IS FEAR BASED ON IGNORANCE? _____________________________________     Fear is defined as being that unpleasant emotion aroused by a feeling of impending evil or doom.   Ignorance is defined as having a lack of knowledge.     Fear is a basic instinct in man, whilst ignorance is based on the premise that man has some knowledge of his environment including the knowledge of his fear.   Animals have only a low awareness of their fear based on their instincts, whilst man can discuss, because of his communicability, his fear and attempt to rationalise it, hence fear based on ignorance or not knowing something, causing the fear.     Since fear is a basic trait of all human beings and is a feeling produced from sensory perceptions,  then it follows that the more knowledge that one has,  the more one can reduce fear to the minimum.     Man is a highly developed sense-receptor.  Whatever impinges on his senses is translated into some action, one of which is fear. Fear is a widespread disorder, affecting the whole body and characterised by breaking out in a cold sweat,  faintness and the hairs on the back of the neck standing on end and caused by the sudden release of adrenaline into the bloodstream causing constriction of the peripheral blood vessels.   mainly, it is an emotion caused by these things and manifesting itself in some form or other. The depth of fear depends on the strength of the original stimulus. In other words, if one is able to see what it is that caused the fear,  then it can be reconciled and rationalised. The longer one cannot see the object of the fear-instigator,  then the greater the depth of fear will be.     Man is (supposed to be) a rational animal.   By this is meant that he must rationalise everything with which he comes into contact.   If he cannot do this, he becomes afraid.   Fear takes many forms and if a man cannot rationalise it,  the end result is a break-down of his mental faculties.     It follows from this that man should have knowledge.   Since he is not an animal who cannot communicate and lives only by instinct, he can have knowledge of many things and can understand his environment, whatever that may be.   He can then fit himself into the picture and he is happy, or not afraid.   If a man cannot rationalise his existence ,  then he tends to invent a world in which he is not afraid;  and because a man is self-centred, he is usually in some roundabout way the centre of the universe that he creates.     Knowledge is many things.   It is whatever we want it to be.   It must be distinguished from fact since not all knowledge is fact or verifiable truth.   However, an increase in immediate knowledge of what is around us, is of much use.   To be able to place ourselves in the world around us, is to be less afraid.   Better placing of ourselves in this way will prevent us from being afraid of the future and of the past.     The more aware we are,  the more we will perceive and the better able we will be to guide ourselves along the path towards a lack of fear except that which is our natural instinct and our heritage, since fear, or more specifically the feeling of fear is a natural prelude to survival, since being afraid we are in a position to defend ourselves if the need arises.   Fear in this form is not under the control of the will of the individual, it is dictated by the hormone glands and so fear creates in us the victim of ourselves.   A better understanding of fear will enable us to rationalise it and control it (except that part of fear over which -we have no control), since it is Man's aim to control all things.

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