The fear

All the systems are submitted to a continuous process of change.
Similarly, the man is always in touch with new states, beings, situations, phenomena and events.
In order to feel his own harmony, more or less influenced by the direct or indirect contact with these new factors, the man must come closer to them, to pay attention to them and thus, to adapt himself to the new circumstances created by the them; in this way the harmony and existence of his own system is restored and strengthened.

The wrong judgments specific to the fear deter this adaptation to change, deter the knowledge of some new factors, by postponing the contact with them or by running away of them.

This situation jeopardizes our own harmony. The signals specific to the fear point out exactly this thing: that we have in our psyche some wrong judgments which delay the closest contact, the knowing and adaptation at the new phenomena we are faced with.

The false expectations specific to these wrong judgments are:
“I should never be faced with new phenomena (things, states, etc.).”
“The analysis, the knowledge and the adaptation at these new phenomena should be made naturally, without being necessary to do something special for this.”
“We should always adapt ourselves to the new but not to face it; the problems should always be solved from themselves.”
“In all that we do we should never be faced with difficulties.”

The causes for the apparition of the signal of fear (characterized by stress, agitation, anxiety and some disturbances) are: the maintenance in the psyche of some false expectations like those mentioned above; the resistances’ ignoring: the groundless attachments, the prejudice (the refuse to adapt to the new).

So the signal of fear manifests when a new stimulus appears and jeopardizes the existence of our own system; it also appears when we continue to postpone the taking of some concrete measures for the confrontation with this stimulus, for its knowledge and analyze and finally, for the adaptation to it.

At the first contact with this new and threatening stimulus (direct or indirect, real or imaginary) the signal of fear appears.

It’s not very intense, pointing out only the presence of a wrong judgment which deters the adaptation at the new stimulus (the signal appears only if we have these wrong judgments).

This wrong judgment usually urges us to run away of that stimulus, to delay the contact with it- if it’s possible for ever.
By acting in this way, the fear turns into phobia which, as a signal, increases in intensity at each new contact with that stimulus which wasn’t assimilated; phobia indicates to us that there is a factor to which we delay to adapt to it and thus, we jeopardize our harmony and existence as a system.
If it happens not to be able to run away (from different reasons) of that stimulus but to refuse to know it and to adapt ourselves to it (that is if we continue to maintain in our psyche the wrong judgments specific to the fear), then, the signal specific to the fear increases more and more in intensity, worried that we haven’t taken measures to adapt to it yet (and it’s absolutely necessary to do it right away).

So, staring from a slightly state of anxiety, uncertainty and alarm, the signal of fear increases and turns into anxiety and fear; if it increases more in intensity, it becomes panic, fright, terror.

The increasing in intensity of the signal of fear shows us that, due to the wrong judgments from our psyche, we delay to take concrete measures of adaptation at the new stimulus, jeopardizing our own existence as a system.

The correct judgments, opposing to the wrong ones pointed out by fear, must replace the wrong ones if we want to restore and strengthen as better as possible the destroyed harmony (at the contact with a new stimulus).

They are specific to the PRECAUTION and COURAGE.

The precaution is an attitude of alert perception, a careful, aware and somehow detached analysis of a new stimulus and of the new circumstances created by the contact with it; all these in order to know it better for an efficient adaptation to it. The precaution generates pragmatic and calm actions of adaptation at the new stimuli.

These correct judgments specific to the precaution tell us:
- that we are always faced with new stimuli;
- that it’s necessary to analyze them carefully and to adapt to them as soon as possible if we don’t want to jeopardize the harmony;
- these actions of adaptation must be performed by us and only by us; nobody can make them instead of us;
- that it’s advisable to be careful at the changes in order to perceive them from time the possible threats at our own harmony; and thus to be able to eliminate them until they won’t produce major damages.

The precaution is followed and completed by an attitude of courage. If we are prudent, we can anticipate from time the apparition of some new stimuli; through courage, we face them knowing that, if we don’t do this as soon as possible, we threaten our own harmony.

Observation: The using of the word “fear” in the common vocabulary appears to be somehow inadequate, regarding those previously mentioned. So, it’s a mistake to be said:

- “I am afraid of water.”
-“I was afraid to speak from the tribune.”
-“I was afraid not to be fired by my boss.”

More correct it would be to say:
“The signal of fear appeared because I continue to postpone to get in touch with the water or to learn to swim.”

“The signal of fear appeared because I have postponed to communicate my knowledge about the “state of the system”; these knowledge were more or less necessary for the other elements in order to get in touch with the real state of the system; and thus to be bale to take the proper measures for keeping its harmony.”

“Fear appeared because I continue to delay to predict what I could do in different possible circumstances, and thus to avoid to be surprised by them.”

