.About
Thomas E. Harries, Ph.D.
DEVELOPER
Outrageous Truth: A Mystical Paradigm

Traditional Curriculum Vita (Resume)

Personal Statement: Who am I?  Why/how I came to write this e-book.

MAJOR WORK AND LIFE EXPERIENCE:
Systematic scholarship focused on the application of General Systems Theory and the metaphysics of Spirituality to the political structure and its dynamic processes in the United States (since 1990)
Extensive scholarship since 1989 in the relationship of Metaphysics, Theosophy, Gnostic Christian beliefs and practices, and General Systems Theory (since 1970) to analyze and interpret the behavior of complex human systems; two years service to the 115 year old 24/7/365 on-line real time telephone prayer ministry of the Unity School of Christianity
Professional Mediator (Virginia Certification # 0960, through June 2002) General Mediation: Family Communication (non-divorce/custody,) Government, Health Care, Workplace, School, and Community
Develop and implement various kinds of workshops in applied communication, organizational development, systems theory, and conflict resolution in private sector, government and educational institutions.
Crisis counselor and trainer of counselors for Community Mental Health Centers
Founding Member Board of Directors, developer and trainer for Community Mental Health Association in Central Georgia
Designed and implemented development and service  programs for the Washington Ethical Society and the American Ethical Union
Curriculum Development and Training; Organization Development; Distance Learning; Team building
Basic web page and graphics design
Department of Veterans Affairs, June 17, 1979 through retirement, December 31, 2000; (See assignments below)
Independent consultant to various corporations, and federal, state and local governmental organizations; and to various state and local public school systems on management, organizational communication, educational design and development, team building, and group dynamics and facilitation.
Systems analysis and design of databases for facilitating organization management and communication
Served as Project Manager and Principal Investigator for national research and development projects in systems approaches to curriculum design and evaluation for more than 300 school systems nationwide.  The project was managed  by a multi-university consortium (Michigan State University, University of Southern California, Syracuse University, and US International University)
Commercial and public broadcast engineer (First class radio-telephone license-expired) producer-director in the Georgia public broadcasting network, and production manager and curriculum developer at Michigan State University Office of Instructional Television
Private, commercial, and instrument flight instructor ratings (expired)
Ancillary Experiences: between the ages of 18 and 24, the author supported his teenage family and costs of education by serving in a variety of construction labor, factory production line jobs, and various kinds of labor in the steel, furniture, aircraft and heavy construction industries.  These experiences helped create a respect for the considerable skills and intelligence of "uneducated" workers, and a firm awareness of the possibilities of theory compared to the realities of practice.

EDUCATION:
1982-1983: Post-doctoral studies in ADR--Mediation and Conflict Management/Resolution, George Mason University
1972: Ph.D. Applied Communication and Instructional Development, Michigan State University
1966: M.A. Speech and Applied Communication, Ohio State University
1964: B.A. Psychology (Learning & Motivation,) Ohio State University

ACADEMIC TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
Academic Faculty (including adjunct and/or full time) at:
Johns Hopkins University- School of Applied Social Science (Eve College), Applied Systems and Communication Theory (General Systems Theory & Living Systems Theory) including systems approach to organizational analysis, development, leadership, and conflict management. Taught graduate students who were mostly mid-level managers in various public and private organizations
University of Maryland- College of Human Ecology, Department of Family and Community Development, Applied Systems and Communication Theory to graduate and undergraduate students
Georgia College- Applied Systems and Communication Theory to family and community development (Department of Home Economics,) and advanced organizational management (Department of Business Administration)

PRIOR EXPERIENCE, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS (VA):
1991-2000, Retired: Headquarters, National Chaplain Service,--National Manager, Total Quality Improvement R&D
1985-1991: Special Assistant to the Associate Chief Medical Director for Quality Management; Coordinator of Special (System) Projects.
1984-1985: Health Services Research & Development, Program Analyst
1980-1984: VA Central Office (Headquarters): Management Support Office, Program Analyst
1979-1980: Associate Director, NE Regional Medical Education Center, Dept. of Veterans Affairs
1979-1980: (concurrent) Acting Associate Chief of Staff for Education, Northport VA Medical Center

