FEAR: WHY DOES IT EXIST? WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? WHAT USE DOES IT HAVE? HOW TO OVERCOME IT?
The intimate relationship that exists between cowardice, blockages and the possibility of starting new stages of freedom and happiness.
There are two paths that lead to different fates and they are marked by the attitude we have towards fear. There are those who face it and those who allow themselves to be dominated, each group builds a very different kind of life. Fear is not the problem, but the attitude we have towards it. If we live in its kingdom we will be limited and unhappy, but if we achieve freedom we can be and do everything that allows us to be fulfilled.
Fear is an instinctive protector component, but also a psycho-emotional heritage that comes from our parents and many generations before, which manifests in daily life and the future of people. The difference between the lives of people who live under the dominion of fear and those who have transcended it is so sharp, that this everyday subject deserves all our attention.
If we consulted the Fear Atlas we would find a long list of fears: Fear of scarcity, fear of rejection, fear of betrayal, fear of loneliness, fear of freedom, fear of others, fear of living, fear of feeling, fear of trusting, fear of the unknown, fear of love, fear of pain, fear of releasing control, fear of surrender, fear of the mysterious, fear of disease, fear of death…
This last fear may be the only one with plenty of reasons to exist, because it has the purpose of preserving the integrity and life of every living being, so it does not come from the mind, but the instinct that does not need to think to act or react in the face of danger. Fear is an impulse that can originate in the mind (emotions) or the body (instinct) and in both cases manifests in the body, the movement, the decisions, the gestures, the look, and everything we do. Depending on where it comes from, it has different intentions.
When it comes to fears that are unrelated to physical death, they function as paralyzing devices. Most of them condition us definitively to stay within crippling limits in which we cannot be ourselves or develop our potentiality. These fears are emotional, arising from a programmed conditioning to maintain control.
It could be said that fear is one of the emotions with the most presence in the life of a human being. It is what has always dominated millions of people. Most fears are created by the mind that seeks power, which does not want surprises, which does not want to go through situations that it cannot dominate or comprehend. To avoid these moments of incomprehension and lack of control it creates blocking mechanisms that are triggered by fear.
In some measure fear is the maximum guarantee that human conditioning has to not be compelled to change. The underlying message is: “be careful”, “you never know what is going to happen”, “do not get involved in the unknown”, “the unknown is dangerous and unsafe”. In this sense, fear is a footprint of the past that creates ridges to continue towards the future, ensuring maximum safety.
Yesterday I was inside a Temazcal with more than 20 people, it was led by Alberto Guzmán (a Mexican shaman), it is a sauna made with incandescent rocks that serves as preparation to then inhale the natural medicine of the toad Bufo Alvarius of the Sonora desert, it was evident that everyone was afraid of such situation, a complicated moment was coming closer because it is a peak experience that cannot be predicted or imagined before having it and it is indescribable to those who have had it. I looked into everyone’s eyes, they looked like gazelles about to be thrown into a den full of lions, there was a divine, luminous, conscious fear in their eyes… all of them had come with fear of the experience, but despite the fear of the unknown they trusted this experience would help them a lot in their lives. And that is what was visible in their looks, a transcended fear, a fear that did not limit them, that is why their eyes were shining; fear was turning into pure courage. They completed the Temazcal session like spiritual warriors, with a unanimous scream that showed that fear would not stop them, and announced the start of a new stage in their paths. Everyone inhaled the toad medicine, everyone connected with the deepest part of themselves, I could see it in each and every one of them, an exciting scenery, I cried like a boy when I saw so many people willing to go beyond their fears to enter the infinity of freedom. I remembered so many moments in which fear could not stop me.
Fear is the main dominating emotion in a person. It is the kingdom of reason, the power that exerts slavery while subduing the individual. The yearning for freedom has such charm that there is no way to retain a person under the claws of fear. Slavery is a situation maintained because the desire to be free is not yet strong enough because it is weakened by fear.
Death, like freedom, is a peak experience that places us in front of a new path, in better stages and much more elevated processes. When the possibility of an entheogen experience arises, such as taking the medicine of the toad, that provides an understanding of life and existence, all the psycho-emotional system is alerted because it knows it is facing a situation of death, though not physical, but the death of the lies, of absurd beliefs, of destructive emotions, of unhealthy dependencies, that makes us suffer on a day to day basis.
It is obvious that to access stages of greater freedom, happiness or enjoyment we need to go through and transcend the baseless fears that try to makes us cower at the possibility of bringing death to the parts that control a life of suffering.
When we ask: “Why do you not dare doing or deciding a certain thing that would make you free or happy? The most common answer is. “BECAUSE OF FEAR”. If we go back to the origin, we can discover that our parents were afraid that something bad or tragic happened to us. Their fear is transmitted to us in many ways and then the fear of letting them down or hurting them arises, after which an overlapped fear is exchanged and strengthened between parents and children. They constitute a society of frustration. This is part of the origin of our baseless fears, that is why in our Recovery Program we can remove the energetic cords that have us bound to our parents, so that only pure love towards them and us remains, because it is not necessary to maintain their fears, but only the gratitude and acknowledgement for giving us life.
Many times I ask in the Inner Evolution Retreats: “What would you do tomorrow in your life if you had no fear?” and the answers show how much desire people have for freedom, how many repressed desires, how many hidden projects, and how much resentment towards being blocked by fear.
We can be very afraid, but at least we are not afraid of talking about fear, of exploring its roots, of considering the possibility of being free from it, not allowing it to rule over our lives.
I use the courage you have to read these lines so that you can delve into one of the most important and difficult knots to untie. I feel that if we address this subject with profoundness and clarity we can clear out a large amount of the rocks in the path to personal fulfilment.
I will continue in the next days.
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Alberto José Varela