being. In the beginning of my life without God I often felt lonely and confused – it's not easy to restructure one's worldview – but now I experience an immediate, exhilarating connection to life. Interview with Mary Johnson (*1958) US American nun in the order of the Missionaries of Charity (MC) (1977-1997), speaker, author, Big Think Interview With Mary Robinson, presented by the US American web portal Big Think, host Adam Lee, 14. March 2012, YouTube film, 8:32 minutes duration, posted 23. April 2012

• My deep love affair is with God as the ground of being and Goddess as the appearances of being. The natural world is an objective expression of the unconscious oneness from which we have arisen. It is the unconscious foundation from which conscious bodies have evolved. When I see the numinous in nature, I see the mystery in the manifest. Timothy Freke (*1959) British self-named "standup philosopher", author of books on religion and mysticism, The Mystery Experience. A Revolutionary Approach to Spiritual Awakening, Watkins, 1st edition 1. May 2012

• That's the way I handle things. And it always has worked. But, I mean it does not – it's not the best thing for people around me because I sometimes – some information I just keep to myself. TV interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger [Mr. Universe] (*1947) Austrian-American 38th governor of California (2003-2011), former professional bodybuilder, actor, model, businessman, Arnold Schwarzenegger: Success and secrets, presented by the US American television news program CBS News, program 60 Minutes, 11:32 minutes duration, aired 30. September 2012

• I was molested when I was a boy. Never told anyone until I was in a prison, 52 years of age. And I was set free by being able to share with a counselor, a man I finally trusted after two years of being with him. I finally said, I may just tell it all. And now I just tell it everywhere, whenever I tell that I was molested, men cry out in the audience. Me too. We set not only ourselves free but we set other people free, when we are finally honest enough to share our faults. TV dialogue with Jim Bakker (*1940) US American televangelist, convicted for rape and accounting fraud, The Jim Bakker Show #1107 with guest Mark Gungor (*1954) US American pastor, comedian, marriage counselor, international speaker, video, 58 minutes duration, minute 15:14, posted 20. November 2007

Recommendations

• Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that behind all the discernible concatenations there remains something subtle intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am in point of fact religious. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-born US American theoretical physicist, developer of the theory of general relativity, Nobel laureate in physics, 1921, response to atheist Alfred Kerr in 1927, cited in: The Diary of a Cosmopolitan, 1971, also cited in: article How are Religion and Science Driven by Mystery? Albert Einstein Saw Mystery as Vital to Religious Feelings, presented by learnreligions.com, Austine Cline, 25. June 2019

• You must not fear, hold back, count or be a miser with your thoughts and feelings. It is also true that creation comes from an overflow, so you have to learn to intake, to imbibe, to nourish yourself and not be afraid of fullness. The fullness is like a tidal wave which then carries you, sweeps you into experience and into writing. Permit yourself to flow and overflow, allow for the rise in temperature, all the expansions and intensifications. Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them [...] you move in a world of mysteries. But both must be ruled by faith. Anais Nin (1903-1977) French-Cuban author, ''The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume IV, 1944-1947, first volume published 1966

Disclosure

• The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know. […] Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed – and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) assassinated 35th US American president (1917-1963), address to newspaper publishers, full transcript, 27. April 1961

• The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes. ⚡ Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) British prime minister, conservative statesman, parliamentarian, Zionist Rothschild agent, instigator of two world wars, literary, character Sidonia in novel Coningsby, the New Generation, book 4, chapter 15, 1844

• Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) 28th US American president during World War I (1913-1921), The New Freedom. A Call for the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People, section I "The Old Order Changeth", S. 13, Doubleday, 1913

• I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We [the United States] have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world. No longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) 28th US American president during World War I (1913-1921), The New Freedom. A Call for the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People, section IX "Benevolence, Or Justice?", S. 201, Doubleday, 1913; cited also in: Gyeorgos C. Hatonn, To All My Children As the World Turns, S. 152, 1993

• ⚡ For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as "internationalists" and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will.
  If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it. ⚡ David Rockefeller (1915-2017) current US American patriarch of the Rockefeller family, autobiography Memoirs, chapter 27, S. 404-405, Random House, New York, 1st Trade edition 15. October 2002, reprint edition 28. October 2003

Various leavened breads

• ⚡ We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times TIME Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries. ⚡ David Rockefeller (1915-2017) US American banker, billionaire, "philanthropist", eugenicist, current patriarch of the Rockefeller family, purportedly at a meeting of the Trilateral Commission, June 1991, cited in: Jordan Maxwell (*1940) US American esoteric scholar, radio host, lecturer, author, Matrix of Power. How the World Has Been Controlled by Powerful Men Without Your Knowledge, first issued 2000, The Book Tree, 6. May 2003

• I protected my abuser too. Because I believed in 'the mission'. Because I felt shame. Because I didn't want to talk bad or air dirty laundry [on my then husband Marc Gafni]. Good Lord, I still refuse to share my name.
  Until we [all of Gafni's victims everywhere] spell out his [Gafni's] manipulations in all their stark reality then the world won't see it either and his defenders will persist. His abuses will continue – with impudence – as they have for decades.
  Your self-blame and secret-keeping are just one more way that your smiling abuser continues to victimize you. Your secret-guarding is his/her best defense and shining license to attack again. Your remorse, your shame and your shut mouths are but weapons in abusive hands.
  Our secret-keeping is another form of abuse. It keeps our abusers safe and enabled to continue their diabolic games. Blog article To The Woman Who Slept With My Husband, presented by Hevria, Anonymous aka 3rd ex-wife ⚡ Marc Gafni (*1960) controversial US American "spiritual teacher", mindcontrolling serial sexual offender, former orthodox rabbi associated with the Jewish renewal movement, speaker, author, 26. January 2016

