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In this thread I plan to present a few essays I’ve written on fear, but it is open for discussion on any aspect of fear that triggers interest.
FEAR AND ANXIETY
Fear is commonly a physical response to a known danger. It is an emotion which elicits a physiologic, autonomic nervous system fight or flight response within the body. A known danger will more likely result in the use of intellect, logic and skill to overcome it. Anxiety, on the other hand, elicits all of the same physiologic components of fear, but since the source or cause of the perceived danger is unknown, the use of intellect, logic and skill cannot be used effectively to deal with it. In brief, fear is an emotion caused by a known danger whereas anxiety is an emotion caused by an unknown danger. The unknown danger causing anxiety can be real or imagined, but the cause is generally unclear, which results in worry, apprehension and suspicion as well as a desire to control it.
Ghost fear was probably really ghost anxiety because it was something which could not be easily identified or explained logically, hence magical fetishes, rites and sacrifices developed with hopes that they would work against the unknown and unseen danger. Occasionally these practices did work which served to reinforce the behavior. When it comes to fear of a known danger, however, humans often used their intellect, logic and skills to overcome it. Known dangers to early man came from wildlife and the environment, but mostly from other humans. Hence, we see throughout history more and more sophisticated weaponry and methods of warfare being devised as well as the building of fortifications and the development of various strategies for survival.
Anxiety is not always a bad thing; it is capable of producing a change in behavior, but is more likely to result in thoughtless panic and worry. A person in this state is more likely to exhibit illogical, irrational and magical thinking. It is much harder to use intellect and logic to overcome emotion which has no identifiable focus. It seems to me that religion has often been the result of mankind’s anxiety. Relieving that anxiety with revelation into reality provides the mind with a focus for rational thought resulting in less reliance on magic and ritual. However, revelation seems to have done little to prevent extremes of mysticism. Perhaps that too will come, with time.
Severe anxiety is paralyzing and painful, which according to the UB, can be useful in finding solutions. I see evidence of anxiety working to evolve and improve society. Some of mankind’s anxieties due to unknown causes were: diseases, food shortages, natural disasters and weather. Primitive man attempted to work magic to ward off these anxieties until science, and sometimes revelation (genius), worked to teach him the source of his anxiety. Once the source was known, man could then use reason to control or correct the danger. Today the causes of disease are being discovered thus improving the quality and length of life. Ways have been found to feed the masses despite droughts and famines. There are safer buildings capable of withstanding natural disasters and methods of prediction and warning are being developed. However, I do think that people are still in the anxiety mode about weather, being driven by emotion, myth and magical thinking about the planet. Time will tell if this anxiety evolves into something useful. Nevertheless, I believe we are evolving on many levels and there is definite progress. I think we will continue to suffer from fear and anxiety until we evolve all the way to Light and Life, but it is inevitable that our degree of anxiety will diminish substantially as we become more knowledgable about ourselves and our world, as well as more knowledgable about God and each other.
951:03 Anxiety was a natural state of the savage mind. When men and women fall victims to excessive anxiety, they are simply reverting to the natural estate of their far-distant ancestors; and when anxiety becomes actually painful, it inhibits activity and unfailingly institutes evolutionary changes and biologic adaptations. Pain and suffering are essential to progressive evolution.
Thank you Bonita for a very interesting topic. I’d like to connect the consideration of anxiety, specifically, to the concept of uncertainty. Early on in my truth seeking days, it became philosophically apparent that the only thing that does not change in life is change itself. Everything around us is in a constant state of change. I came to accept this reality and that really helped reduce my own anxieties. But the Revelation, which came to me later, says this acceptance is not the point nor the opportunity that change presents to us as ascenders for experiential progression. Uncertainty is something to embrace, not merely accept, which is only marginally better than dread. To accept is to be a fatalist I think. To embrace is to become an adventurer!
As believers seek to transfer the seat of our identity from the material realms (where fear helps survive mortal dangers and sets creativity into motion) to the spirit reality, the fruits of faith can help us gain confidence in ultimate outcomes and help us learn to embrace those uncertainties which we encounter. A different set of uncertainties appear for believers. The Master said to fear not and so what if all crumbles around us materially if we have such faith. This is a whole new paradigm and psychology suddenly opened to us. Materially, the uncertainty is what might happen to us or those we love or the things we have and the material comforts we may enjoy. But spiritually, the only uncertainty is how our free will works itself out within the universe of choice that is ruled in love by an all powerful creator that will always work out in the “end” or in the process of eternity.
