Fear is defined by an object, that which scares, and a subject, that
which is scared.
The object can present itself in many ways: situation, mental image, being, animal, place, etc...
The subject is known to us as I.
Fear then is a reflexive reaction sprung from the interaction of subject and object.
It expresses itself on a physiological level - corporal tension, digestive cramps, respiratory difficulties, feverishness, increase in heart beat -, or on a psychical level of mental agitation, desire to escape.
Once established and dominant on the psychical level, it is then referred to as anxiety: fear of tomorrow, aging, sickness, life, death, etc...
The reaction, known to us as fear, is an unpleasant feeling. It often entails a desire to escape or completely suppress the object of fear. This is the common solution. The situation is evaded while the object of fear is suppressed. If escape or suppression is not possible, the fear reaches a paroxysm that may lead to aggressive behavior to oneself or to others. If for one reason or another, the violent reaction is not permissible or possible, there is a 'stop'. This halt corresponds to a submission, an acceptance imposed by the situation and by the absence of the possibility of escape. Exemplifying this is the rabbit lying paralyzed before the serpent.
A deeper analysis shows that escape from the object of fear is but momentary. The situation can renew itself one way or another and fear will return just as strong and unchanged. It is therefore but a transitory solution, a compromise, but not a liberation.
Let's take a deeper look at the psychical mechanisms.
A situation is a perception. It is lived as real, but in fact is a mental construct. The initial perception passes through the memory filter that holds memories of pain and happiness and other associated events. Then, the situation is elaborated upon, on an emotional and mental level. It is the object of fear that is the fruit of the elaboration. Exemplifying this is the string being mistaken for a snake.
At this level of comprehension, the object is no longer something external that can be rejected. It appears like a representation at the heart of the conscience. The constant inner reaction to this apparition is considered as a conditioning belonging to the memory. It is this reaction that we call fear.
Fear then is no longer a situation, rather a sensation. A living, and fluctuating sensation that can present itself in various forms on the corporal level.
This sensation can equally become an object of fear. That is to say it can induce a reaction of escape or evasion due to its unaccustomed character and unpleasant quality.
Hence, it can be described as a fear of the fear.
There exists then a closed circle: the mind creates an image, a conditioned reaction is linked to the apparition of this image, and the reaction itself produces a reaction.
The search for an intellectual solution to fear is pointless. The mind can only ascertain its own incapacity to resolve what it has itself created. The creator can not be dissociated from its creation.
This ascertainment induces a 'stop'. Escape is no longer perceived as a true remedy. No single solution seems possible. The consequence is an immobilization.
In this state of no movement, a new energy appears. The end of the search for a solution to fear frees an unsuspected force, masked by the agitation of the quest.
It is then understood that fear does not have a remedy because it has no defined existence. It is only known by the reactions it produces.
These reactions can be explored. This investigation will produce valuable information on the mind's function and body-mind relations.
There is but an encounter with the reaction itself once the object that initiated the reaction is transported to the second stage.
This reaction appears as physical tensions and contractions. They can be recent and fluctuating, or old and encysted.
Looking for an explanation does not bring their resolution.
Observation will lead to maturation.
The reactions are neither qualified, nor are they given a name or explained, but simply observed. Through a neutral observation, the contraction finds a space and is no longer reinforced by a refusal reaction.
The contraction therefore inhabits a widened space.
Like sugar dissolving in water, the contracted zone dissolves into the surrounding space. The knotted matter is absorbed up by a less dense substance. The surrounding substance, density intensified, in its turn will be reabsorbed into a larger space, until the interior and exterior notions dissolve. The limit between opacity and transparency disappears.
What then is the role of the subject in this process?
All fear refers to a 'me' who is scared. Fear of solitude, suffering, and death can not be dissociated from a subject who feels lonely, suffers and dies.
Once we embark on a search exploring he or she who is scared, we find but a self-image, a mental construct elaborated by the thought and memory, set of stereotyped conditionings. The disappearance of the constructed I-image is the fundamental anguish. All fear refers to the disappearance of the subject who is scared. To exist without a landmark, an identity, qualification, role, and function is like death, annihilation. Yet, is it in fact?
Once the emphasis is placed on the absence, the look is turned to that which is not. Such a concentration makes one forget that all absence is recognized as such, due to the consciousness of a presence.
He or she who fears, the I-image conditioned by the memory, the personality, is looked upon as an exterior object. As an object of observation it is known to us as the 'not I'. A distanciation follows between the one who fears and the knower. Here, the witness's backwards bearing towards the ultimate witness is initiated.
The subject, the knower of fear, remains a neutral witness. Neither for, nor against. As a silent observer of the subtle mechanisms of the mind, he is out of the process.
The ultimate witness knows himself, yet can not see itself nor objectify itself. Nevertheless, it is under no circumstances an object. If it appears as object, the question "Who fears?" will obstruct any one's mental elaboration. The absence of an answer is in itself the answer. The answer is found in the silence. This silence is neither object nor subject. It is itself and knows itself. In it the conflict is resolved. In it fear dissolves.
Fear will have therefore played its initiating role granting a return of the object to the subject, and a resorption of the subject in the unnamed silence.
Translated from French by Michael Smith, 1994