Different phenomena, states, experiences, situations, stimuli, etc. could be considered as objects of the fear.

For instance:
1. water - we must learn to swim because otherwise, in unpredictable situations (accidental fallings in the water, floods, etc.) but not impossible (taking into consideration the fact that we are in a direct contact with this stimulus) we jeopardize our own existence; we are not able to adapt to them (we drown because we can’t swim).

2. the height and the narrow spaces - from different reasons, in order to maintain the harmony, we have to move “at height” (or through narrow spaces). If we don’t do this with precaution and courage in circumstances in which it’s a necessity, we jeopardize our harmony.

3. the failure, the defeat - in all what we do we are faced with failures, defeats. But not to perform different actions necessary for the keeping of the system’s harmony just because there’s the possibility of a failure, means to jeopardize the existence and the harmony.
Of course that’s necessary to be as prudent as possible and thus to eliminate the possibility of a failure. But to expect to eliminate it completely from all our actions is a false expectation (for this to happen, we should be able to control the entire infinity of factors specific to the System of the Systems, in every moment- which is impossible)

The wrong judgments which produced the signal of fear deter us to perform these actions so necessary for the maintenance of the harmony. But the wrong judgments specific to the precaution don’t deter us to perform them but they require from us great attention and concentration in order to eliminate the possibility of a failure in the process of adaptation at the new stimuli.

Anyway, only a few failures are vital (lead to the destruction of our own existence); most of them produce only some temporary disharmonies and let us the possibility of trying to restore the destroyed harmony of the system over and over again, until we’ll succeed.
The failures (resistances) are an intricate part of the existence, as a system, and they have to be continuously over passed through a sustained and aware effort.

4. the communication - due to some wrong judgments pointed out by some psychical sufferings specific to the fear, sadness, shyness, timidity, cowardliness, etc., we postpone to communicate to the others all the information necessary for our own and their harmonization; and thus we jeopardize our harmony.

5. the responsibility - we delay or refuse to adopt different roles, to perform actions necessary for the harmonization of the social system or of our own one, and thus jeopardizing their harmony.

6. the lost of something (a house, fortune, friends, job, relatives, etc.) - we expect some circumstances to last for ever, which is obviously impossible; we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility of losing something and thus to adapt efficiently to them.

Observation: no matter of the situation or the new appeared stimulus, we have to know that it will appear; a right attitude of efficient adaptation to it means not to run away of it, not to postpone the analysis, the knowledge and the adaptation to it, but to study and analyze it objectively and with calm in order to see how we can adapt better to it (and this even in the conditions of an exterior stress).

If we notice that we don’t have time to analyze it- at least for the moment- and this situation doesn’t jeopardizes our own existence, we’ll step back, analyzing it later. This means a cautious attitude.

The fear (the agitation, the stress, the restless) mustn’t be let to manifest, but the precaution (the calm, the tranquility, the detachment, the objective and careful analysis of the circumstances) must be always present in ourselves if we want to keep and strengthen our harmony.

The fear stops the action of adaptation; the precaution guides it objectively, rationally and carefully in order to restore and strengthen the destroyed harmony.

In front of a new stimulus, we don’t have to step back only if we’re sure that it jeopardizes our own existence; but this withdrawing must be only a temporary one; later we’ll come back to study it in more favorable circumstances.

7. the suffering - in different circumstances we delay or refuse to accept even a smaller suffering (caused by a shot, by a tooth, etc.)in order to avoid a bigger one (caused by a disease which becomes worse if we don’t make the shot or if we don’t take the decayed tooth out). We also refuse a small destruction (local or temporary) of our harmony in order to avoid a bigger one (a generalized one and for a longer period of time) or even a total one.
In these circumstances, the signal of fear which appears signalizes to us exactly the same thing: that through our own wrong judgments (we expect to get well without doing anything) we jeopardize our own harmony and existence.

8. the punishment, the consequences of our own actions - “the fear of punishment” appears when we think that our bad actions (made for the destruction of the harmony of the system we belong to) won’t have any consequences for us.
This is an obvious false expectation because, as long as a system exists, it will always take measures, sooner or later, against the elements which disturb its harmony and jeopardize its own existence.

9. the other members of the society - “the fear of being different from the others”. In this case the state (the signal) of fears appear because we don’t want to face the other people, even if we consider (we know) that they are wrong (they jeopardize the harmony of the social system).
From spirit of herd we don’t want to have other beliefs, ideals, ways of thinking than those characteristic to the societies in which we live, even if we realize that they’re wrong.