To me, this means I must pay more attention to my intent and motive and priority as I walk by. That I can let go of results and outcomes and not be responsible for controlling those or creating “certainties”…I need only practice choosing based on love, faith, confidence….and experience. And thereby, perhaps someday, I will learn to feast on uncertainty and embrace the reality of it and the truth opportunity within that reality…..knowing that in God’s universe all things work out well sooner or later.
The unknown danger causing anxiety can be real or imagined, but the cause is generally unclear, which results in worry, apprehension and suspicion as well as a desire to control it.
Bonita, your mention of “unknown danger causing anxiety” would presume that an individual who is suffering from anxiety, does not know that a danger exists, where it might also indicate that these extreme emotions could be, being caused by, multiple individuals emotions, which are overlapping, and the “unknown”-ness of the root of a persons anxiety is an overwhelming uncertainty, as to which to handle first, or as you say, “a desire to control it.” If this anxiety is supported by an encounter with someone else, or more than one other, it might be easier to evaluate the cause, other than an anxiety which is associated with a general social issue which may effect many others, as an apprehension to a common problem.
It is much harder to use intellect and logic to overcome emotion which has no identifiable focus.
I would agree in your statement above because it follows my thinking, regarding the multiple emotions, which can overlap, to cause some kinds of anxiety, where you state “has no identifiable focus”, because it is difficult to isolate the individual emotions, whereby actually creating a chaotic set of individual emotions, which the body cannot isolate, causing an overwhelming affect.
Severe anxiety is paralyzing and painful, which according to the UB, can be useful in finding solutions. I see evidence of anxiety working to evolve and improve society.
951:03 Anxiety was a natural state of the savage mind. When men and women fall victims to excessive anxiety, they are simply reverting to the natural estate of their far-distant ancestors; and when anxiety becomes actually painful, it inhibits activity and unfailingly institutes evolutionary changes and biologic adaptations. Pain and suffering are essential to progressive evolution.
I agree that “Severe anxiety” can be “paralyzing and painful,” however, I don’t see the correlation of “working to evolve and improve society”, because I don’t think that the UB quote you used above, is meant to be associated to a social anxiety, but rather anxiety associated to the individual mind of men and women, who suffer, to take note of this affliction and find and isolate the cause, and institute changes through biologic adaptation.
Which brings me to my own affliction of anxiety which has been much improved since I was able to identify the root cause, which was generally activated by being confined with many people in close contact, like meetings, or being in specific groups. Where what I found out was that I was actually picking up the emotional thoughts and feelings of the group and that they were affecting me in such a way that I could not isolate them from my own, especially if I also had issues with thoughts causing specific emotions. My emotions were being amplified by similar feelings and thoughts which were not being expressed by others, yet being held in, possibly caused by some anxiety from others in my company. Therefore, I had in the past, generally avoided groups, because I felt uncomfortable in their presence, and didn’t know why. Once I found out what the issue was, it did not change the fact that I was picking up these emotions or thoughts, but it allowed me to identify the various emotions with the individuals who they applied too. In essence, by knowing or understanding where these feelings were coming from made it easier to control how they would affect me, where now I can notice when someone is being affected by anxiety, because I feel a mild physical effect of anxiety, which is momentary and until I can acknowledge it, then it is gone.
Anxiety can be extremely debilitating, I know this first hand. Sometimes I get fleeting moments of mild anxiety attacks.
BB
Bradly wrote: I’d like to connect the consideration of anxiety, specifically, to the concept of uncertainty.Isn’t uncertainty a stimulus for faith? It seems to me that embracing uncertainty requires a good deal of faith. It also requires trust in the goodness of God. Both faith and trust are potent antidotes to fear, which is why I think the two are so often linked into faith-trust. I believe that fear is actually a form of immaturity, as is anxiety. With mature faith and trust in the goodness of God, it shouldn’t really matter if all things earthly crash.
