Beginning in August 2020, ‘Freedom From Fear’ is a free-form discussion series taking the title as its starting point.
(Stream / download audio at bottom of page)
As with some previous episodes in this series, Peter Russell and Greg Moffitt begin by discussing the evolutionary origins and purpose of fear. Fear rarely serves any purpose beyond fleeting moments of real danger, and constantly living in fear is incredibly debilitating. We contrast the evolutionary role of fear with the 21st century explosion in anxiety, neuroses, and declining mental health, and explore how human intelligence is both our greatest gift and the source of our most profound problems. We also consider how thoughts about the past and fear of the future stops us living in the present. Apparently unlike other creatures, human beings know that we are going to die, and fear of death – still perhaps the last great taboo – keeps us from being truly alive. And, of course, no contemporary discussion about fear would be complete without examining the pandemic of fear triggered by the current coronavirus crisis.
Peter’s latest book is Letting Go of Nothing: Relax Your Mind and Discover the Wonder of Your True Nature
Previous interview with Peter Russell
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’
Dionysiac ‘New Star Broadcasting’
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2 comments
I’d like to challenge the idea that a dog (or animal) won’t get worried or stressed about upcoming events. The author’s example seems to feature, I’m sure, an animal that’s well treated. My old dog ,would too, forget the waging of the finger I’d given her 2 minutes ago because, most of the time, she was well treated. Animals in an horrible environment or who had suffered abused might be in a state of stress and not in the ¨here and now¨ moment. My cat, who I’ve found and I suspect was abandoned, gets stressed when I have to get her in the car.
As I write this from Quebec where we are gonna have a new unconstitutional curfew starting on December 31st! (what a joke) I’m starting to wonder if it’s not really fear that’s to blame. More and more, my theory is that some people, subconsciously, get a kick with this whole atmosphere of urgency. They like the authority. Almost out of boredom. I’ve seen numerous people in stores (clients, not employees) tell other clients to mask up. My feeling is that authoritarian minded people like this while most of us just try to get by. They often add, proudly, the ¨I do it for the community¨ slogan after telling people what to do and seem very happy with themselves.
A tiny minority might actually be genuinely scared. I’ve seen old people freak out but, besides that, people just go along not to get in trouble with authorities.
Hello again. We could maybe consider Pavlov’s dogs here. It’s difficult to know exactly whether a mistreated animal would anticipate future suffering or not when the source of the suffering is not there. But yes, we can see in animals that have been mistreated over a long period, they are timid, and what we would call depressed. I would say that cats absolutely hate cars, in any event. But of course a car could also be associated with previous suffering, not just travel sickness.
I agree in general with your second point. People whose lives were a meaningless series of non-events are finding a form of meaning and purpose in this explosion of fear, control-freakery, blame, and demonization. The self-righteousness is off the scale. But going along to get along is not a good way to live what in the end will be an all-too-short existence.
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