i remembered this, and Jax mentioned it on her blog, so i thought I’d put it here as a reminder
LITANY AGAINST FEAR
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear – From Frank Herbert’s Dune Book Series
? 1965 and 1984 Frank Herbert
Published by Putnam Pub Group
ISBN: 0399128964
ah yes, useful little mantra that one.
I’m glad that you (and Jax and T-Bird) find it useful. I’m afraid I find it annoying and self-contradictory: “I must not fear” and then “I will face my fear” – if you’re not fearing, how come there is fear to face?
Fear is like pain – it alerts you to danger. Never being afraid means never taking a risk, and so growing more slowly. Being brave doesn’t mean never being afraid, it means doing things even though you are afraid. Was Merry afraid when she started BeadMerrily? (I expect so.) Were Katy and I afraid when we took J out of school? Yes, but I’m glad both happened despite the fear.
You can be paralysed by fear (face a danger too great for you to cope with) in which case it does become a bad thing. You can be afraid too much of the time e.g. agoraphobia, which is also unhelpful. But a general “I must not fear” is like “I must not feel pain”.
Sorry, this has come across all ranty and I didn’t mean it too.
rofl at rant Bob! rant away. no , I never really looked at this that way. i have looked at fear as being the paralysis version only. My other mantra is – the only defense against fear is knowledge – which is equally waffly, but something I use a lot to the juniors at work.
I do occassionally have a ‘catastrophic’ response to fear [not at work] and it is useful to remind myself to put fear in its context.
yes, I use this when having catatonic response to fear, as in when sitting outside interview for example. I don’t find it at all contradictory – I view it as reminding myself that fear should be under my control rather than the other way around, and therefore while I can see your point about it being useful as a warning sign, if it’s paralysed you, it’s gone beyond a useful point, and needs to be sorted out.
Similar thing with pain, as I’ve done years of martial arts and a really detailed self hypnosis course, pain has become something that again serves as a pointer, but is not supposed to take control, rather you should control it.
Excellent points for discussion though
Oh, and I also use Menolly’s song for Petiron to bring sadness under control when required, again it’s about remaining in control when required, I do think that a good weep can be very necessary and therapeutic, but not always practical (eg in car driving back from hospital after negative scan!)
All very true – I was having a bad day at work, which led to ranting and poor spelling. I think it would be better if it started like this:
I must not let fear control me.
Paralysing fear is the mind-killer.
Out of control fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
It’s weird what helps in times of stress. When a close friend at college was diagnosed with cancer (from which he has since recovered) I kept hearing a bit of a Betty Boo song in my head (Don’t you know, don’t you know, I still love you). Whether that was God speaking to me or a brain fart is a matter of personal belief.
yes, your rewrite is better.