Uncertainty is unknowing. There is a terrific book on the inner life called, The Cloud of Unknowing. I’ve read it several times and am always amazed at the insight into the soul the author has. Unknowing is actually the psychic place where we are stripped of all of our preconceptions about God and face him completely exposed, open to being in his presence and accepting his ideas rather than our own. At first it seems dark there until the spiritual eyes are accustomed to spiritual light. I think this takes a lot of courage, desire, faith and trust.
Related to uncertainty is doubt. Doubt is another form of fear, more subtle but potentially just as debilitating when it comes to spiritual growth. As we mature spiritually, we have fewer and fewer doubts as to the reality of God and to his goodness. I think that the easiest way to dispel doubt, uncertainty, fear and anxiety is to partner up with Spirit presence. It is good to have companionship on the journey.
“. . . and whosoever has been born of the spirit has in himself the power to overcome all doubt, and this is the victory that overcomes all uncertainty, even your faith.” p1601:3
Anxiety can also result from experiences and memories of same and the net result tends to be a knee-jerk response to most things in life that are even slightly out of the ordinary.
One can be frustrated trying to use intellectual reasoning to deal with this sort of anxiety.
I was told that there is a small walnut sized brain component in the middle of your head. When blood flows up there it gets to the walnut first and in the greatest volume. It takes time for oxygenated blood to make its way to the outer parts of the brain where thinking, not responding happens.
FEAR AND LONELINESS
The moment mankind attained self-consciousness he also attained other-than-self-consciousness. I believe the friction which prevents the unity of this duality is what makes loneliness and fear a pervasive phenomena in human experience. It is not possible for humans to overcome their sense of loneliness unless they integrate themselves with this “other-than-self” concept. Loneliness and fear result when the ability to do this is thwarted, abandoned or ignored.
p1123:02 The fact of experience is found in self-consciousness plus other-existences–other-thingness, other-mindness, and other-spiritness.
Loneliness drives men and women to form partnerships with one another. It also drives them to seek invisible partnerships and sources of comfort. The other-than-self consciousness includes not only other humans, but superhumans as well.
p196:04 Man’s own personality awareness, self-consciousness, is also directly dependent on this very fact of innate other-awareness, this innate ability to recognize and grasp the reality of other personality, ranging from the human to the divine.
I believe this has been the motivation for religion and spirituality throughout history, an innate drive to relate to the invisible.
p1117:01 Religion effectually cures man’s sense of idealistic isolation or spiritual loneliness; it enfranchises the believer as a son of God, a citizen of a new and meaningful universe.
I also believe that it is this innate desire for personality unity which drives humans to search their inner being for this other-than-self, which we understand to be the Thought Adjuster, God within. Apparently, God within can also be lonely without man’s partnership.
p1182:04 They long for the divinity attainment of your mortal minds that their loneliness may end, that they may be delivered with you from the limitations of material investiture and the habiliments of time.
The quest for divine other-than-self relationships have taken on many different forms but ultimately it is an individual adventure if loneliness is truly to be abated. Fear of abandonment, of being left alone, must be an elemental feeling we all share on some level. Our first encounter with the experience of “otherness” within our minds occurs with the presence of the Holy Spirit, which happens to coincide with the arrival of the Thought Adjuster and Spirit of Truth.
102:4.3 Man very early becomes conscious that he is not alone in the world or the universe. There develops a natural spontaneous self-consciousness of other-mindness in the environment of selfhood.
Mankind’s search for God reached a climax with Michael’s bestowal in that we finally were able to form a visible relationship with another human which also satisfied the desire for a superhuman relationship. His absence from the world would have left mankind hopelessly searching for him had he not sent his Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Truth abolishes loneliness and fear. Jesus’ watchword was “fear not”.
p2061:00 Next, it is the purpose of this spirit to destroy the believer’s feeling of orphanhood. Jesus having been among men, all believers would experience a sense of loneliness had not the Spirit of Truth come to dwell in men’s hearts.
Loneliness begets fear and fear begets loneliness because failure to engage in the divine relationship results in disloyalty and isolation. Isolation fosters suspicion and guilt while it looks for someone or something to blame. Faith and courage is fostered by the soul’s relationship with the Deities living within it. Such faith destroys loneliness by allowing the light of truth, beauty and goodness to transcend and enlighten all aspects of human experience. Faith in the relationship with Deity destroys loneliness and fear.
