Fear

Question: Rayson, I have a question. This concerns fear - human beings on Earth experience this. There are a number of places in the Urantia Book where we are admonished not to be fearful. And there is also a place where savages on this earth were discussed, and they were said to be quite fearful. Now, even in the condition we're in right now, which has advanced somewhat beyond the savage human point, there still is a great deal of fear. How does the condition of fear in man interrelate with connectedness to the Thought Adjuster and I guess, general faith?

Answer: Fear is the biggest emotional barrier to Thought Adjuster communications: animal fear and anxiety. How to conquer this is a lifetime challenge and active job for the human. One, is by remembering what true reality is. True reality is spiritual reality. If you would examine the source of your fears you would find that they are rooted in the physical, material realms. For example: will I have a job? Will I get ill? Will this action hurt me. Will I lose this person's love? Will I look good to others? There is a difference between instinctual survival fears which are built into a species and easily surpassed as the race becomes more intellectually developed and fears that arises out of the unreality of ego and the material, physical plain. The absence of fear equals love. The two cannot coexist in the human psyche. The more one loves the less one fears. It is not an easy task to accomplish, and indeed many mortals never accomplish this to any significant degree in this lifetime. Some extraordinary human beings do manage to, for the most part, to live without fear, but these are generally humans with self-acting Adjusters and lives dedicated to the spiritual realities.

Question: I have a follow-up question regarding the question about fear. Fear feelings, and fear of feelings, could you address that for a moment? Someone is in the jungle and a tiger appears, perhaps fear might be healthy at that point, or maybe not maybe the adjutant mind spirits might be wise to get in touch with at that point. But is there a difference between fear of feelings and experiential fears?

Answer: There are instinctual fears built into the physical being of the human which insure survival. The
example you cited is one of them. If a human were to be attacked by an animal his fear would be wholly
appropriate and probably life saving/preserving.

The fear we discussed as an impediment to spiritual growth is more rooted in the psyche than in the instinctual reflex pattern which has been designed into you. These fears are not helpful, but may be categorized as fear anxiety, and if examined closely, are more self involved, self serving, than outer directed - either at one's fellows or God. That is a broad base measuring stick.

Fear of feelings is also not healthy. You have feelings as does every human and this is in the realm of material minded humanity. One should not be afraid to explore one's feelings, but should remember balance as given an example to you by the Divinely integrated life and personality of Jesus of Nazareth. Undue obsession with what you are feeling is not good. Neither is a repression - denial of what you feel. Examine your feelings for a period and then stop. Do not become mired in an abyss of selfanalysis.

Question: Sometimes parents and grandparents develop apprehensions about what is going on in their
children's and grandchildren's lives, and mentally we know that we should leave that to the celestial beings, and trust in faith. Is this the kind of fear that you are talking about that interferes?

Answer: No. Sometimes being loving can be misunderstood as being fearful. If you, as a loving parent-grandparent, are concerned then it is almost your responsibility to act as a vehicle for The FATHER's love and concern. If approached from an unselfish, concerned, loving, other-directed point of view, the person you are talking to cannot help but to respond with a whole mind. How else are we to do service and reflect the actual love of God and Light into the world than through our own transforming actions. If however, your feelings are truly fearful, and not a measure of caution or concern, then you must pray to exorcise your fear and replace it with Divine love.

Question: Ever since I was a little girl I have had nightmares and sleep visitors, a lot of old lady-looking
people have appeared to me and scare me at night. It continues to this day. Is that real or is it a product of my creative imagination? Is it ever a universe visitor actually coming and trying to minister to me and I get scared and so they - I wake up and freak out. Recently I had three ladies visit me and I asked them who they were and they said that they were right hand of God. And I don't know, I just don't know how to react to that.

Answer: Fear is real, is a real emotion, and also is a physical manifestation. On two levels it exists. Fear on a spiritual (level) is totally unreal. You, in your situation, I would suspect that the archetypes you are dreaming, nightmaring about are deep-rooted from early childhood. There is the archetype of the old witch in the collective unconscious of your species. I do not think that Divine Ministry would frighten you. Perhaps the reply was partial Thought Adjuster, the spiritual reply. But the images are created out of your own personal history and the collective unconscious of your species. Let us keep in mind that love is the absence of fear. Divine Ministry is love.

