I remember 30 or so years ago having developed a fear of heights. I’m
not sure of the reason for it, but it had become quite apparent that my fear
was getting in the way of doing the kind of things I really enjoyed, like
climbing sea walls and up and over rocks in order to get to special swimming
holes. I thought to myself, I must overcome this. So I set to break the phobia.
I challenged myself. I travelled to
the tops of buildings and stood on balconies. I could feel myself nearly losing balance, nearly teetering
over. Nearly, but not.
At the time, I worked in a tall building that, disconcertingly, had a
glass lift in the middle of the place that took you from floor to floor in full
view of everything. People could look in and people could look out. It was
scary. Until my decision to break my fear, I used to ride it standing dead
centre with my eyes closed. Afterwards, I’d stand exactly at the edge facing
outwards and allow myself to go deep into the experience, immerse myself in it,
and ride that elevator.
This immersion therapy worked and I came eventually to really enjoy the
experience of near flight by going to the heart of fear itself. There are
kinder therapies around though, and hypnotherapy is one. Rather than exposing someone
to the den of the lion of fear, the subject of fear is
contextualized as part of ordinary, every day experience and it thus loses its
ferocity.
Fear is a useful survival tool and gives us the means to avoid
situations that could be life threatening. Fear causes a flooding of the whole
body of useful adrenaline and cortisol that allows us to get away from danger.
It’s when the danger is not to the body, but to our emotional state that fear
can turn into a psychological phobia. It’s then problems arise and it can
cripple us.
There
is a very rare genetic problem, called Urbach-Wiethe disease.
Sufferers don’t experience any fear at all, or so it is thought. There is a
certain degree of evidence to suggest that some forms of fear may be
experienced by these people.
Fear is processed in the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of
the brain, as well as other emotions. In people with Urbach-Wiethe disease this
part of the brain is calcified over, hardens, and shrivels up, and doesn’t
function for fear, even though sufferers have normal cognitive function and can
experience feelings of joy, happiness and sadness. A sense of fear, though, can be induced been getting subjects
to breath high concentrations of carbon dioxide, as a recent study has shown.
The feelings of suffocation and panic were similar in both the control group
and those with amygdala damage. It seems life is much simpler than brain
physiology indicates, at least at a very basic level.
The word fear is intrinsic to
the English language. In Old
English, it was faer, in Middle
English it was fere, and meant a sense of sudden
danger. It came to mean “to terrify and frighten”. A phobia is “an irrational fear, horror, aversion.” The word phobia comes from the Greek phobeo, “terror, fear, panic”. Phobos is
the name of one of the moons of Mars. It is also the name of one the twins born
to the Greek God Ares (God of War) and Aphrodite (Goddess of Love). Phobos
(fear) was twin to Deimos (terror). I find mythology very interesting because
here is a kind of psychological awareness of how it is with us humans; semi-aware
parts of ourselves are personified into gods, goddesses and demi gods. Here in war, in fear, love is met, and
here is something more than mere survival. In this juncture profound change to
a life lived, thus far, is possible.
Continuing this line of investigation, the word phobeo contains within itself a mysticism, a reverence for
something not yet known, something intimated, a mystery, respect, a sense of
awe. It sort of reveals itself in Phoebe, daughter of the sky (Uranus) and the
earth (Gaia) She is a Titan Goddess of Radiance and Brightness, and a prophetess at the Oracle of Delphi. She foretells
many changes, many hopes and dreams.
A
fear that seems to cripple can be a sign that a war is going on within and a
life that brings delight isn’t yet being lived. People come, often bringing
more than a fear. They sometimes bring depression and generalized anxiety.
There is, in anxiety, a tremendous amount of energy; and energy that can
release huge and fundamental changes.
From fear comes the possibility of real and enduring shifts in perspective. From the
darkness of fear, comes this lightsome being of light, so feeling and
identifying fear is the beginning of some pretty fundamental change in a
person’s life. It’s a very good place to start: from fear itself.
