[extropy-chat] Fear of flying

[sm at vreedom.com]

Hi brother in fear of flight . . .

>I'm getting ready to leave on my second commercial flight in my life and I am
>dealing with
>that annoying fear of flying. For the past two days I have not been able to
>concentrate on much else. It's always in the back of my head.
>Yet I know very well the statistics regarding airline safety. I am quite aware
> that I am probably more likely to have a plane land on my head than die in a
>crash since I have flown so rarely.

I know that . . . It is especially difficult because I live in one country and
work in another which is 2000 km away! Therefore I MUST fly!

>While I was in the shower I realized that the fear of course comes from a
PERCEIVED loss of >control. I realized that we as humans constantly fool
ourselves into believing that we are >in some sort of control when in fact we
are not.
>This is evident in the way that we handle our everyday lives.

>It led me to think about religion and how devoutly religious people give up
control of >their lives to God. I began to realize that this deep seated need
to feel in control of our >lives must go back really far. In fact, it could
very well be the driving force behind >religion, not fear of death, but fear of
loss of control.

I think you have a point. In everyday consulting work I see that a lot of things
related to strategy, decisions and leadership basically have fear as a basic,
not the management-lingo communicated. Also in conflicts of countries. It all
goes down to individual fear. We start to do seminars about fear for
business-folks now.

Some ideas about your control-topic. Most phobia/fear-specialists in the
neuro-field say that it´s not so much a question of personality
("control-freak") but of an amygdala in your brain which learned something
wrong. The neural way via the amygdala is very fast, faster than logical
thought to intervene. Therefore it is not so much the question to get control
over the plane, but over your own emotional reaction.
A relatively new approach (I haven´t used it yet, but I want to) is
D-Cycloserine which is a substance interfering with your fear-memory. It
doesn`t suppress fear, but it brings your amygdala to the point to forget that
it once reacted with fear to planes . . . Transhumanism  will have to further
the toolbox for modern management of our own mind!

Have a good flight!

Stephan

Stephan Magnus
High Performance Solutions GmbH

Büro Portugal: Sitio Pincho, 8600-090 Bensafrim
Tel. 00351-282 969 161
Mobil: 0172/5783953
sm at vreedom.com
http://www.vreedom.com

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stephanmagnus at hpsolutions.de
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