Question: I've been leery for a long time, acutely aware of this process. The question I have is for me personally, and I've seen it in others, so I know that I'm in that tunnel. Sometimes there's light and sometimes there's not. The question I have is even though there's intellectual knowledge of and participation in this mission, and there's all these things, and all this prayer, there's still a great deal of fear.

Answer: Do not be unhappy. You are much loved and cherished. Yes, your fear is a symbol of your spiritual growth. For you, and I must take liberty and ask your pardon if I become too personal with you today in front of your peers - your response to love is anger. You have grown into fear. You suppress your fear and vulnerability with your anger. You have been upset. Do not be afraid. Be of good cheer. Eternity and the riches of the spiritual kingdom await your struggle. They are lying there at the end of your road. Keep your eyes open, for greatness lies ahead for you, although you do not believe it.

Allow yourself to be open to your terror, to your uncertainties, to your anxieties, for only by acknowledging this will you overcome it. When exposed to the light of God your fears will melt away. But if you hide them always behind your anger they will seem even larger to you.

Read “The Boy Who Was Afraid.” Allow yourself to be lonely. Allow yourself to ask for help, not just celestially, but of other humans. You cannot control your inner environment nor can you control your outer. Your pain is greater because you try not to be hurt. You will not be severely crippled or damaged from the world, for you are spiritually intact, and what you are. But if you close up, you close off the knowledge accrued all along, celestially and humanly, you do not let this in to nourish your heart.

Have the courage - it is time as you know - and I will guide you, and our prayers will be with you. Much
rejoicing, ......for your fear, for that will bring you closer to your light.

Question: Is there any value in utilizing psychologists to unearth our hidden fears and angers?

Answer: They are not that hidden. To be more honoring of your question, it is a personal decision. It is not necessarily spiritual, but can, if come be. It is up to each of you. 

Initially fear is an experience that results from the recognition of the slipping of willpower, the ability to control conditions. In and of itself this is not inappropriate and need not be eliminated from your reaction patterns, for it is a significant warning signal for you to apply your will more intently. When grace is projected upon the screen of your life not only is the will of the Father visible but so are the flaws of your own being. When the illumination strikes the black spots that interfere with the image become noticeable. This black spot may be likened to your innate fear responses that are contributory to self preservation; they are an integral part of your material condition. This fear is benign, for the personality is able to watch the movie and tolerate the imperfections of one's condition.

The fear you must seek to overcome in your life is the fear that could be likened to putting your hand between the projector and the screen and distorting or blocking the flow of grace. This is the fear that you may witness change in your life, that you may have revealed to you information that you do not desire to accept. This is an active, preventive fear rather than the reactive, protective fear of your animal nature.

In continuing your conversation, I would play further with this image of the projector and screen by moving to the perspective of a white beam of light upon the screen rather than an image to be viewed. You as a personality draw upon these credits when you do make your playful shadows with your hands between projector and screen. This is your active, willful impact and bearing within these conditions. By shifting like this I am attempting to present to you two perspectives. The first perspective was one of observation, of witnessing, of receiving the image resulting from the projection and the  screen's condition. The second perspective is to illustrate your active participation in the resultant image upon the screen. In this second view, given the conditions of your life, given the projections of the Father's will upon your life, you are able to manipulate these factors and bring about your own image. This image is your soul.

The master said, "fear not." He knew well that all mortal creatures have the fear reaction within them. When he said, "fear not" he addressed the tendency to use fear to block grace and thereby prevent growth by the restriction of the use of your faith.

You know that when you have finished watching a movie and the lights come on, the light is intense. When you receive revelation in your life about your current spiritual status and the potentials through which you may grow, it can cause the reaction spiritually like your squinting eyes do physically. To, in a spiritual sense, cringe or flinch is an acceptable reaction to a new insight. If you are to further feed this reaction, you translate your fear into an active fear that is preventive of growth.