Then, the fear mentioned above appears as a signal and it warns us that, in those moments, we have in our psyche some wrong judgments characterized by false expectations specific to:

- the non-ideal of the lack of responsibility: “I can see that this aspect of the society is wrong, but the other ones should always take measures for its correction.”
- the non-ideal of the lack of sincerity with ourselves and with the others - “We should always be able to send false signals, about our state and that of the system, to the other elements, without to jeopardize the harmony of the system.”
- the non-ideal of the ignorance: “What a society knows at a certain moment should be enough for the maintenance of its harmony”;
“The elements of the social system should always exist in harmony one with another, without any effort of analyzing, understanding and adaptation at the new created circumstances in the system, at a given moment.”

- the non-ideal of the imprudence and of the false belief – “The signals received from all the other elements of the system should always be correct, never being necessary their checking.”
If we don’t act on time against the other elements of the social system, we can clearly see that they’re wrong (they jeopardize the harmony and the existence of the social system and of each of its element) in some attitudes and actions they perform; we also contribute to the destruction of the system’s harmony; this thing is clearly pointed out by the Supra-conscious through the signal of fear which appear when we don’t adopt any attitude against the others, even if this thing is absolutely necessary.

10. the unknown - As I’ve said before, the state of fear generally appears because we delay to adapt ourselves (to understand, to assimilate, and to know) to some circumstances (stimuli, phenomena) which appear in our perceptive field; this fact jeopardizes our harmony as a system.
When these new circumstances appear, they must be immediately checked with courage and precaution in order to adapt ourselves to them as soon as possible (and thus minimize the negative effects they could have upon the own harmony.

11. the disease - “the fear of disease”. In this case the state of suffering specific to the fear appears in order to warn us that we have some false expectations in our psyche like: “I should never get sick…”
But we always have to be prudent and try to know with calm and objectivity the sources of the disease and to stay away of them; we also do not have to delay or refuse to understand them due to some wrong judgments pointed out by the state of fear, because we jeopardize the harmony (because we ignore the real sources of disease and their way of manifestation).

12. the death - “the fear of death”. It points out that, when we feel it, we have in our psyche some wrong judgments characterized through some false expectations like:
“I should never die.”
“Things should always remain as they are now and never change.”
But we know that the change is the only constant of the phenomenal universe. To expect the contrary means to keep in ourselves some absurd expectations.

The death, its transformation, is also a constant of life: all the time some people die and some are born. All the time our cells die and other new ones appear instead of them (at every seven years, all the cells from our body are changed). All the time, our beliefs, desires, ways of thinking (our thoughts) change: some of them die and other ones appear instead of them.
If we watch the death more carefully (or what we could understand through this concept), we can see that we die of thousands and thousands times before the proper death.
And we also realize that, at a given moment (sooner or later) our physical system will be destroyed (the physical body will die), its elements being transferred in other physical systems.

Observation: The state of fear is that specific state of psychical suffering in which the anxiety, the stress, the agitation, the unjustified fear, etc. takes place (according to the DEX, the fear is “a state of profound anxiety and trouble”).
By the contrary, the precaution is not accompanied by stress, agitation, restless and unjustified fear, but only by calm, increased attention, increased awareness, detachment, objective and rational analysis of the situation.

Knowing all these, it’s almost impossible to confound the fear with the precaution.

The increase of attention, accompanied by a state of alert perception –specific to the precaution- can’t be confounded with the agitation or with the uncontrolled and chaotic anxiety.

This increase of attention accompanied by a little acceleration of the heart’s beatings-specific to the precaution-can’t be confounded with the chaotic intensification of these beatings, specific to the state of fear (terror, panic, etc.).

As I’ve said, it’s advisable to be prudent all the time (especially in the new circumstances), but never “coward”.

So, when we identify the presence of the signal specific to the fear (with its exaggerated anxiety, increased stress and unjustified fears), we have to act promptly in order to eliminate from the psyche the wrong judgments pointed out by it and to replace them with some correct ones, specific to the courage and precaution.

At the contact with the new, the wrong judgments specific to the fear keep us away of it and thus, we can’t assimilate it and we can’t adapt ourselves to it (in this way we jeopardize our harmony).

But the correct judgments specific to the precaution (high level of attention, the state of alert perception, etc.) make us to come closer to the “new”, but with precaution and increased attention.

Finally, we’ll assimilate it and we’ll adapt ourselves to it (in this way restoring the harmony destroyed by its apparition).

So, the judgments specific to the fear are accompanied by a profound state of anxiety, unjustified fear, agitation and stress; the judgments specific to the precaution are accompanied by a state of calm and alert perception for a more rapid assimilation of the “new”.

Fear paralyzes our actions of adaptation (it delays and stops them); but the precaution guides them carefully so that, in the end, we can adapt at the change which took place (in fact, it takes place all the time).

see also next post - The fear - case studies