Recommendations

• Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays, cited in: Goodreads Quotable Quote

• Don't agree to a long-term secret relationship; it's a burden you'll have to carry all your life, and in the end you'll have to be true to yourself and face up to why you entered into it. If you're afraid of what might happen next, or how you'll deal with the stresses of secrecy, try to take control of your life again. If you're being passive and compliant because he's your teacher, do as I did eventually:
  ➤ think for yourself, take action, and end it.

• If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. Attributed to Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) Serbian US American physicist, mechanical and electrical engineer, private conversation with Ralph Bergstresser, "inventor" of The Tesla Purple Plate, 1942

• The art of disguise is knowing how to hide in plain sight. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Scottish physician, writer,  cited in: Sherlock 2010, presented by quotes.net

Appeals

• We must be willing to fail and to appreciate the truth that often "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived." Morgan Scott Peck (1936-2005) US American psychiatrist, psychotherapist, author, The Road Less Traveled, Touchstone, 1st edition 1978, Random House, United Kingdom, 15. March 1990, Touchstone, 25th anniversary edition 4. February 2003

• The power of our vision and expectation flows out from us as a constant prayer. This power is stronger than anyone now knows, and we must master it and begin to use it before it is too late. James Redfield (*1950) popular US American lecturer, film producer, screenwriter, novelist, The Secret of Shambhala. In Search of the Eleventh Insight, Warner Books, 1. November 1999

Conclusions

• The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion. Doris Lessing (1919-2013) British biographer, playwright, librettist, poet, novelist, cited in: article presented by the British national "quality" Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times, London, 10. May 1992

• Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) English publisher, essayist, writer of short stories, Orlando. A Biography, S. 103, Hogarth Press, Wordsworth Classics, Hertfordshire, 11. October 1928, 1995

• Secrecy is a disease. It causes hardening of the arteries of the mind. Daniel Moynihan (1927- 2003) US American sociologist, politician, senator of the Democratic Party, speech to the US Senate, 1990s

• You're only as sick as your secrets. US American expression, also quoted by Carrie Fisher (1956-2016) US American actress, novelist, screenwriter, lecturer, autobiography Wishful Drinking, 2008

Insights

• The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. Jacobus Johannes van der Leeuw (1893-1934) Dutch theosophist, author, aphorism

• Our secrets definitely keep us addicted, which is probably why there are online sites where people can divest themselves of their secrets, anonymously. But because shame happens between people, there is no substitute for telling on ourselves, so to speak, to someone else and making ourselves vulnerable. Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection and the path to the feeling of worthiness. If it doesn't feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructive. Interview with Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW (*1965) US American shame, vulnerability, empathy researcher, Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, public speaker, author, Author Brené Brown Discusses Embracing Our Ordinariness, presented by the US American liberal-oriented online newspaper The Huffington Post, Martha Rosenbaum, 21. February 2011

• Fringe Dwellers are people who don't fit the norm. I say they are not hippy revolutionaries living rough, or social weirdoes; the ones I speak of are ordinary people, you can't tell them apart from others. It's their minds that are different. They don't relate to the rules and regulations of the status quo, the rhythms of a tick-tock life leaves them uninspired and listless.
  They aspire to belong to a world of higher consciousness, rather than have ideas and morals imposed upon them by a system that has corrupt values, one that often doesn't really know what its talking about. Blog article by Stuart Wilde stuartwilde.com (1946-2013) British music producer, humorist, lecturer, scriptwriter, essayist, lyricist, writer on metaphysics and consciousness, The Fringe Dwellers, presented by stuartwilde.com, 18. February 2011

• In silence secrets turn to lies, secrets shared become sacred truth. Terry Wolverton (*1954) US American editor, poet, memoirist, novelist, title of a theatrical production paired with an art exhibition at the Woman's Building, Los Angeles, October 1979

• All recovering people learn that there are no secrets. In recovery, we learn that transparency reduces anxiety and releases our talents. Patrick Carnes, Ph.D. C.A.S. Sexhelp.com (*1944) leading US American sex addiction therapist, Minneapolis, creator of the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (ITAAP), author, cited in: article Sex addiction more than just an ethical dilemma, presented by the US American newspaper New York Daily News, 6. June 2008

Literary quotes

• The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is – to live dangerously. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) German classical scholar, philologist, critic of culture, philosopher of nihilism, writer, The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], section 283, Leipzig, 1882, Random House, New York, 1974

• The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion; if you want to live in the paradise where happy mares and stallion live, open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony. Orhan Pamuk (*1952) Turkish academic, screenwriter, novelist, Nobel laureate in literature, 2006, Turkish novel, My Name Is Red, 1998, published in English 2001; cited in: Goodreads Quotable Quote

• I'm afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery. ⚡ Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English US American visionary humanist, pacifist, counterculture hero, poet, dystopian essayist, writer on parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, satirical novel Those Barren Leaves, 1925