Fear has many definitions, but one in particular I find important because it helps us understand its origin: fear can begin with a frightening thought, idea, or other entity that produces a strong and unpleasant emotion. The question is, are we born with it? Is fear part of the original nature of mankind? And if not, where did this powerful emotion come from?
My answer to the first question is no—we are not born with fear. That means something, or some experience, introduces us to this state. Consider a child born into this world. A child has no knowledge of fear. Everything seems to belong to them; they do not understand boundaries. A child might reach for a poisonous snake, walk in front of a moving car, or step toward a dangerous height. They are fearless because they do not yet possess the information that produces fear.
This suggests that fear is a taught precept; it is not part of our intrinsic nature. That is not to say fear has no reason. Reason permits fear to exist because fear can set boundaries for the human experience. Fears can be fences designed to protect the body from physical harm.
The danger begins when fear spills over from the protection of the body into the soul through the imagination. Then it can poison the spirit through the imagination. Fear depletes our life-force and cancels hope whenever we allow it to cross from bodily protection into the vast spiritual world of Imagination.
The World of Imagination
The world of Imagination is not of the body; it is of the breath. First John 4:18 says there is no fear in love, but that perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. When fear leaks into our imagination, it can take control—possessing our actions, tempering their effects, and inoculating our life-force with its disease until it regulates our entire belief system.
Fear robs. It steals every shred of hope. And when it has arrested the world of Imagination, it can eventually destroy the very body it was supposed to protect.
This area of the human experience is the battleground of the soul. There is no imagination in God, the Ultimate Reality; there is creation. Imagination is a human concept—the ability to form images and ideas in the mind, especially of things never seen or experienced directly. It is the creative part of the mind. Our works of invention, culture, and human expression come from this center.
Change is impossible without imagination. Without it, mankind would be left to instinct alone. Imagination is part of what makes us human: the ability to reach beyond the limits set by experience, to see the unseen, a visual and audible plane that seems to reach toward infinity.
This center can take us toward the Garden of Eden or toward hell, depending on which engine is driving it: Faith or Fear.
In the beginning of mankind's creation, Genesis 1:31 tells us that God saw everything He had made and that it was very good. When God made mankind, they were very good, with the potential to be perfect. In this understanding, mankind's world of imagination was at its height. They had total awareness—faith—and no fear. They were as children of God.
Genesis 2:16–17 records God's command that the man could freely eat from every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So how did mankind come to the conclusion that God—the Ultimate Reality—could not be trusted? They already had everything, without fear. It was not a bargain that improved their condition.
What they would receive was the knowledge of evil, and mankind was not prepared to manage it. The knowledge of evil is volatile. It does not remain quietly in its place. It is like a stormy sea, tossing itself violently until it mixes with the knowledge of good. When it poisons the knowledge of good, death becomes a determined destiny.
Then Genesis 3:9–10 gives us a turning point. God calls to Adam, and Adam answers that he heard God's voice, was afraid because he was naked, and hid himself. From this passage it is clear that mankind had exchanged one state of consciousness for another, and that exchange changed his view of reality. For the first time, he experienced fear.
That door opened a new reality for the human experience, with catastrophic consequences. Mankind could no longer stand comfortably in the presence of the Ultimate Reality; it had become frightening. The knowledge of evil dominated consciousness, generating a new master: Fear.
From that point forward, human action was shaped by fear. Living became hard. Man worked for food in fear of death. For the first time, he experienced sorrow. This became a pattern resonating throughout history: fear begat sorrow, and sorrow begat death.
Fear is sinister because it only takes things away from us. It has no place in the higher realities, which are dominated by Faith. There are two driving engines for the breath/conscious nature: Faith or Fear. It cannot be both; it will be one or the other.
It is remarkable that even one atom of fear can cancel out Faith. Faith, in its pure form, cannot accept contamination; there is only good there.
What fear has taught me can be summed up as a lack of information—which is not that scary. The lack of information is the father of fear.
Choose.