fear

no-one likes to admit their fears.. well i tend not to if they can be used against me
this i thought id bring up due to the tensity of the forum lately and as hopefully the new discussion of the week(end)
i had a dream, where a majority of it was irrelevent to this topic, except art, where there is a bridge, a stone bridge, wich i attempt to cross, but counldt even step on it with confidence. i crouch on the floor in front of it, in the hope that i can crawl my way across it,but couldnt even do that, as i found it was literally the width of my face.
so half a foot wide, rather long, stone bridge, with no supports, crossing a deep cliff-edge/ chasm.
yet in my meditation, i am perfectly happy to cross a sturdy wooden bridge, with rope on eitherside... i dont think anything could make it any clearer to me that iam not keen on heights than my dream lol!

so what fears do you have to talk about? any dreams or meditations that made is so obvious you didnt like something, even though you feel its only slight?


(slight offtopic - wow! what a line up we have on the 'latest topics' scroller -
'fear - the line - psychic vampirism - welsh sucks'
we sure are positive people )

Fear of fear itself is something that has been an on and off battle all my life.

There is a Budo maxim that martial artists have used for centuries which goes something similar to the following:

Do not fear your enemy, their reputation or their appearance
Treat your enemy as you would a guest in your house
Fear is a great enemy, do not fear it

These aren't the exact words but get the message across I hope. The second part of the maxim is, in my interpretation, a way of making sure someone is not arrogant and blind to their enemy's strengths and skills which can be fatal. Awareness is always important.

I do not fear death but I can fear pain sometimes. Sometimes I'm afraid of heights. I'm afraid of losing the ability to think as well, that woudl be devastating.

Hope that answers the thread from my perspective. LOL

that is interesting
i can also relate to the non existant fear of death, yet sometimes fearing pain - a possible reason for my dislike of heights - not the falling, but the landing
originally, my fear was only of myself - sure we can control ourselves to an extent, but the self is the only true thing to fear - but of course, with this dream i have, i can just as easily say i have a 'fear' of heights

its rather stupid - i cant jump a metre/half metre gap, because of the deepness, even though its obvious i can jump that distance if there wasnt a gap there :s it is a strange thing

i used to fear loneliness but that was a while ago i now fear my anger but i have recently about 6 months started to see the fear as a guidline to how far i go before i blow

i really dont like blowing (not a pretty site)

I'm a huge chicken!
I have had a list in the past of things I'm afraid of.
Heights, Not of how high but the landing *lol redundant?!*
Having had asthma in my life, not being able to breathe
Being alone
Fire, but want to be cremated LOL go figure
not being liked though it seems everyone likes me for the most part

My biggest fear at the moment is Failure which has been an ongoing thing.
I hate failure in any form............even if it is failure in my mind

The one thing I'm not afraid of is death. Having faced it, though I'm not ready, death is not an issue. It is something we are born doing and at some point, will succeed. It is "home" the "summerland" if you are one of us. That one place we all hope to go to at some point. I'm rather looking forward some day. I have family, friends, pets etc that I look forward to seeing agian.
Great Post!
Is always nice to see others humanity by knowing we all have short comings!

i wonder if anyone on this forum is afraid of death???

into my morbid mindset i go!

well, anger, is a part of us, which links with my phrase of the true fear is of myself... i said this due to the complications and fragility of the mind...
lonliness is not so much of a problem to me, yes it would be... regretable i guess, but to an extent, is something i have had throughout my school years, i have had friends, but it comes to me across as, if we are born alone, we die alone. hence i am neither afraid of being alone, or dying (only how i die - hopefully not by train or go splat)

death sure sounds nice when you listen to voltaire

*puts hand up* I am scared of death! I'm scared of dying in an accident and I'm scared because it is the unknown. I'm more afraid of it being final, the very end. I'm afraid of not going anywhere, like no summerland, or heaven or hell, just nothing. Where there is no-one else because there are people that I want to see again and to never see them again frightens me. It's the way my mind works, I question my beliefs and even though I believe in an afterlife, I say "what if there isn't?" or "what if I get lost and end up somewhere different to everyone else?".

I'm also scared of:

* Being burned. I like fire and being a fire sign, I love the energy of fire, but I feel that this also makes me wary of the destruction and harm that it can cause.

* Heights and falling, well, like others have said the landing.

* Spiders ... they crawl and they creep and they wear invisibility cloaks until they have you cornered!! Enough said!

* Snakes. Since I saw an episode of Casualty where a poisonous snake went down a drain into the sewers I have been scared of snakes, more specifically slithering out of the toilet whilst I am using it!

I'm also scared of other things that I don't want to say on a public forum!

I think that some fear is good, it keeps you safe and stops you from being irrational.

By the way, this is a great thread!

Logmadr wrote:

Great idea by the way Jaska, totally wicked!! You're just amassing information to destroy us all, aren't you?

noo! my plan has been discovered - wait... you dont mind do ya?
i do wonder about the no heaven/hell/summerland/afterlife part as well sometimes, it doesnt frighten me, but the idea of your consciousness just floating around in nothingness - that just doesnt make sense and confuses me - its like when i was younger, i thought colourblind meant you couldnt see that colour, and the object is just invisible - i just couldnt work it out in my head....

