Fearing the unknown
by Bob on April 5, 2007
Many say they fear the unknown. In fact most people would seem to fear the unknown. Very few people welcome the unknown.
There's a problem. It's virtually impossible to fear the unknown. We can only fear that which we have experienced or told about. We must have some concept of what we are fearing in the unknown. Most people do indeed have an idea, even if it turns out to be inaccurate.
A few people relish jumping right into the unknown and finding new land, paths, truths, and the like. Explorers, scientists, mystics.
But whenever most people have a horrible fear of the unknown, they are imagining something they know, or even a mental cacophony of such images.
So we re-live the fears of the past in the future. That's, of course, if one accepts the linear time model which is only a convenience.
So very few are given the gift of exploration, and to dismiss old fears and really open their minds to a new adventure. Maybe that's why we have such a lot of trouble conceiving what life from other planets and galaxies would be like.
We need to stick our heads outside the known universe with a clear mind and savour the fresh air.
And, yes, Pink Floyd did sing about the dark side of the moon. And Jimi Hendrix likely stuck his head out of the universe a few times and came back with almost unknown guitar styles and riffs. And the Chambers Brothers in the 60s did sing that Time Has Come Today. Listen to the cow bell and the reverberation. Time is dilating like Dali painted it.
Dante opens his Divine Comedy with being lost in the dark woods where the way was lost. But one imagines he suffered not from fear of the unknown. He had choices as to what to fear. Which means he knew them. So he did.
So it would seem to be that fearing the unknown really means fearing the known, and then there's exploring the unknown which is a whole different journey.