Fear Not
(1946)
Fear, anxiety, and unnamed dread are the maladies of modern life. This is probably truer today than in Murphy’s time. In this pamphlet, Murphy diagnoses fear as the inability to recognize the omnipotence of your own Mind. When you come into the realization of your true nature, you realize that all circumstances are subject to self. Murphy writes that even the prisoner can be free if he follows the formula: “Learn to imagine the thing desired, and then feel the reality of the state sought.” The worldly path to freedom may be impossible to foresee. “My ways are past finding out.” (Romans 11:33) But with the thought arrives the means—and the incarcerate will go free. This promise holds true for you if you recognize the power that you are.
—MH
“The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
PSALM 27:1.
“For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of this tabernacle shall he hide me: he shall set me up upon a rock.”
PSALM 27:5.
Who is your Lord and master this very moment? Your Lord is your predominant, mental attitude; it is your conviction or belief about yourself, people, and things; this Lord can be a tyrant. For example, if your mood is now one of resentment, that is your Lord or tyrant that governs all of your actions and all phases of your life. If you want to invest some money, buy a new home, or some property, while in this attitude, you will do the wrong thing and say the wrong thing, because your predominant mood is negative. The law is: “As within, so without.” You are fearing your good, and you would react negatively. Fear is a lack of faith or trust in God, which is a denial of His Omnipotence.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation.” “The Lord” referred to is the Lord God, or the law of God or good. To put the law of good into operation—thereby banishing fear once and for all—enthrone in your mind the thoughts of power, courage, and confidence. These thoughts will generate a corresponding mood or feeling, which will banish the arch enemy of your success and health.
Fear, this self-made enemy of yours, must be completely destroyed before the Lord God can shine through you. Your fear is the cloud that hides the sunshine of God. Men have made personal devils out of fear of the past, the present, and the future. They fear friends, gremlins, elementals, banshees, and other strange things. There are no ghosts, werewolves, gremlins, or banshees; they exist only in the gloomy galleries of man’s mind.
It is our attitude toward life that determines the experiences we are to meet. If we expect misfortune, we shall have it. Knowing the law of God or good, the truth student expects only good fortune. The world is not harsh; it may seem to be, because we fail to affirm or claim the Presence of God. Men fear criticism so much, that many of their most beautiful thoughts never see the light of day. To the man who believes that God is the only Presence and the only Power, there is no past; he knows that if he believes in the power of the past, he is disbelieving in God. God is the Eternal Now; there is no future and no past.
This is the Gospel—the good tidings. There is no such thing as past karma; there is only man’s foolish, stupid, false belief in it. “Now is the day of salvation!” The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Your good, your health, and your success are here now; feel the reality of them; thrill to them. Enter into the conviction that you are now the being you long to be.
The only guilt there is, is the consciousness of guilt. “If your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” This is the Christ message. The only moment that matters is the present. You can live only in the now, experience in the now, plan in the now, and think in the now. Whatever you are planning or dreading, you are planning it now. When you realize that every form of lack and limitation is the result of your wrong thinking and feeling, you shall know the Truth that sets you free. The mountains will be removed.
Aboriginal tribes and primitive man feared nature. Modern man fears his fellow man. To a great extent we have dispelled the ghosts of ancient days. We have combatted the plagues, and we will soon control the elements. Man is doped by modern propaganda. Some men are afraid to live, and afraid to speak. Mothers fear for their children. All this is due to a superstitious belief that there is another power to challenge God.
The only evil there is, is due to a lack of knowledge of the laws of life. If we put our hand on an open wire, we get a shock, but if it is insulated properly, we do not. The evil or shock was due to our ignorance; yet any man will admit that electricity is not evil; it blesses humanity in countless ways. Electricity is used to play music, drive trains, fry eggs, vacuum the floors, and light the world. Evil or fear is our misapplication and incomplete comprehension of the Omnipresence of God or good. Where fear is, love cannot be; for error cannot dwell with understanding.
The wealthy fear they are going to lose; the poor fear they shall not gain. The only wealth and the only security are found in the consciousness in which we abide. If we are conscious of being wealthy, nothing in all the world can stop us from being prosperous in our bodies and affairs. The things men fear are unreal. Only the One alone is real; only the One alone is Law; only the One alone is Truth.
The jungle doctor of old has passed on many of his superstitions; consequently, countless cults today instill fear into the minds of many individuals. The various creeds have, like humanity, ignored the one fundamental truth and stressed differences, so that today so called religion is a ghastly travesty of the name religion. They say, “Our Father” and have forgotten the brotherhood of man. I and my Father are One—One Man, One God, One Truth, and One Law. Let us face the facts. The cause of most fear is man’s fear of his fellow man. Many men pray together on Sunday, and prey on each other on Monday.
