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Chapter Three: Fearlessness

For over forty years now, William Friedkin’s classic horror movie, The Exorcist, has terrified movie fans all over the world and consequently instilled the widespread notion that anyone who typically displays a rather neurotic temperament should seek the services of a religious liberator. And even though the star of this film, Linda Blair, was seen to rotate her head a full 360 degrees, whilst implying that the visiting catholic priest’s mother was engaging in sexual favours with the Devil, viewers still wondered if this complete idiocy really did happen. It didn’t! If her head had rotated then it would have killed her and if the priest’s mother was swinging with Lucifer then I’m as sure as hell (sorry!) that she wouldn’t be advertising such a fact to a young girl in her nightie!

But it was a scary film – no doubt about that, since it was apparently based on true events. It was also nominated for several Academy Awards as the acting was superb. But it was pure Hollywood. In fact, the true events actually centred on a young boy who was suffering from horrendous nightmares but his head thankfully didn’t spin round, nor did he imply that Satan was holding a porn fest in his bedroom.

And here lies the problem with horror films in general. People assume that, because these movies are often based on actual events, what they witness on the big screen actually mirrors true life. In actual fact there is often little resemblance. Film directors have a duty to scare and entertain their respective audience and they won’t let a little thing like honest facts get in the way of a great story. So, by all means enjoy the latest version of Paranormal Activity or The Conjuring but please remember that it’s all just a bit of fun and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

I’ve been psychically aware of the spirit world since childhood. I’ve been physically aware of spirit energy for over six years. In all that time, I have never witnessed anything remotely similar to what you can view in this genre of film. I’ve been asked to assist with supposedly haunted houses many times. I have also been asked to remove negative energies from places where Ouija boards and the like have been misused. And as yet, no demons, devils or rotating heads. No mad people climbing up walls backwards; no beds rocking as if they are aboard a North Sea ferry; no comatose children levitating up to the ceiling, nor any priests jumping out of bedroom windows (although I have heard rumours of this last one!).

The key factor in all alleged exorcisms is fear. Remove fear from an individual and ideally you will have exorcised their demons. Note the word their demons. Fear causes us to act in a manner that defies convention. If we fear something or someone then our behaviour often becomes irrational and we suddenly develop an acute ability to cause severe harm to ourselves or those who may try to help us. The only solution is to either swiftly remove the cause of the offending fear, or refrain from being in the vicinity of the actual fear itself. Therefore, if a conscious mind should inexplicably erupt like a baboon with toothache, then the benevolent subconscious mind will automatically search for the nearest dentist — or help us avoid going near the monkey-house in the first place!

There are many fears affecting ‘twenty-first-century homosapien’. My own personal fears include knives, spears, deep water, heights, patterned wallpaper and sharks. I’m pretty sure that deep water and sharks are fears resulting from relentlessly watching my favourite film, Jaws, so as long as I don’t go swimming off the coast of New Jersey with a drunken student strapped to my back then I should be relatively worry-free here. Patterned wallpaper would often hypnotise me as I lay in my bed during my childhood, which resulted in severe hallucinations, so, naturally, I now avoid at all costs anywhere that houses the elderly! My fear of heights stems from the time as a seven-year-old when I tried in vain to climb up a steep hill, before suddenly plummeting faster than the Greek economy. But, knives and spears, well, those are a different breed of terror that go way beyond anything that Steven Spielberg’s movies or Aunty Senga’s nursing home could ever throw my way.

As you may or may not know (depending on whether you have joined this expedition before this stage), I am a huge fan of Past Life Regression. Now, I know what you’re thinking – ‘I’d really love to find out what my past contained’. Most people do. But, when it comes round to actually participating in this most fascinating of subjects, the vast majority of people suddenly decide to pass on it. And what’s more, they rarely understand why. Typically, something just doesn’t feel right to them.

The problem is that the subconscious mind often puts a block on any attempt to return to certain areas of one’s past. Sometimes, there are incidents that are just too painful to return to. And there may be many reasons why this should be so. However, the underlying force in all of these cases is undoubtedly ‘fear’. Extreme bouts of prolonged fear can often affect the subconscious mind so badly that the only real method of dealing with it is to completely remove any reference to the cause of it. Of course, returning to the spirit dimension should bring ample opportunities to readdress any such fear and ultimately move us on to the next stage of soul development. But, if it’s not addressed suitably, then any subsequent reincarnation may be adversely affected whenever the likelihood of this fear manifests again.