MEMBERSHIPS:
1991 - Current: Unity School of Christianity Churches
1989 - Current: The Theosophical Society in America
1984 - Current: Children's Rights Council (Lifetime member)
1990 - 1997: Association for Research and Enlightenment
1992 - 1994: Institute for Noetic Sciences
1991 - 1994: Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man
1988 - 1994: International Society for The System Sciences
1981 - 1990: Washington Ethical Society, Board of Trustees; (1982-84) Rep to American Ethical Union Board of  Trustees, Executive Committee
1972 - 1988: Society for General Systems Research

HONORS AND AWARDS:
Performance Award: 2000
Special Contribution Award: 1999, Design of Chaplain National Database and WWW Home Page
Merit Pay Review "Excellent" Performance Ratings; 1983, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995
Special Contribution Awards:
        1984, Analysis and Design of Database Management System (DBM);
        1984, Implementation of DBM;
        1986, Design of Prototype QA Decision Support Management Model;
        1989, Create Quality Assurance Local Area Network System.
1970-1973: Awarded equivalent faculty status with assistant professor salary while in graduate school--for exceptional performance in instructional and program design, Michigan State University Special Media Institutes Program
1969-1972: Educational Professional Development Act (EPDA) Fellow, Michigan State University.
 

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In mid-life, I met a beautiful, vivacious and intelligent woman who, unknown to me then, was an illegal alien from Colombia, South America.  Her goal, as it turned out, was to seduce a "Gringo" for everything she could get including a child.  I rejected all of the signs that cried out "this relationship is not a good thing for you!"  I was Spiritually blind and naively believed that I could handle it, "love conquers all."  It does not. It did not.  After three bitter years of litigation over our little girl, during which I only sought to have equal parental rights with her mother, as a result of a gross betrayal by my lawyer, I was left without any legal right to have my daughter searched for after her mother abducted her at age three, in August, 1986.  In the eyes of the civil and criminal law, no "crime" had been committed.  According to the Fairfax County prosecutor in Virginia, the abduction was merely "a civil matter" regarding an abused right of visitation.

Thus I was left to search for my child without any support from any authorized law enforcement agency, local, state or national.  I hemorrhaged tens of thousands of dollars to lawyers, private detectives, and the costs of searching.  I had  thousands of dollars stolen as I was forced to resort to "illegal" means to try to obtain information.   For 12 years, I spent all my savings and all my discretionary time and money.  I even borrowed $25,000 from a generous and compassionate friend at two  points.  It took until 1996 to repay those loans.  In an era where "deadbeat dads" are a common staple for media sensationalism, my journal of terse notations documenting the contacts I had made and activities I undertook in behalf of my daughter finally ended on page 737.  But I searched without success.  This sorry record is the only tangible expression of my Love for my child I was permitted during the years she remained stolen.   From the outset I was chronically frustrated, embittered, heart broken, consumed by obsession, and alternately enraged and clinically depressed.

More than at the mother, I especially raged at lawyers and those who feed in the sewer of "the law."  During this desperate period I wrote five complete 500+ page books on various topics that could never be published because they were little more than congealed rage.  For 12 years I traveled all over the country, including driving over 2000 miles in the Washington DC area alone, in the chance the mother was hiding within her close Hispanic network of relatives and friends.   I applied high tech search mechanisms that used satellite and other tracking devices I placed in gifts. I sent them to my daughter through a sister of the mother who denied she knew where to send them, who promised to trash them or give them away, and who otherwise refused to cooperate with me even though she knew where my daughter was.  All of this was to no avail.  I later learned my gifts were sent to Bogota, Colombia, where they were given to my daughter in the name of a relative.