The answer to the fear problem is understanding. All fear is due to ignorance. In order to express harmony, we must think and feel harmonious thoughts. When we enter into the mood of success, confidence, and happiness, we will express similar results in all phases of our life. When man knows that every form of discord, sickness, and lack is due to wrong thinking, he will know the Truth which sets him free.
Learn to imagine the thing desired, and then feel the reality of the state sought. This is the easiest and quickest way to get results. Some get results by convincing themselves of the Truth—that God is the only Presence and the only Power; this is one of the most wonderful things in all the world to know.
Regardless of the cause of the fear, you have no one to treat or heal but yourself. You have to convince yourself that you are now expressing Life, Love, and Truth. Let us not fear anything or anybody; let us be busy radiating courage, confidence, and power. In this way we will crush all obstacles in our path, and the mountains will be cast into the sea.
We are one with Infinite Strength. If we say we are weak or infirm, we are telling a falsehood about God. Fear turns the love of God or good away from us in the same way that a poverty consciousness attracts poverty in health, money, business, and love relationships. Man must stop preaching fear to his fellow man, and unite in teaching all of the Truth.
The Truth is that there is no hell, devil, purgatory, limbo, or damnation of any kind; moreover, there is no past karma for which we must expiate here; there is no future evil. God is the Eternal Now! This is one of the most dramatic and significant statements in the whole Bible: “Now is the day of Salvation.” This very moment all that you do is turn to God and claim for yourself that which you long to be; accept it; believe it, and go thy way rejoicing. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though red like crimson they shall be as wool.” “Forgive till seventy times seven.” “This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
Let us stop instilling fear into the minds of the youth; let us teach them the real facts. We must not preach religious tolerance except we live it. We must teach the Truth. We must not distort the Truth, so that we may hold a position, or because we are afraid that the people will not come back; this type of fear results in spiritual stagnation and frustration. Shall we give a lasting message on Truth or condition it on crowds of people? We must keep our eye on the Kingdom of Heaven, not upon the kingdom of earth. We must teach man to know the Truth, and the Truth shall make him free. The Truth is: Man is belief expressed!
There is no fear where faith in God rules. There is no fear of man where integrity rules in one’s consciousness. There is no fear of criticism where the consciousness of kindliness enters into the mind of man. Religion is integrity in action or the application of Truth. We have seen, therefore, that fear is man’s basic weakness, and it is based solely on ignorance.
“In time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me: he shall set me up upon a rock.” “The pavilion” is a canopy or covering; this means the covering shall be the garment of God (mood of good). Think about God. Begin to ask yourself, “What does God mean to me?” Realize that God, or I Am, is the Life in you, your own consciousness, and It is Omnipotent.
For example, if a man is in prison, he automatically desires freedom. God and good are synonymous. He begins to think of this Infinite Power and Wisdom within him; he knows that It has ways of freeing him which he knows not of. He imagines, therefore, the opposite which is freedom. Though he is behind bars, in meditation he imagines that he is at home talking to his loved ones. He hears familiar voices, and feels the welcoming kisses of his children on his cheek. This is hiding in the pavilion. The prisoner actualizes this state by feeling the joys of being home. It is possible to rise high enough in consciousness in five or ten minutes to bring about a subjective conviction. This is the meaning of, “In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.” The law is: Whatever is impressed is expressed; consequently, the prison doors are open for him in ways that he knows not of. “My ways are past finding out.”
We read in the Scriptures: “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Jesus tells us this Kingdom is within us—this Kingdom of Heaven or harmony is within every one of us. Infinite Wisdom, Divine Intelligence, and Infinite Power are available to all men, because God is within them, and He is the very Life of them. Any one can prove to himself that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It is right here now; Jesus saw it, and lived in it; we are color blind; that is why we do not see it; the blindness is due to ignorance and fear. We are blinded by centuries of false beliefs, superstition, creeds, and dogmas. The Truth is so shrouded by false dogmas, that we have created God and a heaven of our making. God is to us what we believe Him to be. Man has created a horrendous creature in the skies; he visualizes a God of caprice and vengeance, or an inscrutable being who sends wars, plagues, etc. We create our own hell and our own heaven, based upon our concept of God. Anyone can prove that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Let me tell you the story of a young girl who proved it. She was living with a father who came home drunk every night, and sometimes treated her brutally. She lived in constant fear of her father. She kept house for him. Due to frustration, her face was covered with acne.
