What is Fear? | INFJ Forum

What is Fear?

A

AUM

The Romantic Scientist
Feb 8, 2009
2,838
2,012
902
MBTI
∞
Enneagram
4w5
[YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7criyE09uy0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7criyE09uy0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> [/YOUTUBE]

So what is fear? What causes this irrational reaction? Does it come from our own minds or is it something imposed by other people in our society? Doesn't this sound incredible? They tell us, " don't be stupid, don't do this or that because it's dangerous and you should be scared" and what do we do as good sons and daughters, students and as society in general? We obey. But what would happen if one day we face those fears and instead follow our hearts and our own counsel? Doing such thing would be mad, many would say. But why? What makes something to be crazy or sane? Where on our "life manual" does it say that every idea that rises from our mind is a crazy thing to do? This last part it reminds me of Plato's Cave in which the people who lived inside the cave looked at the reflection from the outside and they thought that such reflection was real. And what happened when this sole individual decided to venture forth of the cave and saw reality as it really is? He eventually comes back from the outside and tells his people of what he saw, and what do the others say to him? "You're crazy, you see, that's what happens when you disobey the laws, it makes you crazy." But...in this case...was he really crazy? Many people get absorbed of what we see each day and think that that is real when in reality, it is just a reflection of such.

Friends of this forum, wouldn't you agree that sometimes it is a necessary thing to go against the people you love the most be it your family, friends or society itself in order to search for the truth? There comes a time when this same people who hold you dearly will tell you " don't do it son, you'll ruin your life, don't do it." All you can do at that point is to look at their eyes and with love and compassion respond " Men will not live off bread alone" and it is true. Wouldn't you agree that one of the greatest fears as a human being is that our basic necessities of life aren't being met? And that we would do anything in order to survive, but survive of what? We are just feeding an illusion, life is just an illusion but it feels so real nevertheless.

So brothers and sisters of this forum I ask? Why are we afraid? If choosing our own path will lead every single one of us into Rome. It doesn't matter if we choose path 1,2 or 3, at the end we are just dust in the wind. So I guess that I have found the cause of my fears and that is my mind; and what causes my mind to be afraid?: the input from my sensory perceptions. But these sensory perceptions are just fabrications from my nerve system and my brain that is making my outer world a real place; but it isn't. We just think it's real.

One question still remains then: What is real?
 
There is the evolutionary, instinctual biological fear that we have no control over such as falling. hence we use the fight or flight mechanism from our brains.

Other than that "We fear what we want most".
 
Fear is a feeling that impedes us from engaging in activities which can be perceived as possessing a negative consequence. It can manifest itself in many ways from abstaining from certain activities or in some cases repudiating certain ideas. Sometimes people may fear considering perspectives antagonistic to the views that they have adhered to their entire life as should they find said views false, it means that they have to restructure their perspectives and they dislike the possibility of wandering into unknown territory and becoming more unhappy or miserable.

In the end we all have to some extent the capacity to resist or to challenge fear, this what we refer to as courage and it takes a great deal of courage to pursue one's own "truths".
 
Fear is the reoccurring thought that something is going to happen or might happen if _________. To avoid whatever is going to happen the person will develop an aversion to it, it whatever it is they rationalize will make that certain thing occur.
 
Fear is memory. Without memory, there's no fear. Like every other experience, it is sometimes useful, other times - not so useful. It quickly becomes prejudice. Especially in this century, I would always prefer to have no experience, than to be biased by experience.
 
Last Dawn said:
Friends of this forum, wouldn't you agree that sometimes it is a necessary thing to go against the people you love the most be it your family, friends or society itself in order to search for the truth?
Click to expand...

i notice a common theme is that all the infjs have to leave home because their parents are too stupid to know what truth is and they are on a quest for it. youd think that after so many generations of infjs at least on of them would have found it
 
I suppose fear can be considered an indelible aspect of people, however should we attempt to keep an open mind and try to transcend our experiences it is possible to palliate it significantly and off course it also matters what are the specific fears. We are all individuals so thus we all possess a certain degree of fear attuned to that which we, as individuals, fear.
 
Last edited:
I see fear commonly coupled with the potential loss of something, and it may be an instinctive reaction to this. In the end living with perpetual fear is harmful....because so many times if becomes a spiral that can paralyzes us. I cannot tell you how many times I have run into the dynamic of my setting aside fear...and then moving forward...only to find that the thing I feared losing was not lost at all...in fact I received even more in a way I might never have imagined, transformed.

I think we start to experience fear at a very early age when we are a just a bundle of needs that have to be met...this are our first primative experiences of fear. Trouble is, we tend to move forward in life still very much connected to this instinct (sadly, sometimes our life experience may reinforce this) and the idea that "there is not enough" and the world will not give me enough" becomes our default mode. So I have to get.

Ideally we can move past our fear to discover at some point that there is enough. A connection to the Divine can even instill a deep realization that there is infinitely enough. In this process, moving past fear (as a world view anyway) is critical.

Just a few random thoughts based on what I have seen, no clinical study...
 
randomsomeone said:
I see fear commonly coupled with the potential loss of something, and it may be an instinctive reaction to this. In the end living with perpetual fear is harmful....because so many times if becomes a spiral that can paralyzes us. I cannot tell you how many times I have run into the dynamic of my setting aside fear...and then moving forward...only to find that the thing I feared losing was not lost at all...in fact I received even more in a way I might never have imagined, transformed.

I think we start to experience fear at a very early age when we are a just a bundle of needs that have to be met...this are our first primative experiences of fear. Trouble is, we tend to move forward in life still very much connected to this instinct (sadly, sometimes our life experience may reinforce this) and the idea that "there is not enough" and the world will not give me enough" becomes our default mode. So I have to get.

Ideally we can move past our fear to discover at some point that there is enough. A connection to the Divine can even instill a deep realization that there is infinitely enough. In this process, moving past fear (as a world view anyway) is critical.

Just a few random thoughts based on what I have seen, no clinical study...
Click to expand...

Quite True, especially about the need to transcend fear
 
Last edited:
Last Dawn said:
Friends of this forum, wouldn't you agree that sometimes it is a necessary thing to go against the people you love the most be it your family, friends or society itself in order to search for the truth?
Click to expand...
In general, yes I agree. However, I would also recommend taking some time to respect the subtext of what is being recommended. Are there legitimate pitfalls and can these be avoided? Are there other voices within the same culture that might provide some real wisdom? It's an exercise in inquiry. In certain cases, I have come to say "I do not understand this" rather than "I do not agree with this" especially if I respect a viewpoint but see it differently for good reason. Might leave the door open in case I see it all from another perspective at some point.....it happens.

The reason I mention this is that one must be aware of the danger of following good ol' St. Ego right off a cliff. Some of these barriers can help steer us, but you're right, they should not totally hold us back. We should follow our conscience, but we are equally bound to inform our conscience.
 
To anticipate a change of an unknown quality is to fear. There is a belief in the possibility of losing something irreplacable to it aswell.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back