In the spring of 1989, in the depth of my obsession, again by still unrecognized Cosmic forces, I was coaxed by my friend, Jackie,  to attend the Divine Science Church of the Healing Christ in the Georgetown section of Washington D.C.   I went only to participate in an after church social event.  But to be polite, I went to the service first.  This is a church that applies Metaphysical principles to interpret all forms of sacred Scripture.  I discovered that these are the Gnostic principles at the core of Jesus' teachings.  I entered the church that first Sunday morning as a devout agnostic and cynic.  But as the sermon progressed, to my amazement, a great Spiritual "sunrise" of amazing insights began.

From that time forward I did not miss a single Sunday sermon, nor did I miss a single workshop or seminar of the many that were offered on weekends and evenings.  I read almost all of the books in the church's extensive library.  I purchased over 1000 books of my own on Mysticism, Metaphysics and the Gnostic teachings of Jesus. These Mystical teachings were repressed (and still are) by most of the establishment Christian churches.  For over 10 years, I spent every waking hour of discretionary time totally consumed in the study of this literature and in writing.  The writing progressed from being a catharsis for anger to the current work.  You may notice there are still flashes of that residual anger.  For the first time in my life I began the practice of prayer and meditation because I finally understood their purpose and how meditate and pray.  I have since continued  my Spiritual growth though the marvelous teachings of Buddhism, Theosophy and the resources of the Unity School of Christianity.  Unity and Theosophy are two of several movements devoted to "New Thought" resurgence of the ancient Gnostic Wisdom.   I rewrote my life.  I complete this work for whatever good may come of it.

For your information, in response to answered prayer, I recovered my daughter from Colombia in 1998, at age 15, where she had become a drug addict surviving with gangs on the streets of Bogota, just one fruit of the relentless bitter harvest of our legal system.  She is now recovered from her addiction and out on her own, having willfully left my home as soon as she reached age 18.  Now she is fully immersed, at her own insistence, in her own wilderness experience to recover from the years of harm that were done to her by the circumstances into which she was born.  She is in the process of discovering for herself that there are only two reasons for being born to the earth, (1) to develop Spiritual awakening, and (2) to serve others in that cause.  All other goals however appealing are illusory distractions and are at best empty.  Alas, in spite of my efforts and commitment to spare her more suffering, as did I and most of you, she has made a commitment to do it the hard way, by herself.  But she is GOD's child. After all those years of costly searching and frustrating heartbreak, having at last learned and accepted my limits, I have released her with Love to find her own path to God.  I know she will.

By academic training, early in my career I became capable of using an analytical process called General Systems Theory (or Living Systems Theory.) I used this process to evaluate the behavior of complex human systems at various levels of complexity: from the dynamics of the individual, through groups, organizations and institutions, societies and international systems.  After my Spiritual epiphany, I applied the Spiritual and Mystical principles I was learning into that context.  I recognized that the power of General Systems lay in its consistency in reflecting Spiritual Principles.  I experienced amazing insights into the dynamics of human system behavior in the context of a Spiritual universe.

I was also a news junkie, but I was now able to interpret the news from a Spiritual Paradigm rooted in systems dynamics.   I had become empowered to assess and interpret the news from the integrated perspective of systems theory and my emerging constellation of Spiritual insights.  I now share all of this with you as Outrageous Truth: A Mystical Paradigm.

That bad news is that what I saw revealed a horror story about impending doom for our nation's and humanity's future of which few seem aware.  I sadly observed that those few who are courageously attempting to cope are, in their own Spiritual slumber,  taking steps doomed to be insufficient or inadequate to fully correct the current ominous trends.  But the good news is that given adequate Spiritual awakening among a critical mass of our population, that prediction of doom need not be our fate.  Winston Churchill has observed that, " a prediction is not a destiny."   Outrageous Truth: A Mystical Paradigm, an upbeat and positive antidote  to these current trends,  is directed toward that happy outcome, for you as an individual, and for your loved ones, and for our society.   I pray that you will quickly discover your own path of joy and fulfillment even in the presence of your severest challenge and personal horror as did I, and as must everyone.

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