Six Fears and How to Overcome Them – Napoleon Hill’s Law of Attraction Classics

Thought is the most ordered kind of energy known to man, and this is an age of exploration and research that will undoubtedly bring us closer to comprehending the enigmatic force known as thought that resides within us. We have already discovered enough about the human mind to know that a man may overcome the cumulative effects of a thousand generations of terror through the use of the Auto-suggestion principle. We have previously shown that fear is the primary cause of poverty, failure, and unhappiness in its countless manifestations. We have previously established that the guy who masters fear is capable of achieving success in virtually any endeavor, despite all attempts to defeat him.

Self-confidence development begins with the annihilation of the monster known as fear, which sits on a man’s shoulder and whispers into his ear, “You can’t do it – you’re frightened to attempt – you’re terrified of public opinion – you’re worried you’ll fail – you’re afraid you lack the skill.”

This fear demon is approaching. Science has discovered a lethal weapon with which to defeat it, and this lesson on self-confidence has provided you with that weapon for use in your struggle against fear, the age-old foe of progress.

MANKIND’S SIX BASIC FEARS: Each person is predisposed to succumb to the impact of six key fears. The smaller worries may be listed beneath these six fears. The six fundamental or major fears are listed here, along with the sources believed to have spawned them.

The six basic fears are as follows:

1. The fear of Poverty

THE FEAR OF POVERTY: It takes guts to speak the truth about the source of this fear, and probably much more fortitude to accept the reality once it is spoken. Fear of poverty developed as a result of man’s innate proclivity for economic predation. Almost all sorts of lower creatures possess instinct but lack the ability to reason and think; as a result, they physically feed on one another. Man, with his higher senses of intuition, cognition, and reason, does not consume his fellow men physically; he obtains greater satisfaction by eating them financially!

Of all the world’s centuries that we are aware of, the one in which we live appears to be the age of money worship. Unless he can demonstrate a huge bank account, a guy is regarded as less than the dust of the ground. Nothing inflicts more pain and disgrace on a man than POVERTY. It’s unsurprising that man FEARS poverty. Through a long series of hereditary encounters with the man-animal, man has learned that this animal cannot always be trusted when it comes to money and other evidence of earthly goods.

Many marriages are initiated (and frequently terminated) entirely on the basis of the wealth acquired by one or both contracting parties.

It’s unsurprising that the divorce courts are so crowded!

The term “society” might just as easily be spelled “$ociety,” as it is inextricably linked to the dollar sign. Man is so desperate for wealth that he will gain it in any way possible; legally if possible, or illegally if necessary.

Fear of poverty is a monstrous thing!

A man may commit murder, robbery, rape, and any other violation of another’s rights and still reclaim a position of honor in the eyes of his fellow-men, PROVIDED he does not lose his money. Thus, poverty is a crime—an unforgivable fault, if you will.

It’s unsurprising that man is afraid of it!

Every statute book in the world demonstrates that fear of poverty is one of mankind’s six fundamental fears, as each such book has numerous and varied laws designed to protect the poor from the strong. To spend time attempting to prove either that fear of poverty is one of man’s hereditary phobias or that this fear stems from man’s inherent desire to defraud his fellow man is akin to attempting to prove that three plus two equals six. Obviously, no man would fear poverty if he had any reason to trust his fellow men, because there is enough food, shelter, clothing, and luxury of every kind to meet the needs of every person on earth, and all of these blessings would be enjoyed by everyone except for man’s swinish habit of attempting to push all other “swine” out of the trough, even after he has everything and more.

2. The fear of old age

THE FEAR OF OLD AGE: This fear is primarily motivated by two factors. To begin, consider the possibility that OLD AGE may bring with it POVERTY. Second, and by far the most common source of origin, is from false and cruel sectarian teachings that have been so thoroughly mixed with “fire and brimstone” and “purgatories” and other nonsense that human beings have learned to fear Old Age as the approach of another, and possibly a much more HORRIBLE, world than the one we are familiar with.

In the underlying fear of Old Age, man has two very sound reasons for his apprehension: one stems from his distrust of his fellow men, who may seize whatever worldly goods he may possess, and the other from the terrifying images of the world to come that were deeply implanted in his mind long before he possessed that mind, via the law of social heredity.

Is it any surprise that man is fearful of the onset of Old Age?

3. The fear of Criticism

THE FEAR OF CRITICISM: It is difficult, if not impossible, to identify how a man got this fundamental fear, but one thing is certain: he possesses it in fully formed form.

As neither a humorist nor a “prophet,” but a regular workaday type of person, this author is inclined to attribute the fundamental fear of Criticism to that aspect of man’s inherited nature that compels him not only to take away his neighbor’s goods and wares but also to justify his action through CRITICISM of his neighbor’s character.

Fear of Criticism manifests itself in a variety of ways, the most of which are small and inconsequential in character, bordering on juvenile.

For example, bald-headed guys are bald solely due to their fear of criticism. Heads grow bald as a result of the protection provided by hats with tight-fitting bands that cut off circulation to the hair roots. Men wear hats not because they require them for comfort, but rather because “everyone is doing it,” and the individual follows suit, fearful of being CRITICIZED.

4. The fear of losing someone’s love.

THE FEAR OF LOSING SOMEONE’S LOVE: The basis of this fear requires no explanation, for it is self-evident that it is in man’s nature to steal his fellow man’s mate; or at the at least, to take liberties with her in secret from her due “lord” and master. By nature, all men are polygamous, a statement of fact that will elicit protests from those who are either too old to function sexually normally or have lost the contents of particular glands responsible for man’s propensity toward the plurality of the opposite sex for whatever reason.

There can be little doubt that jealousy and all other related forms of mild dementia praecox (insanity) evolved from man’s innate fear of Love Loss.

Of all the “sane dummies” explored by this author, the one represented by a guy envious of another woman, or a woman jealous of another male, is the craziest and strangest. Fortunately, the author has only had one personal encounter with this sort of insanity, but that encounter taught him enough to validate his assertion that the fear of Loss of Love is one of the most terrible, if not the most excruciating, of all the six primary fears. And it seems plausible to add that this fear has a greater detrimental effect on the human psyche than any of the other six fundamental fears, frequently leading to more violent types of irreversible insanity.

5. The fear of Illness

THE FEAR OF ILLNESS: This fear derives, to a large part, from the same roots as the fears of poverty and old age.

Fear of Ill Health is inextricably linked to both Poverty and Old Age, because it leads to the borderline of “awful worlds” of which man is unaware but has heard some unsettling stories.

The author has a strong suspicion that individuals in the business of marketing good health treatments have played a significant role in maintaining the fear of illness in the human mind.

For as long as the human race’s record can be depended upon, the globe has been aware of several and disparate sorts of therapy and health suppliers. If a man earns his living by keeping others healthy, it seems only reasonable that he would utilize every available way to convince people that they required his services. Thus, it is possible that people will eventually inherit a fear of illness.

6. The fear of Death.

THE FEAR OF DEATH: For many, this is the most terrifying of all the six basic fears, and the reason for this is evident to even the most casual student of psychology.

The terrifying pains of the fear linked with DEATH can be directly attributed to religious fanaticism, which is more responsible for it than all other factors combined.

The so-called “heathen” are not as fearful of DEATH as the “civilized,” particularly that segment of the civilized population that has succumbed to theology.

For hundreds of millions of years, mankind has pondered the still unresolved (and, maybe, unanswerable) questions, “WHY?” and “WHICH?” “How did I get here and where am I going after I die?”

However, if you realize Dharma, the natural law, your fear will fall away and you will be ready to accept the natural rule.