QUESTION: If people become aware of the fear behind their wishes and the wish then diminishes because they fully realize the fear, what can they do then?
ANSWER: The question is really not what one can do, but what this means. If the wish for fulfillment recedes because of the fear, it means that the fear is not understood, because the misconceptions, and the unreal outlook behind it, are not yet seen in all their connections and ramifications. If the fear were fully understood, it would most certainly diminish, not by being covered up, but by really and truly dissolving. This means that the whole territory is not fully explored. There are so many loose ends. This remains to be done. Do you understand?
QUESTION: Yes, I do, but I still have the feeling... Can I give an example? I have always wanted to be an actress. I couldn't do it because I feared that I wouldn't be as perfect as I wanted to be and wouldn't want to take the risks. Now, being older, I realize also that I couldn't do it anyway any longer. Now the wish still exists, but also the fear, and also the knowledge that it is too late.
ANSWER: You see, you have discovered here a relatively superficial cluster of emotions, reactions, and attitudes. This wish, with all that is attached to it, is a manifestation of something much deeper. We might truly say that it is a displacement. It is a manifestation of a deeper wish and a deeper fear. It is impossible to resolve a problem when one deals with the displacement of it. It must be dealt with, felt, and experienced in its deep original manifestation. In order to make this possible, many restrictions, inhibitions -- the no-currents -- must become fully conscious in most of its aspects. Then only can you re-live the frustration and pain you suffered as a child, and therefore still suffer often, only now it is not necessary to do so. It happens because you have instituted very destructive defenses against this original pain and frustration. One of them is an unusually strong no-current. It is the latter which makes it so difficult for you to unroll the whole process and become vibrantly alive.
QUESTION: I understand that very well, I know that the displacement contains exactly the same thing. I feel the no-current.
ANSWER: Not fully, no. It is essential that you become more acutely and specifically aware of it, as t manifests in your daily living, in your reactions, contacts, attitudes, in the work on the path itself. Only then will it be possible to penetrate where your consciousness has so far not been able to do so.
QUESTION: I have a question from a missing friend. She would like to know what the metaphysical mechanics are concerning the hardening of the brain arteries, impairing a patient's mental capacities. Why does it happen? What can be done to help?
ANSWER: It happens because of a protective mechanism in the human psyche. It enables a person on the border between this manifestation of life and a different dimension of life to make the period of transition less painful, physically as well as mentally. Mental pain exists in individuals who are filled with fear and uncertainty. When inner problems remain unresolved, as you know, the fear of the unknown is very strong. It could almost be likened to a form of anesthesia that nature administers if necessary. This is a blessed thing indeed. This already answers your second question, because when this is understood and seen in this light, understanding will eliminate an inner current of anxiety, which in turn would be picked up by the patient's unconscious. Fears become burdens, but here the absence of apprehension will bring further relief. If you no longer push and press against this natural process, but gratefully see it as what it is, there will be no pressure from you on the unconscious of the patient. This will make it easier for the patient to give in to this relief, instead of fighting against it in shame spurred on by a false conscience. This may happen in an ever so subtle a way.
The Guide
by Eva Pierrakos
May 1, 1964
Copyright 1964, The Pathwork Foundation, Inc.