What do we most fear? I think most people would say that we fear many different things, but I would not agree.

Pain.

Helplessness…

Fear is not something we can shape or directly control, so yes, too late, you are already helpless in the face of fear. You live with it every day. It usually doesn’t get your attention unless you tend to be prone to habitual worry.

As in paranoia? Paranoia is a complex issue, and not strictly fear driven. It can also lead to delusions of grandeur, messiah complexes, things like that. You can be startled at any time. This is just science.

I’m afraid of buzzing noises because of a traumatic event involving bees. Yes indeed, and we will explore that process in general today.

But not afraid of bees when I see them unless they come too close. I can’t even use the bathroom if there is a bee in there.

My whole body reacts when I see a scorpion in the house.

Yes, there are often multiple triggers necessary, but your brain is constantly scanning your environment. This never stops, not even while you sleep. You can even be startled awake, and startled by something that only happened in your own brain. Strange, no?

This is vital right? Scanning for calm, listening for unusual noises. I sometimes startle when I get the feeling of falling when I’m laying in bed. Oh, there is no scanning for calm, only noise, only abnormality, anything new, sudden, threatening.

I’ve been woken up by a scary dream.

Sometimes during a nightmare, I have to wake up so I don’t pass out in my sleep.

Like a Mum who is extra sensitive to her baby crying? Indeed, and actually, you most often pass out in your sleep. This is why most people recall only a portion of their dreams.

The weird dream is not unique to anyone. Dreams are driven by the weird. That’s the purpose they serve, but, we often experience the weird without even recognizing that we are. Subtle things happening during the day that you pay no conscious attention to. Strange comments by strangers. The subtle impression that you were the focus of a strangers attention for a bit. The vague idea that someone may have other than helpful intentions even though everything they do and say to you in that moment suggest otherwise. These all scare you.

Fear is a process in the brain by which the abnormal or dis-contiguous is registered for future recall and is subject to ongoing processing. Without even consciously choosing to, your brain is constantly evaluating the fear process like a constant ongoing question.

Self preservation mode. In a sense, yes.

Is there such a thing as over coming your fear then? Well, how do you overcome anything?

The fear just gets registered as less threatening as you learn how to deal with it. That does happen, yes.

I think knowledge and experience mitigate fear. Facing it. They do impact the evaluation of fear, yes. They help your fear model evolve.

Guess what else startles you?

Success, for me anyway.

I’m not sure you overcome anything vs. just get use to it? Well, we claim we overcome something whenever we can dictate our relationship to it, yes? We tame animals. We overcome limitations. The problems never really go away, but they cease to impede us.

We’re no longer helpless before the fear.

You are your fear. Every element of your self image, your self knowledge, has as the essence of its form, the core of its definition, information acquired by the fear process. The whole realization… That is not me I am looking at… or even… That is me I am looking at!

After my back injury, years after, I was on a diving board in Finland, over a lake, very still waters. In my mind, my fear turned the waves into images of serrated teeth. I fought this image off as materially preposterous and eventually dove in. It was touch and go for a bit but the manifestation experience was an eye-opener. Indeed, engagement, and there is a a reason facing your fears works. Engagement works. Your fear process is the same as your sense of opportunity. There is no difference between fear and excitement, just the models. Same reaction, different context. You recognize food because your instincts scan for food.

In excitement the adrenaline is pleasure. Actually, pleasure is an abstract judgement, but I will touch on that more.

The same process that tells you that the loud noise you heard might be a bear, also makes you notice that sweet smell might be a berry bush. But relying on being able to recognize novel sensory input is why people so often discover that they have better survival skills than they previously were aware of. A lot of information gets lodged in the brain that we don’t pay any conscious attention to, but it’s still stimulating those oh so important instincts anyway.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~