We are not living with people; we are living with our concept of them. Realizing this truth, the girl in meditation closed her eyes and dwelt on the God Power within her. She no longer clothed her father in the garment or mood of a drunkard. Instead, she saw a loving, kind father, who had perfect balance, poise, and equilibrium. She clothed him in righteousness, and her judgment was “a robe and a diadem”; which means that she saw her father as he ought to be. The fact that her father was drinking heavily, meant that he was seeking escape to conceal an inferiority complex or a subjective sense of loss. In other words he was trying to run away from himself.
This girl spoke the word which healed him. She relaxed her whole body, closed her eyes, and began to say to herself, “How would I feel if my father was loving, kind, and peaceful?” She dwelt on the solution, which generated a mood of peace, confidence, and joy within her; this was clothing him in righteousness. Her judgment was a “robe and diadem.”
When you pass judgment, you come to a decision. It is the final verdict, and you are the judge passing judgment; “As I hear, I judge.” Her verdict was an inner hearing or feeling, wherein she saw her father smiling, happy, and joyous; she imagined he was telling her how wonderful he felt, and that he had found peace, balance, and poise. She also heard him telling her how wonderful she was; she thrilled to the fact that her father was healed and made whole. “He wore a seamless robe”—no holes, no patches, and no seams; this means she meditated on the mood of love, peace, and oneness with her ideal. All doubts and fears were absent (judgment as the robe). “Judgment as the diadem” means she gave “beauty for ashes,” which signifies she saw beauty in her father and felt it. Beauty was expressed on the screen of space.
After one week’s treatment her father was completely healed; moreover, he was a changed man. His attitude was completely transformed, and they are devoted to each other. She proved the Kingdom of Heaven (harmony and peace) is at hand NOW. What are we afraid of? “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The thing you fear does not exist.
For example, a man lives in fear that his business will fail. His business is not failing; neither is he in bankruptcy. Business is as usual, and it may be booming; the failure does not exist save in his imagination. Job said, “What I fear most, has come upon me.” Job is every man that walks the earth. Therefore, as the successful business man continues to sustain the mood of failure, sooner or later his mood crystallizes into a subjective conviction or impression.
Any feeling impressed on the subconscious mind is made manifest by an immutable law of life. The subconscious, being impersonal and no respecter of persons, says, “John wants to fail in business.” So it proceeds in ways that he (John) knows not of to bring this failure to pass. Everyone realizes that he brought this failure on himself through imagination and feeling.
I know a lady who read of an aeroplane wreck. She was contemplating a trip by air to Los Angeles, but she lived in fear of an accident. A negative thought cannot do you any harm, except it is energized by a charge of fear. It must be emotionalized before it becomes subjective. This lady did not know what she was doing; she was ignorant of the laws of life. This ignorance is the cause of all of our accidents and misfortunes. Having imagined herself in an aeroplane accident and having emotionalized this negative thought with fear, it became a subjective state. When she took the trip two months later, she had the accident that she knew she would have.
If a woman fears her husband is going to leave her, this is how she conquers her moods. The fear is a negative feeling which is communicated to him. If he does not know the laws of life, her conviction of him will be made manifest. In other words, he will do the thing she feared he would do, because this was her conviction of him. Instead of this fear, she supplants it by seeing her husband radiating peace, health, and happiness. In meditation morning and night, she radiates the mood of love and peace, and feels that her husband is the most wonderful man in all the world. She feels that he is loving, kind, and devoted. She imagines he is telling her how wonderful she is, and how happy, free, and balanced he is. Her mood of fear is now changed to a mood of love and peace. This is the Spirit of God moving in her behalf. As she continues to do this, this mood jells within her. She now knows, “He never faileth,” and that “Perfect love casteth out fear.”
Our daily prayer or daily mood must be one of joyous expectancy or a confident expectancy of all good things; this is our greatest prayer. If we expect the best, the best will come to us. It is our mood that is vital.
The modern metaphysician of today teaches that God is pure feeling. If you feel full of confidence and trust, this is the movement of the Spirit of God within you, and It is all powerful. “None shall stay its hand and say unto it, What doest thou?” Man’s own consciousness is God; there is no other God. By consciousness is meant existence, life, and awareness.
You, the reader, know that you exist. This knowing that you exist is God. What you are aware of is your concept of God. Each man must ask himself, “What am I aware of?” The answer to this question is his belief about God. It is what he knows about God. When he says, “I am aware of want. I am fearful. I am sick,” these are lies and have no truth in them. When man says, “I am fearful,” he is saying God is full of fear which is nonsensical. When he says, “I am in want,” he is relating a lie and a denial of God’s abundance and infinite supply. His faith is in failure, and he succeeds in being a failure. He believes in a lie, but he cannot prove the lie. The false condition seems real as long as he dwells upon it. When he ceases to believe it, he is free and healed.