Fear not…

Angels, frequently

I just typed those words and had an instant flashback to some decades ago in Germany. Our friend Jimmy from Glasgow used to puzzle the heck out of my German Baptist friends, largely because he spoke German with a Glaswegian accent. I'll bet it hurts your ears just thinking about it. Jimmy caused extreme concern at the student group when he referred to 'meine Mütter'. The way he said it sounded like he had more than one, which in the 1970s wasn't really usual…

I had to reassure them that it was just Jimmy talking Scots again. Jimmy also got a lot of his German from Luther's Bible. Luther wrote that Bible translation in the 16th Century, and German had changed a bit since then, even by the 1970s. So Iris was extremely amused one day when Jimmy comforted her, 'Fürchte dich nicht, Iris.' Which means, 'Fear not.'

'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.' That sounds promising. An awful lot of us these days need to hear the words, 'Fear not.'

Why are angels always saying that? Probably for the same reasons aliens do in those 'close encounter' stories. Now, I don't want to get into an argument with anybody about whether alien encounters are factual, hallucinated, or liminal. Dr Jung and I vote for liminal, meaning, 'Yeah, they saw something, they had a conversation with somebody, but the content of that experience is at least partly generated by the unconscious of the human(s) involved.' In other words, there's some consensual reality-building going on here.

Think Deep Thought (the computer) and the sofa and the tea set. Anyway.

My point is that humans are usually fearful in these close encounters, whether the aliens have large eyes and spindly limbs, are shining and have huge wings, or look like tiny Cherokee warriors that throw rocks at people. (This is a Thing.) Why are people fearful?

Most people say it's because of 'the unknown'. But why would that make you afraid?

I think people are fearful of new things because of their experiences with old things. I think people are afraid of aliens, angels, and leprechaun warriors because they've had some bad experiences with other humans, and assume the new encounter isn't going to go so well.

I also suspect that these fearful people know that they themselves aren't always friendly, either. In their anxiety, they tend to overreact. They can be as dangerous themselves as they fear the others are. That's what I suspect.

Which dog is more likely to bite you? The one that's afraid of you, or the one that doesn't see you as a threat? You know the answer to that. Fearful dogs are hostile dogs. But why are some fearful and others not? Usually, it's their previous experience with humans. A dog that only knows friendly people will probably try to jump into your lap – all 95 pounds of him.

Angels and aliens have no reason to fear us. (I don't know about the leprechaun warriors, you'd have to ask them.) So the fear is all on our side. So is the unpleasant nature of the encounter. We're creating feedback loops.

One of the things that struck me about the Betty and Barney Hill story is that they had a reason to fear being alone in the dark. It was the 1960s, and biracial couples weren't always accepted. They had bad experiences to draw on. What was remarkable was the way Betty Hill stood up to the aliens. Her sense of fairness was stronger than her fear.

We need to stop and think, particularly here, particularly now. We need to think about how much our own fear amplifies the hostility around us and throws it back at everyone else – even against people who haven't meant us any harm. If we bite and snap at strangers, like fearful dogs, we merely pass the hostility on to others. They, in turn, will be likely to snap at others. Eventually, some of us may get PTSD just from talking to other people, and stop doing it altogether. This isn't a good pattern.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Maybe, if we get better at entertaining strangers – if we look to chance acquaintances as an opportunity to help rather than to get something out of the encounter for ourselves – we can get over our fearfulness. That might be a good first step to breaking the cycle of distrust that makes us so nervous that, even if we met an angel, we'd just want to fight with him.

I'm sure the angels would appreciate. In the meantime, they just keep saying, 'Fear not.' Fear not, and who knows what you might behold?

Dmitri Gheorgheni

21.12.20 Front Page

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