Eliminating fear

[Sean]

The new fear subliminal is causing me some concerns. Fear is a critical function in the human experience. For instance, bravery is doing what needs doing despite being afraid, whereas being fearless is foolishness. Fear creates the thrill in life: roller coasters, skydiving, bungee jumping, extreme sports are all fear-based-excitement driven.

The adrenaline that sharpens our senses and magnifies our strength during a life-threatening situation is triggered by fear.

How much will the subliminals eliminate GOOD fear, as opposed to removing negative fear?

[Yuri]

i was actually thinking about the same thing, fear is a survival mechanism and getting rid of it entirely might not be the smartest idea, its like saying lets eliminate the need to drink water and get hungry and u might end up ded. but im sure shannon will oversmart us and knows all of this as usuall actually its getting boring lol.

[Shannon]

How much fear is necessary once you're intelligent enough to realize that standing on a tree branch a hundred feet up is potentially a threat to your life? Or that poisonous snakes can kill you? Or that anything that you may have a positive fear of... is dangerous?

Compare that to how many of us get hung up on negative, useless, unnnecessary fears. Fear of being noticed. Fear of being left alone. Fear of being without mommy. Fear of the unknown... when the unknown constitutes growing up and being an adult!

I think that Alightnment has hit the nail on the head. Once you're old enough to think, you don't need fear anymore. Fear is useful for protecting and controlling animals and kids too young to think.

Unless, of course, you don't have common sense.

But let's take an example of what Sean is saying and consider it. A few days ago, I had a gun pointed at my head during a "demonstration" of someone's point. This gun was not safety checked, and aside from being pointed at my head, I happen to know that the safety was off, and the man's finger was on the trigger. Very obvious and clear violations of almost every rule of gun safety. This all coming from an Army vet who should have known better 50 years ago, at least.

This constituted a valid threat to my life. The gun could have had ammunition in it because it wasn't safety checked. Worse still, it was a .25 caliber pistol, just powerful enough to pierce my skull and potentially scramble my brains instead of kill me outright.

There's nothing like a sudden threat to one's life to wake you up. And it did wake me up. How did I react? I was calm, and I dealt with the situation calmly. It made me more angry that he would do something so stupid than than to feel threatened.

Now, had I reacted in fear, and that been a real life situation of real life threat, would that fear have helped me, or hindered me?

I'm going to argue that in most cases, fear will actually hinder a response to modern threats.

With fear, my response would have been to start shaking so violently that I wouldn't have been able to do anything but run away. I would have been in a blind panic, and not thinking enough to even zig-zag. I would have gotten shot at, and most likely killed.

Without fear, I was able to calmly and quickly diffuse the situation, but in a situation where a real assailant has a real gun, the assailant is almost as likely to be shaking with fear and adrenaline as the target is. That makes for less control, and more opportunity to get hurt. If I remain calm, and my assailant is shaking, it sends a powerful message. It says, "You may have the gun, but clearly, I'm the one in control here." It says that the gun doesn't make him the stronger of the two of us. It also gives me the opportunity to use my neo-cortex to get myself to safety instead of my lizard brain. I can respond with any number of options that the fight or flight system doesn't allow. I am more likely to survive because I was able to think without being driven by, and controlled by fear.

And that guy with the gun may end up killing me anyway, but worst case scenario... at least I died without peeing my pants in fear!

As long as you can - and actually DO - think with your neo-cortex... that is, have and USE common sense... you don't need fear.

[Sean]

Good points, all.

[SexyMofo]

Nice points man. How about a single sub that kills fear in general? hehe

[Shannon]

SexyMofo, I thought that's what we were talking about here? The one I just built... and put up...

[Tiesto]

Shannon, once fear has been overcomed, can anxiety still exist, or will it automatically disappear as well?

[Shannon]

Shannon, once fear has been overcomed, can anxiety still exist, or will it automatically disappear as well?

Anxiety is the child of fear. IF fear is overcome... it should not allow for anxiety, as long as the causative fear is removed.

[Shannon]

I just finished answering this same question from you in two other places. lol Yes.

[SexyMofo]

@ Shannon: Lol. Was tipsy the other time while I was browsin through the thread. I wasn't actually reading the whole thread just some of the posts. lol Now that I'm sober I was able to read the whole thread! Hahaha my apologies man

[mat422]

Well put Shannon. I've never been too fond of fear. To me it's only hindered me from doing what I wanted to do. Two examples I can think of. Skateboarding for one. I haven't done anything super dangerous yet, but I know if you have fear and don't commit to what you are doing 100 percent the likelihood of getting hurt is greater. The other is boxing. You can have all the technical knowledge, but if you start letting fear get to you it saps you of energy and you can't go as long in the ring.

I've tried to look at the positive side of fear and maybe just about the only thing that feels good is when you push past it. But why bother with all that frustration to begin with? It would be so much easier to just not have the fear and do what you want to do. I do believe that some people are fearless and those are the people who get what they want out of life.

[DrDestiny]

Shannon if one uses this fear sub then would it mean you wouldn't need subs like overcome approach anxiety and overcome fear of rejection ? Thanks.

[Shannon]

Shannon if one uses this fear sub then would it mean you wouldn't need subs like overcome approach anxiety and overcome fear of rejection ? Thanks.

Theoretically, yes. If it works as intended.

[Tiesto]

Shannon, please correct me if I'm wrong, I've been reading the Overcoming Fear script, but I don't see any balancing statements of ego with humility or common sense.. Maybe some people don't need it, but I think some people (like myself) would need a balancing statement like that..

I remember my past experience with ASC, even though ASC has balancing statement for ego with humility, but I don't think it was working as intended, I noticed that when people push me around (usually during driving), I wouldn't back down (because of my ego, and ASC magnify that), although with common sense it is probably better to give way sometimes to prevent unnecessary bumps or scrapes, but because of feeling of boost in confidence, my ego is telling me I should not submit to pressure and that other drivers should give way for me...

Now when it comes to Overcome Fear sub, I'm afraid that it will be even worse than being on ASC, I would like to request that you add a balancing statement (for humility, common sense, doing the right thing, etc) for this sub, and if possible a strong one at that, since I think this particular sub can unleash the dangerous character in people that were previously suppressed by fear...