Returning to the idea of an image projected upon a screen, error in your life is the distorted perception of the projection. Sin is the willful destruction of the setup; to place a stain upon the lens, soil upon the screen. Iniquity is shutting the lamp off altogether. Also, any good projectionist knows when to recognize any blemish and to cleanse the system for better projection. The reaction has a tinge of fear, for you recognize the potential for degradation. But a true projectionist thrives at viewing the images projected. To refrain from turning on the projector is the spiritual fear you must seek to eliminate from your life to become more boldly adventurous at discovering the revelation that may result from the projection of grace upon your life. 

Evelyn: That was vivid. I like the distinction of fear of change, reluctance to accept reality, and fear as evidence of something around worth avoiding.

Mary: You mentioned shutting off the projector. Do we have the ability to shut off the flow of grace? I would think shutting off grace would be closing our eyes. Maybe I am being too literal.

Elyon:  I have been loose with the factors involved, but we are thereby able to play further, for you may liken the bulb to being your Indwelling Spirit, brilliant luminosity resident within, and the slide before the light being what the Father wishes you to receive today. This gives insight into why revelation is always in step with your growth. You will receive a new slide at the appropriate time. So you can view your switch to your willingness to be aligned with the Father or not. The Father may be likened to the electricity that powers the bulb. Yes, it is always there whether you access it or not. How would you describe focussing the lens?

Mary: Yes, a good projectionist can focus the lens for clearer viewing.  

Evelyn: I see us individually being the projectionists. We can get in the way by putting our hands in front of the light or refuse to let the light shine. To the degree we focus is how we can make it clear to the best of our understanding what this grace projection is, to make it go from a blur of pretty colors to being an actual, recognizable something.

Mary: We can either get in the way or help.  

Tom: It is up to us to plug the machine in.

Elyon: The phrase "not my will but your will be done" may be compared to your comments about getting in the way of the projection and realizing that you can step away and let the Father's will be done. The lens brought into focus is more like "it is my will that your will be done". 

Mary: What if the screen were crumpled?

Elyon: This is the condition of Earth and the condition of many human beings who have had upbringings of a nature that crumples a screen. 

Evelyn: Small areas could still be in focus.  

Elyon: I have another aspect for you to wrestle with. How might you derive meaning from a fan in the projector?

Evelyn: Dispelling the heat.

Mary: It makes me think of how we have our flashlight in the dark and can only see so much, for our own good. If we were exposed to the intensity of the Fragment of the Father it could be overwhelming.

Tom: You can't see the light and live. Somebody has to  temper it.

Evelyn: The importance of taking care of the physical apparatus involved in the light shining.

Elyon: These are excellent perspectives, for you do realize that the bulb would flash and dissipate without the temperance. It can illustrate your cooperative approach with the inner spirit to contribute your energies to the working of the system. I would add an additional element that the combination of fan and bulb, the two work together is what is valuable in the establishment of good habits in your life.  

Mary: The fan kicks on when a thermostat is necessary to keep tabs on our lives, when we need to spend some time in stillness with our Thought Adjusters if some aspect of our lives is getting overheated.  

Elyon: Growth is a dynamic of your lives. As captivating as a revelation is in your life, when realized there arrives a time when you must change the slide, or it will burn and destroy itself. This illustrates the caution to not become crystallized in your spirit perspective.

I would add one more additional element to our image today, and that is, with the opening of the circuits and the permission granted by the melchizedeks for us to begin to increase our contact with one another, you have now in your projection room the added equipment of a sound system. This works well to illustrate that the primarily most important element of your life is your projector, your light bulb, and the screen. This is your relationship with the Father and your own personal growth. We add to the environmental experience but will never replace that relationship. 

Evelyn: You are the photographers who have provided us with a lot of the slides.

Elyon: Thank you for that complement.

