Entries tagged with “overcoming fear” from Radiant Transformation

As I mentioned before, I believe that fear limits our spiritual progress. In the early part of July, I had gone to Mt. Shasta (in Northern California) for a conference that was being held there. I'll post more info about Mt. Shasta later, but let me just say that it is a very special place. Many people believe that this is one of the most sacred mountains of the world. There are people that visit this place from all over and there are many people who have had encounters there with people from other dimensions and places from within the earth. There is a city, called Telos, which exists about a mile below the mountain and this city is inhabited by people who originally came from the continent of Lemuria (thousands of years ago), which existed in the Pacific ocean before it sank. According to the stories, there were about 25,000 at the time who were able to escape and many of them were able to relocate to below Mt Shasta and establish the city, known as Telos. (Ok, I guess I'm getting off topic a bit, but it's really fascinating stuff).

Anyway, I was with a group of people (perhaps 50-60) and we were doing a group meditation off one of the trails (Bunny Flats, I think) and during that meditation, we were told to go within and connect with our heart, etc. One of the other things that is important to learn is to listen to the promptings, intuition, feelings, etc that come to us from within. Too many times, we think that our answers have to come from external sources (and many times they do), but we should also confirm those with what we feel inside.

So, after the group meditation, everyone was told that the next experience was a more personal one. Everyone was to separate and go to wherever they were told to go. So, it was quite interesting to see 50+ people just spread out going off the paths to wherever they were told to go. Many people had some neat experiences and I was one of those who did, although I was not anticipating the kind of experience I was to have. I really wanted to have a special experience there and I kept asking, "Where should I go now?" and I would get answers to go this rock, or to that tree or over that hill. I finally came to a place where I felt I should stop and meditate and pray.

As I was sitting there praying, I noticed that there were some large black ants crawling on me, and it was kind of bugging me because they were interrupting my train of thought. It was at that moment that the thought came to me, "Let the ants crawl on you"... I was shocked to get an impression like that. Never, in my wildest dreams would I just let ants crawl on me, if I could help it. But, I thought I should go with that and follow that prompting. So, I just sat there and the ants started to crawl on my legs, arms and hands. I thought that I would get bit for sure, but they weren't biting me. It was still hard to just let them crawl on me. I had some ants crawl into my shirt sleeve and each new area of unexplored territory they found seemed to get my heart racing a little more. Then, I would relax and as the minutes passed, I became more used to it. I'm not saying that I enjoyed it, just that the fear would subside for a while and the fear would be replaced with peace. For about 20-30 minutes, I allowed these ants to crawl all over my body, simply trusting in God that I would not get bit. My fear turned to peace and tears started to flow from my eyes as I gained a greater appreciation and love for these little creatures. There were probably 25 of them crawling all over my skin for that time period, and yet, I did not get bit once. It is hard to describe, but the experience was a transforming one for me and perhaps in some small way, reduced my dependency on fear, replacing it with love.

I recently read about an initiation ceremony that was used anciently in Egypt to help people reduce/eliminate fear. These Egyptians understood that Fear was a barrier that prevented people from ascending into a higher consciousness. So they spent many years training their students until finally they came to one particular challenge to assess where there students were at. This is what they did:

There was a small hole, just large enough to fit one person. Within that hole was water and it was pitch black. The student was instructed to swim down into the hole that was filled with water and find another way out. That was all they were told. As the student swam straight down, there were ledges that jutted into the column of water, so the student had to carefully navigate himself/herself downwards. At about 20 feet, the wall on one side opened up and the student was able to swim underneath it to a section that was lighted. So, as the student enters this area, he/she starts to swim upward and that is when it becomes apparent that there are many alligators within the pool of water. However, because the student is about to run out of air at this point, he/she has to go up in between the alligators in order to get air. What the student doesn't know is that all of the alligators were already fed, so it is unlikely that the alligators would attack the student. Regardless, it would be quite the "Fear Factor" adventure. Then to top it off, the student is told that he/she failed because there was a different exit point than the one they used. So, after more training, the student enters the dark abyss again (knowing that there are alligators) and find the opening at the bottom of the wall on the other side, which is also pitch black and go up through that.

Although I doubt I'll ever go through that kind of "overcoming fear" adventure, I think the topic of overcoming fear is interesting and important in our spiritual development. There are so many fears that we have that can stifle our growth. They say the #1 fear of all people is speaking in public, followed by death. But there are so many other fears, such as fear of germs/diseases, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of opening yourself up to someone and communicating your true feelings, etc.

But rather than list all of the various kinds of fear, I would like to point out an example that I like to think about. Remember when Christ walked on the water? He wasn't the only one who did. Peter also walked on the water (at least for a little while) and then he sunk in the water. And then Jesus asked Peter the question, "Why do you fear?".... So, it is apparent that it was the fear within Peter that caused an abrupt halt to Peter's miraculous feat. Although we would expect Jesus, to be able to perform a miracles such as that, the fact that Peter was able to do it is amazing because it helps me to understand that I, too, have the capacity to perform miracles and fear is the number one enemy that gets in the way of our spiritual advancement. The Egyptians understood this and that is why I believe they were so focused on helping people face their fears and then overcome them. Christ was not fearful, even in the face of death... and if we can even come a little closer to overcoming more of our own fears, we will become more like Christ and only accelerate our spiritual growth. In the next blog post, I'm going to share an experience I had that deal with facing my own fears.