Fear and the elections and your access to guidance

An article I published in the December edition of The Echo. Perhaps it will read differently to you now than it would have read then.

Fear and the elections and your access to guidance

By Frank DeMarco

I spend a lot of time on Facebook, and I have liberal friends and conservative friends, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Can’t-Stand-Any-Of-Thems. What strikes me most in the aftermath of last month’s elections is not how divided they are, nor even how different their worldviews are, but how similarly they are reacting.

In nearly all cases, the reaction boils down to fear.

See if this sounds familiar:

* Heavy investment in a set of values identified as traditional American values.

* Perception that these values have been under continuous assault for decades.

* Fear that unless the prevailing trend is turned around, these values may be lost forever.

* Conviction that the corporate media lies, omits, distorts, and, in general promotes its own agenda.

* Suspicion (amounting to belief) that the other side is suppressing the vote, or miscounting it, or stuffing the ballot boxes electronically or otherwise.

Familiar list? It should be. This summarizes not only what you and your side believe, but also what the opposite side believes. The specifics are all different; the psychological state is identical. Most people seem to feel that they are living under siege. They fear for the future, and they are convinced that they have valid reason for that fear.

Both sides. Fear of the future. But is it warranted?

You could make a case that indeed it is. You can always make that case, no matter the circumstances. What seems right to you can be defeated; what seems wrong can flourish. No matter what happens, some people are going to suffer. Viewed the way most people view life, they would say that fear of the future is warranted; indeed, only makes sense.

From a 3D perspective, of course it makes sense. The 3D world tempts us to see ourselves as isolated and powerless, with external events impinging on our lives without much rhyme or reason. It leads us to overvalue the present moment. Experienced from a 3D perspective, the present moment is always overpoweringly important and is often a crisis.

But there is another way to look at things, a way that is not only more hopeful but more plausible, a way rooted not in separation and conflict but in connection and interaction.

Look at things from a non-3D perspective. The non-3D recognizes that the present moment is only one moment in time. It recognizes that we are not isolated individuals, as we appear to be, but connected in many ways, both in the non-3D and in the 3D itself. It sees that all things come into existence from the past and have their moment and then pass out of existence. Yes, we live in the present, but no, the present moment doesn’t last forever. And remember, we live in the 3D and non-3D alike.

But what does this mean practically?

For one thing, it means that nobody has a universal perspective, and therefore nobody is right about everything. You have your values, and others have theirs, and maybe neither position is absolutely right, but contains some truth and some error.

It means that you don’t have much excuse for assuming that you are good and your opponents are bad. You can’t know what is in their hearts, any more than they can know what is in yours. We tend to judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions. Obviously if you use so crooked a scale, the measurement is always going to be in your favor.

It means that events are more neutral than our reactions to them. The same events that exhilarate one person depress another and leave a third person unaffected. To a greater extent than we commonly realize, our reaction to events is rooted more in fear of what they portend than in the events themselves. Our experience is rooted less in “what the facts dictate” than in our accustomed reactions.

So for instance, it appears that Donald Trump is going to be our next president. If we look at that fact without the hopes and fears we attach to it – that is, if we recognize that our hopes and fears are ours and are not intrinsic to the situation –  we see that we are freer than we may think. Those who think that Trump is going to bring about a restoration of traditional America are likely to be disappointed. So are those who think he is going to bring about a descent into fascism.

Hopes, and fears, are not facts. They are emotions, which means they are ours. We are certain to be wrong about some things, and for all we know we are wrong about everything. We won’t know until things play out.

There is no use living in a state of fear. Much better to live in a state of reasonable expectation. As Seth pointed out long ago, this is a safe universe.

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Frank DeMarco is the author of many books on access to non-physical guidance, most recently Rita’s World Vol. II. His website is www.ofmyownknowledge.com. On Facebook he is frank.demarco.10.