Logmadr wrote:

I'd love to examin your brain...with a scalpel ... and gravy.

fried, with some fava beans and a nice chianti.... (a la hanibal lecter)

what the hell....? you are on about me aren't you?
even the idea of examining my mind with a scapel and gravy is far to bizzare for me... i guess the common is bizzare to me generally.... but hey dig around! might find something of interest

(half an hour later) oh my god.. it took me such a long time to get that about the brain and gravy..... jeesus what a dook

im hungry

Hmm I'm bizarre, I'm not scared by things like people judging me or disliking me or things like that. I tend to have either 'normal' fears and take them really far or just plain irrational fears. For example I'm scared of heights... but REALLY scared of heights, like I'll sway towards edges and have to sit down to get anywhere close, and go mental if someone goes anywhere near a cliff or anything. I'll shout at them and feel physically sick :-S..... unless I really hate them or something and then I try and distract them so they lose their footing and fall off MWAHAHHAHA.... *cough* anyway...

Yeah and then I also have irrational fears, like mushrooms (not when they are picked but specifically when they are growing off things, I just get this horrible feeling like they are sucking the life out of the plant/tree). I used to flip out scream, kick them/stamp on them and then run away. Completely nuts but true, I'm better now I just take a deep breathe and walk away and pretend I didn't see it.

I'm also scared of moray eels because they just F****** sit and hide in underwater corners and stare and bloody GRIN at you! Seriously they do.

Oh and the death thing. I mean I believe either there is something substantial or nothing at all, I mean if some part of ourselves does survive beyond our bodies then I think theres gotta be just more than floating around in darkness, i.e. an afterlife or reincarnation. And if there isn't anything then what is there to fear? Its just nothing, kaput, end, no more. So that is no more feelings so once you're dead there will be nothing to make you sad or happy or just anything. End. You know? That doesn't particularly worry me. Either way once you're gone its not you who has to deal with it, its the others left behind.

The actual act of dying, yes does scare the bejezzes out of me, I hate the idea of pain, I think thats pretty normal though. But again I take it to extremes, like I'll just be sat on the bus or something then imagine this horrible crash, with tonnes of gore and detail and convince myself I'm about to die. This overactive/hypermind of mine has resulted in me being a little bit wimpy with a lot of things, i.e. heights, double decker buses, roller coasters (I've never been on one).

Yup so.... anyway. Lotta fears there.....I'm such a scaredy cat haha xxx

Quote :

For example I'm scared of heights... but REALLY scared of heights, like I'll sway towards edges and have to sit down to get anywhere close, and go mental if someone goes anywhere near a cliff or anything

wow thats just like me!! unless ther is a bar or fence in the way, then im fine with clifedges and bridges... otherwise i have to sit at an edge, not stand :S

Yeah I understand that, It's rare in me to get that urge but it does happen occasionally. Probably because my sense of reality is a little skewed sometimes and I'd forget there were consequences of throwing yourself over a cliff haha. I get really physically weak and sway and I don't trust myself or any railings enough. Also I freak myself out when I'm not on a ground floor, repeatedly thinking to myself "under this little floor there is nothing, nothing holding me up....I'm standing on nothing!!!!" Then I feel sick and weak, I do it with stairs too..... and if anyone even tries to explain the architectural reasons as to why it works I'll just warn you, my brain doesn't work that way haha xxx

Aurora wrote:

but REALLY scared of heights, like I'll sway towards edges and have to sit down to get anywhere close, and go mental if someone goes anywhere near a cliff or anything. I'll shout at them and feel physically sick :-S.....

This pretty much explains me and heights too. If I stand near an edge, I literally feel as if I'm going to faint and fall over.

I'm not really afraid of dying, not that I want to do it anytime soon though, but I'm more afraid of losing those close to me.

I also have this 'thing' about making a fool of myself. I'm not really afraid of it, but try and avoid it at all costs. there's nothing more embarassing than looking like an idiot in front of a lot of people.

Yeah I fly all the time, I do get a little creeped out, a lot more so than I did when I was a kid. Its because that damned hyper active brain, I hate taking off and I just keep constantly thinking "I'm in a tincan miles up in the AIR, this is not NORMAL" I then start thinking of the distance between my feet and the outside air which freaks me out considerably. However, I am much much better with aeroplanes than I am with the traditional cliff edge malarky. The majority of this fear thing is actually a recent development, I actually started when I became happy with life, when stuff was c*** I really didnt care, then I got scared for other people which developed into fear for myself. And the fear of lots of things has just stuck around really. I mean I don't walk around in constant terror haha but I mean I wont take risks and tend to grip the seat if I'm moving in any sort of vehicle or anything...... by the way folks I'm learning to drive.... MWAHAHAH now you shall all fear ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xxx

i remembered something -those swing things at themeparks (just google image the phrase 'swing thing heme park' and youll see what i mean)
I didnt mind them at first, but after a while, i started imagining if one of the chains breaks and im dangling or going to fall several feel, still sat and chained in the seat and with only my arms free... and what if i land on a fence or fly into that carpark over the trees or something....

i think the falling idea is due to the fear of losing control. you have no idea whats going to happen, how its going to happen, and the idea of being in the air isnt so bad, but the fact you are falling through it, no longer in control of your own body....

i also had a phase where i hated lifts due to the scene in 'speed' (apparently.. i just remmeber them going up and down real fast in a lift and then going splat...) and that scene of the lift in Mission impossible...