Where does this love for the horror genre come from? Humanity invents so many different monsters, ranging from vampires and werewolves, to boogeymen and Fredy Krueger. Esotericism “canonizes” some of them in its literature, which creates complete confusion as to which of the monsters actually exists, and who is simply a literary character. Why are we doing this? After all, fear is far from the most pleasant feeling. Perhaps there is a deeper explanation.
Everyone is afraid of something. Each person has his/her own, unique palette of fears. Of course, everything is due to the individual characteristics of development. Although the roots of fears and frightening images should, as often happens, be sought in childhood. I think everyone went through this period. Children love to get together and tell frightening stories to each other. The child’s imagination is so rich that the child partly believes in what her peers tell, drawing the image in her mind. Scary, but very exciting and interesting.
Moreover, children often use scary stories to test each other. For example, on a bet they ask a child to come close to an abandoned haunted house or call a house fairy standing by the bathroom mirror. It is rare for a child to avoid such experiences. As she grows up, belief in ghosts and house fairies often fades. But can we assume that, in this way, the child is carrying out some extremely important tasks of her own development?
Let’s discuss the difference between anxiety and fear. As we have always been taught, anxiety is diffuse, not tied to any particular image. It is not as acute as fear, which is always associated with a clear object, but it is for this reason that it is much more difficult to deal with and fight with it. When we paint ourselves a frightening image, we connect our diffuse anxiety, shape it and make it tangible. This gives us the opportunity to fight what we fear. All monsters from childhood stories have some kind of weakness. And when we understand who we are dealing with, we also know what needs to be done to defeat this monster.
In childhood, monsters are legal, but an adult should not believe in such nonsense, and then the feeling of strong background anxiety can return in full. I’m sure you’ve seen many anxious adults. Psychologists are constantly dealing with this or that anxiety disorder. One of the most common psychological complaints of the modern Western patient is panic attack. If you deeply understand the essence of this disorder, then it is based on a diffuse and impaired understanding and interpretation of the signals of your own body, and even a level lower – the fear of separation.
Whatever fear we take, we will find at its basis the threat of dissolution and loss of our own separateness. This is the feeling of a huge and formless wave that covers us and dissolves under its thickness. We are afraid that the loved one will leave us, and we will have to stand alone with the vast world. The world is faceless, and loneliness is scary because there are no loving eyes nearby, in which you can reflect and make sure that you exist. We are afraid of criticism, since this is the splitting off of a piece of our personality, after which it is not known whether it will recover or fall apart. It seems that a person is afraid of losing shape, both physical and psychological.
This diffuse anxiety before dissolution and loss of its own form is very poorly tolerated. For protection reasons, we try to give this “scary monster” shape by giving it fangs, tentacles or red glowing eyes. It’s easier to live this way. And it’s even easier if you periodically remind yourself of the monsters, listening to another scary story or scaring yourself with a new horror movie. This “inoculation” against fear allows us to fear the illusion, partially relieving the anxiety of the real horror of losing ourselves.
To be an incarnate person means to live with this anxiety. Esotericism in this case is an excellent tool for working with such states. Of course, we are not talking about rituals or talismans that protect against monsters, but about noble mystical systems and teachings that tell a person about the illusory nature of all forms. Deep awareness and immersion in these teachings somewhat change a person’s identity, forcing him/her to identify less with the material. Of course, the fear of destruction will remain in the form of instinct, and we need it to survive. But the level of background diffuse anxiety of self-dissolution is significantly reduced.
Esotericism is often accused of “killing a personality”. But this is wrong, or it concerns some of the false and destructive esoteric cults. The task of real mysticism is not at all to kill the personality, but to transcend it. Such work on oneself allows a person to understand that he/she is more than personality, more than body, and certainly more than thoughts. A real “esoteric” person has no form, and, therefore, dissolution in the universe does not pose any threat to him/her.
Why do we invent monsters for ourselves? This is necessary in order to gradually, step by step, touch this eternity and infinity, which “threatens” to swallow us and dissolve us in itself. If this happens ahead of time, then we will not get transcendence, but an acute psychosis, which really means “killing the personality”. If fears are first created, but then realized and carefully worked out, then whether it be a psychological or esoteric approach, we come closer to understanding our true nature.
Henadzi Bialiauski