Fear of Flying

The plane was bouncing hard as we were starting our decent into Albuquerque. Living in Santa Fe, I’ve flown in and out of Albuquerque airport a lot due to my workshop schedule. It’s always bumpy.

The woman sitting next to me was gripping the armrests and shaking, scared to death. I turned to her and asked her if she would like some help. She nodded.

“Don’t worry, nothing bad is going to happen. We are safe.”

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“If you were to move out of what your mind is telling you that is scaring you and open to a different Source of Truth, you would know too. Your mind, which is devoted to trying to control things, is freaking out due to feeling so out of control. It’s this feeling of being out of control that is scaring you. And, of course, you have no control over the plane or over the pilot. But if you tune into the real Source of Truth, which is definitely not your mind, you will know that we are safe. Imagine that your mind is like your personal computer, which only contains what has been programmed into it. Imagine that the Source of Truth is like the Internet – a vast network of information that you can easily access. Imagine the Source of Truth as a beautiful light filled with all the wisdom of the universe. Open to learning with this Source of Truth and ask, ‘Are we safe?’ Try it and see what happens. Just focus your whole being on wanting to know the truth.”

The women was terrified enough to try it, even though I think she thought I was crazy. She closed her eyes and focused on the question, “Are we safe?” A moment later she opened her eyes, clearly surprised.

“I heard in my mind, ‘You are safe.’ Did I just make that up?”

“How do you feel if you decide to believe it?”

“Much better! I’m not feeling so scared!”

“That’s because our emotions are an accurate guide of whether or not we are telling ourselves the truth. Our emotions are a great gift from our Source. We will always feel badly when we are telling ourselves a lie, and we will feel happy and peaceful when we are operating from Truth. You were terrified because you were telling yourself a lie, and now you are fine because you are telling yourself the truth. Whether you believe this is coming from within you or from without is not important. What is important is to know that you can access the Truth. I always ask this question BEFORE I fly, so that I know the whole time that I am safe, bumps and all.”

The woman had a big smile on her face the rest of the way down, even though we were still bouncing around.

Fear, whether of flying or of anything else, is always the result of what you are telling yourself. Your fear is letting you know that you are off base in your thinking. If you then cover up your fear with an addiction, such as drinking on the plane in order to get past the fear, then you never deal with the lie you are telling yourself that is causing the fear.

The wounded part of us always feels afraid when we think we are out of control of something. This part of us, our mind, thinks it can know the truth about things. But our minds are programmed with many false beliefs that cause much fear. Truth is not something we can access from our limited mind – it is something we have to open to. The thoughts of our mind will never make us feel safe and will certainly not give us the control we seek. True safety lies in opening to Spirit and being guided by Truth. The paradox is that in releasing control to Spirit, we gain the sense of control that comes from operating out of the Truth.

The mind thinks it can create safety with some form of control. Yet true safety comes from being connected with the Source of Truth.