The Role of Fear
By Ela Mukosiej⎪January 12, 2024
When I was a kid, I was petrified of death, darkness, and of course the devil. My family, like most families in Poland, were heavily indoctrinated by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church. I remember feeling guilty and sinful every time I missed the Sunday’s Liturgy, not to mention when I really did something wrong - like tell a lie. I believed I had to repent for my sin by some extra hours of prayer or service to others, because if not, the Satan would come and literally take me with him to Hell. That is what I was told by the grown ups if I misbehaved in any way.
The Church’s teachings painted scary scenarios in my young and still very formable mind. I feared the devil more than I felt the love of Jesus. (Now I know it was done on purpose.)
One night I woke up in cold sweats, breathless, and with a heart pounding out of my chest… It was dark and I was followed. As I walked up the hilly brick road, I heard clicking of horseshoes behind me. Thinking it was a horse, I quickly turned around, but to my surprise, saw a man in a black suit and a matching cylinder hat. I didn’t see the face, just the man with horse legs and a wiggling tail. That’s when my heart flipped and I awoke into darkness of my bedroom. I was 6 or 7 years old then, but I still recollect the intensity of that night, which hunted me for many, many years. To be honest, that fear of Satan was alive in me until I deprogrammed myself with “A Course In Miracles” teachings in 2016.
With Fear Comes Sacrifice
Fear is a powerful tool, which religions have used for centuries to manipulate human behavior. The indoctrination starts early, so it’s almost unbreakable when one has fully developed his/her cognitive functions. But it’s not just the Church. In today’s world we have other organized institutions that instill fear in people’s minds - i.e. government/current System (banking, medical field, science etc.)
In the religious realm, it is always some sort of pleasure and/or self-discovery that is feared and forbidden, thus we are told to sacrifice those parts of us that otherwise would make us… What? More conscious? More aware and sensitive? More in tune with our Inner Selves? Closer to the truth of Who and What we are? Precisely.
With government, it is always some sort of physical action/behavior that is required (under some penalty) for the betterment of the whole. So, we are told to surrender our individual, unalienable, God-given rights that otherwise would make us… What? Autonomous? Independent from dictatorship? Wise and logical? Free from usury and servitude? Powerful and in control of each and every aspect of our own lives? Precisely.
The best example, with which I rest my case, to demonstrate how fear takes away individual Sovereignty, is when millions of people around the world bought the “fear-porn” sold during the Covid “plan-demic.” The blind belief in authority and its message drove the masses to not only self-imprisonment, but also to self-acceptance of a poisonous jab. All because of fear of something that might happen.
Ultimate Prison and Catalyst
We all have fears. Bigger or smaller. In most cases, the fear we carry on in our daily life exists only in the mind. It is some sort of projection of the events that hasn’t taken place yet and which affects our Now-moment. (Please notice that I am not talking about fear due to an actual danger like being in a horrific accident or being kidnapped, chased by a bear, or these sorts of things…) The common fear in today’s society is anchored in illusions.
“How will I pay my taxes, rent, bills? What will happen to me and my family if I lose my job because I won’t comply with new mandates? What if I won’t send my kids to public school, will they be successful? What will my family and friends say and think of me if I express what I truly feel and believe in? Will I go to heaven after I die or will God punish me for all my sins? What if there’s no God but vastness and nothing I do here matters when I die anyways?” And on and on and on it goes…
We believe those illusions to be true - just like I believed for a long time that the devil was real and after me. Or like I used to believe I had to be a good ‘citizen’ and live by the corporate rules, which had nothing to do with my life, morality in general, nor the betterment of humanity for that matter. It was quite entrapping to hold such thoughts because they negatively affected my happiness and freedom simply by pulling me away from where my Power lies - the Now moment.
Fear paralyzes, disables, and disregards our Divine guidance to self-discovery and sovereignty. Fear can make us do things we wouldn’t consider under normal circumstances, for example taking an experimental medication that causes blood cloths and heart attacks. But also, fear can be a catalyst to our liberation because it sheds light on that which is not true about us. Read that again and let it sink in.
Once you establish the source of your apprehension, you are free to make a choice. Either believe it and keep the dreadful feeling alive or recognize it for what it is - a false thought, an erroneous belief anchored in a fantasy. Because Truth always feels like freedom and Freedom never fears. Whoever came up with an acronym FEAR., False Evidence Appearing Real, got it right.
Do you see how Fear is the ultimate prison that can bring true liberation?
Can you think of one or more examples from your life in which the fear took away your autonomy, free will, or logic? (I’m not asking about the actual danger in the moment.)
Can you think of an example when you conquered one of your fears (small or big)? What was it? How did you transmute it? How did it make you feel?