Mary: You stated that we have taken the steps to move ourselves to the next level. Is the next level just our further interest in interacting, discussing, and acting on the lessons? Is that what you have been looking and waiting for and is our choice?

Elyon: In the view of the past five years we have been involved in a process whereby we have scattered seeds and taken note of the ones you watered. Now you are scattering seeds, and we will do the watering. You have reacted to our presentations and grown. Now you are creating the topics of study and we contribute. One of the most rewarding elements of morontia life is this self-directed study and training. It creates a sense of freedom that is not existent in curriculums that are defined for you. It creates a deep identification with the truths and a readiness to be the very embodiment of these truths. It is a welling up from within rather than a taking on from without. This is that level.

Question: This concerns fear. There are a number of places in the Urantia Book where we are admonished not to be fearful. And there is also a place where savages on this earth were discussed, and they were said to be quite fearful. Now, even in the condition we're in right now, which has advanced somewhat beyond the savage human point, there still is a great deal of fear. How does the condition of fear in man interrelate with connectedness to the Thought Adjuster and I guess, general faith?

Answer: Fear is the biggest emotional barrier to Thought Adjuster communications: animal fear and anxiety. How to conquer this is a lifetime challenge and active job for the human. One, is by remembering what true reality is. True reality is spiritual reality. If you would examine the source of your fears you would find that they are rooted in the physical, material realms. For example: will I have a job? Will I get ill? Will this action hurt me. Will I lose this person's love? Will I look good to others? There is a difference between instinctual survival fears which are built into a species and easily surpassed as the race becomes more intellectually developed and fears that arises out of the unreality of ego and the material, physical plain.

The absence of fear equals love. The two cannot coexist in the human psyche. The more one loves the less one fears. It is not an easy task to accomplish, and indeed many mortals never accomplish this to any significant degree in this lifetime. Some extraordinary human beings do manage to, for the most part, to live without fear, but these are generally humans with self-acting Adjusters and lives dedicated to the spiritual realities.

Question: I have a follow-up question. Fear feelings, and fear of feelings, could you address that for a moment? Someone is in the jungle and a tiger appears, perhaps fear might be healthy at that point, or maybe not maybe the adjutant mind spirits might be wise to get in touch with at that point. But is there a difference between fear of feelings and experiential fears?

Answer: There are instinctual fears built into the physical being of the human which insure survival. The example you cited is one of them. If a human were to be attacked by an animal his fear would be wholly appropriate and probably life saving/preserving. The fear we discussed as an impediment to spiritual growth is more rooted in the psyche than in the instinctual reflex pattern which has been designed into you. These fears are not helpful, but may be categorized as fear anxiety, and if examined closely, are more self involved, self serving, than outer directed - either at one's fellows or God. That is a broad base measuring stick.

Fear of feelings is also not healthy. You have feelings as does every human and this is in the realm of material minded humanity. One should not be afraid to explore one's feelings, but should remember balance as given an example to you by the Divinely integrated life and personality of Jesus of Nazareth.

Undue obsession with what you are feeling is not good. Neither is a repression - denial of what you feel. Examine your feelings for a period and then stop. Do not become mired in an abyss of self analysis.

Question: Sometimes parents and grandparents develop apprehensions about what is going on in their children's and grandchildren's lives, and mentally we know that we should leave that to the celestial beings, and trust in faith. Is this the kind of fear that you are talking about that interferes?

Answer: No. Sometimes being loving can be misunderstood as being fearful. If you, as a loving parent-grandparent, are concerned then it is almost your responsibility to act as a vehicle for The Father's love and concern. If approached from an unselfish, concerned, loving, other-directed point of view, the person you are talking to cannot help but to respond with a whole mind. How else are we to do service and reflect the actual love of God and Light into the world than through our own transforming actions. If however, your feelings are truly fearful, and not a measure of caution or concern, then you must pray to exorcize your fear and replace it with Divine love.