I once had a profound fear of javelins. I couldn’t even watch this popular sporting event on television for worrying that the javelin may strike the poor chap who has to run and find the mark where it has landed in order to measure the distance thrown. I remember one occasion, somewhere in Eastern Europe, when the javelin did strike an official who was attempting to avoid it. This didn’t help matters! So where did this fear originate from? Had I been speared by a dodgy Ukrainian javelin thrower in a previous outing? No. In actual fact, I was speared by a Roman soldier who had invaded my fort in ancient ‘Brittanicus’. I can still clearly visualise the moment when he rode towards me on horseback and threw this huge spear in my direction. My lasting memory of this terrifying regression was watching the spear tear at my clothing on its way to my soon-to-be redundant heart. And although I never felt the pain of this searing weapon as it spit-roasted my abdomen, I would frequently go into an almighty panic whenever anything long and sharp was consequently brought to my attention – even though this incident apparently occurred nearly two thousand years ago!

My fear of knives was almost certainly derived from an infamous bedroom intruder who loved to re-enact the moment that he thrust his dagger through my heart during a Jacobean conflict. Again, I am literally terrified of knives and will avoid anyone who waves one in front of me – even if it’s just to chop vegetables.

I know what you’re now probably thinking – knives and spears are dangerous and just like patterned wallpaper can seriously hurt someone if they are not used for their true appropriation. But surely they’re not as scary as guns, or bombs, or even tanks? Which begs another question – why don’t these dangerous weapons scare me, since there is a far bigger chance that guns or grenades will do much more damage to my skin and bones? Presumably, the answer is that I haven’t experienced a traumatic death through any of those particular weapons.

Thus, we can rightfully assume that real fears — big scary ones that make you wake up in the middle of the night wishing that you’d gone to the toilet earlier — are commonly derived from incidents that occurred during previous lives. And when you bring those fears to the present day, when you manifest those feelings of pure terror, then you open up a side of yourself that can be extremely difficult to control.

On the other side of the coin, there are other, more terrifying fears that dwell in our subconscious mind. These fears are not borne from incidents that have happened to us, but rather from terrible things that we have done to other people. When I regressed to a life as a serial killer in 1850s Australia, the emotions that I endured afterwards almost tore me apart. My lasting fear was that I would suddenly revive this killing spree in my current life because I knew that deep down I was still the same person inside, although I hoped that I had developed sufficiently to realise that what had taken place in Australia was morally wrong in every conceivable context. But what if the circumstances that caused me to kill people in that life then resurfaced in this present one? I have been informed by Mr Chung that this is highly unlikely, but even the tiniest shred of doubt in my timeworn mind totally terrifies me — even more than Jaws does!

Let’s think back to our dodgy exorcisms. Hypothetically, what would happen if a herd of Australians kidnapped me at knifepoint and tried to extract revenge for my murdering all of their javelin throwers? Do you think I would just lie there gracefully and exchange pleasantries with all and sundry? No. I would get cross. So cross, in fact, that all my fears would eventually manifest into something that would almost certainly make my current persona totally unrecognisable. If fear makes the best of us act irrationally, what do you think it would do to ex serial killers? In all honesty, I would hate to find out.

I have been told by most people that I am an easy-going person. I don’t look for trouble and I tend to avoid any situations where confrontation is likely to occur. On the other hand, if one of my family members should ever be attacked or abused by any individual then a part of me is likely to surface that I cannot control. That part of me is a combination of all my collective fears, all rolled up into a monstrous ball of revulsion that would even petrify battle-hardened mercenaries. Now imagine tying me to a bed and throwing holy water over me, whilst bellowing out the Lord’s Prayer. I think you would find that my reaction would make Linda Blair look like Mother Teresa!

I’ve only ever experienced this malevolent side of myself once before. I was sixteen years of age and I went searching for a gang of girls who had attacked my sister for no reason other than they were bored. Thankfully, I didn’t find them. They will never know how lucky they were.

We all have something in our past that we need to keep shackled –children are no different. There have been many reports of children having to suffer so-called exorcisms at the hands of religious fanatics, where it is often claimed that the children scream profanities and blasphemous verses that they would otherwise not have in their embryonic vocabulary. But the subconscious mind of a child will still harbour memories of past lives where barbarism would almost certainly have prevailed, with the resultant behavioural characteristics appearing totally unchildlike should they ever resurface.

The only demons you are ever likely to find are the ones that you have self-created through your own thoughts or actions. But they are your demons. They haven’t manifested through some anti-biblical sphere to take over your soul and drag you back to the shores of hell. That’s only in the movies. Life is not always that simple. We must learn from our many mistakes before we can truly enjoy an existence bereft of fear. Fear makes us human. It is only our lack of understanding why fear exists that prevents us from living a more fruitful life.

Man’s greatest fear is of the unknown, and the biggest unknown is what happens to us when we die. But surely if we truly believe that life is indeed eternal, then the fear of death could be construed as nothing more than an exorcised demon awaiting a call from another Hollywood scriptwriter.

‘No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.’ PLATO