The Ultimate Fear
Fear is a world view – and the ultimate fear is death (not existing). The world is seen as frightening at this level of consciousness, with anxiety and withdrawal from the world commonplace.
Non-Existence
“Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another” – Albert Einstein.
What we fear is not existing, but it’s a metaphysical impossibility not to exist. The body’s matter will transform upon death and continue the cycle of life – but existence cannot ‘end’. If you exist now, you have always existed and will always exist – and therefore, ‘non-existence’ is impossible.
This isn’t abstract philosophy; this is a metaphysical, spiritual reality.
What Is It Within You That Fears Non-Existence?
People often consider death to be the opposite of life – this is inaccurate. There is no opposite to life. Life is an eternal, intelligent process that seeks to know itself with ever-expanding complexity.
The opposite of death is birth. You had no (conscious) control over your birth, and you will have no conscious control over your death (unless you reach very high levels of consciousness – see this link for more information).
The fear of death stems from the part of you which perceives a subject/object world – that which separates. It thinks, ‘if this body dies, then I will not exist’ – but as we’ve discovered, that is a fallacy.
Which raises a question, which part of your make-up fears death? It cannot be the eternal intelligence that is everything (you included) because that is timeless and cannot ‘not exist’. Therefore it can only be the part of you with a perception of limitation, which is the ego. It’s the ego that fears not existing, and rightly so.
As consciousness evolves over billions of years, the animal kingdom has to survive and does this by any means necessary. Humanity has not transcended the part of the psyche . Until higher levels of consciousness are reached, this need for survival is a primary driver and leads to selfishness, narcissism and people thinking they are the centre of the Universe.
This is where the fear of death (and all other fear) comes from—the ego’s own fear of annihilation.
And Then What?
Now we know it is the illusory fear of ego death, here is an exercise you can do to loosen the grip of fear:
Continually ask ‘and then what’ to get to the root of the fear. For example, if you have a fear of flying – you ask yourself what is the worst case scenario?
The engines fail – and then what?
The plane falls to the floor – and then what?
I die
Another one…
I fear running out of money – you ask yourself, what is the worst case scenario?
I have no money left – and then what?
I can’t look after myself – and then what?
I end up on the streets – and then what?
I fall into drugs and alcohol – and then what?
I die
Death is the ultimate fear, but it is very misunderstood.