Question: Ever since I was a little girl I have had nightmares and sleep visitors, a lot of old lady-looking people have appeared to me and scare me at night. It continues to this day. Is that real or is it a product of my creative imagination? Is it ever a universe visitor actually coming and trying to minister to me and I get scared and so they - I wake up and freak out. Recently I had three ladies visit me and I asked them who they were and they said that they were right hand of God. And I don't know, I just don't know how to react to that.

Answer: Fear is real, is a real emotion, and also is a physical manifestation. On two levels it exists. Fear on a spiritual level is totally unreal. You, in your situation, I would suspect that the archetypes you are dreaming, nightmaring about are deep-rooted from early childhood. There is the archetype of the old witch in the collective unconscious of your species. I do not think that Divine Ministry would frighten you.

Perhaps the reply was partial Thought Adjuster, the spiritual reply. But the images are created out of your own personal history and the collective unconscious of your species. Let us keep in mind that love is the absence of fear. Divine Ministry is love.

Bob:  Years ago I read an article called "Fear is the phantom" and the idea behind it was that much of what people do is based upon fear but it's unrecognized because we don't want to face that side of ourselves.  And that made a lot of sense, so I began to wonder, what about you, Bob! What part of what you do is fear-based? But I really had a tough time addressing that whole side of me because I think it's a side of me that has been repressed for so long. And, of course, men in our society are not encouraged when they are young to talk about their fears like the ladies are encouraged at least to talk about that. But the guys, hell, no fear! That's kind of the way we were raised, so we've never had the opportunity to address that. So I'm trying to do that now and I'm nowhere near the point where I'm ready to address that.

Minearisa: Fear is part of your natural, animal inheritance. As a biological being, fear serves the protective mechanism. It signals the brain to produce adrenaline that allows your fight-or-flight and survival in animal beings. And this is its proper function. However, this current society on Earth is permeated by such thick fear that it is the poison in which the beings of this planet are drowning. The history of this planet, the rebellion, in which the spiritual administrators turned against God and the circuitry being cut from the rest of the spiritual universe, left the inhabitants of this planet with the intense experience of isolation, separation, and unreality. The horror of the experience of aloneness has cast a shadow that has most of mankind responding fearfully most of the time. You do not believe that the universe is a loving place. You do not know of the spiritual protection and overcare that is continually present and provided. You do not know that you are precious children of God. And so this survival mechanism is jammed constantly on in many people.  

Making the distinction between fear-based responses and love-based responses is important. God is love. God is truth, beauty and goodness. When one is acting from a place of true love, then there is an absence of this fear poison.

Where love is expansive, fear is contractive. Where love adds, fear creates a black hole. Where love gives, fear takes. There is, of course, healthy fear, and there is unhealthy fear. If someone is coming at you with a knife that you know intends you no good, that is what fear was created for. It releases the adrenaline, it allows you to flee or to fight for your survival. If someone disapproves of a decision you have made, and there is this emotional state of anxiety, contraction, stomach pain, the need to win back that approval, that is unhealthy fear. In this case the fear of being disapproved of; which, if one follows that to its ultimate conclusion, it is often the fear of aloneness, separation, an unreal existence in which God does not exist. 

Barbara: In order to feel fear, its related to your perception of danger. And maybe the error is in misperceiving something as being dangerous, because if you misperceive something as being dangerous then you become fearful and then you act out of fear. And the original fight-or-flight response was there to protect us, it was easier for us to identify what the dangers were, it's easier for animals to identify what the dangers are, but we get really confused about what danger is. And I'm just wondering if that's where the error and the fear link, through perception and misperception?

Minearisa: Yes. Perception of danger is indeed much of the problem. Perceived danger arrives in many packages. You have your favorites. These perceived dangers are generally not the case, and if you would take these packages, unwrap them, cut them open, tear them apart, and give them to God, God would take care of them for you. 

Angie: Are you saying that to fear is error?

Minearisa: In a way; and fear also leads to error because fear leads to errors in judgment and yet fear is the result of errors in perception. There is no reason to fear. God, the most perfect guide, resides within you all,
has the answers that you desire, allow that brilliant light, the love, to lead you to a place of peace. Fear not, be of good cheer.