Loneliness begets fear and fear begets loneliness because failure to engage in the divine relationship results in disloyalty and isolation. Isolation fosters suspicion and guilt while it looks for someone or something to blame. Faith and courage is fostered by the soul’s relationship with the Deities living within it. Such faith destroys loneliness by allowing the light of truth, beauty and goodness to transcend and enlighten all aspects of human experience. Faith in the relationship with Deity destroys loneliness and fear
Spot on!
Spot on!
Thanks Nelson. Scott just said that he honestly believes that I am completely misleading everyone on this forum most of the time. Have you been mislead? Don’t mean to put you on the spot, but if that is true, I need to know.
Honestly, all comments are taken as personal points of view or personal experiences taken for what they are.
I like to think I follow the leading from within.
I think your comments are from the heart.
Cant say that I ever got the feeling you were deliberately misleading me.
Nitpicking topics so deeply tends to make me fade out – don’t have what it takes to digest it all.
Had a bad experience with a UB teacher long ago that still has my defense mechanism up and running – can’t say you have come up against it yet, however I tend to be skeptical of teachers. Some people teach, others share – (I can’t describe a dividing line) I feel you share – leaving interpretation to me.
I do find that the inner guides are becoming more reliable all the time the more I use them.
“The human races had spent AGES in acquiring the little religion and morals it had, and these supermen knew better than to rob mankind of these few advances by the CONFUSION and DISMAY that always result when enlightened and superior beings undertake to uplift the backward races by overteaching and overenlightenment.”
Maybe an app should be developed by and for TUB readers to warn them when they are overteaching. So far, no real danger from overenlightenment.
Ill also say that Scott, since you mentioned him has extraordinary mind that probe the revelation aggressively.
More so that I have the energy to do and I do love to see it come out in writing.
Great place this forum.
There’s a phenomenal principle in the universe; it’s called the supremacy of purposive potential (102:5.1). It’s the secret of evolution, not just on the physical level, but on mind and spiritual levels as well. It is what evolves primitive animal fear into reverence for God, and eventually, love of God. The supremacy of the potential of love will accomplish this progression from fear, and it will do so even faster in those minds open to the process.
We are told that few humans live up to the faith that they really have because of the fraud of unreasoned fear (48:7.4). Faith attitudes open the mind and enables the supremacy of purposive potential to transmute the actual of fear to the higher potentials of reverence, and finally, of love. Faith is a gift from God, it is an attitude of the soul which is intimate association with the source of love. This is why we are called faith-sons. This cosmic relationship conquers all fear because it is supreme over the primitive animal mind which is so prone to fear.
If we live up to the faith we really have, which is that gift from God within our souls, then we have nothing at all to fear. We will be like the angels.
We are told that man might fear a great God, but he will trust a good God (2:6.1). The goodness of God is a relatively new concept in this world. How many people do you know who trust in the goodness of God? How often do people succumb to anger over what they perceive to be God’s indifference to humans and their sufferings? It’s awfully primitive to think that way, I think, and self-centered too. Anger and fear are brothers.
Jesus was so confident in the goodness of God that he had no fear at all. We all know that he was the Son of God, but I don’t think he was born knowing of the goodness of God. He was born just like all the rest of us and had to discover and recognize God’s goodness for himself. One wonders how on earth he did that and why can’t we all do that? Why can’t we all rise to the same level of faith and trust in the goodness of God? I think it’s because we insist on giving God human qualities and humans are difficult to trust. In fact, there’s a lot to fear in other humans unless you know them very well.
I suspect that Jesus got to know God very well from an early age. He started having “just a little talk with my Father in heaven”(123:3.6) soon after receiving his Adjuster, and he never stopped. Somehow, God is capable of revealing his goodness to us through just a little bit of talking with him. Sharing our inner life some how opens the door to feeling his goodness, eventually seeing it and finally knowing it. I can’t stress enough how much I think prayer does to inactivate fear and anxiety. And I think it does so through the growth of trust in the goodness of God. It’s a very assuring feeling.
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