Gavin de Becker

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,’ might be amended by nature to “There is nothing to fear unless and until you feel fear.”

Ernest Becker explains that “animals, in order to survive have had to be protected by fear responses.” Some Darwinians believe that the early humans who were most afraid were most likely to survive. The result, says Becker, “is the emergence of man as we know him: a hyperanxious animal who constantly invents reasons for anxiety even when there are none.” It need not be this way.

if you do fall, you no longer fear falling—you fear landing: