Fear acts as a
mirror of who and what I am and what I think I am.
We also use it as
one.
If we have spiritual souls there is a response to fear that we
probably cannot detect.
Thinking we have souls though can make us
unconsciously replicate what responses we would have if we had.
Religious persons see
themselves as a soul or spiritual energy first and foremost. They open the
door to trying to experience additional fears. And as much fear is
underneath the surface and its presence unknown to even the victim, they open
a door to new subconscious forms of fear. To program yourself to imagine
that there are impulses beyond the brain and body makes you act as if there
are. Plus how is a therapist supposed to help with unconscious fear if
you displace it from your body and brain into some imagined spiritual
existence? That protects it by giving it a framework that has nothing to
do with the human world. It is better to throw out ideas of God and the
soul and not to co-operate with religious systems.
The
mirror hints of the underlying values, assumptions, vulnerabilities, and
boundaries we place on our own identity.
Fear of evil is tied to how
it is insidious and how we seem to water it down to let it in. It is feared as
bigger than us.
Fear itself is insidious. So that alone would make you
fear evil. A bad perception that is not truly your friend is an evil and will
colour your vision of evil.
It may be that though we claim to logically
think that evil has no reality but is a mere lack of a good that should be
there, we are fooling ourselves. Fear touches our core and it is a fake friend
and foe. It means our psychology, not logic, is the real source of the
argument.
When we experience non-biological or social fear, it rarely
tells us the objective truth about the external world; instead, it exposes how
we perceive our own worth, capabilities, and resilience.
There is a level of self-abuse at work when you fear things that are not happening. Fear is to protect you when a danger looms not when a danger is far off. We are more likely to harm ourselves and others when we feel too strongly about dangers that may never happen.
Fear opens up
ways to perceive our virtues or achievements as mostly accidental flukes
rather than the result of our actual skills or hard work.
Fear is
linked to how we view our self-worth as conditional, tying our value as a
person directly to our output or success.
We have enough problems with fear without adding in spiritual religious
fears - sin, Hell, Satan etc.
Here are what some fears show.
Fear of Ego-Death, Humiliation/shame
highlights a brittle self-image, showing that we perceive our "self" as
something that can be totally shattered by public disapproval.
Fear of
Commitment reveals a fragile sense of autonomy, where we view ourselves as
easily trapped or swallowed up by others, losing our personal freedom in the
process.
Fear of Change or Uncertainty indicates that we perceive
ourselves as incapable of adapting to new environments, preferring the safety
of stagnation over our own capacity to grow.
Fear of Our Own Feelings
exposes a perception that certain emotions (like grief, anger, or deep
sadness) are dangerous, overwhelming entities that have the power to
completely destroy us if we let them in.
Fear of Our Fragility reveals
that we see our worth as conditional and view our skills or voice as
fundamentally inadequate.
Fear of Our Dependency shows we rely entirely on external validation and perceive ourselves as lacking the resilience to handle rejection or shame.
Fear of Our Lack of Trust exposes a belief that we cannot adapt to change, handle mistakes, or maintain our autonomy in relationships.
Fear of Our Emotional Fear highlights a belief that our own deep emotions are too
dangerous or overwhelming for us to survive.
Fear of Our Ultimate Vulnerability
reveals a view of ourselves as
fundamentally unprotected or powerless against a universe we perceive as
overwhelmingly hostile.
Fear of Our Moral Rigidity exposes a perfectionist
self-image, where we believe that making a mistake or experiencing a dark
thought makes us irredeemably bad.
Here is briefly what a
fear of evil reveals about how we perceive ourselves. It shows we perceive
our own goodness as fragile, fearing that we are easily manipulated, stained,
or led astray by negative forces. It reveals a fear of our own shadow
self, exposing a subconscious belief that we contain repressed, "evil"
impulses that we might lose control over. Or already have - without noticing.