fear

[Edward Schreiber]

Okay, my last post for today:

Nothing is neutral, everything stated is in some way rhetorical  
persuasion. So, the idea that guilt, shame, fear, pride, etc., are  
all neurological processes, cool, we all know that by now.  A later  
comment about emotional centers in our brains (that) "inhibits the  
inflow of rational thought" is loaded with many implications.

So, rational thought today might be:  If we change light bulbs and  
buy a Prius then things will be okay.
Or rational thought might be: Oh, well, 140 species going extinct  
because of the collapsing ecosystems, well, I still  have Whole Foods  
or Stop and Shop (or whatever the variety of mega-food store might be  
in your locale).  So rational thought is not neutral: I find it  
irrational to not call the whole thing into question, where others  
might find it irrational to do that.

I think sanity is the ability to feel a whole range of things; to be  
open and reasonable might be to hold more than one thing at the same  
time:  like fear about the situation we face and deep love for being  
alive; guilt about what civilization is doing to the masses of  
humanity and the masses of species, and at the same time an intense  
pride (gratitude) for what I have come to know through study and  
life, about creativity and the capacity to change and grow.   It is  
about being a world citizen, a world therapist in our tradition;  
holding the whole human experience to the best of our capacity and  
being - in our own way - one of the truth tellers of American life.    
Playfulness does not exclude a deep despair about the world we will  
leave to those who follow, if there is any clean water left.   Fear  
and love can be held together and the brain works just fine.


On Jan 21, 2008, at 11:25 AM, Adam Blatner wrote:

> Dear Ann and all, yes! This also addresses my point. On my website  
> I have a paper titled "a little bit." My thesis is that we flourish  
> best when we maintain optimal amounts of a wide range of  
> qualities---not too much, and not too little. I allude to fear,  
> shame, guilt, victimization, pride, playfulness, and other  
> qualities. For many, I envision it to be optimal at around 5-10% --  
> akin to our needing to maintain a certain tiny but definite range  
> of Calcium ions, Sodium, Potassium, Carbonate... the body has all  
> these mechanisms to keep these "electrolytes" within a certain  
> optimal range---too much or too little and one becomes sick. What  
> if we need just enough fear to combat extreme complacency, but more  
> than that and it arouses our limbic system---the emotional centers  
> in our brains---which in turn blocks or inhibits the inflow of  
> rational thought. (This is the point Dan Goleman makes, speaking of  
> emotional hijacking in his 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence.
>
>       Warmly , Adam
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ann Hale
> To: grouptalk
> Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 2:52 AM
> Subject: fear
>
> I heard a fascinating discussion 01/20/08 on NationalPublicRadio  
> "New Dimensions" with guest speaker Barbara Hand Clow.( The Mayan  
> Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind by Barbara  
> Hand Clow )
>
> One of her statements struck me. She is convinced that there is a  
> concerted attempt to keep people in fear, particularly citizens in  
> the U.S.   Fear, experienced on the cellular level, interferes with  
> there being more openess for heart connection, and acting on the  
> intuitive information available to us from nature, the cosmos, our  
> own bodies.  A lot of the work psychodramatists do, in protagonist- 
> centered sessions is help a person access their internal truth, the  
> part of us which knows what is going on, knows (via role reversal)  
> the truth in others.  In preparation for the truth, we often  
> explore the layers of resistance and masking of truth.  Fear is a  
> powerful screen which can occupy energies needed elsewhere.  And,  
> fear leads us into more and more solutions involving protection/ 
> sucurity/military intervention.  This is one way I see the  
> connection between what we do in the field of psychodrama with what  
> is going on in the world around us.
> Ann Hale
>
>
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